Going for the obvious choice, the AIA has replaced Kevin Spacey, who had to cancel his appearance, with thespian Julia Louis-Dreyfus as its first day keynote speaker for the 2016 Philadelphia convention on May 19th. Dreyfus will be interviewed by NPR's Terry Gross. As the AIA noted on its official convention website, "In her personal life, Julia is a social activist who is passionate about climate change, water conservation, children’s education, and the power of design. Important topics that we connect with, too." Neri Oxman and Rem Koolhaas are still scheduled for keynote speakers on days two and three, respectively.
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Wow. If anything could make me consider joining the AIA, it would be an opportunity to hear Terry Gross interview Rem Koolhaas.
Elaine! Good call, AIA.
Why isn't Art Vanderlay the keynote?
Wouldn't Jason Alexander be more appropriate?
You know I always wanted to pretend I was an architect!
B list celebrity lecture yay! always good to hear some kook rant about shit they heard from their kabbalah rabbi.
i would wager more Architects than the average person on the street percentage wise would want to hook up with Julia Louis- Dreyfus.......can we get an Archinect pole on that?
I'd put JLD at A-list status, Chigurh. But the critique still fully applies, probably more so.
I was in the audience as Ira Glass interviewed Terry Gross in 2000 for the 25th anniversary of Fresh Air.
They are both super intelligent, well-spoken, engaging people. But here was the biggest takeaway for me:
Terry Gross is tiny. Like 5'-2" or so. Maybe smaller. Ira Glass is like 6'-4". They were seated on stage, next to each other, and in identical chairs: contemporary, upholstered but with a wood frame and arms, as I recall. The chairs became this comparable scale metric between them, and the relationship of each of body to their chair was so jarringly different that they looked like they weren't even of the same species. It was crazy.
I have no doubt this will be an amazing interview. Terry Gross is a national treasure and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is super smart, too.
Neri Oxman is gonna be there. She's hot.
No apologies for that comment
and wicked smart jla-x
Just got the new AIA email, Koolhaas out, Costanza, err, Vandelay, in, IN, IN!!!
lol. you won't apologize, but you know you should apologize.
and why should you apologize? do you know what you did wrong?
Correct. Declaring someone attractive to you is offensive.
i suppose if one could say declaring a person attractive on it's own, with no other context existing, then one would not think that was offensive. so then i wonder if there was any context other than simply admiring the attractiveness of another human being?
let me help you out jla-x
i'm seeing a pattern here...
Quick, somebody post a pic of Brad Pitt!
this is what hawt looks like
LOL citizen! I was expecting Donna to scold me by now...
wouldn't help jla. you said 'no apologies' and i asked you if you knew why you should be apologizing. if you don't understand what's happening, then what's the point in scolding you?
Neri Oxman is an attractive person. are you glad she's going to be speaking because you appreciate her for her abilities as a stripper? there's nothing wrong with that in context, if we were talking about strippers. but something in this conversation went wrong. and you know it went wrong, because you felt the need to point out that apologies should be necessary but would not be forth coming.
.
i'm totally seeing a pattern here. these ladies are all architectural.
(wife went out clubbin' with the girls in NJ)
isn't it Sex week at Archinect?
let's talk about the ladies.I would suggest us Architect men have a sophisticated taste trained by Playboy?
Eileen Gray
do we appreciate the ladies for their looks, or their contributions?
listen brah, I appreciate wimmen, and if they be architecting- damn!
neri oxman
winka dubbeldam
Eileen Gray
i think that's true for you olaf. not sure other people are able to look past the boobs to see the architecture.
curkram if we learned anything from Amelia's interview with Colominia's piece on Playboy is that SOPHISTICATED men, like my meathead self, can see past that.
so I googled Playboy Modern Architecture
.
my hero /\
just to re-iterate:
Playboy: Is there a single statement you could make that would express the spirit of your philosophy?
Fuller: I always try to point one thing out: if we do more with less, our resources are adequate to take care of everybody. All political systems are founded on the premise that the opposite is true. We’ve been assuming all along that failure was certain, that our universe was running down and it was strictly you or me, kill or be killed as long as it lasted. But now, in our century, we’ve discovered that man can be a success on his planet, and this is the great change that has come over our thinking.
Playboy: If that kind of awareness has really come over us, why isn’t there more rejoicing?
Curt, I can't help my natural appreciation of attractive women. Her architecture can be appreciated on another level independent from her looks...but if she had the brains of Balkins on bathsalts I'd still like to look at her.
there's nothing wrong with being attracted to attractive people. there's something else though. something you know you should apologize for, but apparently you just don't quite understand what that is.
neri oxman is not going to be speaking at the aia convention because she wants people like you to ogle her like a stripper. that's not why the aia invited her either. she's actually very intelligent and has contributed a lot to the design community.
the problem is, you can't see her for what she's accomplished. apparently you can't get past the pretty face to see a human being that has worked hard to push material sciences in new directions. if people like you mattered, she wouldn't be able to get a phd or be a professor at MIT because instead of taking her ideas seriously, people would only see a pretty face
if we want a world where women have equal rights and equal opportunity, then you can't matter jla-x. you have the be the dirty old man pushed in the back with the other village idiots, ranting about how professional building designers are the same as licensed architects. if you want to join the rest of the world, don't dismiss your comment with 'no apologies,' use your brain and figure out why you think you should be apologizing. in the mean time, here's a video from a 14 year old girl saying what growing up looks like from her perspective.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/sexual-violence-strategy-nova-scotia-community-groups-1.3562324
didn't you say you have a daughter, and you're afraid some transgender person might end up peeing in the stall next to her? has it not occurred to you what kind of environment you're creating for her? instead of being well educated and well respected, which is what i think most of us can see in neri oxman, you want her to be a toy built for breeding? just something to be ogled by men who can't help their natural appreciation?
surely if you watch that video there will be some urgency to figure out where you went wrong, and you'll scold yourself instead of waiting for donna to do it.
Curt's right. Suppress your Id. Your first comment doesn't have anything to do with her contribution to design, only about her contribution to your sexual gratification.
Curt, your being uptight.
so I googled Osvaldo Golijov to see what Vado was listening to at 6am....guess who he is married to?
If George Clooney or Brad Pitt were selected to speak, this entire thread would not have turned into a thread about attractiveness.
no not at all davvid ;)
She is a very smart and talented person, I apologize for reducing her to her physical attributes. I will punish myself by looking at Honey Boo Boos mom for 60 seconds...psychological castration...
There, I scolded myself.
I don't have energy for scolding OR educating right now, but curtkram, as usual, you are doing a super fantastic job of calmly and rationally making the point. Well done.
All I can summon at the moment is my standard response for this kind of situation lately:
jla-x: Nobody cares about your boner.
There is a line between sexism and sexual attraction. There is nothing sexist about pointing out someone's good looks. I am mature enough to separate the two things when need be. If I weren't, that would be sexist.
If you Google her name though, you will see about 9 pictures of her posing to every 1 picture of her work. Just saying. Same is true for David Adjaye. I think that the profession sometimes objectifies certain characters to emphasize their race, gender, charm, interesting looks...this is a problem in all seriousness because it has the effect of reducing their work, or elevating it to an undeserving status. Imo, the persona of Bjark is why BIG garners som much attention. If he was an ugly and shy guy I don't feel his work would be interpreted in the same light. This imo goes beyond sexism and really has to do with our celebrity culture and our inability to separate a work from its author.
For the record, I really like her work...that type of design is not typically my thing, but she does it exceptionally well.
No need to self-castrate: there are plenty of folks here happy to do it slowly for you, one annoying post at a time...
If you Google her name though, you will see about 9 pictures of her posing to every 1 picture of her work. Just saying. Same is true for David Adjaye. I think that the profession sometimes objectifies certain characters to emphasize their race, gender, charm, interesting looks...this is a problem in all seriousness because it has the effect of reducing their work, or elevating it to an undeserving status.
.... and people who are more attractive get paid more, promoted faster, and more opportunities - is it possible these things are related?
Still isn't a reason to objectify her, but if you were to rationally point out that perhaps physical appearance was related to success, there would still be plenty of people mad at you.
Blame nature. Curt would also find her attractive, he may just digest it internally and pretend to not notice...Same thing...if political correctness is about not saying things we think/feel then our advanced social behavior is just an illusion...apparently our social progress is as thin as the filter between brain and mouth...
That's the thing, your statement of Neri, was a simplistic as your supposed google search. If you type in Neri Oxman, sure, you'll get photos of her, but if your type Neri Oxman Projects, Clothing, Art, or Chair you get her more work, than you get photos of her face.
Yes she's attractive to many people, but what's more attractive; the amazing body of work.
Just an observation, maybe those who are familiar with her work could discuss it.
After Zaha passed there was a thread to post everyones favorite projects of hers and only 3 or 4 people did, but there was ad nauseam discussion about how she was called the world's greatest female architect.
I am not saying that you all are not making an important point. It just seems that it is easier to talk about this than to have an insightful discussion about their work.
it's not an illusion jla. "politically correct" has nothing to do with what you say. "politically correct" is a term conservatives use when they're not smart enough to understand why people are upset with them for their inability to function in a social setting. when you feel the need to hide behind the term "politically incorrect," it usually means you're doing something stupid.
i'll be honest with you if you try to stop being so dumb. i asked why you felt the need to apologize. do you really think it's about putting on airs? seriously, think about it. if you figure it out, you don't have to tell us in this thread. balkins said he would never admit he's wrong, so i wouldn't expect much more here either.
in jla-x defense, when I was 10 years old my 4th grade teacher took me to the corner and scolded me for my behavior in class. she had to bend down to talk to me and was wearing a low cut shirt. My mind is blank after that, well not visually.. I was a 10 year old boy.......... bu the way the TED talk by Neri of 2015 is awesomr, i had only read writings and research. chitin!
so you're saying jla should be treated like a 10 year old? i would like to hold a higher opinion of him, but whatever.
Curt, It was wrong to reduce a talented professional to their appearance. I get it.
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