Larry calls me to tag along with him to SCI Arc this morning. Why not? I haven't seen a school presentation in almost 15 years or so, the last time I was a jury at Pratt Institute in early 90's.
So, I change the battery of my camera and, here we come SCI Arc, under the influence... After walking by and speed shooting the projects, I sort of follow one presentation.
The thesis is a Car Museum on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, where there is an existing one that I have never been to. They converted it from an old bank or something as I recall.
Anyway, student explains his project without uttering a single word about Los Angeles and cars and Wilshire Blvd. His limited vocabulary is about geometries, rendering programs and how the central stair anchors his project etc. Craig Hodgett wryly asks where are the cars? But that question gets jumped by teacher's friends from East Coast who throw in words like 'painterly', 'episodal', one of them even says, 'it's a nice project, but'.
You know, the roof becomes a wall, becomes a column , becomes diploma etc...
I also notice the amount of money have been spent on the presentations with attractive materials and photo prints, somebody even published a book.
I am sorry I couldn't snap at everything but you'll get the general idea what the young graduates are capable of formulating and fabricating. I wish all the best for young students and their advisers. If they aren't going to talk about Wilshire and Fairfax, I am not going to mention Deleuze either. I was about to leave anyway...
Congratulations everybody for putting this behind you. Keep it on.
And while I was there, I saw this Bartco installation by Neil Denari in Sci ARC Gallery.
I like it black and white.
26 Comments
So i change the battery of my camera and here we come sci arc under the influance... after walking by and speed shooting the projects i sort of follow one presentation. The thesis is a car Museum on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, where there is an existing one that i have never been to since they converted it from an old bank.
anyway students explains his project without uttering a single word about los angeles and cars and wilshire blvd. His limited vocabulary is about geometries, rendering programs and how the central stair anchors his project etc. Craig Hodgett wryly asks where are the cars? But that question gets jumped by teachers friends from east coast who throw in words like 'painterly', 'episodal', one of them says it even nice project. You know, the roof becomes a wall, becomes a column , becomes diploma etc...
I also notice the amount of money have been spent on the presentations with attractive materials and photo prints, somebody even published a book.
i am sorry i couldn't snap at everything but you'll get the general idea what the young graduates are capable of formulating and fabricating. I wish all the best for young students and their adviser. I they aren't going to talk about wilshire and Fairfax, I am not going to mention Deleuze either. I was about to leave anyway...
Congratualations everybody for putting this behind you.
[imghttp://static.flickr.com/79/245004314_9ba1da3e1a_o.jpg width=310[/img]
And while I was there, I saw this Bartco installation by Neil Denari in Sci ARC Gallery.
I like it black and white.
You kinda missed mine....
As Larry Sass would say...
'GOOD LUCK TO YOOOOU!'
brilliant synopsis, orhan. it would have been fun to come in as a reviewer and take a completely functionalist point-of-view, wouldn't it?
appleseed, i am sorry to miss yours. for me it was a random drive by. please add your projects.
steven, it's funny bc thom mayne and lebbeus woods came close to taking a functionalist stance on a project during a review. needless to say, they were called out on it almost instantly.
which one is supposed to be the car museum?
overheard (1/4 mi. away from purvis' project):
"the graphics are cool. They remind me of stuff that might come out of the Nike Shox designs"
"Yeah, they use the same software."
"oh."
congrats Dr. Purvis
Congraduation
miss u, sciarc
Brilliant, Orhan. Especially important to use expressive positioning of two hands while using "..x becomes y..." in this phrasing.
Sorry, I'm just bein' snotty, and with my degree I'm deserving of getting the exact same snottiness directed right back at me. The work looks interesting, and humorous, even if opaque in its relationship to architecture. But there are clearly some cool material proposals, a little politicism, and even a building-like object?
Nice round up in your always-enjoyable writing style, Orhan. Thanks for reporting.
Revision: "Good luck to those of you who don't know which torch you are carrying, and to be frank, what a torch is at all." dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ... woops... just fell asleep and woke up. Thank you Lebbeus for the time on my jury, as our speaker, and as an architect of 'the big risk'.
Man... every time I read one of these school related threads it makes me think that I was lucky to get my M.Arch when I did. My tolerance for BS, or even legit discourse that sounds like BS has gone waaaaay down over the last five years.
Lots of photos from the SCI-Arc thesis presentation weekend posted to the Gallery (CLICK HERE)
Photos by Alexander Walter.
Wilshire + Fairfax:
Say a word about it =
Biggie-smalls
Dear Friends,
I did not attend the Scientologist Institute of Architecture...but I will happily admit to receiving a D+ grade on my thesis project. Maybe I would have been disappointed in myself if the faculty were architects but since they're really just a bunch of thesis prize winners, I didn't mind too much...especially since I've still got J C in my corner ;)
With Love,
eb
It is a nice wake up call Orhan.Thanks for your profound observation and short depiction.
I wonder what Larry has to say about this too?
yea thanks to Hernan et al for these bullshit projects.
And the funny thing is, these people will go out looking for jobs, then come and whine about getting only 12$ and hour. I think most of these grads should PAY for getting to work somewhere.
Ya, they basically do... with their soul.
The fourth image from the top... is that an aquacolumn?
no, its a torture device....dont you get it?
The most embarassing part of thesis this year was the amount of "kids" who couldn't defend their way out of a paper bag, including setting up any form of argument to defend. Many students take for granted that everyone should know what they are doing and the jurors get thrown into some verbal orgy while the student (aka Master) sits there and smiles. Someone internally has to be more openly critical of these "Masters". Popularity only gets you in the gallery. When you are sitting in the mirror looking at yourself asking what to do next, your "thesis" will provide no direction because you didn't setup anything to argue for. Silvia Lavin belabored this point on Sunday morning and I whole heartedly agree. And a little note to Ben, nice work... you honestly deserved it. Sidenote: It's funny how Hernan's studio topic at Columbia is touching on accumulation vs. aggregation. Chicken or the egg? I'd be interested in knowing.
why is this a thesis?
what is the thesis?
Is there a thesis?
Send these kids back to the academic sharks so they learn something before unleashing them on the world.
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