Wednesday, 22 October 2008

Our love for Venn-diagrams



Shane has inspired us to utilize venn-diagrams as a tool to analyze our social reality. I thought it might be stimulating to get a debate going on the venn-diagrams presented in this post. Response to the following questions would be highly appreciated (as a comment or even a whole blog post):

(a) Which of these venn-diagrams can you best relate to your own life?

(b) In the diagram you chose in (a), what does A, B, possibly C represent? Are they people, emotions, thoughts, institutions etc.?

(c) In the venn-diagram you chose, what is happening in the overlapping area?

(d) Do you miss an alternative of mutually exclusive circles?

(or you can just write something else)

Have a good day cartoonish cute one and shane shane shane (like in the song "shane, shane, shane, shane is cool" my brother still sings this song pretty much every time I see him)!

Thursday, 16 October 2008

Blog Activity


Hello friends, just showing a little sign of life here on the World and Other Issues.

LETS BUILD STRAW BALE HOUSES!

Sunday, 5 October 2008

Ps, check out Knits'N'Bobs!


My new blog with Naomi!
(There is too much blood in my alcohol stream, remember?)

Click here to check it out. It's only up since yesterday, so no harsh critiques please, hehe.

Saturday, 4 October 2008

Can I call you Joe?



how endearing!!!

For the Number Hungry

One of those posts that won't get any comments, because it's not about fashion. Except, wait, no, OMG! Sofie! Today I found the exact same H&M skirt that you got on Colaba Causeway on the way back from project week, that Barbara also had, the peachy colored one, at a thrift store in my neighborhood! It was amazing!

We could also discuss Sarah Palin's outfit at the debate last night, because what I really wanted to talk about was politics.












Check out the garish American flag pin. Ew.

Anyway, the debate last night, my mom and I agreed, was HILARIOUS, especially the part where Palin was like, "OMG, you love Israel? I love Israel too!" No, seriously. The exact quote was, "I'm so encouraged to hear that you love Israel too." Kumbayah, my lord, kumbayah. Unfortunately, she didn't sound quite as dumb as I had hoped, and her blatant untruths make good sound bytes, especially for those not poised at the lap top, madly Googling every exaggeration or outright lie.

This has to be short, but I'll leave you with this chart that my dad put together. Maybe these numbers are more eloquent than any argument I could ever make:

Wednesday, 1 October 2008

Musical Retreat

My new project brief for this term is to design a musical retreat in Glenluce, Dumfries & Galloway in the south of Scotland, on a site adjacent to the ruins of the old Glenluce Abbey.
It is meant to be a building which offers a "sanctuary" for twelve young musicians and three resident musicians who run the retreat. Seeing as the main aspect of third year is to become aware of environmentally friendly strategies, the site for the retreat is very remote and does not have access to any electricity grid, meaning it needs to be completely self sustaining in terms of heating, lighting, ventilation etc. A pretty "daunting task" as my tutors like to call it, but very interesting and completely in tune with my aspirations as an architect! Of course, also, telling me to design a musical retreat is like sticking a big, fat lollypop into my mouth, seeing as i once was an aspiring violinist (hehe) who used to go to orchestra camps in the summer time. I should pick it up again, considering my knowledge of the violin is pretty much limited to the level of this:


Also, the fact that I did my summer project on sounds is quite appropriate!
I LOVE THIS BRIEF!

In school we are underway with a lecture series with the title "retreat", looking at monasteries, churches etc, and also spas, hotels and the like. Today's lecture was on the "retreat as workspace", and we did a little historic tour of the working spaces of Le Corbusier, Heidegger and George Bernard Shaw. So far, it seems that a huge part of "retreating" is spending time in a pretty austere environment - monasteries and little huts in the mountains. I am quite interested in hearing your thoughts on retreat!
Also, the activities that happen in this building give a lot of meaning to the theme of retreat, seeing as the making and playing of music is definitely quite a sanctuary in its own right.

MANY challenges are coming my way though, in terms of technical strategies for a completely self sustaining building. I intend to start the project with the environmental issues safely planted in my head before i dive into the pool of options of forms and "stylistic language". I was thinking maybe you guys have some keen opinions on sustainability and building that you might want to share with me!

I'll end this post with a picture from one of my favorite buildings, the Mortensrud Church in Oslo by Jensen and Skodvin. Designed within a very strict budget, but so beautiful! This will definitely be one of my major inspirations for this project:


Please share your thoughts on a Sustainable Retreat!

Tuesday, 30 September 2008

Insane-o Crazy Fashion Discovery, or Foot Fetish v2.0

As you may already know, over here at Perspective Heaven, we have a passion for fashion (as well, incidentally, as silly rhymes). I have recently acquired a pair of stirrup leggings, and have been wearing them with pride and joy.
Now until very recently, I was under the impression that my fabulous new stirrup leggings were rather unique, more 80's jazzercise (which is awesome) than NYC hipster (which I guess is awesome too, in a different way). However, I seem to have been mistaken, because the other day down at NYU I saw three separate people wearing stirrup leggings! All, incidentally, were wearing them without socks, which supports my earlier hypothesis re: attractiveness of the exposed plane of flesh on the top of the foot. Anyway, I decided to do a little research, and look what I found:
Mary Kate and Ashley designed them! Neiman Marcus is selling them! OMG! So, SHOCKING FASHION DISCOVERY OF THE SEASON: stirrup leggings are in! Fashionistas of the world (and other issues), take note.


(Post on Greek Mythology to come soon.)