Tuesday, November 30, 2010

thinking about philosophy.. hmm? yes?

"gradually, it has become clear to me what every great philosophy has so far been: namely, the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir..." Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche has influenced the philosophical thoughts of:
 
existentialism :: the focus of philosophical thought should be to deal with the conditions of existence of the individual person and his or her emotions, actions, responsibilities, and thoughts

and postmodernism :: dealing with ego collectively, accepting what exists [modern] and embracing histories and hyper-geography. understanding connectivity.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

architecture in helsinki's HEART IT RACES via Dr. Dog

emo time

it's been awhile since i've followed this 'so-low' path i refer to as emo [tional] but i really like jay brannan [click that, technical difficulties, per usual] and he's playing music in the city for a living so i'll go down this path for a while

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

what i find beautiful

artist:: SIT, amsterdam.
http://www.sitnie.com/#724300/NOIR

gettin' easier to be a localvore

NYC gets LOCAL
 Eating local isn't easy and it's a major step in becoming sustainable [whatever that actually means these days]. NYC is the second largest buyer of food in the country, behind only the military - and with wild open lands in upstate, VT and PENN. it's surprising that the city isn't booming with local goodies.  LOCAL, depending on who ya talk to, is a 100-300 mile radius, which might not seem local enough if you're used to county livin' but in these globalized times, it's more local than that banana you're eating. NYC is stepping up it's game and is looking to take advantage of underutilized lands within the city to get some urban AGR going - which is awesome considering the amount of food deserts that exist throughout the boroughs. my studio work-group for the semester has branched off into varying focuses, 1 being the food supply for neighborhoods around the BQE, especially to the north and eastern areas of CH. There are dozens of community gardens in these parts, and even some farmer's markets - but some areas are seriously excluded and it's time to bridge the various sectors of the community. Food brings people together and local food puts money back into the local economy, win-win if you ask me.  Of course you have to be cautious with AGR, especially with regard to STORMWATER runoff [my love for the last few months] and contaminated soils - but since the city is looking to green up its Storm.Water.Infrastructure.Management. [also the name of an awesome np started by a fellow PRATTer] and brownfield recovery, there are some major possibilities for the city to embrace sustainable practices and implement strategies that link up together.

i just wait an hour for the g train

i'd like to get you high

Sunday, November 21, 2010

mo... pomo.

"philosophy has for too long claimed a privileged position in the search for such truths as a basis for deciding what we should or should not believe. we do not need such a world in order to decide what or what not to believe. instead, we decide to believe not because it corresponds to the reality of the world, but because they make sense to use and help us act. we change our beliefs not because we have been given a new or privileged view of the world, but because new beliefs make more sense of it or resolve inconsistencies. what does vary and where we should focus our attention is the language we use to describe experiences" :: p. allmendinger, planning in postmodern times.

now from f. jameson's postmodernism or, the cultural logic of late capitalism :: "if modernization is something that happens to the base, and modernism the form the superstructure takes in reaction to the ambivalent development, then perhaps modernity characterizes the attempt to make something coherent out of their relationship. modernity would then in that case describe the way 'modern' people feel about themselves; the world would seem to have something to do not with products but with the producers and the consumers, and how they feel either producing the products or living with them"

Friday, November 19, 2010

yahda yahda yahda, postmodernism & planning

this theory paper on postmodernism and something  is a process like no other, but i'm thoroughly enjoying it. the paper itself shall remain off this, but these are the after-thoughts, most of which will never make the final cut but nonetheless they are thoughts that sprung from the paper and the many books i've commandeered from the library [and yes that's the most fitting verb ever for my feeling on all of this radical thinking]


:: From here discuss: fragmentation of the process: in planning (community development, plurality, inclusionary planning, increased transparency) and in the production process (globalization, increased dependencies on others, loss of transparency)  the various branches of planning and social theory from 1960 through now. Postmodernism and city planning difficulties finding themselves.  What is postmodernism: it is not something new, it’s a play on the old, a pastiche, it’s exploration at its finest as it is taking what is already there and making it meaningful to the self.  City planning, how can it be defined? It is a process of applying social thought, ideals, ideas, and theory to the ‘open’ landscape and hoping that almost everyone agrees with the physical design and accepts the externalities. City planners are the glue that holds everything together, for better or worse. Planners should know the ins and outs of politics and everyday life in order to think on their feet and be what society asks them to be, absolute leaders with a conscience. Planners have to be vaguely all knowing yet know when to step aside, they must be able to know when to say no to desires in favor of needs. This is not an easy path to wander down, planning for everyone means a sacrifice of  ego but there must be an attempt to find the balance of values, those underlying heart-grabbing beliefs, and of communal happiness. There are no definite wrongs or rights, not in planning and most certainly not in postmodernist theory. It’s [life, planning, etc.?]  a process, it’s ever lasting, history has not ended, it is continuous and the need to shift and shape accordingly may be necessary, but hold onto the bits that matter the most and carry them high and tight, whether it be for demanding total acceptance of all or progressive design theory in geographies, it’s important to know ego but to know that ego is a part of a larger process is even sexier.  

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Friday, November 12, 2010

what i live by; then, now and forever

"i'm going to paraphrase [Henry David] Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth." :: into the wild

i'd give it all away to experience
just a moment
of something untouched,
something visceral, something real.

"the deep"

a favorite, per usual


 kate nash:: nicest thing

Sunday, November 7, 2010

absolute beauty

this image does no justice. see live @ MET.
anselm kiefer :: bohemia lies by the city
and 
ingeborg bachmann :: böhmen liegt am meer [inspiration for said painting {title}]

If houses here are green, I’ll step inside a house.
If bridges here are sound, I’ll walk on solid ground.
If love’s labour’s lost in every age, I’ll gladly lose it here.
If it’s not me, it’s one who is as good as me.
If a word here borders on me, I’ll let it border.
If Bohemia still lies by the sea, I’ll believe in the sea again.
And believing in the sea, thus I can hope for land.
If it’s me, then it’s anyone, for he’s as worthy as me.
I want nothing more for myself. I want to go under.
Under – that means the sea, there I’ll find Bohemia again.
From my grave, I wake in peace.
From deep down I know now, and I’m not lost.
Come here, all you Bohemians, seafarers, dock whores, and ships
unanchored. Don’t you want to be Bohemians, all you Illyrians,
Veronese and Venetians. Play the comedies that make us laugh
until we cry. And err a hundred times,
as I erred and never withstood the trials,
though I did withstand them time after time.
As Bohemia withstood them and one fine day
was released to the sea and now lies by water.
I still border on a word and on another land,
I border, like little else, on everything more and more,
a Bohemian, a wandering minstrel, who has nothing, who is held by nothing,
gifted only at seeing, by a doubtful sea, the land of my choice.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

the bittersweet


 el ten eleven::sorry about your irony
never has sound so clearly conveyed such a phenomenon

i do want this more than life


 whitley::more than life
reevaluating.. and i'm establishing that beyond what i know i don't want, i beginning to grasp what i do want

anything for distraction


crystal castles::magic spells

opening sentences grab attention

"urban planning is a
'conscious effort to direct social processes to attain goals'...
planning then is a social project"
- michael frisch's planning as a heterosexual project

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

others' take on self's ego

"...other persons never see the world from my perspective, and in witnessing the other's objective grasp of my body, actions and words, i am always face with an experience of myself different from that one i have... i do not always know what i mean, need, want, desire, because meanings, needs, and desires do not arise from an origin in some transparent ego. often i express my desire in gesture or tone of voice, without meaning to do so. consciousness, speech, expressiveness, are possible only if the subject always surpasses itself, and is thus necessarily unable to comprehend itself. subjects all have multiple desires that do not cohere, they attach layers of meanings to objects without always being aware of each layer or the connections between them. consequently, any individual subject is a play of difference that cannot be completely comprehended." - iris marion young's city life and difference

just some recycling

Recycled materials make art in Germany - european refrigerators make an igloo

Monday, November 1, 2010

i wasn't gonna blog today but then...

UVM rules, this is not an exaggeration either. the university of vermont really is the best place. sometime around my enrollment there 5 years ago they started using biodegradable everything - including cutlery. however the makers of such disposable goods are actually selling a bit of a lie - there are plastics in their so-called biodegradable tableware, which ain't sittin too well with the university. but no worries little hippies, you've got options, like real silverware or reusing sturdy plastic ones. but read the story, it's really interesting how much green-washing is going on.

this is old mill, where i spent more time than hhn.. no joke.