essay on design

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ET.AL AT THE 2005 VENICE BIENNALE: Reporting on the site office

Pity the Welsh, and not just for their poor rugby team. At this year’s Venice Biennale their artists were at a site so removed you probably only found it if you got on the wrong boat heading out of town. In a city of bewildering lanes, many exhibitions were as elusive. Even those from Iran and Afghanistan -- their banners draped...

culturalelsewhere/1767/etal-at-the-2005-venice-biennale-reporting-on-the-site-office/

SIR NORMAN FOSTER'S BRIDGE AT MILLAU (2004): Sublime Architecture; From Here to Modernity

We live in a cynical world, as Jerry Maguire said. And there are reasons to be cynical: corruption and graft, deja-vu politics, corporate fraud and payouts, famine and futility … Yet it is also too easy to by-pass healthy scepticism and head straight for the negativism of a suspicious, cynical view of Man and the world. Cynicism...

culturalelsewhere/234/sir-norman-fosters-bridge-at-millau-2004-sublime-architecture-from-here-to-modernity/

ALAIN DE BOTTON ESSAY (2006): The Sin of Being a Populariser

As someone with an amateur’s enthusiasm for architecture and design, I was disappointed to miss the recent talk by the English essayist Alain de Botton, author of the popular book The Architecture of Happiness. I call him an essayist because that is what he is: as someone who travels often and writes about it I had previously...

writingelsewhere/236/alain-de-botton-essay-2006-the-sin-of-being-a-populariser/

THE BUILDING BLOCK OF CIVILIZATION (2005): Thoughts From Elsewhere

Evening in Barcelona in a small cafe near the old Cathedral. I have spent the afternoon underground and now, over rich red wine and tapas, my thoughts have turned to the humble brick. Today I have touched these ancient building blocks. My back is resting against a wall which is perhaps a century old and so, seated by myself in an unfamiliar...

culturalelsewhere/239/the-building-block-of-civilization-2005-thoughts-from-elsewhere/

VISUAL ACOUSTICS, a film by ERIC BRICKER (Madman DVD)

This beautifully shot, 85 minute doco pays elegant tribute to the great photographer Julius Shulman, the man who defined how the world saw Modernist architecture. As the Modernist movement took hold and right through to the most contemporary buildings by Frank Gehry, photographer Shulman was there constructing eye-catching images (often in...

film/2986/visual-acoustics-a-film-by-eric-bricker-madman-dvd/

HOW WE BUILT BRITAIN, a documentary series with DAVID DIMBLEBY (BBC DVD)

Anglophiles and architects may naturally be drawn to this six-part series which comes with the subtitle "The Dramatic and Heroic Story of Britain's Architecture". But architects might be disappointed. Starting in 1066 -- which rather ignores quite a chunk of history -- this digressive series fronted by the eye-twinkling and winking...

film/3075/how-we-built-britain-a-documentary-series-with-david-dimbleby-bbc-dvd/

RICHARD MEIER'S GETTY CENTRE IN LOS ANGELES (1999): Architecture, art and anger

High in the hills overlooking Los Angeles, The Getty Centre offers a commanding view. “Yeah, on a clear day you can see smog forever,” says a droll Angelino as he stares into the blue-grey gauze which lies lightly over his city on this typically perfect, dry day. That said the Getty, as it is commonly known and which...

culturalelsewhere/3127/richard-meiers-getty-centre-in-los-angeles-1999-architecture-art-and-anger/

GRAND DESIGNS: SERIES SIX with KEVIN McCLOUD (Roadshow DVD)

Some people watch celebrity chefs on television and buy glossy monthlies with enticing recipes -- and yet still make the same six meals which come easy and never fail. Then there are others (myself included) who don't open themselves up for the criticsm of such laziness: we watch programmes like Grand Designs -- but would never think of...

film/3367/grand-designs-series-six-with-kevin-mccloud-roadshow-dvd/

GRAND DESIGNS; SERIES SEVEN with KEVIN McCLOUD (Roadshow DVD)

One of the most interesting aspects of this series in which various Brits -- mostly well-heeled, but a few not -- undertake building a home of their own design is how the people involved refer to the "the build" . . . as if it is something outside of themselves. In most instances it is not: it is something which consumes their...

film/3611/grand-designs-series-seven-with-kevin-mccloud-roadshow-dvd/

Seoul, South Korea: Now and then Zen

Soo Bool Sunim smiles broadly and asks, “Can you see your own eyes?” This is not a question that has ever occurred to me, but now it becomes troubling as I turn it around in my head, looking for an angle into it, and wondering whether there is an answer at all. Or even if that is really the question. This bewilderment...

travelstories/3752/seoul-south-korea-now-and-then-zen/

THE ART OF THE ALBUM COVER: CD or not CD?

Paul McCartney perhaps spoke for his generation when he recalled the thrill of buying a new record as a teenager and, while taking it home, sitting in the bus pouring over the cover photo and liner notes, scanning them for clues. The covers of subsequent Beatle albums also had that effect on another generation, and their covers were...

culturalelsewhere/3805/the-art-of-the-album-cover-cd-or-not-cd/

Glasgow, Scotland: Art-i-tecture as far as the I can see

Locals call it “the Armadillo” but it's a rather obvious name for the striking building by the River Clyde, once the heart of Glasgow shipbuilding. With a suspicious similarity to a more squat Sydney Opera House, the Armadillo huddles almost fearfully in the shadow the enormous, now redundant, Finnieston Crane, a muscular...

travelstories/3841/glasgow-scotland-art-i-tecture-as-far-as-the-i-can-see/

I NEED THAT RECORD! a doco by BRENDAN TOLLER (Gryphon/Southbound DVD)

With today being Record Store Day and attention turning to how cheap books and CDs etc are on-line (not to mention downloading), this indie doco about "The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Records Store" across America is an insightful look at the changing times we live in. The argument here is that indie record...

film/3956/i-need-that-record-a-doco-by-brendan-toller-gryphon-southbound-dvd/

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