deconcrete

^ Ritardando a poco a poco, 2011 by Euan Macdonald. Part of Open-Tuning at the Hayward Project Space, London. Photo by deconcrete.

There is an accordion-folded music score standing inside a vitrine, yet not to be touched or performed by anybody. It seems to be composed of 50 pages at least. Melodic? Quite the opposite: noise literally translated into paper. Later I find out that a whole piano has been turned into noise; a machine into a piano; and a factory space in Shanghai into a machine. Paradoxically, the global demand on cheap instruments makes harsh dissonance to be used for reaching optimal quality standards. I move on to the dark room where the annoying noise comes from. And then I watch the video of the simulator running. A piano-like industrial device plays the actual piano. The machine tests the long-term endurance of the instrument by banging all keys almost simultaneously. It goes on and on and on for 5 minutes. The cacophony becomes eventually less annoying and the whole machinery suddenly stops. I go out, look at the music scores again. I imagine the whole space of production in China; pianos being shipped worldwide; everything compressed on the written scores. And I leave.

^ Excerpt from 9,000 pieces, 2010 by Euan Macdonald, commissioned by YBCA.

^^ Sun Mirror in Viganella via distrettolaghi

^ Neil Harbisson’s third eye. Photo by Albert Jodar/ElPais

NH: I usually wear C – E – G (do – mi – sol) outfits, which is a happy combination.

JJM: And what would you wear to a funeral?

NH: A funeral? Blue, lilac and orange: C – E flat – F sharp (do – mi ♭ - fa#)

[…]

NH: Since I listen to the colours of food, I only order well-tuned dishes. I can arrange a plate of vegetables that sounds like my favourite song.

JJM: Can you eat your favourite song?

NH: Totally. Salads contain almost every note. However, it is very hard to find C (do) in edibles, since blue food is basically non-existent.

JJM: You are a bit funny, aren’t you?

[Excerpt from the interview to Neil Harbisson by Juan José Millás, published in El Pais 15/01/2012. My translation]

—

Neil Harbisson introduces himself as the first cyborg ever legally recognized by any Government (2004). He was born colour-blind; so he can only see in black and white (Achromatopsia disorder).

An electronic device implanted in his neck allows him to translate colours into sounds. The camera that hangs from his forehead 24/7 was accepted as part of his British passport photo. By that very fact, the camera became congenital and not prosthetic to his body anymore. Thanks to it, light frequencies are captured and translated into sound frequencies by the chip, which in turn sends them to his brain. He literally listens to colours with his electronic eye.

A standard eye perceives light, tone and saturation. Harbisson’s organic eyes perceive light, but tone is converted into sound, and saturation into volume through his third eye.

NH: When I’m done with painting [my apartment], it will become a ‘sonochromatic’ home. I’m not going to decorate it in order to look nice, but to sound nice. In the mezzanine, there will only be black and white, since these colours don’t sound and in the sleeping area you mustn’t listen to anything. It is also very important that the ceiling doesn’t sound.

^ Harbisson’s sonochromatic music scale.

Viganella is an Italian village that also got a third eye. Located in a deep gorge in the Alps, it used to spend almost three months in complete shadow during the severe winter. In 2006, a 40-m2 mirror was installed 500m uphill, in order to reflect sunlight down into the village main square six hours a day. The fact that is about 1 km away results in a lit surface of 16 by 16 metres for inhabitants to enjoy.

Harbisson alike, cities can also be able to go over congenital deficiencies through prosthetic add-ons.

thanks, max!

^ Viganella in the shadows. Photo by EPA/EMMEVI/DPA via stern

^ Sun Mirror at Viganella via bbc

‘The past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past’. [T.S. Eliot]

^ Roundabout Vancouver. 1914

< What would a metropolis in the Pacific Northwest look like if urban planners at the turn of the 20th century recognized and exploited the spatial potential of existing old growth trees rather than their perceived resource potential? Employing techniques of photomontage and urban mapping Goodweather takes us on an anachronistic detour that decouples empirical fact from historical memory. While in the present city of Vancouver, the centre space of roundabouts is given over to various sanctioned treatments—community gardens, a monumental rock, and so on—in this “retroprojective” proposal an alternative vision of the not-so-distant past is offered, one wherein forward-thinking city planners leave an old growth tree at the centre of each future roundabout. With this simple gesture we can envisage an entirely different city, one in which the massive trees are no longer a rarity but instead fundamentally define and shape our movement through the urban fabric of Vancouver. While the singular presence of each tree is in itself remarkable, their collective existence is a legacy comparable in size and density to that of Stanley Park, Vancouver’s beloved urban green-space. With this action on the civic imagination the city becomes a forest, and the forest a city. > 

[text & images> Roundabout Vancouver by Goodweather Collective] [Cabinet Magazine#43] [WE:Vancouver]

^ Roundabout Vancouver. 1920s

^ Roundabout Vancouver. 1930s

^ Roundabout Vancouver. 2010

^ Roundabout Vancouver. Residual distributed / condensed forest

< [...] a greying Mediterranean that stretches toward the horizon, above which heavy nimbus clouds appear ready to burst open in a mid-day shower. To the right of the screen, a volcanic mass juts from beneath the ocean’s surface, revealing a small island shaped much like a pumice stone – a tourist’s hideaway, perhaps, or a monastic sanctuary. The landscape, tinted in becalming pastels and high-definition aquamarine, suggests a placid environment on the verge of great turmoil. If Warnell’s mise-en-scène seems to bear a striking likeness to the fabled island shots in Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura (1960), it is likely not coincidence.  For much as the paradigmatic Italian art film used littoral space as a semiological and architectonic conduit for traversing the boundaries of the Étranges and the Étrangers, Outlandish’s camera eye translates the swirling atmospheres of the ocean into a fluid subject, a foreign skin, an interzone of sorts in which to theorize the body and its relation to the ‘outside’ unknown. [...] >

read full article by Erik Morse [frieze]

‘Outlandish are the bodies: they are made of the outside, of the extraneitas that forms the outsider’s outsidiness…’ 
The first line of Jean-Luc Nancy’s ‘libretto’ for Outlandish

Phillip Warnell. Outlandish: Strange Foreign Bodies. 35 mm film, 20 min, 2009. [in collaboration with Jean-Luc Nancy]

[image> videostill via CPH:DOX 2011]

After a talk by Nabil Ahmed on Environmental Emergency and Political-Natural Assemblages, I was struck by the impressive structures developed as cyclone shelters in Bangladesh. The fact of being a very low and flat land together with having the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghn Rivers delta increase the threat of flooding. Catastrophes have been happening every now and then. The most severe of the deadly storms occurred in November 1970 (Bhola Cyclone), taking up to 500,000 lives.

The triangular shape of the whole Bay of Bengal funnels tropical storms towards the shoreline (around 64 knots, 74 miles/hour). And this same triangular shape is the one that some cyclone shelters need to acquire in order to face strong winds coming from the coast with their pointed convex façade. They consist of tough, but aerodynamic structures at the same time.

The cost of building one windbreaker in Bangladesh rounds £45,000 [Oxfam]. The shelter is usually built on concrete pillars (letting waves go through underneath in case of tidal surges), windows have no glass and are covered with bars and metal shutters, stairs are located at the back of the building (the concave side in triangular constructions) with railings to help people hold or climb. Upstairs, there is a room for men and another one for women and children.

When not used as emergency shelters, these spaces provide public space for community centres, schools, marriage ceremonies, vaccination hospitals, or informal trials for local issues. However, beyond these specific functions, wind shelters may also act as powerful weapons of governing a territory on a broader level, either if built by international humanitarian funds or estate authorities. Along the lines with Alex de Waal’s concept of Philanthropic Imperialism, emergencies are the opportunity for the extension of political power and coercive administration, albeit with the greater good as the goal. [Whose Emergency Is It Anyway? Dreams, Tragedies and Traumas in the Humanitarian Encounter]

[1>Cyclone Shelter in Noakhali_Bangaldesh via fredhoogervorst] [2> by IFRC] [3-5> Cyclone shelters in Bangladesh_interiors via archnet]  [6> Cyclones Tracking over Bangladesh during the 20th century via islandnet]

Skvallerspegel are gossip mirrors. They consist of a very simple and popular device, which may be attached to the outdoor side of any window in Sweden. Being placed at 45º, they allow to look into the street without being seen. Gossip mirrors are communication tools linking interior and exterior, but working at the same time as privacy filters. They might be regarded either as the maximal extension of a traditional window or as the most efficient compression of a balcony: a second window. With unclear origins, they provide a relation between dwellers and pedestrians by means of a visual threshold. They lack the verbal or auditive channel that an open veranda would foster, but climatic conditions don’t precisely invite to establish such a connection under freezing temperatures. Severe weather might have invented Skvallerspegel to make winter time more enjoyable – dwellers curious about life outside; or perhaps it might have been dwellers’ perception of intimacy the reason for inventing them.

[1-4> gossip mirrors_Stockholm_deconcrete 2011]

We live in a containerised society and our everyday existence is also dictated by it. The width of the Panama Canal can even decide the maximum load of containers to be transported at a time by (Panamax) cargo ships from one hemisphere to the other. Both the existing infrastructure of ports and management of empty/full containers dictate the rhythm to which we consume goods (and viceversa).

This global connectivity generates a constant development of larger and larger ships adapted to our consumption fever (Post-Panamax). These vessels are not only conceived for goods, but also planned as hedonist floating cities. As Supersudaca maps in their Caribbean Tourism research, cruise-based tourism is demanding larger spaces for entertainment on board. Although this may lead to turn coast countries into mere shopping strips for visitors spending there a few hours before returning to their safe ships, the fact is that maritime transport is a future challenge for energy-consumption as well.

In 2001, Hamburg-based engineers Stephan Wrage and Thomas Meyer came up with the idea of profiting from wind propulsion for shipping industry. By means of a towing kite, SkySails have already managed to offer an effective load of 8 to 16 tons in cargo vessels and plan to reach up to 130 tons in a near future. They consist of a simple device to be attached to existing vessels, without big changes in their basic structure and even increasing general stability.

“The SkySails concept, designed for commercial shipping and luxury yachts, consists of a fully automated towing kite propulsion and a wind-optimised routeing system. It is used offshore in addition to the propulsion of the ship’s engine – wind conditions permitting. The SkySail offers a potential reduction of fossil fuel costs of between 10-50% per annum.” [source&images>SkySails via Updating Germany]

Old Persian domestic doors were able to unveil the gender of the person knocking on them.

By simple means of two different knockers (kūba), the dweller could guess who was standing at the other side of the wall. The one to be used by male visitors produced a heavier sound than the one for female guests. Their shape also was related to correspondent genital forms: flowing curves vs. a simple straight shaft. Dating back to the Qajar and Pahlavi Periods, this system determined who from the household was able to open the door: the man of the family or the housewife.

The function of a door’s threshold is to provide access as well as to keep a dwelling safe. This obsolete piece of Iranian Gender Architecture did not focus on the intentions of the visitor (if he was a friend, a thief, a vendor or a wolf in sheep’s clothing); but rather on safety understood from religious culture, and aiming to avoid mixed encounters.

Thanks, Tan!

[1>By Maziar Barzi, 2010][2>Esfahan male/female knockers,2008 by ozmac46][3>via topleftpixel]

Is a symmetrical key still a key? What balance of power lies behind the relations it generates?

Guided by the natural learning process of an archaeologist finding this beautiful object, Bruno Latour introduces us into a journey towards technical sociology and social technology. In The Berlin Key or How to Do Words with Things, the fictional archaeologist resolves the mistery at the same time as the reader does: speculations, trials, errors and deductions; social relations and networks made of steel.

“What is this thing ? What’s it used for ? Why a key with two bits ? And two symmetrical bits ? Who are they trying to kid ?”

The forced-locking key, invented in Berlin 1912, obliged users to… [read full essay]

“All large cities, all groups of coowners, all union newspapers, all concierge’s lodges, are full of complaints, notices, recriminations and groans about the doors, the fact that they are impossible to lock and impossible to open. But if it was a question of words, or notices, or howls of “Lock the door !” or placards, we would merely be in the world of signs. [...]But now with this Berlin key we find we are neither altogether in the world of signs nor altogether in the realm of social relations. Are we in the world of technology ? Of course we are, since here we are confronting keyholes and a handsome steel key with teeth, grooves, and lips. And of course we are not, since we are encountering know-how, punctual concierges, and obstinate cheats, not to speak of our Prussian Locksmith.

[...]

The Berlin key, the door, and the concierge are engaged in a bitter struggle for control and access. Shall we say that the social relations between tenants and owners, or inhabitants and thieves, or inhabitants and delivery people, or co-owners and concierges, are mediated by the key, the lock, and the Prussian Locksmith ? The word mediation, quite useful, can also become an asylum for ignorance depending on the meaning one gives it. One person will take mediation to mean intermediary, another to mean mediator. [...] With mediators, in fact, there always begin chains of mediators, otherwise known as networks. One is never done with them. But sociologists, like technologists, enemy brothers, believe they can come to an end, the former with the social, the latter with objects. The only thing they do not manage to end is their fratricidal war, a war that prevents us from understanding the world in which we live.”
thanks, jörg!
[image> The Berlin (forced-locking) Key via wikipedia]

…commonplace trees within urban and rural settings. …
Photographer Robert Voit’s “New Trees” are initially slow to reveal their true nature. Prolonged viewing, however, discloses the artificiality of these central focal points, which, in reality, are cell phone masts that have been meticulously disguised by telecom companies to blend in with their surroundings. One of the photos features a seemingly real palm tree looming above a trailer park in Las Vegas; it stands, dwarfing the other—real—palm trees. Despite its initially convincing appearance, the tree begins to seem uncannily rigid and linear. A subtle, but jarring, sense of artificiality comes to pervade the image, a feeling which is confirmed by the sight of mechanical antenna structures somewhat cloistered within the fake tree’s long, artificial leaves. The trees’ attempts to fit in with their surroundings creates the tension of Voit’s work… Trees, an emblem of shelter, solidity and the incorruptibility of nature, appear ironically co-opted, channeling information invisibly, through walls and in the service of social, commercial and political interests. [source> Amador Gallery]

“His pictorial inventory, a work-in-progress since 2003, of mobile phone masts in the guise of artificial trees erected in real space in the U.S., Great Britain, South Africa, Korea, Italy and Portugal pays superficial tribute to a diffuse creative will driven by a basic desire for conciliation. To visually compensate for the dangers of electro-smog, mobile phone masts are given plastic “magic hoods” which simulate nature so that they then appear in the landscape as idealized forms of vegetation. The broad range of camouflage outfits includes deciduous trees and conifers, pines, palms and huge cacti.”

[1-4> via Robert Voit's New Trees]

I was always fascinated with hybrids such as Zorses, Zonies, Beefalos and Ligers (Zebra+Horse, Zebra+Pony, Beef+Buffalo, Lion+Tiger).

The equivalent in gardening is the grafting technique, consisting, among others, of mixing two different plants in one. My favourite case is grafting potatoes and tomatoes together in the same plant, so that one can grow above ground and the other underground.

In my journey back to my parents’ weekend orchard, i discovered some of my father’s tricks to control plants, towards robot-like trees. Pear trees with steel legs to avoid their overloaded branches break down; young apple trees with tensile structures to widen their branches and make fruit collection easier (bricks hanging from other branches can also work in the same way); or even diverse devices to make plants climb and let the sun brown the fruits… new species of architreecture…

[all images> architreecture by deconcrete2010]

…the sun shines, and one is automatically taken to the clouds…

Tomás Saraceno’s art explores possible visions of a better world, generating poetic, playful propositions for a human life in balance with the planet. His works occupy the border regions between science, art and architecture. They can include anything from spheres and cloud creations to flying gardens, space elevators and futuristic dwellings. The dream of a weightless state and the possibility of a human being moving freely above the clouds, free of the confines of gravity, and free from national borders, recur in several works. [Source> artfacts.net]

[image> saraceno's solar-powered balloon by entrelaspiedras]

[Everyday Life Invents Itself] ELII has presented this week their last hybrid Urban Tree species in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid, Spain): the Capio Solem et Mutuo Spinning. It consists of an artifact that first, attracts people to meet together in an open space; second, supports practising spinning all together; third, uses the energy generated to pump and atomize water for the shading plants above; and fourth, captures solar energy to complementary light the whole space at night.

As they state, any tree is far more than a mere image and every tree is artificial. If trees depend on a network of care-takers, why not inventing a tree working as a club as well? Nonsense gymnastics acquire a new meaning; Human calories and physical exercise are then visualized as life energy making plants grow. Almost everyday personal donations to nature…

[all images> installation and drawings of the Urban Tree by elii]

Unfamiliar objects are always given familiar forms:

the first clay vases were modeled on woven baskets, whose forms up to that point were suitable for these functions. First bicycles were equipped with a horse-head, a residue of the preceding form; and first boats with diesel engines had to add smokestacks so that passengers would dear get onboard.

Far beyond being an illogical conservatism of forms, humanity becomes worried when it does not find some element of déja vu in the unfamiliar phenomenon.

[Source> Situationist Asger Jorn in Image and Form (1954) revisited by Tom Mcdonough in the situationists and the city]

[image> horsey horseless car 1899 via loqu]

Selvedge is the term for self-finished edges of fabric, the margins. What normally is a mere cutout of clothes production, has turned now into the future development of a walled country.

North Korea has allowed the first foreign design production in history in their territory. A Swedish team of publicists in their 20s have started a mediatic bomb of producing jeans in one the most hermetic economy of the world. NOrth KOrea jeans (NOKO) has launched its 2 unique models: Kara & Oke.

Impressed by the experience of the reality in Pyongyang, the Swedes have translated the city into some details of the clothes. Pockets with the shape of the never-ending Ryugong Hotel Tower, imperfect circular bottoms, wavy threads symbolising unstable economy, black colour instead of forbidden standard American blue…In a country dominated by Zinc mining economy as only efficient resource, the only available production site for them was a mining uniforms textile industry.

After recent visits of Kim Jong II to China, it seems that North Korea could follow his neighbours’ steps in opening the country to a fierce capitalist-communist society. Swedes may show the selvedges in their clothes; but Pyongyang still hides any yearn for marginalising out of the masses.

[image1> nokojeans Swedish/northkorean team via elpais] [images 2&3> parade at the main square pyongyang via blame it on the voices] [image4>pyongyang analogies via noko jeans]

1990s in Berlin underwent massive street souvenir sales of concrete pieces of the Wall, both original and fake. Soviet winter fur hats or DDR memorabilia have also been a must among street sellers since then.

However, strict regulations on barbecues in the city have led to the well-known mobile grillwalkers. Obliged to come up with an ambiguous understanding of street selling laws, their equipment, consisting of a 15 kg weight grill, an umbrella and a gas canister, cannot touch the floor at any moment.

The fact that most Berliners love eating outdoor despite these regulations make potential sellers come up with new witty devices.

looking forward to a mobile döner-kebab…

[more> die Zeit] [image> grillwalkers in berlin by deconcrete 2010]

85 cm long measures the latest furniture (manifesto?) by Alejandro Aravena for Vitra; with an explicit use of the Spanish word for furniture (mueble),  directly linked to the mobile.

Based on the no-tech chair used by Ayoreo Indians in Paraguay, consisting of a simple piece of string tying up knees and back, Chairless provides a comfortable and simple rest.

Analog to instinctive gestures, such as using one’s hand to cover the face against sun-rays, this chair lets your hands free while sitting on a natural position. A nomad atavistic chair, which recovers lost traces of inherited culture for today’s everyday life.

[image above> chairless via at] [image below> enjoying chairless via el pais]

Between 18/03/2010 and 11/04/2010, 34 books have been lying on my shelves. None of them has a similar format; not even proportional.

Most of them were printed in different countries and continents, but still, does graphic design and layout prevail over optimizing paper cut-outs?

more or book formats

Image1,2> book-self diagram by deconcrete2010

Image3> standard paper from wikipedia

It was almost without knowing if a piece of land had been added to Venice islands or detached away from them, that The Theatre of the World did appear.

In 1979 Aldo Rossi planned this floating structure as a versatile stage for performing arts. As he explained, “The project for the Teatro del Mondo is marked by three aspects: having a precise usable if not defined space, its positioning as a volume in accordance with Venetian movement, being on the water. Clearly, being on the water is its main characteristic; it is a raft, a boat: the limit or border of construction in Venice”.

This ephemeral wonder lasted until 1980, when it last travelled to the Dubrovnik International Festival. After that, the only wreckage surviving until today is the sphere placed at the top, which has been rescued from a warehouse for the Biennale di Venezia. An on-going exhibition relaunching the theatre, mix of the Shakespearean Globe and the James Adams’ Floating Theatre, will re-float it until July 2010.

“One could look out of the windows, and outside see the passing of the vaporetti and ships as though one were aboard another vessel, and these other ships entered into the image of the theatre, constituting its true fixed and mobile stage.”

[All Images> wikiarquitectura] [Sources> el pais & Biennale di Venezia]

$0.50 is the price of this Chinese bird (depending on one’s skills for bargaining). No batteries. just a couple of turns to the handle, and the bird takes off…upwards…gliding…to the ground. only an elastic band, a wire, and a pattern plastic sheet.

dating back from 475 BC, kites were first produced in China out of wood, turning later into paper, bamboo frames and silk. “Instead of being playthings, early kites were used for military purposes. Historical records say they were large in size; some were powerful enough to carry men up in the air to observe enemy movement, and others were used to scatter propaganda leaflets over hostile forces.” [Source> china info]

[Image above> plastic birds by deconcrete 2010] [Images below> Chinese kites by china info, china kites and weifang kite festival]

“Shabbat elevator, refers to a practice in major Jewish centers like New York City, Baltimore, and Boston of programming one or more elevators in a building to stop at every floor. The system allows practicing Jews to abstain from operating electric switches on the Shabbat, a violation of Jewish Law, thus enabling them to live in modern, high-rise buildings”, according to Interboro (Armborst, D’Oca and Theodore), describing tools for Inclusion/Exclusion towards an Open City (IABR).

Providing that the condo has a mixed variety of dwellers, as in many reported cases, some neighbours will be also obliged to enjoy(?) everlasting vertical journeys on Saturdays.

This religiousness in elevators reminds me of the Pater Noster lift, invented in late 19th century London, where (Jewish and non-Jewish) users could step in or out at every floor by means of an open cabin. The Christian name comes from the resemblance of its constant looping cabins to the beads of a rosary.

[image above> shabbath elevator by labellekel]

[image below> pater noster elevator by dartfordarchive]

Optimizing a plastic bag. Cambodians like and need drinking everywhere; glasses-to-go either on foot or by motorbike with a device, which saves the half of the standard bag. Any extra properties for cooling?

plastic half bag found in Phnom Penh

Ancient China was not used to lock houses doors at night. Each wife had therefore to develop an strategy to keep the family documents, seals, jewels or important belongings safe. The result was this hybrid object, to be even carried away when the family was travelling or trading.

As easy as using the strongbox as pillow overnight was the mechanism to avoid theft. Rigid pillows were quite common in Far Eastern cultures. Covered with lacquered leather, these hybrids would adapt its concave shape to the human head (unfortunately, my European cranium was too pointed to rest over one of them). The wife would have to rest over it all night long, so that she would notice any movement. I wonder whether it would also be an strategy preventing wives to spend the night elsewhere.

During the Opium addiction of the country at the turn of 19th century, these pillows were also very appreciated to potentiate phantasy daydreaming…