http://cargocollective.com Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar Mon, 23 May 2011 01:16:57 +0000 http://cargocollective.com en http://cargocollective.com/xarene/Deterritorializing-Detroit http://cargocollective.com/xarene/following/xarene/Deterritorializing-Detroit Mon, 23 May 2011 01:16:57 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 1482880 Deterritorializing Detroit: Fragmenting Architecture to Fuse Community A proposal for reorganizing current community center models by fragmenting and dispersing them to enhance their role in community-building, through a model based on Manuel DeLanda's assemblage theory. This is an ongoing research project begun in 2008. Note: Diagrams not provided below. Personal note: Late Spring nights in Detroit are calm, warm and lit until 10pm. The days are muggy and strewn with dandelion seeds. Project thumbnail image from Stefano Corso. (300 word description) One of the most significant roles of a community is influencing neighborhood, city and law enforcement legislature to assist in advancing the quality of life. Using assemblage theory as a primary guide, this paper will attempt to re-define architecture to be in the service of community by deterritorializing and reorganizing current centralized and institutional models of Community Centers, and analyzing the various effects through a series of case studies that employ some, but not all the proposed criteria of this paper. The proposed model for new Community Centers will focus on both the exterior functions of the center in the larger urban network, and on exteriorizing the internal functions of the center within the smaller person-to-person network of the community. Beginning August 2010, this model will be explored in a neighborhood of Wayne County, Detroit, Michigan, through the repurposing of abandoned homes. It is critical to pursue this theory at this time that the city is on a path of what activists are calling a “land grab”, further breaking apart communities. Detroit’s influence on the artistic manifestations of its music-makers from the 1950s until the 1990s had much to do with the socio-economics of the city as well as the existence and interaction of various communities and the ethnic and racial make up of these communities. Lack of community and growing distance and ignorance of remaining communities initially caused by the white-flight, and now the furthering of poverty, violence, lack of social programming, general depopulation, and recently the unhealthy initiatives by the City further breaking apart chances of community, will threaten any future continuation of the city’s cultural history, hastening Detroit’s rusting and eventual loss of a great American city. Keywords: Assemblage Theory, Urbanism as Community, Emergent Activism, Community as Activist, New but Non-Gentrifying, Children as Agents of Change –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Traditionally, a neighborhood community—one where children are playmates and where parents know other parents—has existed within varying boundaries of the ‘block’, with the distance of the ‘block’ depending on and varying by urban or suburban settings. The nature of community within a neighborhood has had the benefit to thwart off crime with neighborhood crime watches by the convenience of everyone knowing everyone else and knowing who belongs and who does not. The most significant role of a community, however, is influencing neighborhood, city and law enforcement legislature to assist in the quality of life in the community. This paper will look at reorganizing current models for community center into a hybrid model of dispersed units, and analyze their various effects through a series of case studies that employ some, but not all the proposed criteria of this paper. Community centers attempt to reduce the gap in neighborhood boundaries by creating a space to interact, increasing the reform powers of the community. However, the prevalence of suburban mentality within urban spacing of neighborhoods and the decline of community have increasingly diminished the positive output and reach of neighborhood community centers. I propose that the reach can be increased through a re-organized, rhizomatic model as opposed to the single institutional model. The rhizomatic model for the community center consists of small, self-governed units, each a ‘node’ of the overarching community center ‘idea’. The community center will also act less like a “center” and more like another “neighbor”, one where families most likely already trust their kids to be hanging out at. This rhizomatic model will be explored in (find a neighborhood), Detroit, Michigan, through the repurposing of abandoned and/or foreclosed homes. Detroit hosts an abundance and range of technical and mechanical skills and trade, which these days are no more disciplinary, but transdisciplinary, meaning that any skill can be adapted to and adopted by a different trade than it was originally meant for. Thus, each node of the rhizome will capitalize on the available skills within the immediate community to service its operational needs, therefore existing as a neighborhood operated system (Case Study A: Urban gardening; Futurefarmers; Hoop Houses). This co-operative method of operation is proven to positively act as an incentive, increasing productivity and effectiveness of employees, patrons and the institution as a whole (Case Study B: Co-operatives; Homeowners’ Associations, Amsterdam, The Netherlands). First point of analysis is to explore if the rhizomatic layout can serve as a more successful model of community building, by primarily creating a network with greater reach among its host neighborhood and second, by creating a network of children from different neighborhoods. Second point of analysis in this model is through identifying distances psychologically referred to as "on the block", as opposed to "down the street". Psychologically reducing distance leads to increased activity by allowing a greater chance of overlap between neighboring communities by nature of proximity and ease of foot and bike travel. However, the urban pattern of the community-building nodes is only one-half the model proposed here. Third point of analysis is the range of activities programmed inherently towards making ‘activists’ of the community’s inhabitants, without labeling them as ‘activists’. Every exteriorized function of an institution has interior workings and the prevalent programmatic flaw of architecture is its power to isolate. To further the rhizomatic network, the activities of each node is in effect further pixilated and dispersed through a series of artist programs specifically designed to interact with the immediate community, utilizing artist visionary where city planning and programming have failed (Case Study C: Artist residencies; MAK Center for Art & Architecture). When all nodes within neighboring communities converge, in effect the interior and exterior functions of these architectures tentatively behave as the greater ‘idea’ of the ‘community center’ but with more flexibility than one building can offer in the limited area of its existence. In a talk on his upcoming book, leading neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, positioned art as a necessary function of the brain, an evolution that began with the production of mind and consciousness. In slower economic times, art programs suffer first and most, while their existence and growth is necessary to socio-cultural homeostasis, just as the development of the mind and consciousness are necessary to homeostasis in general. Cutting or reducing funding and classes for art does not necessarily equate to better opportunities for learning mathematics and sciences. Many students, even those from well-funded schools, graduate without understanding the possibilities of math and science. For the artistically inclined students, a world of knowledge is out of touch and therefore lost. For the more technically inclined, mathematics and sciences as they are introduced in many schools offer no more beyond a linear mode of thinking and a linear job description of corporate responsibility or academic opportunity. In both cases, for the students to understand what the possibilities are, will take years of experimental courses and colleges, increasing the time productive minds are searching for what to do with their futures. Given the scientific and economic fact of art’s existence in childhood development and cultural well-being of a society, the internal-external programmatic phases of this project will focus on creating an after-school environment specifically to nurture creativity. Detroit is world renown for a rich cultural history from the Motown of the 1960s and 70s to the Detroit Techno of the 1980s and well into the 1990s. [Randy Fisher: Jazz in early 1900s: detroit was on the route of the black entertainment series (NYC-DT-CHI and CHI-DT-NYC). Black Bottom and Hastings street areas were the musician/arts district then.] Detroit’s influence on the artistic manifestations of its music-makers has much to do with the socio-economics of the city as well as the existence and interaction of various communities and the ethnic and racial make up of these communities. Lack of community and growing distance and ignorance of remaining communities caused by poverty, violence, lack of social programming and general depopulation will threaten any future continuation of the city’s cultural history, hastening Detroit’s rusting and eventual loss of a great American city. One of the goals of rebuilding community through arts is in hopes of preserving culture and allowing for new culture to flourish. This is only possible if space and resources specific to this purpose are allocated and maintained independent of a larger bureaucracy of outsiders. In order to create continuity between the participating children’s in-school classes, specifically mathematics and sciences, the art program provided by the community center will focus on the roles of these topics in art. By paralleling the level of mathematics and science taught at their school and in their respective grades, the community center’s art program aims to foster interest that will traverse between the school and the community center, extending interest from one to the other, and therefore reducing the possibility of losing interest in school, poor performance in math and science (especially for girls) and maybe even preventing or reducing rates of students dropping out of school. A point to reinforce is the harvesting of local skill and talent. The stress is on local in terms of occupying and adjacent zip codes at the minimum and county at a maximum. Revitalizations of a neighborhood through arts almost indefinitely lead to gentrification. Though the introduction of artists to low-income neighborhoods is desirable on the onset, in the long run, the ‘native’ community suffers and the culture the city had tried to preserve and or foster ironically disappears. Therefore, this proposal is not meant to be read as a proposal for an artist colony of invading artists that lead to an art-happy neighborhood, which in return leads to hip and new developments and the eventual increase in rent and property value. That model progresses to the point that original pre-arts residents cannot afford to live in their neighborhood, thus dispersing a community. It is very important to focus on the local aspect and the difference between inviting artists to contribute and leave, only leaving behind their artistic and cultural contribution. Key points: Urbanism as community Self-organization and cooperation leading to the emergence of previously non-existent community networks Introducing new elements from within (non-gentrifying) Children as teachers and agents of change Community as activist and agent of change on a greater urban scale Emergent activism Answers to be defined: What is the perceived measure of “a block”? What are the perceived and accepted activities on a block? How can the existing model of the "Block Club" be enhanced to fit within the functions of the new model? (The model of the block in Detroit is three streets: ie. between Plymouth (busy street) and Chicago (busy street). Hard for blocks to connect when facing away from each other.) How can the notion of the “block” be extended to a larger area, yet psychologically still considered “a block”? One is more likely to go to some place located “on the block” as opposed to “down the street”. What is “community”? What is the purpose of the community center? Why is the community center first built, then activities forced upon it? (programming) How far can a community center be placed for it to be considered “on the block”? How can activities shape the community center? How can the community center build community, starting at its immediate surrounding? –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Project goals: The project is based on the concept of small nodes connecting and influencing other small nodes, increasing the range of the network, yet keeping each node independent, whether the node is a child, an adult, the family, the neighborhood, or the community center. Most importantly, we are utilizing the power a node can have on another node, for example, the power a younger sibling can have on convincing an older sibling, or the persuasive ability children can have on their parents, thus working up the age and control hierarchy. The hope is the family nodes of a community will eventually influence the local government for positive changes they wish to see in their community. 1. Immediate goal: Replacing the negative element of vacant homes with accessible and occupied public space, as well as providing employment among the neighbors for repairs, maintenance, security, administration, etc. to help start the Center (with core staff). 2. Process goal: Grassroots movement towards ‘community as activist’ to care for and improve their neighborhood on their own initiative, and primarily through the influence of the neighborhood children. 3. Projected goal: Better kids, better students, better future adults, better future communities, a better Detroit. Activation of the Rhizomatic model: Diagram 1 + 2 Current community centers are located just on the border of residential neighborhoods, on main streets and boulevards with high traffic. Access to these centers in many instances requires adult supervision due to their distance, location and path of travel (crossing main streets) and safety issues (drug corners). The necessity of adult supervision reduces the chances of children having a stable place for growth, especially in lower-income neighborhoods where adults are less likely to take such responsibilities on a regular basis and where crime rates are higher and general safety standards are lower. (need citation) Additionally, the purposes of community centers, which are community and character building and instilling focus and purpose into children, are not very effective unless activities are sustained over a long period of time. Diagram 3 Traditionally, a neighborhood community—one where children are playmates and where parents know other parents—has existed within varying boundaries of the ‘block’, the distance of the ‘block’ depending on urban or suburban settings. Here, the block has been outlined at its maximum, as defined by city planning, by the bordering streets of a grouping of residential homes. Overtime, the safety level of the block—and trust levels in society, in general—has reduced the safe and acceptable distance of the block. Therefore, a community center located three blocks away, is less accessible today than it was 40 years ago. How can the block not only be extended back to its original borders, but also slightly extended and even overlap with neighboring blocks? How can there be a shift in perception of the distance of the block and what is considered to be “on the block” versus “down the street” or “next block”? The importance of increasing block size is to increase activity primarily among children. Children are less judgmental in making and accepting new friendships and alliances. An important goal of community centers and after school activities is just this, creating a base for reducing gang violence, bullying and other childhood troubles associated with lack of friendships and community among children. Diagram 4 Zip codes 48205, 48206 and 48228 are three of the hardest hit neighborhoods in Wayne County, with respectively 81, 88 and 66 homes listed foreclosed in December of 2009, placing these areas in the country’s top 20 on a national list of foreclosures. Looking up addresses on listings of foreclosed homes, reveals that many vacant homes are located within close neighboring streets and frequently on the same street. A vacant home in a low-income neighborhood is an invitation for illegal activity, as seen in other areas of Detroit and its suburbs where neighbors are afraid to leave their homes in fear of being shot at, the bad guys terrorize the immediate vicinity of their squats and cops stay away because they are outnumbered (and do not care to get involved with the low-income, black community). All sense of community is dissolved by the nature of empty space occupied by undesirable elements. (find the article citation) Diagram 5 If these homes are repurposed as community centers, the first undesirable element (a vacant home) is transformed to the first desirable element (potential). Diagram 6 The potentials of this new center are multi-fold: • Employing immediately from within the neighborhood for a variety of skills for repair, maintenance and management gives a sense of responsibility to the neighbors involved. • Employing artists from within the neighborhood to lead workshops, studios and competition for children, giving the children more incentive for participation. • Providing a positive workforce of immediately local artists and craftsmen. • Providing a social place for adults and children will create incentive for its upkeep by neighbors, as well as provide incentive for asking for stronger measures across the neighborhood from city and law enforcement officials. Diagram 7 The means by which the blocks will be shrunk psychologically while increased physically is through programmed activities, which are focused from the inside-out. The goals of activities should not be to bring children in and keep them there to be safe, but to bring them in and prepare to send them back out across the community, to join the next block over. http://cargocollective.com/xarene/Sand-Collection http://cargocollective.com/xarene/following/xarene/Sand-Collection Mon, 23 May 2011 00:39:53 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 1482815 (Time as place. This is ongoing in a series of projects studying time: one, two, three, and four.) <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0819.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="400" width_o="600" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0819_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0831.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="400" width_o="600" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0831_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0821.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="400" width_o="600" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0821_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0812-full.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="231" width_o="600" height_o="231" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0812-full_o.jpg" align="left" /> http://cargocollective.com/xarene/Architectural-Organ-I-Skin http://cargocollective.com/xarene/following/xarene/Architectural-Organ-I-Skin Mon, 16 May 2011 21:10:38 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 1452928 Architectural Organ I / Skin is part of my ongoing body of work which are explorations into the relationship between architecture and the body. Architectural Organs are not techno-prostheses, but a vision for the architectural capacity of our body. The first piece in the series is presented as a combination of an operatic performance, an interactive cinema, and a responsive environment allowing audiences and visitors to unfold the fantastical narratives. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/xarene_ao_k3h.jpg" border="0" width="418" height="540" width_o="418" height_o="540" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/xarene_ao_k3h_o.jpg" align="left" /> Ecologies of the Machinic Phylum The Fold By using three keywords that Marcos Novak's concept of Transvergence is situated upon—ontology, immanence and allo–I began questioning what is to find the response this is. What is being? What is becoming? What is other? I follow this with "What if?". "What if?" is the question of the speculative; it is what transforms the philosopher's "What is?" to the scientist's "This is." My work, therefore, should not be mistaken for a utopia only latent with "What ifs"; it is the process of 'tomorrow' becoming 'now'. In this quest I have honed in on the fold and its potential for developing new possibilities for modes of existence and occupation of space, in the form of architectural organs–origami-like extensions of our body; an actual organ of skin. Where are fold (n.) and folding (v.) positioned as responses to these questions and speculations of change? Why a fold? What is a fold anyway? To fold is to hide; to unfold is to reveal; a fold therefore, holds both opposite actions (hiding and revealing) within one dimension of the fold line. Spatially, the area where my interest lies in, the one dimensionality of the line reveals and hides the capability of two-dimensional planes becoming a three-dimensional form. A fold is a multiple of potentials waiting to be realized. Therefore, a fold, a Deleuzian being-as-becoming, the line-as-plane-as-form, exists on a plane of immanence, latent with possibilities. The key to existing on this plane is desire.

 Folding is the act of including and excluding, of containing both the inside and the outside, this and that. One desires to fold and unfold, or in other words, to pursue potentials. Italo Calvino’s city of Chloé best illustrates the desire of the potential, what Rosetta Di Pace-Jordan explains as the “dynamism latent in all matter”, and in Chloé, the dynamism latent in all relationships. Chloé both includes thousands of possible relationships between its inhabitants, as well as excluding them—the well being of the city based on the exclusion, or folding-in and leaving out, rather than un-folding and playing out. 

 A fold, or a ptychosis, as applied in medical English, is the behavior of becoming something other. A single becoming the double, becoming the multiple, exemplified in embryonic folding, where each fold yields another part to the single disk of the organism, multiplying its parts by continually folding over itself. This process is that of a machinic phylum, where folding of heterogeneous parts–ectoderm (outside) and endoderm (inside)–creates a new entity. In Origami, just as in embryonic folding, the combinations of transverse and longitudinal folds arrive at different forms. However, different from embryonic folding, origami has a homogenous base, which through a dynamic process ends in a static form. In Latin, fold (v.) and arrive (v.) are both plico, an active tense. Once a fold arrives at a point, that point should only become a departure point to another form. We are continuously experiencing series of arrivals and departures at and from points; our lives are broken into milestones and anniversaries. We are in a constant mode of unfolding and changing, our single body becoming multiples in the compounded unfolding of its future. Our body is therefore analogous to the fold. However, we go through this dynamic process with a static, homogenous base: our body. So the question now shifts from 'what is a fold?', to how can a folded form (our body departing and arriving at various points in space-time) continue embodying the dynamism that initially created it? How can our bodies become a machinic phylum for the realization of architectural organs? What are the heterogeneities that must be synthesized? (in-progress) 
Industrial Ecology to Social Ecology to Anarchic Ecology We are on-course for the realization of architectural organs. Over the last 150 years, our relationship with technology has shifted focus from production at any cost, to human-centered design, to environmentally conscious design. The final step is a shift to a fragmented and sustainable, autonomous design, a shift which has already begun. Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times is a seminal piece of the folding of the human into technology, the first machinic phylum of modern times. Filmed in 1936, it is the futuristic and extended vision of the events set off a century earlier with the second Industrial Revolution and the introduction of factory modernization to the domestic realm. This is a period when the technology takes precedence over the human, where production came at any cost to the environment; child labour was rampant, and worker rights were unheard of. The deep red sky and smoke stacks of Monet's paintings are not romantic reminiscing of the city, but factual impressions of the coal grime across the landscape and lives of citizens. Like Chaplin's film, Fritz Lange's Metropolis (1927) is created at the height of Scientific Management: The machinic efficiency of the human body, not for the benefit of the human, but for the production of profit–the "economic efficiency" of Taylorism, better put, the efficient production of an economy of profit at the expense of the human worker. Christine Fredrick's Scientific Management of the Home, by introducing the concept of efficiency for the female worker in her duties of housework, completes the cycle of profit production, with profit consumption. There is a contrarian shift within the same time-period, of efficiency becoming more human centered. Frank and Lilian Gilbreth, inspired by Taylor's work focus on the production of efficiency towards the production of welfare: a folding of the human onto technology. In their scenario, the human is still part of the machine, but the process of production is not at the cost of the human. This shift of focus hastens through the mid-century as more human elements are folded onto the technology, arriving at the second machinic phylum and Henry Dreyfus' Designing for Humans (1955) which sets the standards for the study of human factors: the sensibility and attention to the human element of technology, where humans are not the heterogeneous parts of a factory, but as in Marshall McLuhan's terms, the mechanical technology becomes an extension of the human body. This folding and re-folding of the human and technology has unfolded itself to a flat sheet of creases, ready to be re-folded with new terms: The environment. Once resolving the relationship of the mechanic modernization with the human, our focus shifted to the well-being of the human environment, Earth. We realize we have enveloped her in the same archaic ways as when we were enveloped by the machines of industrialization. In Social Ecology and Revolutionary Thought, Murray Bookchin points out that the dysfunctional relationship between human and nature stems from the dysfunctional relationship between humans, “To state this thought more precisely: the imbalances man has produced in the natural world are caused by the imbalances he has produced in the social world." The point of view of this essay is completely Western. In China, unfortunately, factory citizens are the inhabitants of corporate cities, perhaps, one can say, true integration of human into machine. Therefore, it is naive to say that our shift in focus to the environment means we have resolved the social imbalances; it only acknowledges them. We exist on two parallel dimensions: one where we still exist within the first machinic phylum, the other where with much struggle we pretend to have moved out of it but in reality we have not, because we consume it. As we continue to fold in and out of the creases of the past to find new folds for our future, we have come upon the third machinic phylum, the folding of technology onto the human. Here we are tearing into two separate, yet related paths: the use of mobile technologies as prosthesis, and the expansion of embedded networks, a tethered prosthesis of the human to nature, and a reversal of our embedding into the factory. Whereas a century ago Scientific Management made the human–to its detriment–more efficient for the production of profit, embedded networks, through activating nature, make it more efficient in the production of knowledge for its own sake. Embedded systems also activate architecture by folding in multiple layers of interaction between systems–the systems of the different operators of the space and the bodies occupying it. "With every tool man is perfecting his own organs, whether motor or sensory, or is removing the limits to their functioning. Motor power places gigantic forces at his disposal, which, like his muscles, he can employ in any direction… and the dwelling-house was a substitute for the mother's womb, the first lodging, for which in all likelihood man still longs, and in which he was safe and felt at ease. […] Man has, as it were, become a prosthetic god. When he puts on all his auxiliary organs he is truly magnificent; but those organs have not grown onto him and they still give him much trouble at times." –Sigmund Frued Civilization and its Discontents, 1930, pp 42-43. For sixteen years Freud suffered from the pain of a prosthetic jaw and palate, put in place as a result of cancer. His prosthesis was placed onto him, rather than, as he writes in this self-reflective piece, "grown onto him." At some point, the heterogeneities of human and technology, having switched forces repeatedly over time, eventually find equilibrium. This will be the fourth machinic phylum: the folding of technology and human into each other. This is the point where technology is no longer a prosthetic, where metaphors of architecture as prosthesis for nature or body no longer hold true. This is when, as Arakawa and Gins arrive at, that we become Architectural Bodies, a reconfiguration of the organism-person-surround. We are, however, debilitated through our own history and stopped dead in our tracks. Archaic notions of beauty, narrow views on gender, misconceptions of race, and misunderstandings of philosophies of existence, must be re-evaluated through a process of unfolding, meaning that every scenario should be allowed to play out in order to evaluate its effects on our progress: every idea of beauty, every variation on gender; every identification and valuation of self and not others, with reference to an empirical religion. [1] Whitelaw, M., Guglielmetti, M., and Innocent, T. 2009. Strange ontologies in digital culture. Comput. Entertain. 7, 1 (Feb. 2009), 1-13. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1486508.1486512 [2] Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities. Chloé. [1st ed.] ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974. pp.51-52. [3] Pace-Jordan, Rosetta Di. “Italo Calvino's Legacy: The Constant and Consistent Vision.” World Literature Today 66, no. 3 (1992): 468-71. [4] Folding of the germinal disk and the generation of the abdominal wall. Retrieved 14/07/2009. http://www.embryology.ch/anglais/iperiodembry/delimitation01.html [5] The Folding of the Embryo. Retrieved 14/07/2009 http://www.ehd.org/movies.php?mov_id=11 and http://www.ehd.org/movies.php?mov_id=12 [6] Tentative Architectures are clothing that tentatively behave as architecture only when the need arises. The go away when no longer in need. http://cargocollective.com/xarene/Data-as-Capta http://cargocollective.com/xarene/following/xarene/Data-as-Capta Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:49:32 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 660751 (Time as elastic. This is fourth in a series of projects studying time: one, two, three, and five. It is s selection of graphics from the Data as Capta project I worked on with Dr. Johanna Drucker, available at Lulu.) Five studies of the time scale changing according to subjective experiences that affect our perception of the passage of time, such as anxiety and stamina. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-01_6_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="357" width_o="768" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-01_6_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-02_7_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="357" width_o="768" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-02_7_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-03_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="345" width_o="795" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-03_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-04_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="350" width_o="795" height_o="435" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-04_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-05_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="345" width_o="795" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-05_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-06_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="345" width_o="795" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-06_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-07_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="343" width_o="815" height_o="437" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-07_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-08_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="348" width_o="788" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-08_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-09_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="354" width_o="774" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-09_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-10_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="357" width_o="768" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-10_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-11_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="345" width_o="795" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-11_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-12_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="350" width_o="795" height_o="435" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-12_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-13_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="345" width_o="795" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-13_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-14_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="345" width_o="795" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-14_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-15_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="343" width_o="815" height_o="437" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-15_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-16_640.jpg" border="0" width="640" height="354" width_o="788" height_o="437" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-16_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/actualTime.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="171" width_o="600" height_o="171" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/actualTime_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/anxiousTime0.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="168" width_o="600" height_o="168" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/anxiousTime0_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/calendar_weightLines_03.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="535" width_o="600" height_o="535" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/calendar_weightLines_03_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/calendar_weightBoxes.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="700" width_o="600" height_o="700" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/calendar_weightBoxes_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/calendar_legend.jpg" border="0" width="163" height="200" width_o="163" height_o="200" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/calendar_legend_o.jpg" align="left" /> http://cargocollective.com/xarene/Origami-Opera http://cargocollective.com/xarene/following/xarene/Origami-Opera Mon, 27 Sep 2010 02:18:35 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 569420 in-progress The Origami Opera is a five act science-fiction opera inspired by the works of Octavia Butler and Ursula K Le Guin. It introduces the Architectural Organ, an origami-like skin. http://cargocollective.com/xarene/Mile-Marker http://cargocollective.com/xarene/following/xarene/Mile-Marker Mon, 27 Sep 2010 01:43:14 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 660620 (Time as memory. This is first in a series of projects studying time: two, three, four and five.) <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0015.jpg" border="0" width="627" height="400" width_o="627" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0015_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0020.jpg" border="0" width="551" height="400" width_o="551" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0020_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0013.jpg" border="0" width="625" height="400" width_o="625" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0013_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0014.jpg" border="0" width="614" height="400" width_o="614" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0014_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0012.jpg" border="0" width="624" height="400" width_o="624" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0012_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0016.jpg" border="0" width="624" height="400" width_o="624" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0016_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0017.jpg" border="0" width="596" height="400" width_o="596" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0017_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0018.jpg" border="0" width="632" height="400" width_o="632" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0018_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0019.jpg" border="0" width="632" height="400" width_o="632" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0019_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0011.jpg" border="0" width="609" height="400" width_o="609" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660620/SCAN0011_o.jpg" align="left" /> These sketches began during a cross-country road trip in 2001 and are the culmination of dozens of road trips around California, Nevada, and Utah since then. When I was 8, my family went on a cross country trip from Toronto to California. I have a few snapshot memories: seeing the temperature at 100 degrees at 8pm; scorpion warning signs at rest stops; and the one that has stuck with me the strongest, beyond any photograph of that road trip: the silhouette of the Grand Canyon at sunset, awash with maroon, marigold, scarlet and hot pink. I crave that view and its colors quite frequently. And so, each of these sketches invoke such memories, stronger than a photograph would. I have to work harder to remember, and that is part of the process which makes these memories stronger. Unlike a photograph, which takes a second to scan over and a split second before our mind and eyes have moved on to the next photograph, these sketches need our time and focus. They are luxurious because of the amount of time they require us to take them in. Each time I study a sketch, I mentally press for and fill in the lines with details: It must have been a flat sunrise rendering the rolling hills a mustard velvet; or a vibrant sunset drawing harsh purple shadows along the cliff; edges fading into a fog; and perhaps wildflowers creating billows of color like an impressionist painting. Yes, that's what it was, I remember now, it was each and all of those. If you have driven the roads in this book, use your memories to fill inside and outside the lines I've given; if you haven't, go for a drive--I've given you mile markers to build your future landscape memories at. Presented as a limited edition hand-bound book of 30 plates on archival paper with letterpressed introduction. $165 http://cargocollective.com/xarene/tartist http://cargocollective.com/xarene/following/xarene/tartist Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:10:21 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 596494 (Time as luxury. This is third in a series of projects studying time: one, two, four, and five.) I bake awesome tarts. All fruit and herbs are from my own garden and my neighbours' and friends' gardens around Los Angeles. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Fig-1th.jpg" border="0" width="200" height="133" width_o="200" height_o="133" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Fig-1th_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Nectarine-1th.jpg" border="0" width="200" height="133" width_o="200" height_o="133" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Nectarine-1th_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Pear-1th.jpg" border="0" width="200" height="133" width_o="200" height_o="133" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Pear-1th_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Peach-1th.jpg" border="0" width="200" height="133" width_o="200" height_o="133" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Peach-1th_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Apple-1th.jpg" border="0" width="200" height="133" width_o="200" height_o="133" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Apple-1th_o.jpg" align="left" /> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Lemon-1th.jpg" border="0" width="200" height="133" width_o="200" height_o="133" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/596494/Lemon-1th_o.jpg" align="left" /> This venture is less a baking business and more about the ritual of preparation and serving of a tart. The current cupcake craze is removed from the process of leisurely enjoying a baked good: two or three quick bites on the move and they are gone. The tart on the other hand requires time, and presentation of the fruit as well as the tart itself. The order and method of layering the fruit and the selection of stands to display the arrangement require more thought and time. Then there is the ritual of serving a tart: the hesitation of cutting through a beautiful object, the care in not crumbling the crust, the utensil for serving and plating the piece. This is followed by the eating of the tart, which also requires a plate and a utensil so the delicate crust does not fall apart, and before divulging and tearing it apart, one visually takes in the piece. All these steps, the ritual, extend the time of the experience, making the act of having a dessert, a luxurious one. Photography by Christopher O'Leary. http://cargocollective.com/xarene/Prana http://cargocollective.com/xarene/following/xarene/Prana Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:19:21 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 573227 "Bites the germs off your hands!" Soap design for kids. The more they wash their hands, the more fish skeleton is revealed! The form of the soap is designed from play-doh molds of hand impressions from little boys, age 5 and 7. soap, foam rubber. http://cargocollective.com/xarene/Halcyon http://cargocollective.com/xarene/following/xarene/Halcyon Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:19:15 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 573208 Unbuilt Old project from 1999 and the days I worked in architecture and interior design: Interior design for unbuilt 208' private vessel. PDF shows concept sketches and model for a guest stateroom. Some ideas not shown in document: _Main Salon houses an etched glass panel with GPS tracking indicating location of yacht in real-time. _Water installation in form of a thermometer showing water depth at current location. _Multiple designs for hidden, pop-up and space-saving storage units, gadgets, etc. Download Halcyon. http://cargocollective.com/xarene/Rube http://cargocollective.com/xarene/following/xarene/Rube Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:23:51 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 573233 (double-click to play) Rube is self-watering plant unit. Dry soil (lack of resistance) triggers a muscle wire which in turns moves the plant. The movement, picked up by a sensor, triggers the water pump which dampens the soil and stops the motion. Process repeats as necessary. You'll never need to remember to water again; your plants will do it on their own!