http://cargocollective.com Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar Sat, 26 Jan 2013 02:59:06 +0000 http://cargocollective.com en http://tentativearchitecture.net/Malibu-Lagoon-Revisioned http://tentativearchitecture.net/following/tentativearchitecture.net/Malibu-Lagoon-Revisioned Sat, 26 Jan 2013 02:59:06 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 4680172 In-progress. Malibu Morning 0659 to 1149. Flickr set is here. In-progress. Malibu Morning 0659 to 1149. Flickr set is here. http://tentativearchitecture.net/Weather-Reports http://tentativearchitecture.net/following/tentativearchitecture.net/Weather-Reports Sat, 26 Jan 2013 02:45:28 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 4850238 A weekly appreciation of Los Angeles through weather reports. Tune in every Monday evening. A weekly appreciation of Los Angeles through weather reports. Tune in every Monday evening. http://tentativearchitecture.net/White-Noise-and-Space-Studies-1 http://tentativearchitecture.net/following/tentativearchitecture.net/White-Noise-and-Space-Studies-1 Thu, 13 Sep 2012 19:33:10 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 3593028 All clips are stereo. Originally designed for 4-channels. Pops are intentional. This piece is a group of smaller studies nested within a larger one. The first, main study is on white noise and the range of timbres I can carve out of it. Nested within that are four studies on space. &#9835; NotChloeAnymore.mp3 &nbsp;Play An essay I read on landscape photography brought to mind the nature of space and questions on whether it pre-exists us, or comes into existence when we notice it. We have language that suggests the latter: making space, or envelopment, as though we exist and space needs to go around us. I believe in the former and attempted to study a priori spaces. I've created thickness (density), suspending in space (similar to suspending motion in video while time and space unfold), folding space (one corner to the other), and space cutting through us (decapitation!). I studied Kontakte as analyzed by Kevin Austin at Concordia, not necessarily for the quality of individual sounds but how Stockhausen used space, and time elements such as delay and stasis. There is crossing between RF and LB; criss-crossing RF-LB to LF-RB; circular motion between LF, LB and RB with singular events on RF; an event on a single channel, etc. each aimed at defining space. In a similar manner, I tried to use a combination of speakers to make my desired spaces. Thickness We tend to think of space as light, airy or void. I've chosen to assume it as a dense medium we have to pass through. I tried this by raising a low frequency rumble from L and R back, then with a delay L and R front in an attempt to create a sensation of being crushed by the density of the space. &#9835; thick01.mp3 &nbsp;Play &#9835; thick02.mp3 &nbsp;Play Folding If I take space as a surface and fold two ends together, this is what I thought I'd hear. Gary Kendall said something to the effect of what makes sense in the head, doesn't make sense on the ears. I start with a slight echo on both RF and LB to create length between the two points, then reduce the echo until the space between the two points is compressed. I move from LB to RF and end on RF. It didn't work and I don't know why. &#9835; fold01.mp3 &nbsp;Play Suspending From a previous conversation on cavitation, bubbles, gurgling etc, this is how I imagined a hole. (I used the Q8 plug-in.) I drop the frequency and swoop it back up as if being sucked in and then out of a vacuum in a bubble. It feels like being suspended in a space (void) within a space (dense). I amplify the sensation and change the size of the bubble with panning, in one instance of a smaller bubble LF to RF, and for a bigger bubble LB to RF. &#9835; suspend01.mp3 &nbsp;Play &#9835; suspend02.mp3 &nbsp;Play Whereas we are alone in the first two bubbles, in the third and last bubble I inject it with high frequencies. &#9835; suspend03.mp3 &nbsp;Play Cutting I rather like this sound and perception and would like to try more variations with different severity. The high frequency chirping pans from LF to LB/RB and is then weighted on LB creating a space that cuts through and curves back a bit, like cutting with a sickle. &#9835; cut01.mp3 &nbsp;Play I'm fascinated by ideas of dematerializing and rematerializing. We do that on a daily basis through breathing and simply by being. Every time I exhale, part of me dematerializes and then rematerializes in those around me on their inhale, and vice versa. We rotate at the speed of 1042 miles per hour plus travel around the sun and through Space at 66,600 miles an hour! This is constant dematerializing and rematerializing of our bodies with Space passing through us, and us passing through Space. This is an endless loss of body ignored by the focus on our solidity. This self-centered view is what creates an erroneous image and understanding of our environment and how it should function in relation to us. Therefore each of these spatial studies is a beginning in defining spaces that become oppressive through the realization of the magnitude of their materiality. (In hopes that the oppression leads to a sense of dissipation of our bodies.) All clips are stereo. Originally designed for 4-channels. Pops are intentional. This piece is a group of smaller studies nested within a larger one. The first,... http://tentativearchitecture.net/Salton-Sea-Revisited-1 http://tentativearchitecture.net/following/tentativearchitecture.net/Salton-Sea-Revisited-1 Wed, 29 Aug 2012 04:04:30 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 3990273 In-progress. 2009~ Use headphones. Be patient. Audio studies at end of page. Previous Salton Sea photography is here. Flickr set is here. Audio: Drawing inspiration from Jean-Claude Risset's Sud and Luc Ferrari's Presque Rien N°1, Le Lever Du Jour Au Bord La Mer, the piece begins with a dialog between the environment: the waves, the bleached barnacle beach, the train, the birds. The envelope of the composition follows the envelope of the aural activity of the day and the patterns of the birds which tend to be noisiest at dawn and dusk with a calm in mid-day. Video: The video was shot between 6 and 9am on 6 March 2012. The final version will be dawn to dusk with a 24-hour epic to follow. [On-location stereo field recordings + very minimal filtering + ProTools] Philosopher Vilem Flusser puts forward a hypothesis of two events that have changed the course of civilization: first the invention of linear type, and second, the invention of the technical image. I have added a third event: the simultaneous experience of different scales of space and time, from nano to galactic and beyond. This is not just through the technical image, but through our perceived body and the perception we have of the time and space we occupy. Being able to shift the perceived boundaries of our body is the first paradigm for becoming architectural bodies. "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." ––Albert Einstein Everything does happen at once: at every given moment almost all imaginable things are happening for billions of living beings, at once. What does not happen at once is our experience of a moment in time. Through the technical image, not only do we see different scales of space, we experience different scales of our body. Can we assume our scale has any effect in how we experience time in different space scales? Can we be experiencing time as we are now––second by second––because of our small scale in relation to the space our time is in relation to, a space in which we are very small? Can we be infinitely huge and experience all of space and its time at once? What happens to our perception of reality, of space and of self, when we are able to experience time simultaneously? The answer to these questions is what I set out to explore with my photography and video and the specific editing technique of slicing time and space to be experienced at once. The video and photography show the entire span of a day––usually from sunsight to sunclipse––being experienced at once. This simultaneous experience of time is akin to our experience of first seeing images of Earth—the sudden awe in seeing the massive scale of the whole. An aesthetic discovery of my video and photographic technique has been that insignificant moments becoming significant events. In Cinema 1: The Movement-Image, Gilles Deleuze defines every image as a set of rarefied or saturated data. Through the rarefication of the landscape by cutting it up across time and eliminating most of the information, I get a saturation of information. So the image does not hold one or the other form of data, but both. This saturation across time that is experienced at once leads to moments becoming events. What is an event but a significant moment? Events expand the moment; this expansion leads to awe; awe alters our perception of time. Time therefore becomes limitless. In a sense of limitless time, we become infinite. MIDI mapping across time slices: <img src="http://payload84.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3990273/flattened-partial-corrected_640.jpg" width="640" height="385" width_o="1920" height_o="1155" src_o="http://payload84.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3990273/flattened-partial-corrected_o.jpg" data-mid="20874988" border="0" align="left"/> 31 January 2012 &#9835; MIDI-test.mp3 &nbsp;Play Each slice of time has a corresponding audio of equal duration of 3.5 seconds. Pitch and velocity of MIDI notes are strictly subjective and based on the image mapping of birds, clouds, and water. [Stereo field recordings + Kontakt + ProTools] <img src="http://payload84.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3990273/birds_S_640.jpg" width="640" height="385" width_o="1920" height_o="1155" src_o="http://payload84.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3990273/birds_S_o.jpg" data-mid="20874975" border="0" align="left"/> Birds <img src="http://payload84.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3990273/water_S_640.jpg" width="640" height="385" width_o="1920" height_o="1155" src_o="http://payload84.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3990273/water_S_o.jpg" data-mid="20874982" border="0" align="left"/> Water <img src="http://payload84.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3990273/clouds_S_640.jpg" width="640" height="385" width_o="1920" height_o="1155" src_o="http://payload84.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3990273/clouds_S_o.jpg" data-mid="20874987" border="0" align="left"/> Clouds In-progress. 2009~ Use headphones. Be patient. Audio studies at end of page. Previous Salton Sea photography is here. Flickr set is here. Audio: Drawing... http://tentativearchitecture.net/L-incoronazione-di-Poppea http://tentativearchitecture.net/following/tentativearchitecture.net/L-incoronazione-di-Poppea Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:39:48 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 3110696 Set design for 1642 opera by Claudio Monteverdi Concept Sketches <img src="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/_Prologue_640.JPG" width="640" height="538" width_o="2048" height_o="1723" src_o="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/_Prologue_o.JPG" data-mid="15881140" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene1_640.JPG" width="640" height="544" width_o="2048" height_o="1742" src_o="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene1_o.JPG" data-mid="15881177" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene2a_640.JPG" width="640" height="544" width_o="2048" height_o="1742" src_o="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene2a_o.JPG" data-mid="15881172" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene2b_640.JPG" width="640" height="538" width_o="2048" height_o="1723" src_o="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene2b_o.JPG" data-mid="15881167" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene3a_640.JPG" width="640" height="544" width_o="2048" height_o="1742" src_o="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene3a_o.JPG" data-mid="15881164" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene3b_640.JPG" width="640" height="544" width_o="2048" height_o="1742" src_o="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene3b_o.JPG" data-mid="15881158" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene7_640.JPG" width="640" height="544" width_o="2048" height_o="1742" src_o="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act1-Scene7_o.JPG" data-mid="15881155" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act2-back_640.JPG" width="640" height="544" width_o="2048" height_o="1742" src_o="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act2-back_o.JPG" data-mid="15881152" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act2-front_640.JPG" width="640" height="538" width_o="2048" height_o="1723" src_o="http://payload40.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/3110696/Act2-front_o.JPG" data-mid="15881144" border="0" align="left"/> Set design for 1642 opera by Claudio Monteverdi Concept Sketches http://tentativearchitecture.net/Deterritorializing-Detroit http://tentativearchitecture.net/following/tentativearchitecture.net/Deterritorializing-Detroit Sun, 22 May 2011 20:16:57 +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 administration and core staff, maintenance, security, etc. to help start the Center. 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. Deterritorializing Detroit: Fragmenting Architecture to Fuse Community A proposal for reorganizing current community center models by fragmenting and dispersing... http://tentativearchitecture.net/Sand-Collection http://tentativearchitecture.net/following/tentativearchitecture.net/Sand-Collection Sun, 22 May 2011 19:39:53 +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" width="600" height="400" width_o="600" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0819_o.jpg" data-mid="7238263" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0831.jpg" width="600" height="400" width_o="600" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0831_o.jpg" data-mid="7238259" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0821.jpg" width="600" height="400" width_o="600" height_o="400" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0821_o.jpg" data-mid="7238264" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1482815/_MG_0812-full.jpg" 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" data-mid="7242700" border="0" align="left"/> (Time as place. This is ongoing in a series of projects studying time: one, two, three, and four.) http://tentativearchitecture.net/Architectural-Organ-I-Skin http://tentativearchitecture.net/following/tentativearchitecture.net/Architectural-Organ-I-Skin Mon, 16 May 2011 16:10:38 +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 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" 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" data-mid="7086498" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/_MG_3187_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="1296" height_o="1944" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/_MG_3187_o.jpg" data-mid="22606058" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/_MG_3176_640.jpg" width="640" height="427" width_o="1944" height_o="1296" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/_MG_3176_o.jpg" data-mid="22606068" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/_MG_3167_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="1296" height_o="1944" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/_MG_3167_o.jpg" data-mid="22606075" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/_MG_3158_640.jpg" width="640" height="960" width_o="1296" height_o="1944" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/_MG_3158_o.jpg" data-mid="22606082" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/_MG_3142_640.jpg" width="640" height="427" width_o="1944" height_o="1296" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/1452928/_MG_3142_o.jpg" data-mid="22606101" border="0" 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? “The machinic phylum is materiality, natural or artificial, and both simultaneously; it is matter in movement, in flux, in variation […]” –Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, "A Thousand Plateaus," p. 409. Here, the machinic will be the synthesis of the heterogeneities of the organic (human) and inorganic (literally, the machines of industrialization) into a new entity, a new human. (in-progress) 
Industrial Ecology to Social Ecology to Anarchic Ecology Through the emergence of machinic phyla, 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 labor 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, or 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 the welfare of the worker: 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––an open-ended entity of potentialities of human and technology (or for Arakawa and Gins, human and architecture) possible through full responsibility of one’s being, revision and reinvention. We are, however, debilitated through our own hylomorphic history where responsibility of self is systematically stripped. If we are to follow through with Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the machinic phylum, its potentialities are possible not by outside forces, but by the nature of the heterogeneities of the phylum. To drive this non-holymorphic concept, they devise the artisan theory of metallurgical production, where the blacksmith ‘teases out’ form rather than imposing form on the metal. Similarly, blocking us are archaic notions of beauty, narrow views on gender, misconceptions of race, and misunderstandings of philosophies of existence, which are all external forces, usually divine and transcendental, that are forced upon our bodies. These ideas 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. Assuming the obstacles have been overcome, that we are in a world where the political body is obsolete, what will become of government, society, urbanism, the body? How do we come to define the concepts of generalities, organizations, striations, and control in order to move towards the obsolete? In an irrational world, should the making and envisioning of a new world be a rational process? Will a purely aesthetic philosophy provide the answer towards a vision? The organ is a metaphor. (On how many of our organs do we have control, and how much on those we believe we are in control of?) The architectural organ is therefore a thought experiment with intent: What do we keep and what do we relinquish if we wanted to take such evolutionary route? [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] Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, "A Thousand Plateaus," p. 409. [7] Sigmund Frued Civilization and its Discontents, 1930, pp 42-43. [8] Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins, Architectural Body, 2002. [9] Tentative Architectures are clothing that tentatively behave as architecture only when the need arises. The go away when no longer in need. Exhibited at: Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibits (LACE), 2011 Istanbul Modern, 1st Istanbul Design Biennial, 2012 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... http://tentativearchitecture.net/Data-as-Capta http://tentativearchitecture.net/following/tentativearchitecture.net/Data-as-Capta Sun, 26 Sep 2010 23:49:32 +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 a 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 the narrative particular to these graphs, the anxiety and stamina of a royal courier delivering an important message across Europe, on horseback. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-01_6_640.jpg" width="640" height="358" width_o="768" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-01_6_o.jpg" data-mid="3087011" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-02_7_640.jpg" width="640" height="358" width_o="768" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-02_7_o.jpg" data-mid="3087015" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-03_640.jpg" 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" data-mid="3087018" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-04_640.jpg" 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" data-mid="3087021" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-05_640.jpg" 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" data-mid="3087025" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-06_640.jpg" 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" data-mid="3087029" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-07_640.jpg" 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" data-mid="3087034" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/a_graphs-08_640.jpg" 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" data-mid="3087038" border="0" align="left"/> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-09_640.jpg" width="640" height="355" width_o="774" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-09_o.jpg" data-mid="3087057" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-10_640.jpg" width="640" height="358" width_o="768" height_o="429" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-10_o.jpg" data-mid="3087062" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-11_640.jpg" 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" data-mid="3087064" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-12_640.jpg" 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" data-mid="3087069" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-13_640.jpg" 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" data-mid="3087076" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-14_640.jpg" 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" data-mid="3087078" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-15_640.jpg" 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" data-mid="3087080" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-16_640.jpg" width="640" height="355" width_o="788" height_o="437" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/s_graphs-16_o.jpg" data-mid="3087082" border="0" align="left"/> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/actualTime.jpg" width="600" height="171" width_o="600" height_o="171" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/actualTime_o.jpg" data-mid="3085934" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/anxiousTime0.jpg" width="600" height="168" width_o="600" height_o="168" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/anxiousTime0_o.jpg" data-mid="3085935" border="0" align="left"/> <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/calendar_weightLines_03.jpg" 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" data-mid="3085939" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/calendar_weightBoxes.jpg" width="600" height="700" width_o="600" height_o="700" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/calendar_weightBoxes_o.jpg" data-mid="3085938" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/calendar_legend.jpg" width="163" height="200" width_o="163" height_o="200" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/13116/660751/calendar_legend_o.jpg" data-mid="3085936" border="0" align="left"/> (Time as elastic. This is fourth in a series of projects studying time: one, two, three, and five. It is a selection of graphics from the Data as Capta project I... http://tentativearchitecture.net/Origami-Opera http://tentativearchitecture.net/following/tentativearchitecture.net/Origami-Opera Sun, 26 Sep 2010 21:18:35 +0000 Tentative Architectures – Xárene Eskandar 569420 in-progress The Origami Opera is a 2-act science-fiction opera in 5 scenes inspired by the works of Octavia Butler and Ursula K Le Guin. It introduces the Architectural Organ, an origami-like skin. in-progress The Origami Opera is a 2-act science-fiction opera in 5 scenes inspired by the works of Octavia Butler and Ursula K Le Guin. It introduces the...