zaterdag

LEARNING 2012

Where does it happen? What link should we follow. Off course we want to learn in the approaching year, but how and where?

Without any idea about the quality of the online schools.
For a start here some links. We will extend and specify this article later.

The Floating University

The Floating University























Open Culture

Open Culture







The Khan Academy

The Kahn Academy

donderdag

IT DAZZLES

British artist Norman Wilkinson Nature thought of how in evolution camouflage helped to hide from predators. 
He proposed to apply this 'technique' to warships at sea. 
In the seventies a small book appeared in which these boats and the designs were shown.
[at the bottom of this article there's also a film on this subject]

Lately I saw some designs that reminded me of Dazzle Painting. Here some examples...

First there is the classic first appearance. To see more look at Dazzle Painting 


























Then, all of a sudden there is Tobias Rehberger.

This picture comes from Ventilate and shows Rehbergers work for the Setouchi Art Festival / Japan
























Finally there is Boris Banozic. He designed the Stuttgart Flight Simulation Centre.

Boris Banozic is an architect and a scenographer [which is sort of obvious] 

Browsing through his work, I noticed quite some work we know now as quite iconic.



















Here is a design for a stage in Berlin's Jewish Museum

























For desert a cute film on the exhibition of Dazzle Painting in Glasgow's Riverside Museum


zaterdag

SONARSOUNDS 4 CHRISTMAS

Old already but a delight to watch whenever...


Sonar from Renaud Hallée on Vimeo.
The man, the maker: Renaud Hallee

donderdag

THORSTEN BRINKMANN

Once again German artist Thorsten Brinkmann  

German born artist Thorsten Brinkmann moves between painting, photography, sculpture, readymades, collage and performance.

Thorsten Brinkmann (Herne, 1971) is an active collector. In his hometown of Hamburg, he has a large shed completely filled with found objects. Everything you can find at the flea market, you also collect Thorsten Brinkmann at: discarded wardrobes, lamp shades, tables, rugs and more. From this series he draws freely in installations, sculptures, videos and photos.

The photographic self-portraits dresses and masks Thorsten Brinkmann is always another way. One time he pulls secondhand clothes over his head. Other times he hides his face in a flowerpot or lampshade. Using the items from his collection molds Brinkmann each his own body into a new representation of himself.

[Some Dutch tekst hier]

IDEAS TO LIVE BY

At The School of Life all is possible, courses, holidays, 'bibliotherapy', meals, sermons, events and psychotherapy. There's also a shop and ist here that they sell Aphorisms [a set of cards or posters with a clever text, a bit à la Dutch Loesje















The course bear agreeable names like:
How To Be Cool?
How To Have Better Conversations.
How To Find A Job You Love.
How To Spend Time Alone.
How to be a good friend.

maandag

INSPIRATION VS IMITATION

Jessica Hische does an interesting blog and writes some interesting stuff on designing and 'good manners' Especially her article 'inspiration vs imitation' in which she sets up some rules on how and why.

A funny example of Jessica's work

donderdag

A STUDENTS BLOGS ABOUT HIS STUDIES

Now it's possible to follow academic studies online. It also invites to blog about your study and, more over, challenges you to make the most of it.
Mister Larvecode does and leaves his notes on Tumblr. Inspiring and intriguing...


Here's the link: http://larvecode.tumblr.com/

GARDENING [5] BAWA

Together the Sri Lankan Bawa brothers put 'tropical retreat' design on the map. The brothers, Bevis and Geoffrey left their mark in Sri Lanka, where they originated, but also on Bali and the other beautifully beached HOT spots, from Bali to Bermuda.
Bevis was the gardener, Geoffrey the architect. His biggest achievement in worldly architecture probably being his Houses of Parliament in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka.
But what the two of them together are really responsible for is the mark they put on tropical retreats.
The design of world famous hotels like the Balinese Amandari or the private housing compound of Taman Mertasari were all based on their invention of monsoon leisure.
The Taman Mertasari I visited mid nineties, was initiated by Brent Hesselyn and partners.  Brent was an Australian who ran the ceramic factory Jengala. [I say ran, because he was lost at sea in 2002] 
Geoffrey Bawa (1919-2003) is far better known than his brother. After training in England to be a lawyer, he turned to architecture. He designed the island’s Parliament complex as well as many other public buildings but made his reputation with his hotels, like the mile-long Heritance Kandalama outside of Dambulla, which seems to grow out of the jungle, and the Jetwing Lighthouse in the coastal city of Galle. Geoffrey’s practice of combining native materials with international modernist style has become hugely influential around the world.
Geoffrey began his garden, called Lunuganga, in  the late 1940s. Sited on a former rubber plantation, its main feature is a large lake at the bottom of a steep hill. The English landscape movement heavily influenced his plan. Wide swathes of lawn stretch toward the lake from the original house (now a hotel), dotted with Frisian cows (Geoffrey loved black and white everywhere and adored Dalmatian dogs), water gardens, and miniature rice paddies. A crenelated folly, prettily painted guest bungalows, and artfully placed statuary add to the English feel.
Geoffrey had no doubts about the relationship between a designer and his garden. His philosophy was dedicated to the notion of man’s domination over nature; he moved water, hills, and trees without hesitation. “The long view to the south ended with the temple,” Geoffrey wrote, “but in the middle distance was a ridge with a splendid ancient moonamal tree, and when I placed a large Chinese jar under it, the hand of man was established in this middle distance.” Yet Geoffrey’s genius was to create a landscape so naturalistic that it could hardly be identified as man-made. Ondaatje tells the story of a visitor to Lunuganga exclaiming, “But Mr. Bawa, wouldn’t this be a lovely place to turn into a garden?” Geoffrey said this was the best compliment he ever received.

Bevis Bawa (1909-1992) used his skills on gardening in, what he called; Brief Garden. Named Brief Garden because his father purchased the land after a successful legal brief, Bevis’ garden is farther inland than his brother’s, and though it embraces the same tropical landscape, it reflects Bevis’ unruly temperament and casual approach to life.

Bevis
Ten years older than Geoffrey and handsome at 6 feet 7 inches, Bevis volunteered for the Ceylon Light Infantry, serving until his artistic pursuits and his garden won the day. He is described in my guidebook as a “bon vivant” a careful euphemism. Openly gay (the garden is full of statues with huge male organs and gargoyles with saucy expressions, some of them made by Bevis), he gave wild parties at his house, which provided many alcoves and nooks for trysting purposes. One visitor, Australian artist Donald Friend, came for a few days and stayed nearly six years, contributing greatly to the collection of homoerotic art.
Bevis started his garden (also a former rubber plantation) in 1929, almost 20 years before his brother. His design follows narrow winding pathways through dense tropical foliage, runs up and down slopes, then suddenly opens onto a staircase, a patio, a pond, or a strategically placed piece of sculpture. Walking through it one feels that Bevis somehow tamed the jungle for his purposes, but only momentarily—stray from the path and you are back in the forest.
Visiting both gardens in one day, I was struck by the variety of emotions they elicited. Bevis’ garden, which I saw first, was the wilder of the two but somehow more comforting and intimate. A drenching monsoon rain had just ended, leaving a steamy and muggy atmosphere with drops of water still trembling on the palm fronds and rivulets of rain racing across the paths like little snakes. No other tourists ventured out in such torridly humid weather, and no guide appeared to accompany me. Yet I did not feel lonely. The paths took me from vista to vista, each more breathtaking than the last. I felt I was being led by an invisible docent who told me where to stop and look or where to sit and rest. It was magical. At every turn I was aware of the giant palms and tropical plants looming overhead, ready to pounce and return to the jungle the land Bevis had so cunningly captured.
Geoffrey’s garden had the opposite effect. A guide walked me through the long landscaped vistas of paddy fields with the lake as a backdrop, through the carefully arranged clumps of trees, up Cinnamon Hill past the Frisians grazing in the meadow. At the top of the hill, I enjoyed the long view back toward the main house. Everything felt open to the sky. This garden felt almost familiar to this Englishwoman, particularly the presence of the happily grazing cows. Only occasionally did glimpses of tropical plants in the interstices of the garden remind me of where I was.
As I strolled back through Geoffrey’s elegant, controlled landscape, images of the rather more outrageous elements of Bevis’ garden flashed through my mind and I began to laugh. Later, I asked David Robson, author of Bawa: The Sri Lanka Gardens (Thames & Hudson; 2008), how he felt about the two gardens. “Brief is introspective,” he wrote to me, “a series of outdoor rooms with almost no views toward the outside. ... It is the more decorative, more eclectic of the two. … Geoffrey Bawa may have set out to create a Sri Lankan version of a European garden, but in the end he created something that owes more to Sri Lankan garden-making and landscape traditions.”
So Bevis made his garden and Geoffrey made his, and after seeing the results, even if you knew nothing about the men who made them, you could do some pretty accurate speculating about their personalities. Whatever their differences, Bevis and Geoffrey dug out two incontestable masterpieces from the rich Sri Lankan soil, producing two separately inspired gardens that belong together as a family record for generations to come.

OTHER PLACES TO SEE IN SRI-

The Royal Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, northeast of Colombo, cover 147 acres along the Mahaweli River and has allées of more than 200 species of palms, an orchid house, a giant Java fig tree, and a Victorian-style annual garden.

Geoffrey Bawa-designed hotels can be found throughout Sri Lanka.
     Kandalama in Dambulla
     Club Villa in Bentota
     Lighthouse in Galle.
     Gallery Cafe Geoffrey’s former offices, now turned into a chic restaurant, remains an enchanting example of his architectural genius.



Lunuganga fotoserie


Bawa gardens on Flickr


Bawa hotels


Travelling Bawa


Brief Garden:


Brief Garden plan

Brief Garden pictures 

Preparing A BAWA TRIP. Look at this. 7D6N In the Footsteps of Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka

TEA:
For a completely different experience, visit the town of Nuwara Eliya in the mountainous central region of the island where most colonial tea plantations were established. The town is full of English-style cottages and is a great base from which to explore the plantations (some offer tastings) and see the gorgeous spectacle of tea bushes planted in neat rows along the hillsides. 

woensdag

YSL

I will always be fascinated by YSL. His rise and, almost yearly but never actually, fall...
His master craftmanship never wavered. I found this endearing film on Another Magazine.

vrijdag

MINDMAPPING [2] JAN ROTHUIZEN [1]















Jan Rothuizen is an Amsterdam based artistI came across "his" room of Cohenwhich was a part of the 'Soft Atlas of Amsterdam' in a magazine stand on his site and discovered the project "Somewhere over the Rainbow". Here he makes a self-portrait without selfwhich consists of photographs collected from men. All pictures have been chosen because it is in some way recognizable. Not only in the present but also in elements of the past and even images which he himself recognized as possible future looks. "
In an exhibition the photographs were exhibited in chronological orderso they start forming an imaginary lifeIt begins with a baby and ends with an old man.

A good assignment for starting art students, I reckon...

LOOK: http://janrothuizen.nl/

IMPORTANT ARTEFACTS


Describing the rise and fall of a love affair, au forme d'une auction catalogthis is what  'Important Artefacts, etc.' is all about
A book, unique in its kind.

Important items ... is the description of 1332 auction lots that once belonged to (the fictionalLenore Doolanculinary editor of The New York Timesand Harold Morrismuch sought after commercial photographerThe gifts they gave eachother, the clothes they worebooks they read, CD's, knickknackstheater programs, menus, photographs, letters and printouts of e-mails they 
sent eachother, when Harold visited a distant corner of the worldIn short, all costumes and props from the drama of their love.

Because it is a tragedy, the description of all these objects emerges slowly into the story of the love between Lenore and Harold. How they each got to know eachotherhow their relationship intensifiedwhen and where the first cracks showed and finally how their relationship slowly but inevitably to broke downwith dire results in the 'sale' of all these 'Artefacts in the sale at 14 February 2009Valentines Dayat auction Strachan & Quinn.

The link to the author
: Leanne Shapton

woensdag

MOT 1 [MAN OF TALENT] ANDY MACGREGOR

Andy Macgregor, handsome model and wicked stylist in one... Always a delight to look at his website. So delectable. What I like about his work is the craftiness of it. No wonder we [the old fashioned teachers of beauty] still want students to draw, cut and paste... 

Here's Andy 

And here's a querschnitt of his work... but please go to his site and browse....







SECOND HAND IKEA


Ikea begint gebruikte items te verkopen op het web



Ikea opent advertentie pleinen voor tweedehands Ikea producten. Het idee wordt alleen in Zweden getest, maar denkt er wel over elders ook derelijke sites te beginnen.
"De tijd zal het leren. Ergens moet je beginnen, in Zweden zijn we de eerste en het voelt erg leuk", zegt Peter Agne Fold, hoofd van de Zweedse winkels Ikea's.



Volgens hem is de nieuwe site gelanceerd in verband met IKEA's inspanningen op milieu-gebied.
"In de eerste plaats, het gaat om milieuverantwoordelijkheid door de manier waarop onze producten worden gebruikt naar een iets langere termijn te tillen. Op deze manier denken we het, voor onze klanten, makkelijker te maken om hun deel van de verantwoordelijkheid voor het milieu te nemen."
Agne Berg schat dat de verkoop van gebruikte producten mettertijd zal toenemen, onafhankelijk van de investering van IKEA op dit gebied. Maar hij ziet geen risico dat nieuwe omzet wordt aangetast.
Ad Square zal geen grote inkomsten bieden aan IKEA. De leden van Ikea Family kunnen er gratis adverteren.
- In Zweden hebben we 2,3 miljoen Familieleden, dus ik denk dat een overgrote meerderheid gratis zal adverterenWe zullen er dus geen geld verdienen, zegt Agne Mountain.
Hij verwerpt de bewering dat de lancering een manier is om de controle over de tweedehands markt te verkrijgen. Evenmin heeft het te maken met een strijd te maken over de koop en verkoopsite; Iloveikea.se (nu Billyandfriends.se), volgens de Ikea baas.
Je vindt het oorspronkelijk artikel hier

dinsdag

CAPRI / CASA MALAPARTE


Villa Malaparte, Capri
On the side of the rock the stairs leading to the boat launch and swimming pier

Mid nineties, I visited Capri. Most impressive was the walk up to Casa Malaparte, journalist / writer and surprisingly architect of this house on an isolated rocky peninsula on the east coast of the island. Only accessible by foot, it takes about half an hour through pine trees and across rocky slopes. You arrive at the top of a mount from which your first glance is down on the roof and monumental stairs that lead up to it.
In short, Malaparte was exiled by Mussolini because of criticizing the Italian political situation in the pre war years. He was 'locked up' on the island of Lipari. Obviously he took inspiration from the church of annunziata, featuring a resembling set of stairs. [see picture below] First he had the house designed by Adalberto Libera, but finished it with the help of a local stone mason. Probably thus introducing some irrational elements, including the typical roof design.

villa malaparte
Arriving at far above the house

mepris18
The much photographed house also appeared in Godard’s 1963 film Le Mépris (Contempt).















 A scene from Le Mépris






The church of annunziata on Lipari
taken from the right angle the house gets this towering perspective






THINGS ORGANIZED NEATLY

Jan Heijnen* tipped me about Things Organized Neatly. A site you can visit to see daily uploads of little collections people took pictures of. You can look at it randomly or just follow the stream...

Either it be a holiday collection of souvenirs....


Or a nicely made drawing of your travel kit...


Keep us posted if you post an entry! 

Jan Heijnen is a Dutch / The Hague graphic designer doing some neat organizing on his website too...

maandag

NOT MY CHOICE


What a tremendous idea, Niet Mijn Keus [Not My Choice].
A present for someone, everyone, always a surprise, also for yourself!
Read reactions of users under this link.

In Dutch, but translated some sound like this:

-On Saturday morning there was a gentleman of Borent at the door with a mini excavator, supposed to be digging trenches for sewers. Hired for one day, but not my choice. My son (12) and I took it for a ride. On fallow land, we built a sand castle. Certainly two meters high, surrounded by a deep moat. Gasoline turned out not to be included, but it was worth the fun. Thanks!

Or

-Got 10 lobsters, but what to do now? Keeping them in the bathtub until I know what to make of it.



dinsdag

WAYS OF SEEING / JOHN BERGER

The other day, I was reorganizing my books. It seems the books I own longest are still my treasures and some later aquisitions could be disposed of rather easely. 
I rearranged my collection and first of all I put all books together that I keep for their images, not their text. One wonders how their could ever be a world without books. Art history for instance: I can't imagine you can compare on a computer screen? 
My second catagory are books I find teaching treasures. I only have to look at the book to know how I can use its content in my teachings. John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing” is one of my favorites. An in depth look on art, the way people view it and the influences that traditional oil painting has had on society and modern day publicity. The beginning of the book goes into the issue of how people now look at art versus how people in the past look at art and how reproduction has effected this.  The relationship between social status and the subjects of oil painting, particularly the female nude is discussed as well. Berger turns to modern day and explains the role that publicity takes in our daily lives and how it is modeled after the traditional oil painting of the past. It's all there. 

Now in YouTube's era, I thought I'ld give it a go and yes, someone has taken the trouble to upload it all. 
Thanks manwithaplan999
He has also shows later series of Ways Of Seeing.

 

Episode one

 

Episode two

  

Episode three

  

Episode four