turn-of-the-century color

I've recently discovered the work of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, a Russian chemist and photographer who developed a technique - in the early 20th century, no less - to produce color photographs.  He used a camera that took a series of three monochrome images, using red, green and blue filters; later, these images could be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near-true color images.

Thanks to the Library of Congress (beginning in 2000), and photographer Walter Frankhauser and computer scientist Blaise Aguera y Arcas, we can now see composites of the original surviving negatives provided by Prokudin-Gorskii's heirs.  It's simply astounding...

Bashkir switchman near Ust-Katav, 1910

Mid-18 century Trinity Monastery in Tyumen, ca. 1912

Young Russian peasant woman in a rural area along the Sheksna River near the small town of Kirillov

(source - Wikimedia Commons)

MIT FAST - no lights now

The evenings during the weekends were amazing because all the special FAST lights went up.  The festival was centered on the river, and as I walked back from Boston on the Charles Bridge on Saturday night I was lucky enough to see it.  Unluckily, I didn't have my camera on me.  And on Sunday night...well, I didn't really have the energy to go out again and take pictures.  (Darn weather...had it been warmer, I probably would have gone).

Liquid Archive - floating inflatable screen providing a backdrop for projections that highlight MIT's history in science, technology, and art - by Nader Tehrani and Gediminas Urbonas.

I didn't actually witness these projections for myself, as I was sitting in my room by the time it got dark enough for the projections to begin.

MIT FAST - SOFT rockers

by Sheila Kennedy, P. Seaton, S. Rockcastle, W. Inam, A. Aolij, J. Nam, K. Bogenschutz, J. Bayless, M. Trimble

These are the most awesome rockers everywhere...they have solar panels that provide power for charging electronic devices!  I wouldn't mind having one of those in my backyard.  Actually, it doesn't even need to be solar-powered.  They are soooo comfortable to sit in.

It's too bad that the rockers were removed at the end of the weekend.  I only just discovered them last week (that part of campus is out of the way from most of my classes), and waited till the absolute last day to take pictures in it...

hello feet!  (hello iPod charger that somebody left inside....).  hello cool strip of light lining the inside of the rocker.

http://arts.mit.edu/fast/soft-rockers/

digression from ballet - MIT FAST

MIT FAST (festival of art + science + technology) - part of the MIT+150 celebrations going on this year.  Unfortunately I have done precious little FAST-related stuff as of yet (and sadly, all these cool installations will be gone when I return to school in the fall), but I walked around a bit today...to take pictures.

This structure, Unflat Pavilion by Nick Gelpi, was one of those things that I didn't really like from a distance...and then I zoomed in and really started appreciating the detail more.  So many different layers, and windows giving you different views...

There were all these little kids running around and under the structure...

don't banq on it!

(sorry, bad pun).

So it's nearing the end of yet another school year.  Only about a month left!  Which means that I need to start thinking about the traditional end-of-month arts staff bonding dinner.  Last night the thought popped up in my head (again), and this time I had an idea.  I remember seeing this really awesome restaurant during one of our tours of Boston for architecture studio class.  And didn't remember the name.  Thankfully, my friend apparently has mad googling skills.

me: ...that architecturally cool place we stopped by on one of our 4.111 tours. Gr, I don't remember what it's called. But it had all those cool undulating waves of wood or something inside? Maybe in the south end?

jenny:  i just googled "boston restaurant undulating waves" and it came up!  BANQ

yeah, unfortunately Banq closed a few years ago.  And the restaurant that came after it, Ginger Park, just closed in December.  My restaurant search continues!

Anyway, at least I can marvel over pictures of the interior (and maybe a new restaurant will open there, and we can go next year...).

Later this afternoon is my MFA day.  I'll get to finally see the Chihuly glass sculptures!  So excited.  Pictures to be posted later :)

interesting architecture tidbit of the day :)

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/guastavino-1008.html

more serpentine gallery

this time from 2008, by frank gehry.

it looks kinda like a half-built wooden roller coaster. or something.

whimsy+england red

10th serpentine gallery pavilion, jean nouvel

i'm not sure how much this red reminds me of the england that is red telephone booths, red double decker buses, and red post boxes...to me this brings to mind a fantastical fairy house. or kites and chinese dragons.  or something.

---

 When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow's form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

sonnet #43

the start of the summer holidays :)

i went in to clean up my desk on saturday.  studio was a complete disaster zone - and i thought my room was bad!  anyway, i took pictures of my last project before tearing it apart.  it was sad to do so, but at the same time it was kind of an ugly design...and not modeled so well, thanks to my inability to work with foam core.  the chipboard parts, however - not bad in my opinion.  i realized that the two pieces - the park and the studio - look better separately - so that's how i took pictures of it!

also yesterday - picked up some free t-shirts screenprinted by sadie; her blog is here.  they are pretty cool!

revelations about paper sizes (and root 2 rectangles)

today in architecture class we learned about the four important shapes of architecture - the square, the double square, the golden ratio rectangle, and the root-two rectangle.

naturally root-two rectangles captivated me; not only are they just naturally awesome, but they also gave me a bit of insight into paper sizes (now i understand!).

so to explain the basic idea of a root-two rectangle: it is a rectangle with the ratio of 1:1.414 (or, square root of 2), and its diagonal forms the angles of 35 and 55 degrees.  most interestingly, when you cut it in half it yields two similar rectangles.

this is the principle that yields the paper system used in countries that are, well, let's just say, way more practical than the united states.  yes, just like how the metric system makes SO MUCH SENSE, so does this system.  so, the standard A4 page is half the size of an A3 page, which in turn is half the size of an A2 page, which is half the size of an A1 page, which is half the size of the gigantic A0 sheet...i am still fascinated.

inspiration of the day.

washington, d.c, howeler and yoon architecture

http://www.hyarchitecture.com/

reflections on a writing space.

the project: to design a writer's studio set in a park (connected to adjacent townhouse), a place for writing plus a contrasting place for "something else," with the resulting townhouse, park, and studio giving the writer a faithful experience of "life as south enders live it."

as of now, my design is looking rather like a realistic version of an mc escher drawing.  uh oh.

my new life goal.

i think my chances of ever living in a converted firehouse, princess diaries style, are pretty slim.  so my new life goal is to live in a church. like a converted one. no, seriously, i'm sure life in a church is generally happier than the hunchback's in notre dame...

hm, unfortunately i think that both options are quite unlikely. well, one can always dream.

a space in a north london victorian church:

in kensal green, london:

in lincolnshire:

in suffolk:

in Bazel:

new media lab!

went to part of the public conference about MIT's new media lab!  Not only did I get to wander around the inside of the building, which is AMAZING, but I got to see Fumihiko Maki speak.  I was surprised to find that he is 81 years old, (yes, he was in grad school in 1953)...and he's kind of funny, too.

anyway, i'm totally planning on going there again sometime and taking lots of pictures.

arches and doorways and cool places

barcelona, santa maria del mar

basildon park (a.k.a netherfield)

lacock village

lacock abbey

as the greeks did.

as i try to think of cool architectural thoughts, maybe the greeks will inspire me.  as always, the remnants of  senior year in high school coming back to haunt me (this time, in a good way).

lions gate at mycenae

delphi

the steps to palamidi castle

more steps in palamidi castle

the last february 2010 post!

and i finished my base model.

nice scale models, huh?

btw, the weird perspective would be because i used photobooth, and not a real camera haha.

how to build a simple model

number 1 rule: make sure your mind is all there so you cut things out to scale.  instead of realizing, halfway through, that all those pieces looked wrong because you cut them twice as tall as they should have been.

...and then having to rip apart pieces of fome-core and board.  thank goodness it's just elmer's glue.

rule 2: bring food.  preferably gross health bars, since you'll be busy and more inclined to have a nice feeling in your stomach than a nice taste in your mouth, and the stuff is good for you anyway.

halfway there!