Visual Studies Animation

I can cross Adobe AfterEffects off my list of programs to learn! The program is actually a lot of fun to work with. It allows for a great deal of flexibility, as long as you have your primary footage or renderings. The idea of this assignment was to chronicle the understanding and process of reappropriation that our objects (my helmet, look below) underwent.
Here's what I did. Enjoy!

Music: Lebanese Blonde - Thievery Corporation

Revisiting the Module

We're finally developing the form and programmatic spaces within our project, with just two weeks till the final critique. I'm going to allow my triangulated octahedron module to inform the form and structure of the spaces I create. That being said, it's going to be hard to re-appropriate it within the context of the new project, but I'm working on it. The octahedron is a really versatile, flexible and deceivingly simple shape to work with.

Studio - Final Project

So for the first phase of my final studio project of semester 1, I studied people interactions, dynamics and situations and represented them as notations. The idea being that a field of these notations can begin to reveal something about the site (Avery Fished Hall, Lincoln Centre NYC). It's a very abstract first step and we're only just getting into tectonics. Here's what I came up with...

Visual Studies 1

I got better at Rhino and Grasshopper

Animation Storyboard

This is a preliminary story board for an animation I'm making for Visual Studies. The idea for the movie is : line, layer, surface. The movie will hopefully take you through the aggregation of lines into curves into layered curves and finally into a surface.

Studio Project - Mid-Term Review Panel

Philadelphia?

First off, I apologize to my 1 follower for not blogging as often. I'm sorry I let you down. On that note, here's my next blog!...and since I'm at grad school (in architecture) at UPenn, I thought it would be fun to post my work on my blog in additon to writing about the safer sights and sounds that Philadelphia has to offer (at least in the parts I'm willing to venture out into). - I'm not joking.

I would like to add that the above drawing of a Helmet I own was done on Rhino (a 3D CAD program). At PennDesign, they assume that the incoming Master of Architecture students don't all have architecture backgrounds but they definitely assume that EVERYONE is proficient in Rhino. I learnt the program on Sunday and the assignment was due on Friday.

The line weights are incomplete.

The panel on the left is supplementary to my actual studio project (the helmet was just a visual studies exercise). See pictures below.

We 're-appropriated' paper cups to create a 'surface-form'. I worked on the project with one of my new friends, Pannisa Praneeprachachon. I love her name because it makes mine look tiny.

Blooming

According to the Torontoist, the High Park Blossoms are in full bloom and a sudden strong gust of wind will blow them away any day now...so run and catch a glimpse of a sight not to be missed!

Doors Open Toronto 2009 - May 23rd & 24th

Doors Open is back! I'm really looking forward to seeing the Commerce Court North ceiling again...its absolutely amazing with its gold plated and turquoise enamel coffers. A friend was telling me about a great bookstore called Swipe Books at 401 Richmond Street, another building on the Doors Open list, at the corner of Richmond St. and Spadina that seems really interesting too. I always find it difficult to navigate myself efficiently around Toronto during this weekend and so this year I will plan ahead and maybe even map out my routes... Here's a list of buildings I really want to visit this year:
1) The TD Tower's 54th Floor Penthouse design by Mies van der Rohe
2) The Commerce Court North Building - i.e. the ceiling mainly
3) The Courtyard House
4) Osgoode Hall - I really want to see this, I walk past it all the time...
5) The Runnymede Theatre - now a Chapters Bookstore, beautifully restored and maintained
6) The Canada Life Building
7) THE DESIGN EXCHANGE
8) 32 Davenport Road - Moriyama and Teshima Architects
9) The TTC Harvey Shops - where they 'fix' our lovely streetcars
10) and maybe some of the Hospitals on University Ave., especially the Princess Margaret Hospital - because it looks kinda Art Deco

http://www.toronto.ca/doorsopen/

This list is obviously not exhaustive, but it's all I can think of that gets me excited for Door Open this year. Apparently, the complete list of buildings participating in Doors Open 2009 will be published on the May 21st edition of the Toronto Star, so keep your eyes peeled.

Band of Outsiders - Fall 2009 Favs.

pictures courtesy of http://men.style.com/

March at the ROM

March is Egypt month at the ROM. The preview looks interesting although I haven't checked it out myself yet. I've always been a loyal visitor and never miss an opportunity to check out their small but exquisite collection of art deco furniture (part of their permanent exhibition).
It's hard to talk about the ROM these days and not mention that "crystal". Every time I walk by it, I am disappointed because I remember it much more complete and successful than it actually is. Nevertheless, I'm happy it's there because it acts as that little red flag on a map, pointing out the ROM amidst the hustle of Bloor Street.

At the corner of Victoria St. and Adelaide St. (near Queen Station) is this abandoned building with gorgeous little blaconies and windows. The building looks charred by a fire although I haven't been able to find any more information about it.