This stasis is preparation
[Image: Fort Bourtange, a Dutch star fort].Just a quick apology for the lack of posts recently; I'm feeling a tad overwhelmed on the work side of things.
However, there is some awesome material in store for you, if you're patient, including some of the best interviews on the site yet. These include conversations with Ole Bouman, Jeffrey Inaba, Mark Wigley, and Academy Award-winning film editor and sound mixer Walter Murch, all ready to go up in about a week.
There are then three other interviews I'm in the process of setting up: one is with an urban explorer whose photographs of drains and sewers seem to defy topological analysis; another is with one of today's most exciting and ecologically adventurous science fiction novelists; and yet one more is with a writer, here in LA, who explores human cognition and the psychological effects of "extreme landscapes." And even that's in addition to an interview I'm still transcribing, with an architecture firm based in Boston...
So new stuff is, in fact, on the way.
[Image: The plan of a star fort].Even better, there's another BLDGBLOG event coming up, this time in San Francisco – with a line-up that makes me laugh just thinking about it, it's so good. So expect an enthusiastic announcement about that soon. Then there's an event in NYC, still to be 100% confirmed, involving myself, Subtopia, and Pruned.
Finally, there's the Silver Lake Film Festival, here in Los Angeles, where Materials & Applications and I have put together a panel discussion on architecture and film, featuring four of the most ridiculously talented concept artists and set designers working in Hollywood today – but more about that soon.
All of which is my way of saying: I've been too busy to post anything but photographs this week, but that should change soon enough.
If you're desperate for new material, however, I've got articles, at least as far as I'm aware, in the new issue of Domus (#901), on earthquakes; in the new issue of The Next American City (#14), on surveillance and cinema; and in the new issue of Blend, on the architectural designs of NaJa & deOstos and the future of sky burial. So if you need something to read, feel free to pick up a copy.
Actually, one more thing, since I want to terrify myself – I can hardly sleep because of deadlines: I'm also writing a chapter for a new book, focusing on military simulations and the city of Los Angeles, with a particular emphasis on videogames and virtual reality. So if you have something to say about that, please let me know...
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9 Comments:
(channeling Donny Rumsfeld momentarily) "Oh my GOODNESS, but that's a lot of work".
In full seriousness, what is it that you do for a living such that you can even _think_ about these projects much less plan and actually execute them in your 'spare time'?
Are you a denizen of Hugh Everett's multi-verse, capable of bi-locating as easily as an ordinary human might, say, look at a picture on BLDGBLOG and go "Oooh...Aaahh"?
I auto-mummify. In public.
It's a full-time job.
Military simulations and Los Angeles? That's kind of vague. Do you mean in the way of thematic convergences, or more literally, as in when Los Angeles was a militarized defense city during World War II? From a historical perspective (my default one), there is a lot that could mean.
Very excited you're coming to SF. What's the lineup? a hint even?
Hi Geoff,
you've probably seen this before, but just in case, there you have it.
Found it at BibliOdyssey.
Nice - thanks, xenmate. Hadn't seen those star forts in particular. There's another cool one featured in an earlier BLDGBLOG post (scroll down).
And I should be announcing the San Francisco event by Monday or so. Maybe Tueday/Wednesday. But hold tight! It'll be good. I'm excited.
And hey, max. I mean both - although my focus in more on the literal side. I just felt like mentioning it, is all.
But if you know anyone running combat simulations in LA... tell them to get in touch!
My focus is more on the literal side, that should say.
I've actually done some research on that subject. In Los Angeles, there was a strange carry-over of militaristic ideals from the center-of-defense age of WWII to the post-war center-of-tourism and amusement era. You can find military ideals and promotion expressed in the archives of many of the city's post-war park and entertainment projects, even seemingly innocuous ones, like the Travel Town Museum in Burbank.
This may only be tangentially related, but I highly recommend the film "He Walked By Night," which showcases the paranoid seige mentality of that era in LA, especially when contrasted with noir films set in other cities (such as "Naked City," set in New York).
Hey max - Cool. Thanks for the tips. I'm focusing more on literal simulations - so less of this and more of this - but I'll look into the stuff you've mentioned (Travel Town, etc). It's a fascinating and weird field, I have to say.
Wish me luck!
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