talk20: Instant Replay

Well, if you came out to talk20 last night – thanks! It was great.


I figured if any attendees were looking for more info about the things that came up, I should do a quick – though almost absurdly link-intensive – summary here... which may or may not be useful.
So: here's the abandoned island off Japan that both Herman Mao and I talked about – including this amazing gallery of black and white photography.
The Helicopter Archipelago, then, designed with Leah Beeferman, takes flight here – where you'll also find information about the Maunsell Towers –


– which were extensively explored and written up by the lads at Underground Kent.
Those tectonic maps of North America are by Ron Blakey. His timeline of paleogeographic evolution makes the brain reel.
Meanwhile, Geoff Shearcroft's mouse with a house on its back –


– can be gazed upon lovingly here; Mr. Shearcroft is co-founder of the Agents of Change, a London-based architecture firm also responsible for these projects. And if you're into the genetically modified architecture thing – as explored by Ferda Kolatan last night, with his carrots – you might like these cloned motorways.
That self-unfolding house was by Andrew Maynard. Click around and see what else he's done – or read this interview with him, on Archinect.
Here are the silver blimp hotels, the water-drop printer (blasting Hitchcock films over Niagara Falls), the shadow billboard, and the gigantic, circular storm cells.
And... the food landscapes, of course, which were featured earlier on BLDGBLOG here and here.
Then there were the unstoppable, sewer-boating nutters of International Urban Glow – apparently run by a guy called Siologen. More info, and images, can be found here and especially here, that latter link being a personal favorite of mine – and an excuse to mention my novel, which is partially set in such subterranean locations. If you like all things underground, meanwhile, check out Sleepy City; the subterranean bunker cities of middle England; and Japan's secret sub-Tokyo of tunnels – the latter post having been plagiarized, along with several other BLDGBLOG posts – even BLDGBLOG's tagline – by a guy in Dubai.


If you liked the David Maisel images – and they're hard to dislike – check out this lengthy interview with him on Archinect. David's own website is totally amazing, however, so be sure to stop by – then lobby your local museum to host his current shows.
There were also the Bangladeshi shipbreaking yards, including some speculation about how to dismantle Gothic cathedrals, football stadiums, etc., on the beaches of equatorial archipelagos. The photos were by the terrifically great Edward Burtynsky.
And I didn't talk about this, but I should have: extruding cathedrals directly from the earth using magma from volcanic vents.
Finally, the J.G. Ballard material, about a flooded London, can be found here, where you'll discover "a nightmare world of competing organic forms returning rapidly to their Paleozoic past." The images, below, are by Bernhard Edmaier.


More J.G. Ballard here. And, speaking of London: what would its foundations sound like if you could listen to the city through headphones?
There was also James Bond: how to weaponize plate tectonics – with Grace Jones in tow.
After the event, I talked to a guy who was reading Suketu Mehta's Maximum City, a book which pops up in this post. And if you're still looking for more – which you probably aren't, frankly – there's this post, which acts as a nearly exhaustive, and certainly exhausting, narrative table of contents for BLDGBLOG. Have fun, keep in touch, see you next time – and a huge thanks to Alejandro and Benjamin for setting it all up. And to Detlef, who apparently supplied the wine and who keeps the ideas flowing – thanks!