Schedules? Schedules? and more updates and info.

Thesis folks,

I want to forward some information to you guys, you should by now have received an email from Kate detailing the submission of your papers and what not to blackboard.

Evidently our group is the only group really up on the blogging (am i surprised?) So please post, whatever she is asking of you to post to Blackboard to your blogs for our review.

In addition I'll take this key moment to remind you that it was agreed that schedules of next semester would be posted to you blogs by this Monday past. So, as finals come to a close, let see get those schedules posted.

Additionally after meeting with John and Lisa last night and today Kate and Sneha and the rest of the thesis advisers it is clear that all of thesis needs - no - must keep moving forward and plugging holes and polishing your work over break. As I've pointed out before we have limited time that will quickly get sucked away from us.

You've got work to do over break like it or not - the last bit of research, double checking your paper, rewriting your thesis statement to reflect the current state of affairs, i could name more possibilities, but you know them and for each of you it is different. The thing to remember is that we cannot afford to stop, we can slow up and reflect, and use that to move ahead but we cannot stop.

I'll be emailing you more information, blogging some responses post finals grading, and looking for those promised schedules - while I'm at it maybe I'll put up a festive background - i know you can't wait.

This email will, of course, be up on the blog in a short while.

-A

Keep the updates rolling

Everyone,

Our meeting Monday I think was on average good. We're not yet great but you guys are slowly eeking out a way of working with yourselves, your project and us advisers that feel is working.

To me the trick remains consistency in your progress and your work and your communications. Leaving everything for the Sunday posting can work, but so far I think the process is flowing much better when you guys are constantly making yourselves thinking about the project in words, images, and other descriptions that you are sharing with each other and with us.

To that effect i'm very pleased to see not only yourselves commenting on your work but that you are sharing it with an even wider audience.

The only thing we didn't talk much about this week was the schedule, so please be advised that I will be interested in your proposed calendars for the rest of the semester into next semester when we meet this Monday.

Keep on rollin'.

-A

full intergration

Interview on Lebbeus Woods' scab-itecture.

Assignment summary

Thesis-ers I heard through the grapevine that you have an assigment due for thesis prep. tomorrow.

Why not post it for us too?

of course add the disclaimer that it's for prep. but I think it would be good for us to have an idea of what you are doing there as well.

I'm only asking this thinking that you probably typing it up and therefore it only takes 5 minutes to post it up on the blog to.

If it's more time than that please disregard this.

For those who have updated so far it's been really helpful and I hope the comments back are helpful as well.

For those who haven't yet posted either summarizing statements or a thesis statement. I would ask that you take 20 minutes and post some info. it will allow us to better prep over the weekend.


As I said all the work i've seen has been very good, so thank you for that!

-A

American Monuments Book

Listed here on Amazon

"Monuments, America's History in Art and Memory."
The book has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

included studies of DC, Philly, Gettysburg.

I will be getting a copy from Borders or Fox Books in the next week.

http://www.behance.net/Gallery/energie-in-motion/42738

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/like-1980s-golf-resorts.html

Last Night's Summary

By now I've posted comments back to almost all the students to reflect my comments and additional thoughts from last night.

I would still encourage all students to post, *very soon* a brief account of what you got out of last night, what was valuable etc.

My understanding from the conversation last night we also agreed the following updates are important for progress and discussion next week:

1. A thesis statement: to appear on the blog, which will continued to be worked, reworked and adapted as progress continues. This should describe the general goals or premise that is the driving force instigating the research, site, program or method of study (as it pertains to each individual's project)
   
2. Outline Schedule: a rough draft of when you want to have elements nailed down, when case studies should be wrapped up by, when site visits are occurring, when you would like to meet with an adviser by or get comments back on topics. All currently directed towards the non-moving deadline of the presentation weekend. (ideally I think we may want a dry run of these the week before??)
3. Weekend Update: the 3PM Sunday deadline really helped all us advisers to be check your work and hit the ground running, this will be the standard for the rest of the course. (just because the deadline is Sunday doesn't mean you can't post ideas/questions/pictures/analysis earlier)

Overall last night, I think you have picked up momentum from the previous weeks, and I want to make sure that we keep picking up momentum. Some of you have very important contacts to be made and preliminary information that is still not gathered - please follow up on these. As you well know the schedule is tight and you can't afford to wait.

Keep it up!

terms are important

NPr story on naming countries

Concerns about YOUR thesis, yes YOU.

Ok Students -

I'm not speaking for the other two advisers, but I for one am disappointed in the amount and quality of the work so far...or at least lack thereof. The following is the unabashed update of what I'm thinking, and keep thinking about as I re-read your old blog posts...wondering what we're going to talk about this Monday evening.

Introduction:

I've been eagerly awaiting info from you guys this week, because your 'busy' I haven't seen updates till later in the week.

Ok. I get it. Alright, but now jury is well over, and I'm finally getting dribbles of information here.

I don't know about you but man I am excited to be doing this, I've got all these resources I want to give out, I've got all these photos that I took for you guys while I was away. I think there are so many interesting things that we could start having conversations about.

So I left our meeting last week pumped, pumped that we were going to get these things going, off the ground make some progress.

But h'm not seeing a whole heck of alot of progress on the blogs, I haven't gotten any emails from anyone, I haven't had a request for information, no questions....and it's leaving me wondering.

What's going on?
Are they checking stuff out?
Are they not checking stuff out?

I'm looking back at last week's meeting in my memory, thinking about everything we talked about...and I'm realizing - "we" was mostly John, Lisa, and I.

And the "talking" was between the advisers. Now I'm reading over Kate Wingert's papers here, and I'm reminded that the whole reason we are doing this version of the process is to have discussion amoungst you guys.

I left our little discussion a bit horse, out of words...and not feeling like we made tons of progress.

Frankly, students, it a little upsetting as I start going over my notes and typing and I'm realizing that I have more input, resources, and am posting more information about your thesis than you are.

That is really concerning for me.

---------------------------------
Context:

Ok so that's we're h'm coming from. Now Cut to last night's email from John, when the light turned on in my head...

Check this out:

next week will be week 11 of the semester

Whoa! Did you just say whoa? you should have.

11 weeks in and that was the kind of discussion we were having...I was saying things like "you should really check out so-and-so".....this is week 11! There is some serious effort that needs to be put forth here.

Now cut back to me looking through the blogs...coming up with either condensed notes from our last meeting (almost 2 weeks ago) or pictures and links copied and pasted from the web.

----------------------------------
Research & Development:

What about your own pictures? Your own thoughts? Any serious explorations of some definitions? Some pictures of work? Some bibliographical info? Some distilled thoughts? some meaningful quotations?

There's some .

But then I think to myself...week 11 and this is it!?!?

This is your thesis, your architectural baby, this is your thing and from what I've got that I can see there ain't much going on with it.

I mean, when you've got John concerned, I'd take that as a signal that you need to get moving.

What are you doing this weekend?

The answer should be "I'm doing a heck of alot of work on my thesis" and when I say that I mean real tangible work that you can bring along and show to everyone so we can discuss it not just have the advisers talk about 'potentials'

You guys have some high quality potential...but that isn't going to get you much traction unless you start turning it into something.


---------------------------------------
Issues:

Here are my concerns:

1.) Lack of discussion, mutual involvement, and communication with each other's work
2.) Lack of a schedule, for setting deadlines, laying out discussions, etc.
3.) Lack of updates, especially ones with student-generated content. - without these I'm like a horse with blinders on, how can I be a good advisor when I don't know what your up to?

My concerns stem from a lack of a basic setup for what you know you need to do to go forward, make progress, and keep us advisers updated so we can be useful.

Personally, I'm less interested in talking about your topic at the moment unti you show me that you have an idea about how your going about getting this done. Week 11 guys! You can't afford to have a meeting like the one we had last week.

Ask yourself

What are my big issues?
What discussions/information/feedback do I need to move ahead on these issues?
What should i bring to the meeting that will fascilitate the needed discussion?
When would I like to have a decision made about issue x, y, and z?

Grab some paper, make a calendar write a list, post it on your blog!

--------------------------
Conclusion:

Perhaps, you may think this email has not shed proper light on your current situation with your thesis. Well, currently it shows my understanding of where your project is right now and I challenge you to proove me wrong on Monday.

PLEASE proove me wrong on monday.

Come with things you want to talk about.

Come with content.

Update us ahead of time.

Because I certainly don't want to be prooven correct.

I signed up for this because the best part about teaching is working with students on the stuff they find the most interesting, and thesis is best place to do do that.

-Andrew

----------------------
Reference:

Dear Thesis Cluster-

Lisa, Andrew and I have talked, and we all do agree that-
with a huge unwieldy team of 9 people- we need to find ways
to optimize the exchange of information and ideas.
Certainly meeting on Mondays from 6-10pm is a difficult and
exhausting experience for all- not to be repeated.

We agree that the blog format offers a valuable venue for
the exchange of materials (both visual and textual)- and if
done early enough, we can all prepare for discussion well in
advance of meeting. Its a great waste of everyone's time to
devote evening to the presentation of new background
material that needs to be digested on the spot. We need to
do this prior, so we can thoughtfully xero in on issues.

In addition, we all sense that there has not been a lot
of exchange of information and ideas among the students, and-
for sure- the point of having team meetings is that everyone
is aware and supportive of each other's efforts- a resource
that everyone can draw from especially in the spring.
Otherwise we should just make individual appointments- not
the point of the new format. And so, everyone should know
what is on each other's blogs.

Finally, there is the serious need to get rolling- next
week will be week 11 of the semester, and now that juries
are done, the preparation needs to be substantive and
focused.

Monday's meeting is defined, in the syllabus as "Pinup
#2: initial design investigations. With a 4691 studio focus
on expanded attention to site/ program/ theory". ...and so,
speaking for the three advisers, we are looking for you to
post whatever you can by, say, 3pm Sunday- no later!- so the
maximum number of people can access it, review it, formulate
responses.

Thanks very much. JP

--
Andrew

links list.

http://new-art.blogspot.com/2007/02/sam-taylor-woods-vanitas.html

http://www.artemide.it/

http://www.designboom.com/contemporary.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanitas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_%28book%29

Welcome

This is 'International Experiements in Architecture' the portal blog to various projects.

JelloSpace is by far the most developed and interactive site.

I have set up on the left hand corner of the screen a variety of links that I use frequently, that way I have easy access and this can be my "homepage away from home".

Less Organization
Because it links to everything else, this page tends to be the most un-organized, since it is the catchall for the rest of the pages.

Equals free form ideas
functioning as a jack-of-all-my-blogs this blog is source material, unfiltered ideas, links, websites that I want to write down when I'm away from my own computer, bookmarks and don't want to write myself an email I have to delete or lose later

Specific Pages for Specific Ideas
Each of the linked to pages on the left has a specific project, as I read through my material I file it under the desired page, slowly each page starts to take shape, characteristics, as it gets fleshed out. Each idea gets it's own mini-blog and develops from there.

Keeping progress
This process allows me to track the progress and development of each idea, when I was working on it, what I thought was important, and only the vital information stays with that mini-blog. All the other strata can be kept here, and the idea/project can stand alone free of clutter.

Access for Critique
The other benefit, and I think this is the best use for the 'Blog' is that besides being a homebase of operations for me it means that my friends and mentors have the same amount of access. Instead of filling up their inbox with wildly huge image files, the images, the information are kept here, which means that they can browse to what their most interested in, delve and into it, instead of sifting through emails, panning around trying to piece a photo or image together in their head.

Ease of Access Means Freer Discussion
So what do you want from a critic? From your fellow classmates?

You want feedback. You need feedback.

And let face it thesis students and thesis advisors couldn't have a more opposite schedule. You work at night, right when we're asleep, then your sleepy, the entire time our brains are at the ready. Your in studio, we're not and vice-versa. Well then, lets find a way we can work around it.

The blog lets you post what issues are going on, we can access it, read through it, and give you a response. Even better so can the rest of your team. Even better than that we can read what everyone is saying, and the conversation builds. That's the strength of this process.

Armed with a digital camera and an internet connection we can discuss architecture, ideas, theory, you-name it regardless of location and time.

It is so easy to give responses that there's no excuse not to (you can even set up your blog to notify you when someone has responded, via email, text, instant message, etc.)


Best part - it's as easy as checking email, and a whole lot faster than Blackboard.
If you know how to surf the internet you can set one of these blogs up. It's all point and click and you can spend your time on the project, not on learning the intricacies of Blackboard, or wait for it to completely reload each page as you try to move through it.

Result: the Process Moves Forward
This way you get to do what you need to do, you can work, we can critique, we can offer feedback. You can keep your momentum.

HOW TO DO IT?
Get yourself a Gmail account (although you don't have to)
Go to www.blogspot.com
Fill out the form,
pic a format,
a name for your blog and your done, you can start posting no waiting

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=12619

Online Debates

The Barnes

The Future of Campus

Casinoes

Synopsis

Here is a synopsis of Wednesday:

I've updated here for faster posting an access - separate from where the students can access.

We started with the ideas of 'landmark' and that we respond to images like these because they are important, easily identified, and hearken back to the idea of the traveling nomads, stopping and creating a hut, a base of operations, a practice which we continue to follow.
In this way we can see the cathedral in the valley of Assisi as both a 'hut' and recognize it importance as marking it's district, here clearly defined by the valley and the light - and issue which we came back to over and over again since light plays such an important roll in enlivening and animating a space.

from there we looked at a variety of images all dealing with the idea of marking experiencing and creating spaces that affect the people within them, spaces which are inspiring, or that go to an extreme to make their presence palpable.





















I showed a great deal of pictures from my travels through Italy - Rome, Amalfi, Siena

Some contemporary examples of spaces which exaggerate themselves, but still maintain the continuity of what's around them, bending and flexing to the forces of space, light, people, etc.




















Continuing in this trend though a building, a space, a place does not need to be all about it's image from afar, sometimes you have to get up close to experience it more tactilely.























To wrap it up, all these forces, influences, spatial factors, people, light, time, identity, landscape come together in a design which, hopefully, will express all of these such as - my favorite example - The World Arab Institute, which is while being an experience in itself, allows you to experience something you know well, in a entirely new way.






















For all of these experiences, we need not go to Italy, or Paris, or Berlin, we can go out an experience them, and their complex and intricate surroundings for ourselves, right here in the city.