Art visual np2

Sensual landscape is Brynhildur Guðlaugs ' thesis project for his master degree at IAAC (Barcelona). It dramatizes a bath complex in Iceland's countryside introducing the importance of synesthesia in architecture by a work on colors and thermal atmospheres. The project is based on case studies including the Native American sweatlodge, the Japanese onsen, the Russian banya, the Roman baths or Philippe Rahm 's interpretation of architecture. You can access to the whole pdf here which I recommend in order to appreciate the globality of the work. Sensual landscape by Brynhildur Guðlaugs tutors: Belinda Tato & Jose Luis Valleja IAAC thesis june 2009 via ecosistemurbano

Here is the pretty impressive installations of Anthony Gormley (I discover his work at the kunsthall in Rotterdam in January). Gormley's work is about human body in space, compare to his other sculptures more traditional in a way, those installations create an interesting relation between the human body volume at a big scale and the visitor/ observer size and body. More over the quality of the fabrication of those art piece is really amazing. We have to notice that Gormley is one of the few artists using last technologies to push there art to another level of complexity and meaning (like the french artist Xavier Veilhan ) for example his collaboration with ARUP for several projects (see this former post ). More here Much more on Gormley's website : here

The New York Times just published an article about US army's fake training Afghan village built in Texas. This follows what you might already know thanks to photographers Olivier Chanarin and Adam Broomberg who published a very interesting book (foreword is by Eyal Weizman) in 2007 about Chicago , the fake Palestinian village built by Israeli authorities in the middle of the Negev. UK also have its own fake Afghan village (with plastic fruits in the market) and spent 14 millions pounds (23 millions dollars, 15 millions euros) to construct it. All this money tackles obviously the irony of building fake villages in Texas, the Negev or Norflox when people in Palestine, Irak and Afghanistan need to recover from war and lack of money to reconstruct destroyed villages...

  Inside the National Academy for the Performing Arts, Port of Spain on Friday. To say it got mixed reviews is an understatement. Some people loved it. Others hated it. I wish I had seen all of it. But of what I saw, the following moments from the opening cultural show for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting stood out most: 1. Dave Williams was golden. He performed a shortened version from the opening act of his 'Scan-creation, civilisation, anarchy' piece. Unlike when he performed the full version of this piece at Queen's Hall earlier this year where he was draped in red , Williams was clothed in gold. It's a good thing too because under the lighting at the $518 million National Academy for the Performing Arts, we could barely see him. However, his moment was a triumph of technique and concentration; he quite literally placed everything in the hands of the world leaders gathered on stage before him. I wish he got to stay on longer though.   2. The poui trees a

I found this cool image on Marlon Darbeau's blog . It's from September 2008, but still relevant today. CHECK out more here .

I recently watched two movies from Jean-Luc Godard that I did not know before, and I was really impressed by two sets which compose interesting landscapes which shove cinema's etiquette. First one is from Pierrot le Fou (1965) and dramatizes a stand alone piece of highway in the middle of a field and from which a car fell without any indication for the spectator how it did go up on it... Second one is from Tout va bien ( All's well ) (1972), in which Godard questions the mutation of 1968's social movement with the take of a factory by its workers. The administrative department of the factory is shown as a section on which the spectator can read a caption: One is right to sequester bosses. Unlimited Strike . Since then, some directors did follow this apparatus, I am thinking in particular of Chan-Wook Park in Old Boy , but I am pretty sure that Godard is the first one to establish it (if anybody has more information about that feel free to comment on it). In addition of th

Still from Wendell Mc Shine's video for 12 the band's 'Prosper', featured in the latest Draconian Switch The new issue of Trinidad e-zine Draconian Switch , featuring the work of artist Wendell Mc Shine, is now online . Writing contributions are Darryn Boodan, Dave Williams, Sophie Wight, Tracy Hutchings and guest editor Indra Ramcharan. CHECK the publisher's blog, ARTSPUB,  here . READ Indra's blog here .

Here is a Matta Clarkian project from the artist Sarah Oppenheimer who develops this vocabulary of piercing through the material whether it is architectonic material or void material. All her work seems to be able to fold itself at anytime and disappear which I think, makes the beauty of it.

Poor Bella (Kristen Stewart). All she wants to do is get laid. "I hate this whole celibacy thing," she tells her pale boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson) in class one day. The problem? Her beau is a blood-sucking vampire who might lose control and kill her if they were to get it on. Then, out of the blue (or rather for purely plot purposes) Edward dumps Bella. This takes place in a forest somewhere (the ocean is also nearby). Bella is shattered and for three months sits looking out of her window. She starts to kindle a relationship with a new guy Jacob (Taylor Launter, who has, incidentally, grown more than just a few extra clumps of biceps since the first movie Twilight ). But then it turns out that this guy is a flesh-eating werewolf.  What ARE the odds? Such a small town. Anyhow, he too is off limits when it comes to getting it on. After all he might get angry one day and rip Bella to shreds. Melancholic Bella (who, it must be said is played like a finely tuned block of wo

Dear people of Los Angeles (for God's sake stop saying L.A. when you have one of the coolest name of city on earth !), this event is for you ! On December 12nd, USC school of architecture is organizing a conference called Intensive fields about the very popular topic of parametric urbanism with a bunch of very high quality speakers. I think that this quality is necessary when you deal with such crucial issues as urban design. To reach this scale of design is problematic and any proposal should certainly includes a part of self-contradiction in order to avoid the dictatorial hand of the architect on the city... I just regret that Chris Lee was not invited to this event since he is tackling this kind of issues for a certain time now with his unit 6 in the AA... Don't forget to register !

  French director Robert Bresson (Photo courtesy Toutlecine.com) The stage is set for a memorable night at studiofilmclub. For those of you lucky enough to get away from the grips of CHOGM madness, check out the films, including Robert Bresson's audacious The Devil, Probably and a local short film, Minutes to MidNite. FROM THE ORGANISERS: studiofilmclub Building 7 Fernandes Industrial Centre Eastern Main Road Laventille Port of Spain Thursday November 26th Free for all! first film 8:15pm, doors open 7:30pm Robert Bresson's penultimate feature The Devil, Probably preceded by a new short film by the Trinidadian director Ryan C. Khan; the noir fantasy Minutes to MidNite * Minutes to MidNite (Ryan C. Khan/Trinidad/2009/21') Actors: Wendell Manwarren, Keron Miguel Yan, Tenielle Newallo A noir, fantasy crime drama unfolds when ruthless Trinidadian gang member, Snake, kills his leader, Mr. Tiger. Shortly afterward, Snake receives a message that someone named Anansi Spider is goi

davidharvey.org is Harvey's official website and provides the totality of his class (in video) dissecting Marx's Capital in City University of New York. David Harvey who was lecturing last Saturday for the last session of the Oppositional Architecture, claims that the current economic crisis has weakened capitalism enough for us to have the opportunity to interfere. He is calling for an "eco-communism" (as he was saying people freak out when he says he is a communist but much less when he add "eco" to it...) which tackles an interesting issue about whether or not the word "communism" should be still used as Alain Badiou, Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt think or is this word already too much connoted by the Stalin and Mao experience (which would deserve to be called totalitarian collectivism rather than communism). Anyway David Harvey's lectures and classes are more than ever worth listening and his website is providing information in a rare

  (Photo courtesy Above Group) Calm down, it's just croquis. At Above Group, Fernandes Industrial Centre, Laventille at 6pm. FROM THE ORGANISERS : Join us for our third open studio drawing session. We have a treat this week, a MALE MODEL will be in the house! So ladies, and gentlemen, bring your pencil, paper, $30 contribution and come!

No, not the famous club off the Strand in London, the play! At the Learning Resource Centre, UWI, St Augustine. FROM THE ORGANISERS: "HEAVEN" by David Edgecombe, Directed by Christine Hannays. Starring: Anton Francis Tanya-Dee Roberts Christopher Smith Keisha Stephen-Gittens Jonathon Thatcher Stage Manager: Jaime Bagoo Assistant Stage Manager: Kristin Jaggan. Tickets for general public: $25 Available at the Department for Creative and Festival Arts (DCFA), UWI, St Augustine Call: 662-2002/663-2222 ext: 2510; 3791; 3792 LINK here .

A new serie of emptiness, after La Soufriere, Paris, Tokyo or London, this time the void is in the streets of Los Angeles, this serie of pictures by the photographer Matt Logues , let me think that I'm fascinated by this kind of pictures that is becoming a "genre". It's even more astonishing when you know the usual density of cars, traffic jam on highways or people in the streets of L.A. This is an echo of this good article (by our friends of NDLR ). Empty London, 28 days later (Danny Boyle). Vider Paris by Nicolas Moulin. Rush hour in L.A. Matt Logue 's website : here

City of the (Re)Orientated is a very beautiful project created by Danish artists Ben and Sebastian (Ben Clement & Sebastian de la Cour) in 2007. I can feel the presence of two of my favorite authors here, Jorge-Luis Borges and Franz Kafka. Borges for the infinite material in which spring up several fantastic localities and Kafka for the endless wandering of a man who do not know how and why he woke up in this world... Anyway, this is only my interpretation. The official text is very interesting and beautiful: The 'map' has long been useless in a city whose streets are continually reshaped by their walkers, vendors, sponsors, hobby street artists and salvation-sellers. In this anthill of possibilities only the most elastic orientation software can direct the city's inhabitant through its myriad of shifting, tangled streets. As more private dwellings of the city connect to this mobile space, more public parks, institution and cinemas protect themselves from mobile invas