Hello everyone, below is the mission statement of my project:

The community of the Niger-Delta have witnessed the slow poisoning of their waters and destruction of vegetation and agricultural land by oil spills which occur during petroleum operations. There has been less concern and effective effort on the part of the government, let alone the oil companies to control the environmental problems with their operations.

All people have the right to self-determination, by virtue of that right they freely can pursue their economic, social and cultural development, create their own energy with their natural resources run by the people, ‘A community of self generators’.

I NEED HELP ON HOW BEST TO REPRESENT NIGERIA, BE IT ABSTRACT, ARTEFACT, INSTALLATION OR ARCHITECTURAL.

Any comment welcomed.

Abu

continued from my previous idea about the external services not being as perfect as they should. I have started to read Slavoj Zizek's "Cyberspace, or, the Unbearable Closure of Being". Below is a paragrpah from the Article and my interpretation and also a diagram explaing my version.

What is a symptom? (Zizek's version)

When one is dealing with a universal structuring principle, one always automatically assumes that - in principle, precisely - it is possible to apply this principle to all its potential elements, so that the principle's empirical non-realization is merely a matter of contingent ircumstances. A symptom, however, is an element which - although the non-realization of the universal principle in it appears to hinge on contingent circumstances has to remain an exception, that is, the point of suspension of the universal principle: if the universal principle were to apply also to this point, the universal system itself would disintegrate.

What is a symptom? (my version)

When ever we deal with a particular issue we assume that there is some sort of a system. We also assume that the system applies to all parts of the issue, and where we think the system does not apply that is because we think there maybe a problem in the future within the issue. A symptom is something which informs you of the future problem, which is where you have to suspend the system, because if you apply the system to that particular problem, the system will be destroyed or can destroy the whole issue.

“Just like the pied piper,
Led rats through the streets,
We dance like marionettes,
Swaying to the symphony,
Of destruction...”
Dave Mustaine, Symphony of Destruction

We exist in a society consisting of interlocked and conflicting systemic control structures. Revolutionaries rise in every generation creating counter-cultures whose adherents inevitably discover that the “freedom” their heroes preach simply does not exist; they have only switched to a new puppet master.



Bigger Version
[Image from previous PG Dip work on same theme which served to inform my thesis]

Sketches
[Album of other early sketches, including a storyboard setting the scene of a controlled society]

But who is the puppet master of puppet masters? Who controls the ones whom we inveigh against?

“My idea is that every specific body strives to become master over all space and to extend its force (its will to power) and to thrust back all that resists its extension. But it continually encounters similar efforts on the part of other bodies and ends by coming to an arrangement ("union") with those of them that are sufficiently related to it: thus they then conspire together for power. And the process goes on.”
Nietzsche, F. trans. Kaufmann, W. The Will to Power

My thesis begins with accepting the premise that we are controlled and doubting the existence of true freedom. By following the multifarious marionette strings to their conclusion, however, I propose that the ultimate originator of the manipulation we are subject to is, in fact, within ourselves.

“18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”
The Apostle Paul. Romans 7 vs. 18-20

Slavery Video
[Stop frame animation exploring the idea of self induced slavery]

To allow for hope, I am forced to accept the notion that the “will to power” or the “flesh” is a conquerable force, even if only in death. I seek to investigate theoretical approaches to the separation of spirit and body, soul and flesh, transcendence and will to power, and how this might be architecturally configured.

The community of the Niger-Delta have witnessed the slow poisoning of their waters and destruction of vegetation and agricultural land by oil spills which occur during petroleum operations. There has been less concern and effective effort on the part of the government, let alone the oil companies to control the environmental problems with their operations.

All people have the right to self-determination, by virtue of that right they freely can pursue their economic, social and cultural development, create their own energy with their natural resources run by the people, ‘A community of self generators’.

Hence, the oil companies that explore and exploit their land would pay/compensate the people not just with money but, other ways as: exchange of knowledge and know how, creation of housing etc.


Map of Niger-Delta in context.


Parallel to the issue of the Niger-Delta energy, is also the possibility and potential of the Sub-Saharan Africa generating energy through solar furnace that would be sufficient for the whole of Europe, with heat of up to 3000 degree Celsius.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeNwzRdE16U
This clip shows an insight in to the Niger-Delta issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tt7RG3UR4c
This clip shows the what sort of energy a solar furnace could generate.



Abubakar Kumshe D7/Thesis Design Project

What troubles me? What troubles me in architecture?

Representation being more definitive than the thing, event or experience itself is a growing problem in the digital world. What happens to meaning when the simulation or copy becomes more prevalent and understood than the source?

Fashion, physical appearance and image (body) can often be portrayed as being more important than process or the social benefits that define architecture (soul).

Is architecture purely advertising, revenue and PR or can it make a difference to peoples lives and enhance the way we interact?

My thesis will explore these themes and also compare the digital world (primarily single sensory) with the analogue world (haptic and multi-sensory).

So how do I show this? The following are a series of animations to get my initial thoughts out there. Without something to talk about I have nothing to improve and refine so here goes:

http://www.youtube.com/user/d7forlife#p/u/4/eJuYQER8c5o

Mirages are not hallucinations, they lie somewhere between a trick and reality. Russian dolls steadily change and peel back layers to reveal a new and altered form within.

http://www.youtube.com/user/d7forlife#p/u/3/CZ9tmDl_ptM

I created a constantly shifting billboard or images and reflection to portray the media world we occupy with one of the three sides starring straight back at the viewer.

http://www.youtube.com/user/d7forlife#p/u/2/z4RuAdBAIz0

This clip shows a trapped soul without a body to inhabit.

http://www.youtube.com/user/d7forlife#p/u/0/06zIfSXyRWk

The final clip attempts to show a body being manufactured but without a soul.

This is my start point for the year so any thoughts or comments would be hugely appreciated and helpful to move forward and strengthen the concept.

Rob Tadman (Birmingham School of Architecture, D7 Thesis)

We have been brought up in a society where, everything has a system. This system we refer to also has various rules regarding providing a perfect service. Every day we deal with people who provide external services for us (e.g buying goods, dealing with public services etc). However, over the years these rules have been ignored and the quality of external services has declined compared to what we require and expect.

My thesis will explore the world of "not perfect" service providers, and will look deep into who is responsible and why they are responsible for this reduction in the quality of service being provided. The project will start with; understanding the different types of services within the city of Birmingham there will be a diagram through the city where every service will be mapped against different wards, in order to establish the location where there are most "not perfect" service(s) providers. The diagram as well as providing a location, will also zoom into the research area at different levels in order to help inform the process for possible architectural intervention(s).



Zahid khan

This blog is set up on behalf of the D7 Thesis Unit - The Elegance of Non-Engagment. The students involved in this unit are:

Carys Fisher
Peter Jenkins
James Clayton
Rob Tadman
Zahid Khan
Paul Welch
Abu Kumshe
Riyaz Nilar
Sam Lui

We will all be posting our progress on our individual projects within this unit and hope to receive as much feedback as possible from the school blog readers.

To start off with here is our tutor's thoughts on the direction of this unit:

The Architecture of Deceit
E. McIntosh, tutor

Setting the scene
The Law of (-1)

There is sometimes a minuscule flame burning inside people who do Architecture. The feeling in the back of their brain that something is terribly wrong with the world. A “splinter in their minds”. For many this feeling of wrong-ness, dissatisfaction and helplessness can never be explained, for its nature is concealed by what we will call in this studio, The Law of (-1).

We need to understand that life is war, that we all are driven by the will to power, and that the lofty ideals of the “magnanimous human spirit”: equality, justice, freedom, etc are in practical terms absent from us, for we are not human spirits, we are flesh and bone. Quoting from Nietzsche's Beyond good and Evil: "Even the body within which individuals treat each other as equals ... will have to be an incarnate will to power, it will strive to grow, spread, seize, become predominant—not from any morality or immorality but because it is living and because life simply is will to power."

We need to understand that in a war everything is permitted, and that deceit is the strongest weapon (the first deception is to convince us that there’s no war being waged) and that its power is waged against us in every aspect during every second of our everyday life...we live through a parade of constant deceit. That is how we voluntarily become slaves, how we are lazy enough to not distinguish 1 from (-1). Not acknowledging the rules of the game, not even being able to see that there’s actually a game going on (war) is what makes Revolutionary Architecture a naïve endeavor.


The danger of hope and the illusion of choice
Seen the un-see-able and becoming ourselves un-see-able

Within the studio we will not forget that the cause of Revolutionary Architecture is a lost battle. We will not covertly fight in order to have hope, we will not covertly fight trying to have a choice, for no hope or choice really exist, only the illusion of them. We will try to conceive deceitful projects because even though there’s no escape, at least this way we will be sure of our condition of slaves.

This studio is not in allegiance with the Left or the Right, the Capitalist or the Socialist, Republicans or Democrats, for these factions are within themselves neither left or right, capitalist or socialist, republican or democrat…they are always the smoke screen puppet show put in front of us to keep us from seeing the ever present invisible third parties. This studio will try to learn to see the un-see-able and to learn the art of becoming our selves un-see-able.

For this studio thinks Revolutionary Architecture is ineffective when it’s visible. It itself becomes part of the problem, for it gives hope, and hope makes the masses think: “don’t worry somebody is out there doing something about it” plunging us all into inaction.

This studio thinks a true Revolutionary Architecture should be an architecture of sedition. It should not be carpet bombing, it should be smart bombing. It should not be broad strokes, it should be surgical interventions. It shouldn’t be diluted in a building; it should be a concrete idea. For, as Aldo Rossi states “In a certain sense, there is no such thing as buildings that are politically ‘opposed’, since the ones that are realized are always those of the dominant class” (The Architecture of the City)