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SCI-Arc (Marlin Watson)

 

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    Appendix x: Aggregation

    By Marlin
    Apr 26, '06 2:57 PM EST
    Heartbeat a Design The morning after a final review, over a cup of coffee, the body is still tense, still worked up. The marathon of the nights prior leave behind the residue of anxiety about the work: why do I have time to drink coffee? Isn't there something I'm supposed to do now? Is that it? No. That's it. That was another review come and gone. Tomorrow, I'll wake up, take a shower, towel dry to a drizzly Angelino April sky, and over another cup of coffee, I'll think up in a heartbeat a design that outshines what I completed for the semester, then kick myself alot because of it.

    Spectacle of Zap-O-Gap In the days following the semester's end, the work fragments remaining around the SCIArc hallway illustrate a flux: absolutely nothing bears a rank or study, and the model in the trash bin is also the best-dressed in the building. The circus atmosphere of discarded material piles and scraps softly obscures authorship. Take a look around at everything: these are not study models nor final models, but something in-between. Neither on display nor placed aside, not final nor initial, first year nor thesis, studio nor seminar, prodigious nor trash, but a spectacle of zapogap and vaccuform squished into a single mound when the semester ends.

    Adequate point of Departure All of the below are proposals for a new UN Headquarters. “They're not really, but it's possible to imagine that, right? Appropriate them and they become that? Whether it's successful or not as a UN headquarters is certainly another story.” The greatest strength of Appropriation as a design method is its capacity to rapidly aggregate work: every available object becomes an adequate point of departure, now placed under scrutiny for exemption or rejection. Is the thing working? Does it have a natural orientation appropriate for the proposed site? In a heartbeat of design, a thousand solutions are generated for a project. From each solution, stronger points will naturally surface; weaker points rapidly create the foundation. Sooner or later the most suitable artifact disappears and becomes the massaged version of itself, thus separating methods of appropriation from methods of plagiarism: Appropriation can smell alot like the author.

    SCIArc at the Moment In fact, devoid of stated program, stated context, or their deadline, the objects are proud and cool, fun to peruse, often inspirational. It might not matter what the original intent was. Maybe right now it's even better. A transposed program better suited to fit the form. Lots of trash and splendor, deliberation and circumstance, studied and automatic, delicate and catpoops, signature and anonymous, cherished talkitecture, chiseled treasures. The empty circus right before spring cleanup. For a moment, this brief time of nothing is the glue between the inside of the outside, and the outside of the inside. A semester, then the glue, then one turns into two. Two semsters turn into a year, and a year becomes a paradigm shift parading all the glues it used. Enjoy a wander through SCIArc at the moment, a 1/16 mi. short of the total building length. Remnants and artefacts, tangents and outtakes, photos of Other People's Property:

    imageimageimageimageimageimageimageimage


     
    • 16 Comments

    • Becker

      Hey Marlin,

      Interesting images. Were there many drawings, or just models?

      Apr 26, 06 9:17 pm  · 
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      great collection of images. makes me miss school.

      Apr 26, 06 10:08 pm  · 
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      Archinecture

      I agree with Steven, these images also make me miss school. They are a fantastic view into your world!

      Apr 26, 06 10:59 pm  · 
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      chupacabra

      and people say that sci-arc is all digital.

      thanks for sharing, lots of interesting work.

      Apr 26, 06 11:05 pm  · 
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      sporadic supernova

      wwoooaah .. thats a lot of images .. ( i had to take break in the middle) .... but some very impressive work there

      Apr 27, 06 7:37 am  · 
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      you're right, jason. hadn't thought of that.

      the models are really exciting > i can imagine a great project for each one, not knowing what they're really about...which was marlin's point, i guess.

      Apr 27, 06 7:39 am  · 
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      marlin, there was a punk rocker rita who had a trailer in the empty lot across sci arc in santa monica. she collected all those kinds of models you are talking about and build cities in front of her trailer. the lot could only be called empty, arguebly.

      Apr 27, 06 8:46 am  · 
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      chupacabra

      i love the candied bunny lamp shade.

      Apr 27, 06 10:09 am  · 
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      Ruby Lee

      i believe those are "peeps." i like the cream puff personally -- and the sweet valentine to sci-arc generally.

      Apr 27, 06 11:42 am  · 
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      Marlin

      mhollenstien: many of the drawings, like the computers, have all gone home. Some lay around, but without otherwise unrolling them, they're tough to photograph.

      jasoncross: yep, there was a class exhibition - dont remember the class, something on surrealism?- with amusing treatments of food: A fudge fold-up chair, stale french bread jigged like lincoln logs, etc. The bast part of the bunny lamp was the lingering smell of warm Peeps throughout the main space auditorium when the lamp was plugged in.

      The photos are SCIArc when the computers have gone home.

      Orhan: I dont remember Rita, but at the Beethoven campus there was Camper Jim, whom i believe plugged the leaks in his Winnebago with the detritus of finals. Nowadays the camper students that once claimed the parking lot as thier residence have been supplanted by the security guards and crack addicts.

      Steven: yep. There's some nostalgia there on my part as well. I think Ruby might be right: whether i knew it or not, the photos are a love letter to SCIArc. Also, It shouldn't be forgotten that many of the models above began in the computer.

      Ruby: yep.

      Super: i'm spoiled with wifi and often forget about the broadbanders.

      I'm an entry or two away from finishing this up. I wonder sometimes if anyone read this webblog from the beginning, or is even reading this comment two days after the posting? Thanks for sticking around. It's been my pleasure if you enjoyed it. If you didn't, an apology from me probably won't help much. Thanks!

      ~Marlin

      Apr 27, 06 5:07 pm  · 
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      Daniel

      "I’ll think up in a heartbeat a design that outshines what I completed for the semester, then kick myself a lot because of it."

      Oh look, my week summarized. It had better be the coffee talking.

      Apr 27, 06 8:23 pm  · 
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      10pm

      "I’ll think up in a heartbeat a design that outshines what I completed for the semester, then kick myself a lot because of it."
      Too true. Happened every time, and still after a project leaves the office.

      You add a lot to the objects by takeing pictures of them the way tou did. The photo that's doubled, the box and bag, you spatialized things that might just be refuse. These were fun.

      I read the blog from the beginning, not since the beginning. Iteresting watching you writeing change through the semesters. I really enjoyed it. Thank you, marlin.

      Apr 28, 06 9:02 am  · 
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      Marlin... you forgot a pic of the little fishy undies! How dare you.

      Apr 30, 06 1:06 am  · 
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      Marlin

      Steve:
      1. That's what she said.
      2. That's the third time I've done that!
      3. You'll have to give me your sister's middle name again so i can GoogleImage the pic.
      4. I didn't forget. This is between you and Purvis.
      5. I meant to write: The bast part of the fishy undies was the lingering smell of chicken throughout the main space auditorium when the undies were plugged in.

      Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve!
      Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve! Steve!
      Time to keep it real and do a thesis blog.

      ;) Marlin


      May 4, 06 3:22 pm  · 
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      So true man. Thesis blog it is. I actually put that as one of my artifacts: blog, wiki, cinematic installation. Props to the wordsmith. More later when I return from backwoods Central Florida scabbin' wireless like an addict.

      May 5, 06 1:00 am  · 
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      King

      thanks again to you for coming to check it out. it was nice to have met you. let's hook up for a drink this summer...

      cheers. take care.

      May 5, 06 6:52 pm  · 
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