intellectual landfill

Michèle de Villiers  |  architect  |  "aggregating, collecting, bringing together through aesthetics, an ontological database"  |  Instagram @micheledevilliers 

[micheledevilliers]

‘A Landscape in Motion: Extending urban landscape typologies in Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay’. This is a section/plan running through a buffer trip, dividing affluent Penzance Estate on the one side and Imizamo Yethu on the other. 

[micheledevilliers]

Studiolo

from the Italian, meaning “little studio” is a small room, often lavishly decorated, dedicated to reading, studying and writing. It is generally of a relatively private character. Above is an image of Francesco di Giorgio Martini’s Studiolo from the Ducal Palace in Gubbio (ca. 1478–82). This room was adorned with woodworks (made of walnut, beech, rosewood, oak and fruitwoods on a walnut base), themselves detailed studies of a studiolo, "intended for meditation and study. Its walls are carried out in a wood-inlay technique known as intarsia. The latticework doors of the cabinets, shown open or partly closed, indicate the contemporary interest in linear perspective. The cabinets display objects reflecting Duke Federico's wide-ranging artistic and scientific interests, and the depictions of books recall his extensive library. “

[micheledevilliers]

When asked to consider the architectural type ‘folly’, presumably being

a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, especially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park. I prefer to daydream of Andre Jacque’s “Hansel & Gretel Arena” and lean towards another meaning of the word as a starting point lack of good sense; foolishness, "an act of sheer folly"

a foolish act, idea, or practice. plural noun: follies"the follies of youth". Synonyms: foolishness, foolhardiness, stupidity, idiocy, imbecility, silliness, inanity, lunacy, madness, rashness, recklessness, imprudence, injudiciousness, lack of caution, lack of foresight, lack of sense, irrationality, illogicality, irresponsibility, thoughtlessness, indiscretion;

[micheledevilliers]

gather(ing)

a definition from John Hejduk at the Alvin Boyarsky Memorial Event (1990/12/08)

“To bring together in one place, or group, to accumulate.

To bring together from various places, sources.

To harvest or pick as crops, fruit.

To collect by picking out, culling, to select.

To accumulate or gain more and more and more.

To clasp or enfold, to gather someone in one’s arms.

To draw into folds as cloth on a thread.

To become aware of through deduction and observation.

To summon up or muster as one’s energies for an effort.

In book binding, to arrange consecutive order as pages of a book.

To come together and to assemble a pleat or fold of cloth, held by a thread passing through the folds. [Reader’s Digest]

Gathering up of thoughts, memories, insights, works, words, threads, sorrows, joys, of relationships, of immensities, and of the human condition”. 

[micheledevilliers]

Drawn in by reflections. Donald Judd’s 100 aluminium boxes (1986).

“At first glance the boxes seem to be identical, but with closer observation a stunning formal design evolves. Judd conducted basic but rigid form operations while keeping the box outline: Dividing in half with variations vertically, horizontally or diagonally [...]. Additionally he included single and double divisions – perpendicular and diagonal with a distance of 4 inches (100 millimeters) between the panels. These double-walled spaces were designed as closed or open, thereby creating very individual solutions for versatile reflections of light.“

https://www.archdaily.com/777737/how-donald-judds-100-shimmering-aluminum-boxes-light-up-the-chinati-foundation

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vagueness*

"an uncertainty in meaning - an intention, conviction, or desire is expressed but lacks the clarity or fullness necessary to be accurately conveyed beyond the person who expresses it. Vagueness considered as an epistemological condition refers to an indeterminacy of meaning that is intrinsic to an object as construed by a signifying category. A 'pile of sand' is intrinsically indeterminate, but a 'pound of sugar' is not. A 'pile of sand' has a comprehensible meaning and conjures up knowable instances, but the object that constitutes that meaning possesses an inherent vagueness in its dimensional and compositional qualities. The boundary that would categorically include or exclude similar objects is unclear. A 'pound of sugar', by contrast, references both a comprehensible meaning and a determinate object and maintains a rigid categorical limit of dimension and composition " - Low Fidelity (2016) Timothy Hyde.

*Timothy Williamson (1994) Vagueness

[micheledevilliers]

prefabricated, aerated concrete. 

 http://www.everite.co.za/Uploads/files/Hebel%20Brochure%20email.pdf

[micheledevilliers]

labanotation - a notation system for recording and analyzing human movement, derived from the work of Rudolf Laban (1928). "Motif Description is a kind of simplified "Structural Description" - you only write down what you think of as important. You could write for example its a kind of forward directed movement without saying if you creep or jump. Effort-Shape Description is used to record the energy content of a motion.” http://user.uni-frankfurt.de/~griesbec/LABANE.HTML “Effort, or what Laban sometimes described as dynamics, is a system for understanding the more subtle characteristics about the way a movement is done with respect to inner intention. The difference between punching someone in anger and reaching for a glass is slight in terms of body organization – both rely on extension of the arm. The attention to the strength of the movement, the control of the movement and the timing of the movement are very different. [...] Space, Weight, and Time are Effort Actions. The combinations are Float, Punch (Thrust), Glide, Slash, Dab, Wring, Flick, and Press”. http://epgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/S000451PA/P001555/M018223/ET/1481104165P8M26TEXT.pdf #labanotation