[incli]nation
Art + Architecture + Design
On Ugliness by Umberto Eco
Dec 11th
Just read a great review of Eco’s "On Ugliness" in the Telegraph. I confess a weakness for Eco’s essays and fiction, but Brian Dillon pulls no punches in his attempt to put Eco into historical place. Worth the read, made me want ot read him again:
"By the Romantic period, the grotesque and the sublime were established as aesthetic categories, and the decadents of the late 19th century loved nothing more than a deathly consumptive countenance. In the wake of 20th-century avant-gardes, unadulterated beauty looks saccharine, immature or kitsch. We seduce only with our faults, wrote Baudrillard. Or as Johnny Rotten put it: there’s nothing so boring as a pretty face."
read the rest after the jump HERE
Doris Lessing’s ’07 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Dec 9th
"The storyteller is deep inside everyone of us. The story-maker is always with us. Let us suppose our world is attacked by war, by the horrors that we all of us easily imagine. Let us suppose floods wash through our cities, the seas rise . . . but the storyteller will be there, for it is our imaginations which shape us, keep us, create us – for good and for ill. It is our stories that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the myth-maker, that is our phoenix, that represents us at our best, and at our most creative."
read the rest after the jump…via The Guardian
Edith Piaf and Django Reinhardt
Dec 7th
Don’t know what it is about this photo that moves me. Edith Piaf and Django Reinhardt sitting for a portrait no doubt but they both seem miles away, absorbed in the intimacy of touch. She is reading his palm and as I lacerated my own right hand in a fit of rage last night and ended up in urgent care, I am particularly sensitive to the fragility of my body and indeed my life…
Proverbios y Cantares by Antonio Machado
Dec 7th
Your footsteps are the path, and nothing else;
there is no path, paths are made by walking.
Walking makes the path, and on looking back
We see a trail that never can be walked again.
Traveler, there is no path,
Only a wake in the sea.
- Antonio Machado
Proverbios y Cantares
Bamboestoel by Tejo Remy and Rene VeenHuizen
Nov 16th
Regular readers are already well aware of our preoccupation with the chair. This one comes from Dutch design duo Tejo Remy and Rene VeenHuizen. Tejo Remy spoke at the Inhabitat’s ‘Reclaiming Design’ on the issues of reclaimed materials in design.
I love it when the design is more impactful than the ‘green’-ness. Nice work!
via Inhabitat
Wind Dam by Chetwood Associates
Nov 15th
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, out of Inhabitat comes word of this terrific idea for green power design; the wind dam. It feels like a Phillip K Dick prop, but it’s for real. Check it out:
"The spinnaker shape is similar to the mainsail of a yacht, and is thought to be particularly effective in capturing the wind with it’s kite-like properties. Project architect Laurie Chetwood stated that the shape of the sail was influenced by functionality and a desire to produce something “sculptural”. “The sail looks like a bird dipping its beak into the water, which will be much less of a blot on this beautiful and unblemished landscape…It is also highly effective at capturing the wind because it replicates the work of a dam and doesn’t let the wind escape in the way it does using traditional propellers.”
via Inhabitat
Let’s Get Lost @ NWFF Oct. 26 – Nov. 1, Seattle, WA
Oct 25th
As long time Chet Baker fans, we can’t wait to view this one:
OCTOBER 26 – NOVEMBER 1, Fri – Thurs at 7 & 9:15pm
LET’S GET LOST
(Bruce Weber, USA, 1988, 35mm, 119 min)
In the 1950s, Chet Baker’s jazz trumpeting, edgy, intimate crooning and pretty boy good looks epitomized West Coast "cool."When famed photographer Bruce Weber caught up with him three decades later, time and drug addiction had ravaged his life and angelic beauty with deep valleys and crevasses. LET’S GET LOST artfully intercuts gorgeous black and white footage of the gaunt latter-day Baker, with images of the young jazz trumpeter in iconic 1950s early television and film appearances and photographs by William Claxton. Shot by Weber and cinematographer Jeff Preiss during what would turn out to be Baker’s final year, the film also includes interviews with friends, family, lovers and associates. This transfixing, bittersweet portrait of the jazz legend won the Critics’ Prize at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. Nearly 20 years since its premiere and nearly 15 since it has been seen in any medium, we’re pleased to present a brand new 35mm print of a recent restoration done by Weber himself.
"It’s the music doc as film noir, with a vampirish city-of-night gleam that suits the subject and his darkly romantic sound."-Jim Ridley, THE VILLAGE VOICE
OCTOBER 26, Fri at 7 & 9:15pm
NOT AVAILABLE ON VIDEO
Project7ten: NOW in Venice!
Oct 24th
Gonna miss this one, but let me know what y’all think…
Los Angelenos looking to continue their environmental education can head to Venice to take a tour of the recently completed LEED® Platinum certified Project7ten house, before it goes on sale to the highest bidder. Real estate developer Tom Schey (in conjunction with the A+D Museum’s “Enlightened Development” exhibition) is opening the doors of his environmentally conscious home to the public to raise awareness about simple everyday choices and green products that can lead to a healthier living environment. Throughout the month of October, locals and tourists alike are invited to tour the cutting-edge structure and catch a glimpse of the future of sustainable building—which in this case includes solar paneling, recycled materials and certified lumber for building, as well as reusable rain water irrigation systems, lower gas emissions, and more. Proceeds from the tours and the sale of the home will be donated to Healthy Child Healthy World, an organization dedicated to educating the public about environmental toxins that effect children’s health.
Project7ten
710 Milwood Avenue
Venice, CA
ph: 310.454.0290
Solar Decathlon Competition:
Oct 18th
This little house caught our attention yesterday when we heard about the Latest Solar Decathalon Competition in DC. Congrats, and lets all steal these ideas and put them to good use for one and all!
"When Cornell students David Wax, Emile Chin-Dickey, Stephanie Horowitz, Benjamin Uyeda, and Jordan Goldman set out trying to create an off-the-grid solar-powered home for the biennial Solar Decathlon Competition, little did they know that their efforts would launch their careers as gurus of Zero-Energy design. The Solar Decathlon, which is held on the mall in Washington DC every two years — and kicks off again tomorrow! — is a green design-build competition where student teams compete to see who can create the most energy efficient solar house. The Cornell students’ cleverly designed home was so smart and energy efficient that it took second prize in 2005’s prestigious competition, inspiring the group to start their own business dedicated to designing zero energy homes.
so many great recources here
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