2003.08.17 23:37
to see in Philly
Kahn's project for the Philadelphia College of Art was never executed, and the Mill Creek Housing project was demolished last year. There is the quondam Ahavath Israel Synagogue, Kahn's first indepedent building (1935), a couple blocks west of North Broad Street--the facade was redone sometime 2000, however. Erdman Hall, the dormitories at Bryn Mawr College, were just renovated 2002. Richard's Medical Towers still at UofP and still looking good. There's lots more obscure early Kahn in the Philadelphia area, kinda like going on a treasure hunt.
By far, there is more Venturi et al architecture in and around Philadelphia than anyplace else on the planet. Ditto for the architecture of Mitchell/Giurgola.
The Venturi, Scott Brown & Assoc. Philadelphia Orchestra Hall was never executed. Vinoly did the 'replacement' Kimmel Center though.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art Duchamp Collection is indeed the largest in the world. Try finding Etant Donnes' Back Door while you're there.
Kahn proposed marriage to Esther Israeli at the Rodin Museum. Don't miss the Gates of Hell as you go in!
Legend has it that Benjamin Franklin famously flew his kite just east of what is now Ridge Ave. and Buttonwood St. Pretty derelict place right now, but there is a electrical substation just down the street.
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2003.08.19 21:40
Locus Focus: "Hyperrealisms"
Pick your own realism tangent?
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2003.08.23 13:34
Re: calendars of space, time, place
Somewhere in the first book of Joseph and His Brothers, Thomas Mann writes several pages comparing and contrasting lunar and solar based calendars, calling out that it is an old, old [hi]story amounting to a kind of interweaving of the two.
I like the solar based calendar because of the equinoxes and the solstices (and the seasons thus engendered in between). If I became interested in a/the lunar calendar, I would be inclined to look for somewhat steady oscillating/periodic changes in gravitational pull (or something like that--who knows).
Of late, I more see (my 'brand' of) "calendrical coincidence" like a somewhat large mnemonic structure/house comprised of 365.25 rooms, one 'room' for each full planetary spin as the planet itself makes one full rotation around the sun. Many different 'events' get sorted into these individual rooms based on the day first, and then by the year second (you could say)--historical events, saints days, Holy and Holidays, personal events, etc. I'm realizing it is interesting to "remember" history in this manner, where, instead of 'analyzing' events by decade or quarter or half century (for example), analysis is done by (a) specific day (cutting through all [solar] years).
[Chronosomatics--The Timepiece of Humanity, the calendar incarnate--very much sees the design of the human body as the ur-mnemonic structure of human history. I won't get into this now; I just wanted give "calendrical coincidence" further specific (to me) context.]
This past Thursday and Friday I've been putting together an inventory list of the artwork I've produced since 1983 (when I coincidentally also learned CAD). Early on I started dating my work at least down to the day completed, and I almost always did this since. [So far the number of physical titled works is between 200 and 300, whereas the virtual/digital works are of a sort of potentially anything number.] Ultimately, this inventory will be calendrically "mnemonified" at www.museumpeace.com.
Perhaps the same questions can be asked of any calendrical system, i.e., what are the signifiers? And what, if anything, is the significance of signifiers that coincide?
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