Look, See

4. Comet Hyakutake

 

 

Comet Hyakutake (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

 

 

 

 

2. Review by Donald Judd

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Restoration spectacular

 

 

Restoration spectacular (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

 

 

 

 

1. Review by Donald Judd

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kenneth Baker on Christopher Alexander

 

 

Kenneth Baker has written a two-part article in the SF Chronicle and architect and retired UC Berkeley Professor of Architecture Christopher Alexander and his four volume work, The Nature of Order. Book 1 is titled The Phenomenon of Life, Book 2 is The Process of Creating Life, Book 3 is A Vision of a Living World, and Book 4 is The Luminous Ground.

Part 1 of Baker's article is Architect starts with idea that space makes life possible. Are you ready to have all that you know challenged?, and Part 2 is To be a good builder, you need a feel for what surrounds you. Christopher Alexander knows.

From Part 1:

In a nutshell, Alexander proposes that life is not merely in space but of it, an idea of potentially momentous force for critique and improvement of the built environment. "The idea that one part of space might have relatively more life, and another relatively less life," he writes, "and the idea that this distinction would not be based on the presence of biological organisms but might instead be inherent in the space itself according to its structure -- would challenge our beliefs about the world to the very roots." Alexander has sufficient scientific background to take his argument all the way and propose that the nature of space accounts for the occurrence of any life whatsoever in the universe.

 

As in earlier books, Alexander suggests that builders and artists in traditional societies frequently possessed the kind of knowledge he has rediscovered and tried to reconcile with science's world picture. He boldly contends in Vol. 4 of "The Nature of Order" that his rediscoveries about the deep connection between life and space have made possible -- and always will -- buildings and other human creations that mirror a self-like quality of the universe as a whole, which some spiritual traditions call God.

From Part 2:

"Speaking as a builder," Alexander said, "if you start something, you must have a vision of the thing which arises from your instinct about preserving and enhancing what is there. ... If you're working correctly, the feeling doesn't wander about. If you have a feeling-vision of the thing -- a painting, a building, a garden, a piece of a neighborhood -- as long as you're very firmly anchored in your knowledge of that thing, and you can see it with your eyes closed, you can keep correcting your actions. ... It's not a question of holding onto every little detail, but of holding onto the feeling."

 

To skeptics of his methods he offers the following analogy: "There are some geologists involved with prospecting for oil and other hidden resources," he said, "who can pick up a rock and say, 'yes, there's oil under there.' A geologist who has been studying those kinds of rocks for 10 or 20 years is able to make that pronouncement. It isn't necessarily right, because we're all prone to error, but at least it's about something real -- whether that structure's there. That geologist has simply learned enough about the structure so that his ability to detect whether it's present or not is above average. It's really like that for the things I'm writing about, whether we're talking about artifacts from other times and cultures or whether it's a question of studying your own work and trying to determine whether you're going in the right direction. It's always this hopefully informed judgment about structure. If I'm working with clients, I try to bring them into that way of seeing things as far as I possibly can."

 

 

 

 

2. Adriaen van der Donck

 

 

Adriaen van der Donck (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

 

 

 

 

1. Radhanite

 

 

Radhanite (*), 2006, HTML, 340 x 220 pixels

 

 

 

 

Wilson Pickett 1-10

 

 

Wilson Pickett 1-10, 2006, HTML, 460 x 460 pixels each

Left to Right, Top to Bottom:

1. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
2. I'm A Midnight Mover
3. Funky Broadway
4. She's Lookin' Good
5. Sugar Sugar
6. 634-5789
7. Land of 1000 Dances
8. Engine Number 9
9. A Man and a Half
10. Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)

What do I need to say about this series? It's about Wilson Pickett, March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006. It's about groovin' and movin'. I defy you to listen to Land of 1000 Dances and not sing along. I challenge you to listen to Funky Broadway and not move your feet. I doubt you can listen to his version of the bubble gum song Sugar Sugar and not feel full of the sweetest love for someone. You can't listen to Engine Number 9 and not feel... nasty. 634-5789 will make you take your hand off the wheel and clap your hands.

I left Mustang Sally off the list. And I stopped at ten. But there's much more there in the songbook. These drawings are just a l'il thang. Better to just listen to Wilson.

 

 

 

 

10. Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)

 

 

Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do), 2006, HTML, 460 x 460 pixels

 

 

 

 

9. A Man and a Half

 

 

A Man and a Half, 2006, HTML, 460 x 460 pixels