Temporary diversion to different subject Marilene Oliver and Confusao

This weekend I have only had time to write one post and as it happened that was on another blog.   I recently heard a talk at Edinburgh Printmakers by a sculptor who works with MRI scanning technology.  I wanted to make some brief notes about my impressions of the talk and exhibition, but then found myself led along some very interesting paths to do with digital technology and how it is affecting our lives and consciousness - and every aspect of our world.  So here is my blog post in question... I will resume the main threads of this blog very soon. 

Marilene Oliver   Scan sculpture of "real person"

Marilene Oliver   A Melanix sculpture??

In her talk Marilene Oliver spoke mainly about the pieces on show, with emphasis on the MRI technology.  I would like to have heard her speak more about her general interest in digital technology and its relations to us.  In the catalogue she says that her original aim was to reclaim the body from the “medical and digital gaze” and retain human and embodied relationships.  At that stage she was working with clear and transparent materials, using screen printing and laser cutting.  The scans were of real people that she knew (her family) - “to offer a life-size, real- time encounter with digital copies of human body”.

In  2007 she started working  with a programme called Melanix.  This digital programme represents an anonymous body, in this case (like the artist) a woman, white, female, under forty.  It is a kind of  MRI  scan which could be “reformed and rematerialised  to suit Oliver’s changing ideas and impressions”.  Flesh can be virtually removed to expose bone and vein. She uses the term “Virtual leakage” – mixing the digital and the real in her sculptural objects, all created on the computer. 

Beautiful people in streets of Rio (my addition courtesy google)

But as an artist “who works to challenge Post Humanism”, Oliver embellished her sculptures with embodied techniques such as beading and weaving to “embody” the materialisations of Melanix. She has recently been living in Brazil, and spoke about the way of life there.  There is so much material there available as decoration (the carnival culture), so much focus on using the body for display and as means of expression. There are scanning shops on every corner in Rio, for example, and readily available plastic surgery to improve image and shape.

Now based in Angola, Oliver is rethinking the significance and symbolism of the scanning technology, as this  is rarely available in sub-Saharan Africa.  She is now using the Melanix model in the cultural context of Angolan values., Her work for the Edinburgh exhibition is a series of etchings showing the Melanix figure wearing elaborate hair braids or being  bitten by a giant mosquito, for example.

Marilene Oliver   Melanix and the mosquito

I found  the  work at this exhibition quite disturbing.  In spite of the rational technology, Oliver explores the dark and primitive spaces of mind and body, and the most basic level of our existence and identity.  But at the same time (perhaps this is not a contradiction)  she is exploring very contemporary and artificial media, using digital technology to explore the human body, and to how we relate to new media.  She quotes Hans Moravec   on how we need to “download our consciousness to the datascape in order to survive”.   Her work opens up many interesting questions and links to the subject of our relationship to the digital.

Some references to follow up:

Steve Nichols   Post Human Manifesto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman Pepperell's The Posthuman Condition Hayles's How We Became Posthuman

IsabelleVan Grimde   
Blog written by Oliver's sister/collaborator

Eco hero Howard Liddell

Plummerswood passive house, Scotland, Gaia architects

Glencoe Visitor Centre, Gaia architects

 
Sadly,  the world, the UK, and Scotland in particular has very recently lost a pioneering figure in ecological design and community planning.  Howard Liddell  (1945-2013) was a visionary and inspiring figure,  and his firm, Gaia, built many sustainable and revolutionary houses, and was involved in community projects both in Scotland and overseas . It is a very humbling experience to read the account of his life and achievements in the guardian obituary.  But it is also a very informative account of what has and can be achieved.

Eco houses -"a joy and a delight"

Well, yes, it would be nice to live in a house that heated itself and which kept its occupants comfortably warm at a very low cost.  In the UK  housing is responsible for 27% of the country's carbon emissions overall.  

Why do not more people build their own houses and ensure this level of comfort?  It is obviously an effort and many people do not want the inconvenience of this process.  Yet, according to the Radio 4 "Costing the Earth" programme tagged in my last blog, there is great interest in self-build.  Magazines, tv programmes and "Grand Design" fairs are very popular. 

Charlie Laing, of Charlie Laing Project Management (CLPM) works to manage self build projects so that the client can plan to get exactly what they require.  He says that the planning laws in the UK and too complicated, especially as applicants also have to deal with building regulations - a completely different department.  Finding land is also difficult.  Large areas are purchased by mass developers, so that the small plots left often have problems such as lack of access to utilities or a difficult site. An article by Patrick Collinson (Guardian 26.11.11) agrees that UK self build lags far behind all Western countries and that the reason is largely the complicated an d arbitrary planning situation.

Eco-technology is evolving rapidly and can seem unfamiliar, as well as unwieldy and complicated.  One of CLPM's projects uses an air source heat pump which circulates external and internal air, but which requires a huge buffer tank to heat the incoming air.  This tank and other equipment uses a whole room in the new house.

One solution is to form a group and share knowledge, as the Ashley Vale Action Group did (see previous post).  These buildings are built to high eco-standard.  In one example, described on the R4 programme, a solar conservatory heats the upstairs, and a woodburning stove is used partly for the underfloor heating. 
Members of this scheme stress that the basic structure of the house is far more important than visible features such as attractive kitchens, which can be added later when budget allows.

Other support groups or associated organisations are the Community Land Trust and The Self Build Portal 

The concept of a "passive house" is described on the radio programme by Mark Gillott, of the Institute of Sustainable Technology at Nottingham University.  At Nottingham a selection of houses has been built to test their energy-efficiency.  Air tightness membrane is installed to reduce draughts, and with good orientation, layout and insulation,  a house should almost heat itself.  A mechanical ventilation air recovery unit filters fresh air coming into the house.  Janet Cotterell has written the Passivhaus Handbook (with Adam Adeby) which provides practical guide to constructing the passive house.  

A building by Gaia Group Edinburgh

 
What the programme did not discuss is how the new technology affects the appearance of houses.  How much of our traditional building styles have become just styles?  Do we need slate roofs or brick build, for example? 

Houses as homes .... or investments?

Ashley Vale self build community, Bristol

 Looking back at recent posts, it is possible to point out that the Amsterdam projects are highly desirable houses for a few urbanites and only a minority can afford the luxury of beautiful and "alive" housing solutions, in Alexander's terms.  But to think in this way is simply to admit that, in the UK anyway, we give responsibility of housing to mass market developers.  In 2012 100,000 homes were built in the UK, but only 11870 were self-build.  Large companies have no long term interest in the houses they build.  These houses feature nice bathrooms and kitchens, but energy efficiency, structural longevity and air quality are not considered (1)  In Europe 50% of building stock is self-build, and in Austria as much as 80%.  

Large scale housing development

Our attitude to houses in the UK is another reason.  We tend to think of houses as commodities and steps on the property ladder, rather than long term homes.  The average length of occupancy is 7 years. There is also a lot of social pressure to accept the mass build housing as the norm - it is fresh and new and youthful.  So much depends what you want and expect from a house.  Do you want convenience, a smart inner and outer appearance which conforms to neutral social tastes?  So many of us do think of that as the only option because it is what is available.  But research shows it often does not provide the best living conditions in terms of lighting, space or air quality, let alone sustainability or best land use. 

A recent Radio 4 edition of  eco-programme "Costing the Earth" describes how we should reconsider our attitude to housing, and think of it in a much longer term way.  This would mean looking after the fabric of the building rather than simply updating utilities to increase its value, and having a greater stake in the house as a home, rather as Alexander suggests. Of course in a recession and in an era of high unemployment and a culture of job mobility, this is not always possible.

The Ashley Vale Action Group in Bristol (featured in the radio programme) is a self build scheme of individual houses. The group bought the plot near city centre in 2000 for £600,000.  It was large enough for 20 homes, and even with the building costs, the housing is affordable. Rather like the Amsterdam development, these houses are highly individual in style (see above photographs for a sample), and they are built to a high sustainable quality, which pushes the thermal performance of the buildings.  Membership of such a group is necessarily restricted to an older age group (who can sell their existing houses) or high earners, who can get mortgages.

(1)   "Architecture has been in danger, like our indefensibly mean and horrid housing, of becoming little than a commodity"  Jonathan Glancey  Guardian G2  13.02.12

Next post - more on energy efficient houses which are a joy to live in!


 

Christopher Alexander and the Timeless Way of Building

Housing in the Borneo Sporenburg development, Amsterdam

The first  of Christopher Alexander’s main texts, "The Timeless Way of Building" (1979) is  clearly derived from the earlier work described in my previous blogs.  He is fascinated by the patterns of our lives, the small habits that make up daily existence, how these patterns are associated with places and particular kinds of spaces, and how the life of a house or a place is “given to it by the quality of the events and situations we encounter there”.  Just as the constructive diagrams are made up of form and purpose, so the spirit of a place is composed of physical geometry and particular events.

Alexander maintains that the life of a building grows from the life of the inhabitants not from the principles of its construction. When this life is free and happy and honest,  it creates buildings and places where humans feel alive, natural and at home.  Such buildings possess the “quality without a name”, the indefinable but instantly recognisable quality of being at peace with itself and free from inner contradictions.  “When a person’s forces are resolved, it makes us feel at home, because we know .. that .. he acts according to the nature of the situations he is in, without distorting them.. and so we feel relaxed and peaceful in his company”

The Borneo Sporenburg complex of unusual and individual housing alongside the old docklands of Amsterdam is a good example of contemporary housing which is also intimate and comfortable.  Each building is different and sometimes outrageous, yet the whole effect is harmonious and satisfying.  The site is ideal, with wide skies and views of water on every side. 
 

Hand painted ceramic bowl from Tunisia (see more at end of post)

This idea is quite different from the modernist philosophy of “cool”, where emotions and irregularities are hidden in favour of flatness and surface.  It is also different from the elegant and unrealisable prototypes in interior design magazines.  Hurrah for that. It is therefore up to the individual to be honest about his or her likes and dislikes, and to allow his or her  “inner nature” to be reflected in patterns of life and personal choices.  Not always easy.  

And is Alexander’s philosophy itself unrealisable in our contemporary global world which is governed by the artificial creation of desire and possession of material objects which may bring status but little else in the way of satisfaction? One would certainly hope not and I hope to assess this issue as I read his works.

This is a hand made and hand painted dish from Tunis media.  It comes from the eastern town of Nabeul.  It has a beautiful glaze, colour and pattern.

 

Semir Zeki and response of brain to visual stimuli

Semir Zeki

Semir Zeki is a professor of neuroesthetics at University College, London.  He is well known for a lifetime's work in neuroscience and in particular for his research on the relationship between art and the physical brain.

At a current exhibition on Ice Age Art (British Museum, London) he is quoted as saying that our visual sense is much more primitive and much older than language, and that our response to visual stimuli is deeper, (and presumably often below the conscious radar). Language has become our primary means of communication, according to him (debatable..??)

I am including a short post on this topic now because I wonder if we also have a cortical response to inhabiting different kinds of space.   This relates to Christopher Alexander's later work on architecture:

The Timeless Way of Building (1979) described the perfection of use to which buildings could aspire:

"There is one timeless way of building. It is a thousand years old, and the same today as it has ever been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. It is not possible to make great buildings, or great towns, beautiful places, places where you feel yourself, places where you feel alive, except by following this way. And, as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form, as the trees and hills, and as our faces are".   quote from wikipedia

Here is a link to a blog about architecture and neuroscience

Architecture for Humanity

Cameron Sinclair

Christopher Alexander has developed a theoretically based approach to liveable design, based on observed human needs, and has consciously stepped out of the conventional architectural approach. Cameron Sinclair (b 1973), a British (US-based) architect has also diverged from the usual career aspiration of building a “jewel” of a building (his words) and works to improve basic living conditions and communities around the world by using the internet to liaise and link designers and users in areas which need temporary and low cost housing. Sinclair trained as an architect in the UK and New York, and became interested in social, cultural and humanitarian design, his postgraduate thesis focused on providing shelter to New York's homeless through sustainable, transitional housing (see wiki page).

 In 1999  his group responded to the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo by creating transitional long term housing.  This was the first project of the charity “Architecture for Humanity”.  He put a call out on the website and soon had hundreds of entries and ideas from around the world.  This approach has been the model of AFH since.  Sinclair has mobilised designers around the world via his website (and his small basic staff) to mobilise work on particular projects.

For example in 2001 there were 500 entries to design mobile health clinics in Africa, and after the Tsunami in 2005 he received 4000 e mails requesting help.  He became overwhelmed by interest in his work, and  he adopted an open source business model whereby designs could be freely accessed by anyone.  He also instigated local chapters with locally based designers working within the community.

Some examples of AFH’s work include Kenaf "edible" clinics,  mobile health clinics in outreach projects to treat Aids in Africa and  a community designed and built centre in India.  For more information watch Sinclair’s TED talk (2009).

Sinclair believes that  socially responsible design involves working with the community.  He now (2009) sees himself as a conduit between the designing and funding world, and is a passionate advocate for sustainable and imaginative housing.  If the housing problem is not addressed urgently, then, he says,  1 in 20 people will soon live in unplanned communities or refugee camps.  He wants to make AFH accessible to anyone with a laptop so that they can use, participate or review the design solutions.  Theory and planning is not enough, “we make change by doing it” – on the ground.