The Decliner

For his final student project at Rice University, Viktor Ramos presented structural forms of gigantic scale to depict how architecture could be used or grafted along the Oslo Accords to unite Israeli and Palestinian territory into one “continuous” entity within the West Bank.

The scope and implausible nature of the massive, snaking bridges darting in and out of the landscape denote the absurdity of attempting to create a rational, applicable solution to the partitioning of the region. You can access all of the project’s visual works here.

What is innovative about Ramos’s presentation, entitled The Continuous Enclave: Strategies in Bypass Urbanism,  isn’t simply the political and social statement, but also the proposition that partitioning can move beyond a “2-D” solution and project itself into the air, as if the West Bank barrier had been designed by some abstract artist to slice into the airspace above the two respective regions.

All else aside, Ramos presents a visually stunning study. Moreover, what makes his idea all the more meaningful, perhaps, is the fact that similar projects have been proposed seriously by others, such as the RAND Corporation: Behold, the RAND Corporation’s futuristic”Arc” solution to the West Bank partition:

The research team develop a detailed vision for a modern, high-speed transportation infrastructure, referred to as the Arc. This transportation backbone accommodates substantial population growth in Palestine by linking current urban centers to new neighborhoods via new linear transportation arteries that support both commercial and residential development.

The concept here is to create an infrastructure “corridor” that links urban population centers, serving as an artery of sorts for commercial activity, as well as basic necessities such as food, water, and energy. It’s not so much the technology involved that makes the project unusual, but rather the literal interpretation of creating two parallel, walled-off societies inhabiting the same region, and abiding by the physical requirements of Israeli and Palestinian territorial claims.

(Via BLDGBLOG)

I was rummaging through the Internet Archive’s video/documentary section the other day (I’m usually looking for bizarre PSAs about riding buses or making new friends), and I came across this interesting documentary by French director Claude Lelouch, entitled “Iran.”

At first, I thought that the notion of a travelogue film with no dialogue at all seemed dull, but it really is a very interesting piece of film. Some brief segments alone make it worth watching, such as a camel race, and revealing pieces of everyday life in what looks like Tehran and various other locations.

The film was released in 1971, and documents an interesting period in Iranian history — eight years before the Shah of Iran was overthrown, and the country’s government came under the control of the Ayatollah Khomeini. There is practically nothing to suggest what would later come in that decade for Iran here, the society depicted by this short film seems heavily influenced by the West (some serious polyester swinging 60’s action throughout). If you skip to 16:01, you can watch the Shah ride a horse in a white turtleneck. Or, go to 09:24, and watch a woman wearing what looks to be some sort of leather mask look through a microscope (I have no idea).

According to the Internet Archives, Lelouch shot six miles of footage to put together this nineteen minute film. The work was intended as a gift to the Shah’s wife, and sponsored by a multinational petroleum pipeline construction firm.

If you’re not inclined to watch the film, you can also look through a photo album put together from shots throughout the documentary here.

There is certainly no shortage of feelings of “I told you so” in hearing that the glitzy “Las Vegas of the Middle East,” Dubai (or Dubai City), has hit a wall with the global recession. Dubai has been both admired for its rampant growth and wild building projects (such as The World), as well as reviled for its unflinching promotion of the superficial: gated communities of mini-mansions, exclusive hotels, and an endless club and party culture.

Still, it’s important not to be too premature in claiming that Dubai is done for. It’s true, many of the construction projects seem to have ground to a halt and property prices have taken a real hit, but there is still plenty of capital in the emirate. The problem is, of course, that Dubai’s growth is pinned to the disposable incomes of the upper echelons of international society, as well as the elite circles of its oil-rich neighbors, and both have been hit all at once.

There is a good clip from DW-TV currently posted on smashing telly! (below) — and a scathing article to go along — documenting the deteriorating financial situation in Dubai. Recently, we have begun to hear stories of hundreds of abandoned cars in the lots surrounding Dubai’s international airport, as service sector employees and others affected by the declining situation flee to avoid their creditors, and potential jail time. Most of these individuals have been those with the fewest ties to Dubai, “guest workers” that thought it better to flee with whatever cash was at hand and abandon their property for a return home.

The commentary posted on smashing telly! makes good, though ultimately shallow points: Yes, Dubai is based on the promotion of “pleasure travel” and in attracting the attention of the over-privileged, but it also happens to be a hub of finance and trade spurring other growth in the area, not simply an endless row of hotels. And while the concept of an insta-city might not be to everyone’s liking, to dismiss the ingenuity that has sprouted in what was once a modest trading port is shortsighted.

What Dubai does lack is a clear project to spread its wealth down, as its concept of growth is still based on ideas promoted by the UAE’s insulated royal family. Hopefully, the current slowdown may serve as a reminder that a country, or an emirate, can’t simply be built from the top down.

Is there an individual in your life that needs to be irretrievably removed from your memory? Have traditional memory wipes simply not done the job?

If so, ScanCafe has introduced a clever terrifying creepy illegal new service just in time for Valentine’s Day that will allow you to insert our commander-in-chief into all your personal images.

Share an intimate laugh with him at your wedding altar, take a brisk bike ride down a scenic park trail, or just stay in, watch a movie and order some takeout.

Note: this will add your name to an FBI watch-list:

(Via WalletPop)

What happens when you install 15 floors of flawed rebar? This:

The rumors were that Norman Foster’s new hotel building in Las Vegas had been downsized due to shrinking investment pools and financing, but, no, it was actually just a massive construction error.

Then again, were the economy stronger (particularly in Las Vegas, where the housing bubble burst was huge) the levels might have been rebuilt. Instead, the design will now attain stump-level height:

Topping out at 28 stories instead of the proposed 49, the incredible shrinking Harmon seems unfortunately fated to look like a stubby, squashed stepchild next to its soaring CityCenter siblings, the 61-story Aria Resort & Casino and the 57-story Vdara condo-hotel.

Another interesting (unrelated) Norman Foster-related news item: he is to to be “expelled” from his seat in England’s House of Lords.

Under new rules (probably related to the Lords for Hire scandal, maybe?) any seat occupied by a non-resident will result in the expulsion of said Lord. Foster became a Swiss resident to avoid British taxes last year. To be fair, it’s also possible that he moved simply because of his existing ties with the country, as reported earlier:

“I love Switzerland. I live there for the quality of life . . . my children go to school there,” he said. “The vineyards in that area are just so beautiful and the countryside is so incredible.”

Time for a sweeping change of his stationary?

Hypertext fiction, or hypercomics, is a variation of the traditional comic, where content is essentially mashed up and fragmented, allowing for a multitude of different outcomes. Non-linear comics and visual narratives are pretty popular right now — Dinosaur Comics is one good example.

A lot of these comics seem to have emerged as a result of the overwhelming multitude of stock images and meme-like elements floating around on the web.

The comic below was created by Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, a comic creator based out of St. Albans, England, and is a good example of the repeating single-frame type of comic that is also popular now (like Red Meat by Max Cannon):

One of Goodbrey’s best known experiments, UK-001, was based on his own “Tarquin engine,” which is a flash-based application that allows a user to zoom in/out of comic panes and create an ongoing canvas.

Hypercomics border on the nonsensical sometimes, though they work well as a reactionary type of expression. This sort of collaborative project (UK-001) results in a pretty crazy collection of disjointed narratives, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is any less legitimate of a comic than one with a single, linear plot. Just the reverse, it seems as though the flexibility to abandon a rigid plot enables a lot of creativity.

Resiste un Archivo, which translates literally to “An Archive Resists,” or  “An Archive Remains,” is a website devoted to documenting some of the televised material seen in Argentina, from the late 1970’s and into the 1990’s.

Beyond some truly eccentric pop culture, the most interesting material comes from the seventies and into the early eighties, which is when the military dictatorship or “proceso” was at its prime in the country — the period now referred to as the Guerra Sucia, or “Dirty War.”

One of the most iconic televised moments during this period occurred when Argentina hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1978. The dictatorship of General Videla had been under increasing international scrutiny, as news of the brutal repression of political dissidents had begun to leak out. In response, the military government made every effort to portray the country in the best possible light, and to use the event to unify the nation with patriotic fervor.

To showcase the best technology that Argentina had to offer at the time, the government carried out project A78TV (Argentina 78 TV), an elaborate broadcasting program to televise all games live, and in color throughout the world (while domestic aerial broadcasts remained in black and white).

The video below is a collection of different segments: live footage of the televised games, commercials that aired during that time celebrating the games and A78TV’s accomplishments, and others taken from the now infamous film, La Fiesta de Todos — “A Celebration for All.”

La Fiesta de Todos was a film released in 1979, which documented the celebration of the World Cup, and Argentina’s victory in those games. Over the years, the movie has been heavily criticized for its complicity in the dictatorship’s propaganda program, portraying the country as unified and “festive” during a time when it was anything but.

The next video was a commercial funded by the government, which aired in the months leading up to the World Cup. The premise of this advert was to promote good behavior among Argentinians, as international travelers arrived in the capital, Buenos Aires, to attend the games:

A young man chases after two foreign men (Dutch, I believe) to return their belongings, while the commentator declares “This young man has just scored a goal for Argentina. In this World Cup, we must all score goals such as this one,” while the slogan at the end remarks “Let us show the world what Argentinians are like.”

You can imagine that, even if the public might have been unaware of the darker connotation of this commercial on the day that it aired, that is certainly not the case today. The clip’s title reads “Brutal Honesty“:

Since 1985, when Radio Marti was established by the Reagan administration, the U.S. government-funded station has been transmitting over short and medium-wave to the Island of Cuba.

Transmitters in Delano, California and Greenville, North Carolina broadcast shows meant to promote democracy in the island nation (is that working?), though the signal in Havana is generally jammed by the communist government.

Signals for Radio Marti are also carried by U.S. aircraft flying in the vicinity of Cuba, a practice which was declared illegal by the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2007:

“A radio broadcasting station that functions on board an aircraft and transmits only to the territory of another administration without its agreement cannot be considered in conformity with the radio communications regulations.”

In retaliation, Cuba broadcasts English-language radio programming directed at the United States (the signal also reaches Europe and South America) via Radio Havana Cuba. The broadcast is now also available on-line. Listening casually one will hear a comprehensive coverage of world news and cultural/educational programs — though the station never misses an opportunity to call into question American foreign policy, or take jabs at the U.S. government (sometimes, they also transmit intelligence code signals). The continuing U.S. embargo over the country, for example, is constantly mentioned.

The effectiveness of Radio Marti was recently called into question by the GAO (Government Accountability Office), which calculated that of Cuba’s 11 million inhabitants, few report ever tuning in:

…the best available research suggests that Radio and TV Marti’s audience is small. Specifically, less than 2 percent of respondents to telephone surveys since 2003 reported tuning in to Radio or TV Marti during the past week.

Considering the level of indoctrination that Cubans undergo on a daily basis, it’s not entirely surprising that few of them would be interested in tuning in to yet another politically charged station.

TV Marti, on the other hand, might see greater success by buying space on broadcasts picked up by DirecTV, which are regularly pirated by Cubans, despite the government’s persistent efforts to prevent the practice.

Would you like to be popular? Of course you would! — unless there is something wrong with you?

Among the many lessons here: Zest for living is, apparently, a factor in being popular.

From the video:

Not all of us can be in the winner’s circle, but we can do our part, and thereby gain the acceptance, respect and appreciation of other people.

Also, please note the significant gender distinctions involved with becoming popular. Disclaimer: Some of these may strike you as outmoded…

Textbook publishers might be trembling in fear at this prospect:

smARThistory.org is a free multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional and static art history textbook.

What began as a blog created by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, featuring lively audio guides for use in New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is now a dynamic online resource for art history students. Using both the traditional content of your average textbook, they expand on this by adding podcasts, video, and ever expanding image pools via flickr.

Our podcasts and screen-casts are spontaneous conversations about works of art where we are not afraid to disagree with each other or art history orthodoxy. We have found that the unpredictable nature of discussion is far more compelling to our students (and the public) than a monologue.

The result is a huge resource for art students, as well as the internet at large. Content can currently be browsed by artist, by period, style, as well as “themes,” or groupings which are practical to anyone following a traditional lesson plan.

With the kind of cutbacks that universities and colleges are facing at this point, having resources like smarthistory could make a real difference. More than that, it is websites such as this one that tie together what is otherwise a garble of information on the web, and give it a truly useful, navigable format.