Our SeeSeeTV video was the first video to be submitted to the pool, and we were delighted to see it included into the final Frieze mix. The clip was aired on Channel Four as part the Three Minute Wonder series. The end result are a series of videos that are chaotic, uneasy and disturbing.

As one curious viewer put it, “I caught this at the end of the news tonight on C4. I had to find it again. There will be complaints. I don’t know whether I think it’s good or not. It’s certainly visceral.”

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Earlier on in the month Balkrishna Doshi gave an insightful, elequoent talk on his career, his works and a glimpse into his life in Ahmedabad, India. He talked about his own take on the future of a locally-empowered sustainable architecture, what he calls ‘Glocal’ - of looking at philosophies already developed in certain communities and localities, looking at the availablility and appropriatness of resources and , rather than dictating, to empower people themselves to create.

Doshi also spoke fondly on working with Corbusier and Louis Kahn, both of whom have built prominent buildings on the Indian sub-continent. Of his own works, he spoke of the CEPT (the school of architecture in Ahmedabad he founded) as well as his own studio that plays host to various happenings and gatherings.

A few of pics from Ahmedabad below - Doshi’s Studio, CEPT / School of Architecture (Doshi), Gufa (Doshi), Indiam Institute of Management (Louis Kahn) and Textile Mill Owner’s Association (Corbusier):

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Interesting swirly model at Metropolitan Workshop’s shopfront.

During a design meeting between the architects Herzog & de Meuron and the reps of Tate Modern, the designers of the new gallery found themselves cornered by a client who insisted on a more prominent position for their retail shop. The architects inevitably fought and lost. Today as head down to Level 1 of the Tate Modern, the escalator provides a clear view of the inviting shop below and you are almost thrust into it as you land on the floor below.

These retail outlets provide a much sought-after means of generating revenue for under-funded galleries, museums and institutions that it is no surprise that they are crucial for their survival. Besides shopping is everywhere, as Rem Koolhaas concluded “the phenomenon of shopping has swallowed the world, making museums and malls and hotels all part of a single chaotic whole.”

I for one, love musesum shops. In fact, they’re probably one of the places where I truly enjoy spending time in at most museums. Following, say hours of, obeying strict rules, signs and being constantly kept an eye on by bored and overeager security guards, the sheer joy of being let loose in the (almost) uncontrolled environment is thrilling. Being able to actually touch and handle something in a museum is fantastic. If fact, not just touch, but to sniff and lick.

In terms of actual merchandise, museum shops don’t just sell the usual riff-raff, they generally sell things they feel are special, quirky, and well designed. Often, the stock in the shops change as often as the exhibitions whilst continuously reflecting and taking advantage of the interest that certain events/exhibitions might have generated. And of course, the retail outlets allow for the rest of the museum will never do - to own and actually take home a piece

if you could only live my life for one night, you would see how great it is… it makes you feel so great, it makes you smile…it makes you feel you don’t need to talk to people to feel affectionate towards them….

its a chaotic thing. it manipulates you.

no, its the opposite… it brings it all together - for a moment.

Image Credit: Imageatlas.

It seems the Chinese government has decided to create several ‘Protest Pens’ in order to allow people to demonstrate in far away public parks, during the upcoming Olympics.
But how far will these zone go to provide at least some sort of freedom…

…can they hold elections within the pens? …maybe announce China’s first freely elected official? …maybe write the declaration for a free Tibet?…maybe the protesters can redraw the Chinese map - a free Tibet, an independent Taiwan…? …allow uncensored Internet access?

Unfortunately, these protest pens may actually work to Chinese government’s advantage as it allows them to them to control the protests to a certain extent… But how far will they go to flip the zones around and actually take advantage of it…

…Maybe create a database of protesters who use the pens?   Who are they, where do they live, what are they protesting about…. maybe monitor their movements? … Perhaps its all a shrewed move to attract the troublesome demonstrators in one place - Use the pens as bait, allow the Olympics to finish and conveniently convert these pens into prisons (with the protesters already inside)?

Rate our and many other entries for the Hugo Boss Say It/Spray it contest.

Anonymous protest outside the Church of Scientology, Tottenham Court Road, London.
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Snap of the FREEState’s shopfront at Goodge Place, London.

A drive-by shot of the new John Lewis store in Leicester by Foreign Office Architects. A few more (better) snaps here.

Sitting on a chair is totally unsuited to the human physiognomy. The chair traps the sitter, making him vegetative, slowing down bodily processes and functions. It restricts the skeletal muscles and the lungs. The leg muscles are relieved in favour of the buttock muscles, which becomes chronically tense, while the back muscles are weakened, skewing the natural dynamics of the body. The pelvis ceases to exert stability on the hip joints, the spinal cord loses its elasticity, and the head sits badly, balanced on slouched shoulders. To adopt such an unhealthy posture seems paradoxcial, and yet it has become the signature of Western civilisation, a permanent and indispensable part of the daily life.

By Margit Emesz, Take a Seat - Published for the exhibition Next Time I’m Here, I’ll Be There by Hans Schabus at The Curve, Barbican Art Gallery (London) between 1st March 2008 to 1st June 2008.

Flight BA0118, Bangalore to London Heathrow, taken 11:14am 10th April 2008.

The Architectural Association has a comprehensive online version of it’s end of year show allowing you to whizz through the year’s work - from the foundation year to the graduate courses. View it here.

More recently, RIBA announced winners of the President’s Medal Students Awards. Their dedicated website has the winning projects as well as all the other nominated entries.

Here are a few snaps from this summers Antony Gormley’s exhibition/installation at the Hayward Gallery and the South Bank.

The latest installtion from Gromley - the Blind Light - is a vapour filled glass box that dizzies and disorients. With almost zero visibility, it is calming and cool yet curiously scary the heavy fog overwhelms your vision white with blindness. Visitors cautiously roam the space, occassionaly bumping into each other and all too often using the permiter wall to provide a reassuring support, a sense of direction.

Some stunning photographs from the Guardian here.

As part of the Event Horizon, 31 casts of Gormley were scattered across the South Bank skyline. All eliery watching over the city, though some looking dangerously close to being jumpers:

Elsewhere in the gallery spaces…

A series of steel wire sculptures further explores the artist’s interest in the human body. More from Gormley’s website here.

This year’s RCA exhibition found itself split in two parts - the artists (who stayed in the main building on the campus) and the designers who were packed into a tent across the road in Hyde Park. Here are a few snaps from both.

The architecture department is surprisingly small with only 20 or so students (most London schools have 100+ students per postgraduate course).
Headed by Nigel Coates, here is the schools ethos and arragement in their own words…

“Rather than simply evolving the norms of architecture style, our students design spaces that work in a dynamic way with what happens in them. Each of this year’s three Architectural Design Studios (ADS) has also put forward a theme that relates the physical form of the city to prevailing ethical issues. For example with Taglia Unica, ADS1 is asking what kind of architecture stems from the contradictions inherent in globalisation, and proposes a number of global programmes along the Thames; ADS2’s Delirious Hi-rise speculates on the effect that brands might have on specific typologies of high-rise architecture; and in response to the government SOCRA exclusion zone around Parliament, with War ADS4 explores how to accommodate the kind of highly specific communities that may want to live in this area.”

Elsewhere in the tent, the vehicle designers had the usual futuristic super-smooth aero-dymaic cars. However, the star of the show was a full-sized helicopter - impressive indeed. From the furniture designers, David Sutton, had an impressive set of bowls that were “digitally recreating the fractal growth patterns of natural phenomena such as lightning and snowflakes” (from Dezeen).

In the main building the artists showcased some of the usual splashes of paint, though the photographers possibly stole the show this year. Here are some of my favourites.

Hyan-Ah Cho with stunning shots of natural settings:

Patricia Chan with Seven days of Light Theraphy:

Simon Ward with some scaryish-scanned teddies:

You can see and read a bit more at the RCA 2007 online catalogue, whilst the photography graduates have a dedicated website here.

India works in mysterious ways. I am sure most visitors to the country would have interesting tales of their experiences with Indian methods of getting things done.

One of the most baffling encounters I had was with a vending machine - not just any ordinary vending machine, but a manned vending machine. I approached it with an intent of buying one of the magazines that stood in the spiral-shelves. However, before I could put my money in the cash slot a friendly soul asked me what I would like. He had a badge and uniform (of sorts) and this being an airport, I assumed he had some authority and I told him of my request. Upon hearing my selection he took my money and typed in the selection number for my choice. We both watched the spirals turn and the magazine drop (along with my jaw). He then proceeded to open the vending machine door to reveal to the internal mechanics and a small container of cash notes/coins from which he gave me my change - he also helpfully handed me the magazine from the collection drawer.Surely the machine was broken, I thought, and this was not a normal way of working a vending machine? Assuming the machine was broken, I was still amazed that an engineer hadn’t just come to fix it - and that you would actually have a person (full-time???) to stay besides the machine to serve the customers. But the machine wasn’t broken, and upon further investigation I realised that many vending machines in India seem to be manned. The vending machine had an attendant constantly seeing to the customers. At the end of the day he emptied the cash and went home. This, of course, is ineffect no different than a guy selling magazines stack on a shelf. Surely the whole point of a vending machine was that there was no need for someone to attend to it? But this being India, this is how it works.

During my week long stay, I began to notice other extraordinary uses for the humble human:

The swanky Leela Palace Hotel in Bangalore seems to have human-sign posts standing in the middle of their entry road, just past the entry gate. The two “signers” stood back to back, pointing oncoming traffic to either side of the road. They were in no way actually guiding traffic (a separate individual took care of that)- rather each of the two seemed responsible for just pointing - though, of course they did this a bit more animatedly than an inanimate sign.

The ticket machines at car park entrances seem to also be another popular gadget that requires old fashioned elbow-grease. An operative stands guard at the gate with his sole duty to press the enter/issue button, pull out the ticket from the machine and hand it over to the car driver ( less than 2 feet away).

So why on earth would you go to such extremes to use man power…? Could the vending machine be left unattended and allow the customers to help themselves, could the drivers not push the button and pull out their own tickets and could you not just have a sign pointing to the side of the road you should be on?

An Indian friend pointed out that in the case of the vending or ticket machine many Indian customers may not be familiar with them and that there’s a small possibility of them becoming confused, possibly breaking them. In India, he pointed out, it would probably cost a small fortune to fix these machines. And in the case of the “signers” – they are more visible so probably less likely to be hit/damaged by erratic drivers than any signs that may need replacing/repainting every so often. And of course, the human-helpers in India are versatile as well as cheap - the “signers” could sweep the road, give directions if need be and would probably dodge any car that maybe haplessly heading towards them.

India faces an interesting paradox. When its rapid progress inevitably meets the readily available source of cheap labour, it fails to change or move forward as one might expect - it fails to work in what we might consider a ‘conventional’ manner. It works in extremes of embracing technological change whilst being unable to let go of its age old ways of getting things done. However, this land of extremes adapts easily to extremes - and will continue to embrace what comes its way whilst making it work its own way.

As I was shoved into a corner by my fellow Londoners on the tube the other day, I noticed a new poster in the Picaddilly line carriage. The work by artist Nils Norman is an adaptation of the above-ground poster that highlights the tourist attractions at ground level. It emcompases “a series of unrealised and fantastical buildings and systems alongside other artists’ unrealised proposals for London… a vision of London as an ecological haven inhabitated by Utopian and Dystopian machinery…”

Amongst the cornecoplia of buildings that transform overground London are Super Studio’s white-tiled block and Ron Herron’s Walking City:

PDF of the poster, from Thin Cities site by the Transport for London.

Hello… Hello… Hello…!