Bedford Workshop submittals

Here's what I submitted for the Berlin^Hamburg trip... I'm not sure if I'm actually scared for myself. I think I'm more afraid for Eric and Marissa. I still don't know when we'll find out... but hopefully soon. [ahhh! and what will I do about work? I'm pretty sure Norris won't be so happy...]

Essay:

The chance to travel with the Bedford Initiative will only feed my disease. The disease all architecture students share. We crave knowing, knowing through interaction and engagement. We want to know what is out there, who they are, how they work, where they go… it’s a defeating, crippling problem. Sitting behind desks for thirty-six hours, we dream up small worlds, dialogues, people and their stories, we are constantly searching for meaning and purpose. I’ve tried to escape. I have tried to leave this dense, tangled field of dreams and shadows, but all I keep finding are paths that loop right back around to the interests involved when I started.

Every semester begins defining itself with my head clouded in the dreams of some other discipline: music, linguistics, sculpture, fashion, marine biology, astronomy. Looking through my diaries, they are laden with lists.  I have yet to fully engage in architecture during my time-off from school, but I don’t think this is a bad thing. It must be next to impossible for someone to be completely trapped within the field of architecture. Just look at how it is practiced: we only hover over drawings, or somewhere deep inside computer-space. Our delicate work is reduced to a two-dimensional plane, only to be brought to life by a team of brawny construction workers. Our days are spent dreaming of spaces that do not belong to us: train station benches, hospital beds, and apartments not our own. So what happens when we leave the desk? When we turn off the world that is growing inside us?

For some, the escape may be in a “busy-work” hobby like model aircraft making, scrapbooking, or playing Scrabble. For others, it involves grabbing a drink with friends, escaping your own mind for a bit and learning about life through someone else’s lens. Many of my interests are flighty – they come and go in a matter of months. Sometimes I believe I have something I can latch onto and float away from this day-dreaming world of architecture, and then I am pulled back down to the Greene Building. The thing that gives me true inspiration is interaction with other people. My class here is a big, dysfunctional family, and I have come to enjoy sharing this open atmosphere with all the people I meet. My experience in Italy, at the Politecnico di Torino in 2009, gave me a friendship I will never forget, and someone who I still keep in contact with despite the distance. Ever since I have returned, my roommates and I have hosted a study abroad student, and have created lasting bonds. I now have places to stay if I ever visit Poland or India. And it’s not only the international friendship I seek. This semester I have started a repertoire with the Rensselaer Astrophysical Society. They are helping me figure out the needs of astronomers for my studio project and in turn, I am teaching them how we understand “space” in architecture.

It is such an inspiring and worthwhile endeavor to engage with the language of people from different backgrounds than my own. As Benjamin Whorf knew, the language we inhabit can re-shape the world around us, but it also sets the boundaries to what we can understand. The small, idiosyncratic details I see as an architecture student are very different from what astronomy or music students experience in their daily lives. I believe it is through dialogue that we broaden our knowledge, and satiate our thirst as architectural human beings. Here, miscommunication is a beautiful thing. It is an important facet of the human experience to learn from; to re-discover what was meant by another person can provide grounds for life-long exploration. Questioning the meaning of the life-work of people from other disciplines, can inspire us to develop a fervent search of our own. I am still waiting to discover what will be my undeniable, intellectual crux. Until then, I am diseased with the burden of the search.

2. Related Courses:

-          Cultural Anthropology, Spring 2011 – [Professor Michael Fortun] studying the human species in its many diverse forms, using comparative analysis and interpretation to examine a variety of societies on many scales, across the globe

o    special focus of my research in this class has been in linguistics/ language

-          Analogical Models II: Contemporary Art Theory and Practice, Spring 2011 – [Professor Anthony Titus] this course is about understanding how conceptual thinking in different forms of practice/ crafts can have a profound influence on one another, it is about learning to be critical of the different forms of representation that are presented in artistic endeavors and also being able to understand and critique works in the field of architecture in a self-referential way, as well as through the lens of other disciplines

o    my particular research in this class is focused on comparing architecture, fashion, and physics – how these three disciplines have uniquely shaped an understanding of “space”

-          Design Development, Fall 2010 – [Professors Demetrios Comodromos and Jefferson Ellinger]

o   my project was a critique of UN Studio’s competition entry for a “Newer” Orleans

-          PIP Studio, Spring 2010 – [Professor Michel Oatman] participated in the first student-run exhibition to be held at EMPAC, Blindfield. This course is also significant because it was a cross-disciplinary studio in which EMAC and arts students from RPI were embedded within the School of Architecture’s studio environment.

o   Particular responsibilities included: being a member of the “sound group” and learning from arts students about acoustics software and equipment, as well as being  a part of the spatial layout team in the final stages of design

-          Writing, Spring 2010 – [Professor Ken Denberg] this course was taken as an elective to improve my verbal communication skills, the course also covered the basics of layout design. The focus was on producing research documents and communicating the findings in both written and oral presentation form.

o   My projects included: researching the relationship between sound and image, the process of book-binding and printing, and developing a traveling social mechanism within the city of Troy for the purpose of bringing local culture to both the downtown region, as well as to the campus

3.          - c

Architecture, Class of 2012

GPA: 3.55/4.00

berlin^hamburg trip

Why do I want to go to Berlin? Why is it so hard for me to do things until right before the deadline these days? When I made my portfolio for Rome I at least slept the night before it was due... and my essay... THAT was done well before I submitted it. Why is this one so hard? 

winding up

Writing because I can't focus on studio... for some reason having class from 2-6 tends to prevent me from working whole-heartedly during this time. It's true that I work hardest when then sun is down. Most of the time I spend awake, I'm yawning and looking for coffee. The night brings on some new life in me - I do work, I socialize, I'm just more active in general - maybe this is a new development in my generation? I'm not sure if it's just architecture...

Ahh, what;s left to do this semester? I know there is a ton I need to accomplish in the next three weeks. DBell has stacked our Thursdays with redlining, reviews, and submissions. Here's the break-down:

- final quizzes in Anthropology + Ecology [next week, Thurs/Fri]
  - Ecology presentation... [day?]

- visit to Dudley Observatory [tomorrow, Thurs April 21st]

- final projects for Sensory Culture [sometime over the next few weeks...]
  - also final project in Titus's elective, Thurs May 12th

- Studio final deadlines:
  - Thurs April 29th - all plans at 1:16 scale for individual redlining
  - Thurs May 5th - FINAL board layouts
  - Fri May 13th - Final Project Review

- sometime during finals week: Ecology exam
- Annotations #5, 6,7 due by May 9th

There is soo much to do! I should definitely start completing my work for Anthropology and Titus's elective THIS WEEKEND. If not, I'll have aloooottt due the final week of school - and at least in those two classes, there are definitive projects to be submitted. As far as Ecology goes, I think we are still waiting to learn the details of the final presentation for that class... and the final exam will be another day/night of studying. The Sensory Culture project will probably be one of the most troublesome. Noone in my group is focusing on this project... we're all a bit scattered, two of them being Thesis kids, and Roz and I still on vacation from DD. Studio... will of course be studio, plus more work than we've been accustomed to this semester...

- c

long time

It's been a long time since I last wrote on this thing... Feels like alot has happened, even though I can't remember it all. Today has been horrible. Usually Tuesdays are my favorite - but not this one. It started by arriving at the barn, I thought it was going to be a funny day, all the little kids were there because they have the week off from school for Easter. There were five little ponies in the outdoor with about seven little people running around, grooming all the dirt off of them. The little kids were sooo tiny, it was like watching helmets run around because it was so hard to see the little people beneath them. Getting into the barn, I realized I was having a lesson with a guest again, this time it was Helen, a grad aero girl that usually is in the lesson after me. I thought this was the beginning to suuuck a gooddd day... I like having people to ride with and for the last six weeks or so, it's only been me. So we begin the lesson and my stirrups are wayyy too long but Lisa likes how they look and won't let me change them. Posting is a nightmare and my legs get reallly tired and strung-out trying to get my heels below a stirrup that is wayyy past my ankle. Then, Melissa the team captain comes into the lesson with a mom and her daughter who are looking at RPI for college. Everyone is friendly enough, but we end up taking twenty mintues from the lesson to talk, in which time three snobby high school girls, on their own horses come into the ring. Then, it was time for us to jump. Ahhh - it was such a nightmare. Lisa finally let me raise my stirrups for jumping... it felt like I got my legs back, but just in time to be cut-off from mean high school girls in their fat and ugly little matching ponies, and then distracted when I am trying to arrive at a fence to the point where I let Forest run out on me... looking like a complete idiot in front of this girl and her mom, and not making Lisa look very good either... Ahhh, well the lesson went on like this, hectic craziness with there being about six people riding around the tiny ring at one point... it made me realise how much I kind of like lessons by myself. Ah, also, over fences my left leg started going numb... not a good sign, and it's really sore now. Sooo then I left the barn completely exhausted, stopped for coffee and thought of taking a nap on the way back, but instead I showered and dressed causually to go and talk to the firms at the career fair... which upon arriving I realized I was wayyy too underdressed and embarrassed to talk to anyone. I was so upset. There were a couple firms that looked interesting, but I couldn't bear walking up to them in jeans, boots, and an okay top... not when most people were in business clothes.... ughhh. I left that a complete mess, and totally embarrassed. I then ran away to Target to buy tights and a ring, of course getting brushed off to the side by some woman trying to get more space in front of the tights than necessary, and leaving the store, my bags beeping five times in a row after some mom with her kids is telling me "just leave, just leave." Ahhhh!!! Then, I get home, open the ring from the packaging and realize it's wayyy too big. Great. I fell asleep after that for two hours to escape the world, and upon coming back to reality, was greeted with an entirely different sort of luck. Elsie made dinner for us... and alottt of food. I went back to Target and returned the ring, the cashier gave me $5 back from a coupon I had gotten hours earlier, anddd it seems like things have been getting better... Now I can only hope it gets better and better tomorrow.

- c

a glimpse into the life

A render from my most recent project [finished before spring break]. This is a view of the over-night rooms for visitors who do not have RV's and wish to stay on-site. The location is on the Salt Flats out in Utah.

I don't know whose project this is, but I love it.



- c

america, america

So I find it pertinent to comment on my now weekly-rounds of food and coffee stops. The ladies in Sage Cafe now know me by name... and know that I come in for a small coffee almost every day [they even remind me about my punch-card on days when I'm too asleep to remember I have one]. That's not the end of it though - the late-night workers at Dunkin Doughts also know my order... they've tried to hand me the wrong thing in a rush at 8.30 or so at night... and then they see my glowing face and remember my hazelnut with milk and sugar. yup. I find it depressing how much people know about my cyclical lifestyle. And I think it goes like this:

Sunday usually begins at Mocha Blend - Irish Creme, every time. And then grab a bagel from DD [plain w/ veggie, as always]. Sunday nights usually entail dinner at the Yellow House, followed by a late-night DD coffee. Then there's Mondays... which actually aren't the worst day of my week - I have to say I'm usually happy to wake up on Mondays - anthropology is much more stimulating these days and I've come to adore the professor - his quirkiness is now something I welcome. So, I'm usually not awake early enough to get a coffee before 10am, but I go straight to Sage Cafe at 12 [rain, sleet, snow, hail... anything Troy throws at me] and get myself a Cinnamon coffee. Then Monday rolls to an unassuming close. Ah, Tuesdays... a little more unwelcomed - I get up sometime between 8 - 9am to drive out past "Defreestville" for my morning lesson [I always wish I could get a coffee before riding, Lisa doesn't understand how I even show up there without being caffinated]. Then I hop on one of the crazy animals - almost get my arm bitten off by JB most of the time, and hold on for dear life when he turns into a tank over fences. After I make my long trek back to Troy and it's straight to DD - usually the one near Hudson Valley. Then it's showering and deciding whether or not Ecology is really worth it - there's always a 50-50 chance with that one. It's always a whirlwind after Tuesday... my mornings are usually early - too early for coffees or breaks... the days are long, Wed and Thursday both usually being 8am-6pm filled with things to do. Ahh, and then Thursday night comes around... when I dread being alive. Going to sleep Thursday night doesn't mean rest like it always has in the past - it means waking up early - wearing uncomfortable black pants and showing up in downtown Albany for my few hours of stark, business-y service. I have to get a coffee at Mug Shots... which usually ends up tasting like dirt, and getting a fleeting, stern look from the lady behind the counter - who I'm convinced is only nice to people she's known since the dinosaurs ruled the earth [the attitude of the people in the neck of the woods where I work is all the same... all completely horrible]. So I take the almond-buttered shit and add some milk to it and then show my face in an office where maaaybe two people look like they have souls staring back at me. One-on-one conversations with everyone there are great! But most of the time is isolation, stale jokes, and people upset about this that or the other thing dealing with the most industrial materials, layouts, and ideas I've ever been exposed to. But ahh - Saturdays - I'm alive again! Saturdays are Panera and Starbucks day... a good way to recover from my wounded Fridays. And that's it - my life in a string of foods and coffees... the things that I use as my escape from the Greene building... and my fate.

- c

Ahh, I need to include a p.s.    I can't fail to mention Professor Java's - that one gets sprinkled in there, too every once in a while. Also, Spillin the Beans... that's a once-a-month stop... just to spice things up a bit. So, there you have it! My weekly rounds. 

comment on studying ecology

Now I know I can study for an infinite number of hours, the problem is how much my years of sleep-deprivation brain can absorb. Not to mention I'm trained to analyze concepts and diagrams, not definitions/ vocabulary. Give me a concept and I'll analyze it to shit, give me a definition and we've reached a dead end. I'm a designer, not a thesaurus.

- c