no2self.net

A few weeks ago I was taken to task by my friend Matthew over my enthusiasm for Walsall Art Gallery. I mounted a defence and then we agreed to let the building have the final say and pay it a visit together. I don’t expect to have to say anything further.

By way of preperation, here’s a few images I took last week. In my previous entry I suggested that one of its qualities was that it was dark where it should be dark and light where it should be light. A simple critique but important nonetheless. How often have felt a building pro-actively working with darkness? Not very often I suspect.

Here’s some proof - the journey to the temporary exhibition space on the top floor:

Pick a date, Matthew.

Upon arrival at the top floor, having followed the light up the douglas fir lined staircases you’ll find (if you visit now) a carefully crafted installation by Hew Locke.

link: [full flickr set including Locke installation]

You have until next Monday to hear Andrew Marr talk to Anish Kapoor and Deyan Sudjic discussing shape on Radio 4’s Start the Week

Here’s a taster:

Kapoor: To make new art one needs to make new space…a little history of the way I understand this…Medieval space, if one goes back that far, was flat; then of course the Renaissance, and much has been said about space receding into the distance - perspective and so forth; then of course romantic space, which I think is very, very interesting and exciting - the idea of the threshold beyond which there is vastness and voidness, the self lost, in which, in a sense, time stands still.

Marr: Does that take you forward to abstract impressionism?

Kapoor: Well I suspect it does. In many ways these strands overlap, but one might say that modernist space - Brancusi, the Rocket, onwards, upwards, progress etc are phallic space in a sense. Then perhaps with Mies van der Rohe and Donald Judd one might begin to speak about space enclosed. What does that leave? It seems to me, to speak about contemporary space, one begins to think about a different idea and I’m really interested that space turns itself inward.

More from Kapoor: 1

Link to article about Sudjic’s new book: 2

More on space that turns itself inward can be found if you follow the trail in yesterday’s link to the footnotes of the increasingly regularly referenced data wall project.

• del.icio.us: casting the net wider
  

  ‘…Bookmarked items in del.icio.us that end in one of a number of filetypes will now automatically get some system tags added…RSS feeds that have one of those system tags will automatically become a rss-with-enclosures file…’

• Riffathon 2004/5
  

  ‘…The Riffathon is an annual guitar competition designed to encourage players of all ages to get out there and riff!…’ (thanks Al!)

delivered (almost) daily at (almost) midnight via del.icio.us.

A fellow LUG member on the power of using Linux:

I think Linux is like a power-tool. In the right hands and with plenty
of practice it can produce beautifully crafted custom-built furniture
but many people would just damage themselves trying to use it without
instruction. Linux is for people who are willing to go to woodwork
classes and build a few wobbly tables in their pursuit of excellence.
The others would be better off buying a flat-pack kit in the full
knowledge that it will fall apart after a few months and need to be
replaced.

Bugger me. Somebody built my Info Pimp Force Diagram.

• The Big Draw
  

  ‘…The Campaign for Drawing invites everyone to join in, using drawing as a tool for engaging with the past, present and future. ‘…The Campaign for Drawing invites everyone to join in, using drawing as a tool for engaging with the past, present and

• the drawing club
  

  ‘…a blog about drawing (and a club to join)…’ (via Drawn!)

delivered (almost) daily at (almost) midnight via del.icio.us.

From an e-mail received by The Gutter, regarding Google’s logo tweak to celebrate the birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright:

Telling people you’re an architect and having them say they like Frank Lloyd Wright is like telling them you’re a novelist and being told they like Steinbeck. It’s like, um, okay… The only thing worse is people still asking you what you think of Bilbao.

Another Peel related entry: I was lucky enough to see a Half Man Half Biscuit gig this week. It’s Peel related because it was he who revitalised my appreciation of them years ago when he played their Paintball’s Coming Home one evening. Years before that I’d only heard Trumpton Riots, but it was through Peel I came to appreciate the true quality of their razor sharp social critique. They’re funny, intelligent and they play guitar. That’s enough for me.

Two hour set, all the classics, including 99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd, Running Order Squabblefest, C.A.M.R.A. Man and
The Light at the End of the Tunnel Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train.

She stayed with me until
She moved to Notting Hill
She said it was the place she needs to be

Where the cocaine is fair trade
And frequently displayed
Is the Buena Vista Social Club CD

There was an interesting mix of people in the crowd but one thing bound us all together; no matter what our background, every single one of us has at some point had our ego sliced in two by a painfully accurate song line that’s exposed us for what we really are. Great stuff.

Somewhat reluctantly, I’m going to post some video. I say reluctantly because if you’re not a fan already then the crappy phonecam quality won’t help matters; but it’s here so I might as well share it.

Links to past entries referring to the mighty HMHB: 1, 2 and (mp)3.

The program for the opening day of Architecture Week here in the UK just landed in my inbox…

Architecture Week Launch
Trafalgar Square
Saturday 11 June
13.00 - 17.00
FREE

music * performance * installation * demonstration

–

Freeness (13.00 - 14.00 and 15.00 - 16.00)

Bringing us tracks created by African, Asian, Caribbean and Chinese musicians from across England with a DJ set by Blacktronica.

a.chtah.com/a/tBCqCg9ANYHpyAXHisOAP91yBBb/arch9

Urban Freeflow (13.00 - 14.00 and 15.00 - 16.00)

Free-running is about finding new ways through the city landscape - climbing, leaping, somersaulting obstacles in your path (such as giant stone Lions). The Urban Freeflow London team show us how its done.

a.chtah.com/a/tBCqCg9ANYHpyAXHisOAP91yBBb/arch10

Architecture Week Speakers’ Corner Needs You! (14.00 - 15.00)

Hosted by Maxwell Hutchinson, architect and BBC LONDON 94.9FM broadcaster. This is your chance to address an audience in Trafalgar Square.

a.chtah.com/a/tBCqCg9ANYHpyAXHisOAP91yBBb/arch3

Red Ladies (16.00)

Performance group the Clod Ensemble salute the Square’s heritage as a site of political protest and stage a (mock) political rally. Be vigilant! Women dressed in red may try to solicit your support.

a.chtah.com/a/tBCqCg9ANYHpyAXHisOAP91yBBb/arch11

Superconductor (All afternoon)

A multitude of entrances, exits, corridors and courtyards in which to roam, explore or sit quietly and contemplate. A bold and adventurous temporary artwork by artists Gaia Alessi and Richard Bradbury.

a.chtah.com/a/tBCqCg9ANYHpyAXHisOAP91yBBb/arch12

Moose (All afternoon)

Moose is a graffiti artist … with a difference. Leaving a temporary imprint through the environmental friendly process of removing dirt with water, he will change the way you see the Square.

a.chtah.com/a/tBCqCg9ANYHpyAXHisOAP91yBBb/arch6

–

Architecture Week 2005 17-26 June - architectureweek.org.uk for a full programme and 600 events across the country

• WFMU’s Beware of the Blog: 23 MP3s of Wild and Wooly Vocal Stylings
  

  ‘…All manner of vocal stylings, ranging from Ethiopian herdsmen serenading their cow’s udders to avant garde types with microphones lodged in their esophaguses…’

• Katarxis 3: New Science, New Urbanism — New Architecture?
  

  September 2004 publication - usual suspects: Alexander, Duany, Krier, Salingaros etc (via /tag/architecture)

• Self sufficient ‘ish’
  

  The urban guide to almost self sufficiency.

delivered (almost) daily at (almost) midnight via del.icio.us.