There are an almost infinite number of blogs and sites dispensing advice, sharing looks, swapping recipes or just showing off aesthetically pleasing things. (The Guardian, 2011) Infinity is very big, and “almost infinite” is just as big. To try and grasp a sense of the infinite is difficult, if not almost impossible. Modernist architecture promoted…More
What has science got to do with it?
According to an article by Frank van der Hoeven in the Architectural Research Quarterly (ARQ), the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research thinks architecture is not being scientific enough, or at least architectural research suffers from not getting ‘the basics of its own scientific foundations right.’ What follows is an abstract from my response to this…More
After affects
How do surveillance cameras, and increased monitoring and security procedures affect you? Such causes have undoubted effects on material circumstances and well-being. Actions affect things, and thereby produce effects. The verb, to affect, results in a noun, an effect. But there’s also such a thing as an affect, as a noun. Last Friday I attended…More
Sequel-baiting
Sequel-baiting is the practice by film-makers to construct their plots in a way that encourages audience demand for a sequel. As well as cliff-hanger endings, there’s the technique of introducing characters and subplots that require follow-up once the main story is over.More
The quantification of the intellect
Who cares about research? Much research in the UK is publicly funded, through grants, university infrastructure and salaries. The latest research exercise (REF) foregrounds the issue of impact. How can research communities demonstrate the value of their research to society at large? There’s economic and social impact, where research leads to better products for the…More
Network notion
It seems that societies organise themselves as networks, an idea brought into sharp relief with the development of online social networks. People with online profiles are the nodes, hubs or cells, and there are linkages with other people through their personal directories of friends and followers, who are similarly linked.More
Amnesiac machines
Digital devices help me to forget in several ways. If I store my bank details in my electronic note pad then I don’t need to commit them to memory. So I can forget such details. Thanks to the immediacy of web acces and tools such as Wikipedia I can forget the capital of The Isle…More
3D passive unrealities
3D is moving in. Nintendo has released its 3DS hand-held game system: “no need for special glasses.” Titanic is being retro-fitted as a 3D movie. 3D cinema reminds me, if I ever needed reminding, of the symmetries of the human body, and hence of our whole perceptual apparatus (ie all the senses). Philosopher Mark Johnson emphasises…More
Accidental people
They show up everywhere. We’ve never met, and probably never will. These bodies don’t only appear in Google StreetView, but in my digital photo albums whether I want them there or not. They are most visible when I zoom in. They even get singled out by the “faces” feature of my photo browser, and I’m…More
De-generation
Occasionally when browsing the Internet I’m struck by the new and unexpected, ie by the sheer quantity of creative production. I’m perhaps of a generation that is still impressed by the volume of newness brought to light by postings on YouTube, Vimeo, TED, music channels, and architectural picture galleries, not to mention presentations of technology…More