sublime

This tag is associated with 3 posts

Mixed feelings

Posted by Richard Coyne ⋅ April 30, 2016 ⋅ 1 Comment

Here’s the grimy hull of an abandoned ship on an isolated beach surrounded by barbed wire and covered in rust and flaking graffiti. If you like that kind of ruin then you are drawn to it. If not you will probably keep away. You are either attracted or repelled; you approach or avoid. (My instinct was to approach.) To approach … Continue reading →

Vertigo on a stick

Posted by Richard Coyne ⋅ December 27, 2014 ⋅ 10 Comments

Rooftoppers are those reckless photographers and video makers who scale tall buildings. It’s important in these images that the photographer is in the frame, as evidence that they were there. The vertiginous effect is enhanced by the use of a handheld monopod camera extension known as a “selfie stick.” So climbers hold their cameras about a metre … Continue reading →

Betwixt and between

Posted by Richard Coyne ⋅ March 1, 2014 ⋅ 6 Comments

Architecture is not a polite discipline. According to architectural theorist Bernard Tschumi, “the ultimate pleasure of architecture lies in the most forbidden parts of the architectural act; where limits are perverted, and prohibitions are transgressed. The starting point of architecture is distortion” (91). Rem Koolhaas asserts something similar. Design is not “meticulous definition, the imposition … Continue reading →