why gray matters

The color gray (or grey, for the rest of the world) is something that, like its phonoaesthetic qualities, is quite vague in its use. It’s recursive in its sound and its operation. It’s what’s left when you take out the black or white, or when you put them together. It’s something that is easy to explain conceptually, but difficult to realize otherwise. Gray has its place in philosophy, ethics, literature and even sexuality, amongst other things. We’ll look at what gray encompasses (perhaps a rough idea), and its importance to designers and design students, not necessarily as a color, but as an overall framework for the design process.

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Recent Graduate to Show at YAF Summer Salon 8/24/2010

Recent SoA Graduate,  Arseni Zaitsev, and Jonathan Henry, Sci-arch Graduate, are exhibiting their new installation ALEXANDRIA this weekend at YAF’s Summer Salon at SPSU.

ANONYMOUS STUDIO proposes a light 1000 sf canopy for the SPSU Gallery, the purpose of which is to engage students as they come to start a new year.After its initial installation as a plain canvas, students are encouraged to change the tiles in the installation by replacing elements with those of information. This proposal is to celebrate materiality and an adjunct to the new material library. //

signing_off [ Passing the torch ] _ leeland mchpahil

leeland mcphail passes the torch to a new group of thinkers/makers with an open question having to do with our visuality.

a night’s walk from graymatters on Vimeo.

The image is taken from a piece leeland made in the class visual practice with senior instructor- fred pearsall.  Click on: “Read more” to see complete video installation.

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signing_off | ali karimi + vincent yee

reflections on learning – 3rd year spring studio

peace,

Vinny and Ali

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signing off | may

options II studio

tristan al-haddad

staging performance

program driven apertures frame elevated public performance space with screened hotel backdrop.

signing_off | gavin johns

Simplistic beauty has been the goal from the start. Beauty that comes from a modest operation and becomes delightfully absurd. The field of steel columns with operable planter boxes defines a new datum with which the topography plays. Entering the site, the avenues cut into the field to allow movement and gathering spaces. As you move up the hill, you slowly rise out of the forest and see a field of living and dying plants that stretch out over the site and crawl up the hotel.
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signing_off | james murray

JFM. ARCH 2012. TIM FRANK. DP_1.

signin_off | hamza

Design Problem 1 from Arch Design Studio 2 dealt with the nine-square problem, in which students were asked to design a pavilion for the College of Architecture. While its programmatic requirements were minimal, the problem asked students to rethink how materials were used and create some performative aspects of building.

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signing off | hrach | Urban Design Studio

Volkswagen Facility Pedestrian Bridge Competition

Derrick's "The Weather Vane" Third Place

Last semester Junior studio under the instructor of  Mehmet Dogu participated in Volkswagen facility  pedestrian bridge competition as a part of their studio project. We are proud to announce that Derrick Tittle won the Third place and Logan Tuura got Honorary mention spot in that competition.

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Looking back at Sense & Sustain -Ability

Tim Frank’s exhibit at MODA, titled Sense & Sustain -Ability, will close in a couple of days. Having been showcased for a month, Frank’s three projects concern the ideas of superimposition, infusion, and opposition. Using a variety of media, Tim presented three projects that were more than products, but exhibits of the breadth of the design process. From understanding the site in terms of climatology, using software like Ecotect, or depicting concrete in his models through his own clever mixture, Frank’s exhibition stayed true to its title. Sense and Sustain -Ability reassigned meaning to two terms that are too often misused.

In any case, words alone don’t do his exhibition justice. Enjoy select photographs and leave comments if you went or want to know more about his work, in which case you should see Tim Frank online.

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Life and Death of the Emirate City

On the plane ride to Miami I turned to my colleague and said, “That place is going to be a ghost town in ten years or less. There is no way they can sustain it.” Within two years of that statement, Dubai was being bailed out by neighboring Abu Dhabi’s Ruler, Skeik Khalifa, for the construction costs of the Burj Dubai. //

the idea of habitus

The idea of habitus in general can be described (as Wikipedia vaguely puts it), “a behavioral manifestation of the essential nature of a thing or a person.” More closely related to architecture is the definition put forth by Guiles Deleuze, relating to his idea of the plane of immanence, or the way a being inhabits itself and its space, as a network of experience differing person to person. Habitus, in the practice of everyday life, has many interesting facets. Read below for a muse on the subject.

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Citizen Architect:Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio

The Plaza Theater, Atlanta’s oldest continuously operating cinema is currently showing something of a rare occurrence; a movie about the influence of architecture on the well being of and sustainability of communities. Showing from April 16th-22nd, Citizen Architecture: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio focuses on the life and legacy of Samuel Mockbee, the man who founded the Rural Studio , a design/build education program in 1993 based out of Auburn University .  The film highlights also the creativity and passion of the students who have participated in the program and put in immeasurable effort into the improvements of rural Alabama communities. Through past interviews with the late architect Mockbee, his students, and the residents of these communities, the film brings forward the issues of social change, poverty, class, race , and citizenship and brings awareness of architecture’s role in these topics. //

March Monday to stop Georgia as Only State without Arts Funding

A march is organized for today, Monday, April 18 at 1PM from the Rialto Theater to the Capitol to protest Georgia’s cut in funding for the arts.  Fill out this petition and come support art in the state of Georgia.

Last Thursday the House Appropriations Committee voted to drastically reduce arts funding for the state and to disband the Georgia Council for the Arts. Their decision will have a major impact on numerous arts organizations within the state and Atlanta, especially at the grassroots level. The decision continues the state’s consistent reduction of arts funding: Just 4 years ago the state had about 4M budget for the arts, and last year that amount was down to 2M; this decision cuts that figure again to 250K! Most importantly, the decision implies that Georgia will be the only state without an Arts Agency- eliminating Georgia arts organizations from obtaining money from the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information view: ajc article , Creative Loafing blog post, or Georgia Assembly of Community Art Agencies Home Page.