Sunday, September 30, 2007

Monday & Invisible Cities

Just a reminder to my class, but we will not be convening as an entire class on Monday, 10/1 or Wednesday, 10/3. I will be meeting with charrette groups to discuss progress and prepare materials for the presentations and casebooks. Remember, everything you will need to accomplish is laid out on the time line (see previous post). During these class days, I will be available in the library (schedule permitting) or in Nellie's cafe (more likely).

Also, as we discussed, our next text will be Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. We'll begin working with this immediately after the charrette concludes. Used & new copies are available at numerous local and online retailers, please click on the link above for information.

And thanks again to everyone for all of your work on the projects, we're looking forward to the presentations on Friday.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Charette Log (Marc's class, but pretty much the same text as Gabrielle and Kim)

Here's a guide/timeline for the components that you'll need to include in your Project Log, please let us know if anything requires more description/explanation. Also, you may want to print this list out, or better yet, use it on the blog (here's where I wish this was a wiki), possibly adding comments?


Cornish Community Charrette Project Log

Project Title:

Group Members:

W 9/26
General goals:
1) understand presentation goals and possibilities,
2) understand case-book components,
3) decide on specific shape of project,
4) decide on specific research tasks needed thru 10/3,
5) decide on tasks to complete before 9/28,
6) meet in class today to schedule appointments for this Friday, 9/28 in Cornish Library MCC

Specific goals and group whereabouts:


F 9/28
General goals:
1) conduct interviews if needed,
2) gather research materials from the library or visit Seattle Public Library if needed,
3) site project location if needed,
4) begin physical design of project if needed,
5) decide on tasks to complete before 10/1,
5) meet with Marc for 15 minutes today in group

Specific goals and group whereabouts:


M 10/1
General goals:
1) write project description and rationale, using and revising language from earlier descriptions,
2) begin designing presentation materials,
3) decide on specific tasks to complete before 10/3

Specific goals and whereabouts:


W 10/3
General goals:
1) finish designing presentation materials,
2) define presentation roles and practice presentation,
3) decide on specific tasks to complete for 10/5

Specific goals and whereabouts:

F 10/5
Charrette presentations. Meet at MCC Room 603 Location to be confirmed.

Presentation checklist (10/5):
O Poster or other large-scale visual aid that contains 1) project title, 2) maps, diagrams, photos or other images that show project scope and why it is needed; 3) a brief description of project and why it is needed.

O Brochure, hand-out or other small-scale visual aid with these same components.

O Group symbolic map, if it is not included on one or the other of the visual aids.

O 1-2 page typed, group-authored project description (what it is) and rationale (why it is needed), along with a bibliography of sources consulted or references to related projects. Bibliographic citations should follow an MLA-format, with information and examples available on the Cornish Library website here

Case-book checklist (10/8):
O A copy of your group’s hot sheet.
O A copy of your group’s project description and rationale.
O A copy of your group symbolic map and the individual maps you created on 9/21.
O Copies of images, diagrams etc. from your group’s poster or brochure.
O Your MCC and Kerry accounts, and your initial write-up of the project from 9/17-24.
O A 2-3 page, typed, double-spaced reflection on the charrette process and your group’s project.

And, although it may be redundant after everything you produce, I'd like to also look at 10/8 as an in-class debriefing, framing the discussion as a look at what was successful with the charette as well as what difficulties you encountered during the process.

Support Cascade People's Center

Hi everyone,

As you may know, we've been working with the Cascade People's Center for a few years now on collaborative projects with Integreated Studies. They 've been an amazing resource the faculty and students, and their place in the community is vital. We have a link to their website (on the right hand side of your screen), but this update from their director, Myla Becker is pressing:


From: Myla Becker [mailto:mbecker@lcsnw.org]
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 5:56 PM
Subject: FW: A Call to Action: Support your Center in the heart of our City!

Hey there Cascade People's Center Supporters,In the last few days, we recently found out that the City of Seattle has decided not to fund us starting in 2008 and that the Center will most likely be forcedd to close after December (unless we can lobby and fundraise like crazy!!).


CPC is a beloved space in the Cascade community providing free programs and space for thousands of people throughout Seattle . This tragic news is particularly sad when the Cascade neighborhood is quickly being gentrified and shaped without the voice of long time residents. Also, not to mention that the City is funding $50.5 million to the South Lake Union Streetcar (notoriously know as the SLUT...South Lake Union Trolley) that runs one mile along a route that many buses already run. Funding the Cascade People's Center is a drop in the bucket for the City of Seattle and to other SLU stakeholders. The Cascade People's Center is a truly a place for the people. Ten years ago, community members rallied to save the building from being torn down and to create a community center focused on family support and environmental sustainability, and also to create a p-patch and the Garden of Happiness . Today, we are stronger than ever with over 6,000 Center users and a over 70% of the work done by volunteers. We have an eco-renovation of our building in the works as well as a proposed community compost project, proposed farmer's market, and amazing youth and family programs already flourishing. With the Cascade neighborhood drastically changing among the South Lake Union development, the Center is a place of consistency and familiarity for thousands of low income and transitioning families who are being pushed out of their neighborhood.

Not only are we a family and community support center, but we also stand for social and environmental justice in a neighborhood where the underdogs are constantly being silenced. We need your help in being heard! In the next week we will be strategizing how to keep CPC alive through a community meeting (date TBA), petitioning, a protest at the City of Seattle Office (date TBA) and phoning City Reps and strategizing funding ideas. Please keep your eyes and ears open for upcoming dates and events that we will be organizing! Also, if you have any ideas or time to contribute in how we can keep your Center open, please let me know! As always, thanks so much for your support and involvement! Please spread the word like wildfire! Viva la CPC!!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Wayfinding? Already?

We'll be spending an amazing amount of time with discussions, writings, and readings on navigational systems over the course of the year and given the field trip today, your recent charting of MCC, your upcoming analysis of Kerry Hall and all routes in between, I wanted to get the ball rolling sooner than later.

So, Here's a link to the article by Annabel Vaughn (writing on improvised signage at the Seattle Central Library) that I mentioned in class. Arcade Journal is also listed in the link list on the right hand of your screen, and the new issue (edited by Lead Pencil Studio) is a fantastic treatise on the overlapping roles of comics, drawing, and innovative architectural practices.


Monday, September 10, 2007

Think rich. Look poor.

Okay, I really enjoyed our discussion on the readings today, and realized that the prelude to it-- our conversation looking for boundaries in the arts--was, by it's very nature, somewhat off-putting and difficult.

The more I consider it (and a bumpy, crowded busride home gives me plenty of time to ruminate), we might want to revisit the topic-- not as a search for boundaries (at least not initially), but rather as identification of your fields (not disciplines, but hopefully something more mutable, as Patrick suggested today). In very concrete ways, it seems that identifying how you spend your time in your area of concentration may help us all understand how we spend our time in our area(s) of concentration. What is your diet like when you are involved in a project? What books do you have to read for your concentration? What types of media are essential? Do you need costumes or a uniform? Special shoes? How much time outside of the classroom do you work in your field? What does a peer group consist of for your projects? What tools are essential to your work? How do you practice? How is your process/product presented to a group, or is it?

Maybe by looking at this topic through everyday practices (and by this, I pretty much mean things you do everyday) we may be able to see (or find) the boundaries more naturally?


Warhol archives

The Warhol archives are discussed more fully here, and The Warhol Musuem's online project space has this-- Mapping Pittsburgh: Art, Space, and Alternative Culture

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Missed opportunity, almost

Thinking about our cluster meeting yesterday, with a focus on interdisciplinary work, I just realized that we should have included some writings/research/overview of the work done by Bruce Mau Design and their Institute Without Boundaries.

Then I realized that the blog is awesome and I can just link to everything they've ever done.

John Cage reads Silence

Excerpts from John Cage's Silence (1969) appear in the City Cluster Reader, and the book is available in the Cornish Library (Call number is ML 60 C13 S5 1973, although Kim currently has it checked out).

UBUWEB (see link list, at right) has an amazing archive of his audio work, including interviews and this, where he reads from the book.