H\Blog
February 2008

Real Lifetime Home Date added 22.02.08 by Daniel Burn Publication Paula Amaral has produced a 1:1 plan of her living room in the graphic style of a geographers map. In this fantastic ‘warts and all’ analysis, coffee cups, ashtrays and pizza boxes are all included as well as a copy of S, M, L, XL and of course, the MacBook. www.palinha.net/ The work is on display at a brilliant exhibition in Sheffield. ‘On the Map’ displays craft and design work that explores the medium of mapping. www.sheffieldgalleries.org.uk/

Brasil-ia, or a tale of two modernisms Date added 15.02.08 by Darryl Chen Publication OSCAR NIEMEYER WANTS --- the big gesture. the curve of the land. the sensuousness of the female body. the purity of form. the aesthetic experience. the freedom of space. [The result ---- the master architect. the icon. the averagely-detailed one-liner. impressive from fifty metres, average from five] LINA BO BARDI WANTS --- subversion of society's repressive structures. art to be sociable. recreation to be productive. the user to know their place in the world. [The result --- ungainly structures. social condensers. buildings that become more meaningful with inhabitation] The winner is....

An Ode to Analogue. Date added 15.02.08 by David Lomax Publication Over the last couple of years I must have taken thousands of digital photos, the vast majority of which I've never since opened. Half the reason is that the vast majority simply aren't very good, much less are they very interesting. The reason is because digital offers no incentive to make any kind of decision at the point of taking the photo, it's far too easy to shoot everything that crosses your path then filter the information later. Except I don't. I just bung it in a folder somewhere. Imagine a photographic technique which forces you to sometimes lift the camera to your eye, think better of it, then put it down again occasionally. Imagine if the medium was so precious and expensive that you could only buy it in tens and every photo you take has to be one you'll keep forever. Imagine if you had to be creative with a tool which offered a rigid set of parameters with no zoom and an ever present flash. That's why I bought a polaroid.