He-Man

Xtra Credit Blog on The Idea of a Man-Made World

2006-12-20T17:18:04Z

When I read the article "The Idea of a Man-Made World" I knew I had to give my opinion since I just got back from the most obivious habitat change in the world. Spending time in Phoenix, Arizona gave me kind of a stomache ache because everything was man-made and nature only seemed to exsist in the far off distant mountains. I went golfing the other day and the grass was as green as it is in the middle of the summer in Minnesota. So when John Locke talked about how the mind is like a Tabule Rasae I tended to agree with him because golf originated out on the green lands of Scotland and when it was brought to the United States the idea of having that lush green land came along with it. The cultural ideas motivate how we treat our land. As the article talks about the crisis that we are having with the environment it really hit a nerve because I wished that Architects in Arizona used the land more accordingly and did not waist so much of the resources we have available to us. I remember walking down a major road in Tempe and saw this car dealership that had a little patch of grass in the front. Otherwise there was no grass to be seen anywhere. Everytime I walked by they were vigorously watering that little patch of grass. It really ticked me off to see that because when I was reading the paper they had an article talking about the shortage of water in the area and how they would like to build a pipeline to the great lakes and take our water. This idea definitely would not fly with me and I am sure I am not alone with that feeling. Environmental Architects like Frank Lloyd Wright would like to work with the environment instead of against it. As Crowe talked about the idea of us and nature harmoniously working together, we should take the ideas of environment Architects and push for more sustainable Architecture before we run out of all our resources.

Gershenfeld and Kahn articles

2006-12-04T03:53:43Z

The Gershenfeld and Kahn articles are very similar and at the same time very different. They both focus on trying to change the way the world operates and how we percieve it. In the case of the Gershenfeld article he is expressing that looking to technology and the future as a way of trying to make life better easier to deal with. Kahn talks about the problems with the absence of nature and how the use of light (the sun) would make Architecture and life better. Gershenfeld also talked about how the University and the way classes are formed were not conduisive to the advancement of technology and when he started his class it gave students the excitement and freedom to make anything and use the technology that was available to them. Kahn on the other hand wanted to see the schools get back to the way Architecture used to be where students used all of their potential and were not limited to specialized roles in the business world. Kahn wanted stop worrying about where their next funds were coming from and start worrying about the students and their artistic progression. As Gershenfeld expressed his interests in the future technologies and the virtual reality like the machine in Star Trek that instantly made Captain Picard's Earl Grey Tea, Kahn talked about the desire of Man to build the Pyramids and the traditions that we should remember and hold sacredlike they were "mounds of gold." This is where I express my feelings of scepticism on the matter. I feel that we should lean more towards Kahns article than Gershenfelds. As was expressed in recent lectures are we going to do more good by making these fabricators or are we going to hurt nature and ourselves by making these things . Nature is what controls all and we should be focusing on nature to enlighten ourselves. The computer is no match for nature and contrary to belief we are no match for nature as well. We need to be more wary about what we do to nature or we like former technology will be obsolete.

techonopolies and how I understand them

2006-11-27T01:34:32Z

]]> When I read the article by Neil Postman I realized that I am influenced by his idea of technologies and how they monopolize how we think, act, and how we design. The lecture by Lance Lavine focused on how we should question how design has changed by the computer and technology and how we should use designing before the computer as a focus on how we should design. Although the Lavine and Postman talked about the past hundreds and hundreds of years ago I am going to focus on the recent past and the present. I recently have felt the winds of change when it comes to design outside the realm of school. I work at a restaurant and we recently got a new computer system called the digital diner which is supposed to change how we view serving as a whole. "Is this a blessing or a curse?", I asked myself. As Mr. Postman suggested I balanced the benefits and losses of the technology change and who was the winners and the losers of this endeavor. As the actors and producers won the war of television against schools and teachers, the owner of my restaurant and the computer system won the war against restaurants that use food tickets and pencils to make their orders. When I first started working twelve years ago I used to use my skills of writing things down fast and communicating with the expodiator and the cooks to get my meals to the customers, but with the advent of the computer my interaction with workers grew less and less. As computers got more sophisticated, the manual mistakes have lessened and the wait time for food has decreased. So I have come to the conclusion that my owner has primarily benefited from the computer advancement with the managers benefitting as well. We as servers initially felt that we won as well ,but I believe we have lost more than won. Our manual skills have declined since the computer has been introduced and our interaction with fellow workers has been declining as well. The customers have lost as well because speed of service is continously being increased and servers have been taught to push people out of their seats so they can increase profitts. Another way to increase profits was to use the computer for more of the jobs previously held by workers. Now that we have an advanced computer less servers are needed to work on busy days and less expodiators are needed as well. As Freud began his comments of the benefits technology then ended with the technologies downfalls I too talked about their benefits and downfalls. Postman finally talks about how we should fear the changes that technology creates I am afraid of what changes are going to ensue from the digital dining computer.

Design and Architecture is it jus a myth?

2006-11-07T02:58:10Z

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Design and Architecture is it just a myth?

2006-11-07T02:57:33Z

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Design and Architecture is it just a myth?

2006-11-07T02:56:46Z

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Design and Architecture is it just a myth?

2006-11-07T02:55:58Z

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Design and Architecture is it just a myth?

2006-11-06T02:18:33Z

Math has been around forever trying to explain why something works the way it does and there is no exception when it comes to Architecture. Geometry shows how basic shapes work together to make structures that can last throughout time. The first picture shows how these shapes fit together like a jig saw puzzle to make a structure like the other pictures that I have posted. The study of such mathematical concepts as ratios, proportions, scales, and symmetry highlight the unique inter-relationship between the two disciplines. No matter if the building is huge like the freedom tower or small like a lego tower the concepts learned through mathematics are used the same way to build a structure that will stand up to all oppositions. The lecture described how Pythagoras used numbers to demonstrate basic order in space. Also CAD was designed and revovles around mathematics and now Architecture can be made without even physically making something. These pictures are of a math building and ironically you can see the symmetry and mathematics at work in this building.

Observe and document oppositions and their possible solutions

2006-10-23T02:50:21Z

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]]> I live in an area where oppositions are present and obvious everywhere. The only hard part is to pick the one most important to tackle. Since the dreaded winter is soon approaching I found it appropriate to start my focus on that opposition. According to our lectures that is #3 of our oppositions, but I see it as #1. I have serious issues with cabin fever and without the Sun, grass, and trees I deal with alot of depression. The way I feel that I could solve this problem other than medication or expensive travel is to create a space that feels like summer. That is why I suggest that we as designers find a way to incorporate greenhouses into our Architecture. Creating indoor/ outdoor spaces would give people like me an escape from the closed in spaces we seem to confine ourselves on a regular basis. The lecture told us of how the mosques had a natural air conditioning unit and people later made unnatural air conditioning because of it. We could use the same ideas of building a sustainable indoor/outdoor building from the ideas of the smaller greenhouse. When the sun hits the window we could somehow trap the light and heat and regenerate it on a cloudy day. I checked on the internet to find something related and saw a glimmer of hope from a guy named Roald Gunderson. He has a Solar greenhouse in Minnesota that is 1800 square feet and does not have a furnace in it. He has grown healthy tomatoes since 1992 and temperatures outside the greenhouse have reached 50 degrees below zero. I realy believe that a greenhouse mall or a greenhouse hotel are going to happen in the near future, but I am just trying to get the word out.

metal eating man

2006-10-10T17:19:55Z

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My Phenomenon

2006-10-10T16:27:53Z

The digestive system is very interesting to me. Some people can eat the hottest peppers in the world without a flinch and others cannot eat anything that has even a hint of spice without running to the bathroom. The clockwork of the digestive system is how a food may start out as a solid but then gets broken down by the teeth and muscles inside the body to become a liquid. After the acid inside the stomach breaks it down again it eventually gets compacted back into a solid and eventually completely passes through the body. The framework of the digestive system is the stomach, esophagus, stomach acid, teeth, and intestines. However strong or weak your digestive system is nothing can explain the Phenomenon that I witnessed last week. On the Tv show "Ripley's Believe It or Not" I saw a man digest glass, nuts, bolts, and other assortments of metal. Doctors and other experts could not explain how or why this man could eat such things and still be alive. None-the-less he is in his 60's, continues to defy the odds by eating these things, and continues to bafull the critics.

2006-09-28T01:34:57Z

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Discovering Genius Loci

2006-09-28T01:24:45Z

To understand Genius Loci you need to understand the “spirit of the place�? and how creatures dwell within it. My great spiritual place is a little town called Onecoma on the eastern coast of Lake Michigan. I usually spend a few weeks every summer on this amazing piece of land. Every creature living in the area seems to know exactly how to treat the land it lives on. The birds seem to chirp just a little louder, the plants grow a little bigger, the fruits are just a little sweeter, and the people who live there are just a little happier. When I arrive there I feel a little out of place because everything is so perfect and I am intruding on it’s perfection, but after observing for a few minutes my perception and attitude changes and I see myself fitting into the whole structure of life on the land. If it were up to me I would stay on the beach forever, but that would be too much intrusion on it. My favorite part of the area is the phenomenon called the Great Bear Dunes. These huge dunes rival those in the middle east and no one really knows how they got there. You can walk up and down the dunes for miles and on a clear day can see across the whole lake on one of the many bluffs. Whether you like water and sand or don’t once you visit this place you will never want to leave.

Find a Social Design issue and be an Advocate for it.

2006-09-23T16:05:21Z

The struggles that I see for people to get from one place to another without the use of a car is the reason I have wanted to become an advocate for public transportation in the Twin Cities and surrounding areas. A little while ago I read an article in the Star Tribune about the similar qualities between the Denver Area and the Minneapolis Area. The only difference being that the Denver passed a tax to support a light rail system throughout the city and surrounding areas and Minneapolis has yet to support a tax like theirs. Spending a lot of time in Chicago I realize how crucial a public transpotation system is for the city. Minneapolis is a growing city and as a consequence traffic is a growing problem as well. If you do not own a car in Minneapolis or it's suburbs the chances are you will not be able to get anywhere during rush hour and if a job depends on you to be there at a specific time you will lose your job. I realize that we have a bus system, but for the amount of people we have near and around the city it is just not enough. Therefore I am going to vote for candidates that support public transportation and even help out with campaigns so we can get more public transpotation available for everyone.

2006-09-19T01:11:52Z