_i exist by implication_

New terms and ideas that I am being exposed to in the book Practices of Looking by Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright.

] Objective [

The ideal state of being unbiased...

] Subjective [

Something that is particular to the view of an individual, hence the opposite of objective. A subjective view is understood to be personal, specific, and imbued with the values and beliefs of a particular person.
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New terms and ideas that I am being exposed to in the book Practices of Looking by Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright.

] Simulation/Simulacra [

Terms most famously used by French theorist Jean Baudrillard that refer to a sign that does not clearly have a real-life counterpart. A simulacrum is not a representation of something, but is more difficult to distinguish from the real. Hence, it can be considered to be a kind of fake real that could potentially supercede the real. Baudrillard stated that to simulate a disease was to acquire its symptoms, thus making it difficult to distinguish between simulation and the actual disease. For example, a casino or amusement park simulacrum of the city of Paris can be seen as creating a substitution for the actual city, and can perhaps for some viewers seem to be more real than the city itself. The term simulation is often used to describe aspects of postmodern culture in which copies and realities get blurred.
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Please refer to Insights Incite Change Style Guide to get an overview of what I am talking about.

A few days ago I found the Insights Incite Change Style Guide webpage for Syracuse University. I was temporarily thrilled, for as an alumnus of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications I could not wait to experience a new visual transformation of my alma mater.

My excitement, sadly, lasted only seconds.
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At the AIGA Next conference there was a segment called 20/20. It was 20 young designers, each having been granted 1 min to talk or show what’s next. One of the designers, Geoff Halber, asked others to contribute to his presentation by submitting a version of an 08.

My domino version of the 08, already blending with the next version.
Thanks to Kelly Murdoch-Kitt for having taken the photo.

As part of my explorations on the relationship between the disciplines of architecture and graphic design, a current work in progress delves into the subject of representation thru typography. Here letterforms (which designs are dictated by the medium) can be texture, but at the same time a message, which at the same time is a texture. The revelation of this meaning arises from the interaction the user has with the work. These are process photos. The project is half way in the process.

Architecture by Jorge Rigau, FAIA. Typography by Alberto Rigau. Scultpture and modeling by Jaime Suárez Toro.

Original letterform designs.

Final letterforms in their construction molds.
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New terms and ideas that I am being exposed to in the book Practices of Looking by Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright.

] Abstraction [
The quality of being conceived apart from concrete realities.

] Capitalism [
An economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth are held primarily by individuals and corporations, as opposed to cooperative or state owned means of wealth. Capitalism is based on an ideology of free trade, open markets, and individuality. In capitalism, the use value of goods (how they are used) matter less than their exchange value (what they are worth on the market). Marxist theory is a critique of the ways that the system of capitalism is based on inequality and exploitation of workers, allowing a few to prosper while many have only limited means.

] Flaneur [
A french term theorized explicitly by cultural critics such as Walter Benjamin, that refers to a person who wanders city streets taking in the sights, especially those of consumer society. In other words, the flaneur is a kind of window shopper, with the implication that the act of looking at the gleaming offerings of commodity culture is itself a source of pleasure wether or not one actually ever purchases anything. The flaneur is simultaneously in the world of consumerism and detached from the cityscape around him.
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My father and I many times mused about graphic design and architecture. We conversed about the disciplines’ similitudes and differences. We evaluated how each of us could use our fields to impact the other.

Architecture can aid my understanding of balance (specially when it comes to grid work and the alignment of elements), it can fuel my understanding of the different ways my work will affect others, and it can be a catalyst for three dimensional explorations of a basically two dimensional area of study. Graphic design can influence him by improving his communications, by opening a space to create strategical standpoint for the conceptual exploration of aesthetic representations, and in providing a typographical groundwork on which to develop a new layer of expressive meaning.
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See Contribute, a stop action presentation from today’s class.

Some pictures of today’s model making presentation.

Thanks to Gretchen, Michele and Valentina for taking these.

As the projects lay on the table…

We had the chance to inspect them…
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Model thought, envisioned and created in 1 hour and a half as a reaction to the phrase:
Empowerment as me jumping on top of you and screaming like crazy!

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