Frazil Ice

I couldn't resist posting this, even if it does come a little late for our water segment.

Lost and Found

Check out this RadioLab episode, which is about how we spatially orient ourselves. In one part, psycholinguist Lera Borditsky talks of time spent in an Australian aboriginal community where one's 'heading' is key to cultural consciousness. To say 'hello', one would ask "which way are you going?", a question to which the appropriate answer would be something like "north northeast in the middle distance, how about you?"

assignment 2 topo

Land Literacy:
Spring 2011
Catherine Page Harris

Topography: due March 7, 2011

Topography changes our physical experience in the world.  Only flying removes us from the folds and plains of topographic change, and when flying we find ourselves mesmerized by the motion of the land beneath us. Topography provides sculptural objects.  Topography is the source of hide and reveal, both on large and small scales.  A view from the top of a rise, comes as our bodies move up the rise, using muscles and breath to climb. A steep ravine opens before us and we glimpse a creek.  In the city, topography stacks buildings, offers shelter, creates breaks in the urban grid, and opens vistas. 

For this assignment, please pick a topographic signature.  We have studied the road, the drain, the ridge and the valley. You can use another signature, if you would like, but please discuss it with me.  You will choose this signature based on two criteria.  One is an aesthetic appreciation for its pattern.  The second is a content based appreciation for its meaning.

1.     On a 10” x 10” piece of paper draw the signature as a finished drawing in plan and section, including its content in some form in the drawing.  You may use graphite, ink or watercolor.

2.     Take that signature and imagine it as a place.  Create a model at ¼” = 1’-0” out of gray or brown chipboard to represent that place on a 10” x 10” base.

3.     Create an outdoor, temporary, installation using that signature and your imagined place.  You may adopt an existing element that has that signature already embedded in it, but you must alter that element, so we see the content you imagine in the topographic element.  Whether we can or cannot visit your installation, please represent it with photographs printed to fit the 10” x 10” module.

Some references that may come in handy: Mary Miss, Maya Lin, Patricia Johansen

Assignment A - water sketchup and reading

Land Literacy: Spring 2011

Catherine Page Harris

 For Barry Lopez reading, go to e-reserves for this class.  You can search under my name.  It doesn't load very legibly here.

Assignment:  Sketch up

Use one of the “a” entries in Lopez’ Home Ground to create an exploration in Sketch-up.  You could start with the form of the word or with its meaning and the land forms or phenomena described.  Please choose a word relating to our current interest, water.

You are not constrained by size as this is developed in virtual space, but you should be able to turn it in on an 8 ½”  x 11” sheet of paper.

There is no requirement for photographic realism, though you can use Photoshop, V-ray and or other programs to add photographic detail.  See http://www.ronenbekerman.com/sketchup-vray-from-start-to-finish-by-omar-estevez/#comments for some tips on photo realism.

For help with Sketch Up, you can look on You-tube where many videos have been posted.