Review - No 2 - story of the pencil

This documentary is not currently listed on Amazon UK, so I will post a short review here. It is however available elsewhere, such as iTunes.  

This is a short (just over an hour) documentary about pencils. Clearly there is a profitable niche here for such documentaries, there was Gary Hustwit on the font Helvetica, I have watched documentaries on Letterpress (Typeface), Sign Writers and Linotype. There is also one on typewriters (The Typewriter in the 21st Century).  

Although this is potentially an interesting topic, it was marred by overly intrusive music, and far too much screen time for the more irritating interviewees and consequently not enough for the more interesting. I am also unsure why the developer of the app Paper got so much screen time, at times it was like an advert for their software. 

Those interested in pencils will have plenty of unanswered questions too, how does the Blackwing enthusiast rate the new versions, what actual differentiates pencils, the lead, the wood, something else, how do Japanese pencils rate, ... 

Although the documentary raises some interesting points, it suffers from treating pencils like some sort of post modern hipster affectation.  

On fixing a computer

I had some problems with my computer yesterday, an email account that i have had since I first went onto the internet is being discontinued, so I wanted to change the username for my iCloud account. 

Suffice to say I hit problems, which I partly resolved, but it was clear that I needed more technical advice. A quick check on the Apple User Forums generated the usual mixed bag of out of date suggestions, that usually seem to recommend using Terminal and deleting plist files. I have been using Mac computers since the early nineties and have never used Terminal, and certainly do not intend to start using it now. 

I started up an online chat with Apple Support, got escalated to a phone call, and eventually escalated to a senior support person. 

Throughout the people helping me were unfailingly polite and helpful and this was a call that lasted for three hours!

As the call was about access to iCloud, which is pretty much my entire online digital life, public and private, it was commendable that they were rigorous in checking my identity and were not offering to wave a magic wand to get me past the hurdles I was facing. They also seemed to have faith in the logic and dependability of the underlying operating system, trusting it to behave in a sensible manner.

It was also interesting that they were not asking me to use Terminal, or indeed anything particularly high tech. It was just a patient working through, if you click a button and it does not work, click it again, if you are stymied try a reboot, or a reboot in safe mode. 

It was a very gentle approach, no deleting or reinstalling from system disks, just working patiently through the issues in a calm and methodical manner. 

And if that is the sort of approach that experienced support staff adopt, then perhaps it is as well to follow their example.

Cloud options

Although I have long experience with computers, I studied an HNC in computing in the last century, and have bought countless Apple Macintosh computers over the years, I would prefix this short piece with an admission that I have no special knowledge of this subject, I have certainly not done any research, and it cannot be relied on as any sort of authority. I am however offering my observations for what they are. 

Using computers is built on metaphors, they drive everything. You are presented with a virtual desktop, because that makes it easy for you to understand. You are presented with a folder hierarchy, even although the data is spread about all over the place. The computer interface encourages you, indeed compels you to make false assumptions to conceptualise what is going on. 

It strikes me that some of our current understanding of how computers work is being stretched, and perhaps a new understanding is required. 

A few examples. 

when is an application not an application - well often applications seem to sit as a gatekeeper for information or data. So Word is one thing, but the Word documents are another. Or Evernote, Dropbox, or iCloud are they an application, they offer access to documents. But then Dropbox has no real menu bar as such on your computer, nor does iCloud, there is some functionality accessible on your desktop, and other functionality via the internet in the Cloud. But where is the application, or is it an application at all. Although the software wants to be trouble free, so you don’t have to think about it, what does happen when you lose your wifi connection, what is actually left on your computer, what is out of reach in the Cloud. 

when are you logged out - the traditional model is that you log in, like putting a key in a door, and then you can Quit, or log out, or even switch off the computer, and you are logged out. However now that passwords are buried in Keychain and the like, you never actually enter those log in details. So to all intents and purposes you are perpetually logged in. I got an email from Dropbox suggesting that I update my password, which I did. But it just seems to leave all my existing accounts open and running. Are they running with the updated password, or an old one, I have no idea and no idea how to find out. 

the easiest way to breach your IT security - it was assumed that malicious hackers would be seeking to log into your accounts online, and lay your whole life open. If you were determined to hack someone now the easiest way to do it would be to steal or clone a device, and with people’s devices all syncing to each other all the time, you could just sit there and all their data would appear before you. With a stolen laptop or phone, it would be far easier to get past a few passwords than trawling through different usernames and passwords for various online services. 

with digital you only ever rent - increasingly software is moving to a subscription model. But even where you own something digital, in reality you are only ever renting it. The succession of formats we have seen for music, vinyl, cassette, cd, digital, is not going to stop. Similarly for movies, software, fonts, or anything else with digital content. It seems unlikely that any format would stay accessible for twenty years plus, so we all just need to resign ourselves to buying everything we own, again and again and again.  Modern technology wants to be invisible, remove any obvious distinction between what is on your device and what is in the cloud, but when the wifi signal falters we might just find ourselves with dumb terminals that know nothing.

Inspiring Impressionism | Daubigny | Monet | Van Gogh

Inspiring Impressionism | Daubigny | Monet | Van Gogh
25th June − 2nd October 2016
Scottish National Gallery | £11 (£9)

It is not often you discover an artist that you had never heard of, but is actually really really good.

Yesterday I had planned to listen to Darran Anderson discuss High Rise (by JG Ballard) at the Edinburgh Book Festival. Unfortunately when I checked Twitter he was stuck at Charles De Gaulle airport and was going to miss his sold out event. I was already taking a half day off work, so I found myself with a morning to fill in Edinburgh. I swung by the Royal Scottish Academy (the big neoclassical art gallery on the Mound that is nearest to Princes Street). There was an exhibition on Daubigny and the Impressionists, so I went to see that.

Like most people I am familiar with the Impressionists, and have various books of their works. Although the paintings reproduce well, and the movement was an overdue shot in the arm for moribund landscape painting, seeing the paintings in person is often an underwhelming experience. The works can come across as flat and decorative. Daubigny I had never heard of, and I presumed it was an opportunity to hang some familiar impressionist paintings from local galleries along with some musty predecessor

As it turned out Daubigny was an absolute revelation. He is one of those rare artists where is it hard to consistently identify the works as all being by the same artist. He had a sense of humour, sketching his life in a boat that he used as a floating studio, he could do the detailed landscapes in dark tones that are familiar in countless galleries, but also blast out painted sketches that captured some momentary light effect with the setting sun or suchlike. He loved to experiment with paint, getting effects that are quite remarkable. 

He was capable of capturing the light, detail and mood of a scene. Often I would slip off my glasses and the blurred image before me could pass for the reality of a day in France long ago, but there still before me. To my taste generally his works showed the weaknesses of the neighbouring impressionist works, though there were a few where it seemed that Daubigny had raised their game too. 

With Daubigny the reproductions do not do him justice, there is no substitute for the real things, a highly recommended exhibition, offering an opportunity to see the range and power of a major artist and the influence he had on art history. 

I do rather wonder whether it was Daubigny who was the model for the painter Elstir in Proust, although Wikipedia suggest Monet as the model. 

 

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/on-now-coming-soon/inspiring-impressionism/

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review - Architzer 2016

I normally post reviews to Amazon, but this book is published by Phaidon, exclusively available from them, and therefore not currently available to review of Amazon.
Architizer 2016 - review

Architizer is the website to go to for endless photos of amazing new buildings and projects. This is their second 'best of the year' book of projects, though how the precise parameters of the year are defined seems unclear. 

I thought that this was a far stronger collection than the previous volume, although it lacks the obvious projects (I only recognised a couple) it resolutely avoids ‘starchitecture’, focussing on firms rather than individuals, with an inspiring mix of projects from across the world, and beyond (Mars). The text is brief but shows more consistency than the previous volume too. 

There are a few recurring themes, multigenerational living, cantilevered chunks of building, and the sun is always shining. Many of the houses look like those intriguing Japanese offcut shaped homes.

But there are few projects here without something that is novel and inspiring, from the big to simple conversions.

Hidden Gardens of the Royal Mile

Hidden Gardens of the Royal Mile Guided Tour
2 July 2016
14:30 assemble outside John Knox House, £8.00 book online

This particular tour was one of the various offerings provided by the Architecture Fringe 2016, running during July 2016. Having said that Jean Bareham who gives the tours runs them fairly regularly so it should not be too difficult to find an alternative offering. Jean also offers other like themed tours and has written a short books of the Hidden Gardens of the Royal Mile. Relevant links attached below.
http://architecturefringe.com
http://www.greenyondertours.com
If you are looking for epic formal gardens then this is not the tour for you, however if you are keen to get behind the facades of the Royal Mile, as the buildings tumble their way down the slope from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace then this is wonderful. There are a couple of gardens that are quite professional and amazing, while others are not much more than areas where a few paving slabs have been lifted and some welcome greenery squeezed in.
The combination of the Old Town alleys and courts with little pockets of green is really rather wonderful. Likewise Jean could not be bettered as a guide, she seemed to know everything and everyone.
There was plenty of talk about Patrick Geddes and a separate tour is available devoted to him. Understanding Geddes is impossible without seeing and walking the Old Town that inspired him.
There is something noble about gardening, quietly and unostentatiously creating something of beauty for others to enjoy. On the one hand it is sad to realise just how fragile these dear green places are, but encouraging to see how much of an impact a handful of gardeners can still make to positively enhance one of the world’s most beautiful cities.

Pop-up Cities Expo

Pop-up Cities Expo
Tuesday 21 June - Sunday 17 July
daily 10am to 10pm
Mound Square, the Mound, Edinburgh

Five cities from around the globe, have each contributed a pavilion for this pop up expo on the Mound in Edinburgh. The Ideal Hut Exhibition was here earlier in the year, and it strikes me that some more permanent means of enclosing the area might be useful if there is going to be a regular series of these events.

Each pavilion was a very fancy hut. It was the Dutch one that most caught my imagination, made of pipes it was appropriate to the site, fun and great to look at. The others will doubtless all have their own admirers, and it was nice to see something relevant, edgy and different here in Edinburgh. The exhibition was attracting a diverse and interested audience when I was there, suggesting that there is a ready audience for more pop ups.

Hidden Door Festival

Hidden Door Festival
Friday 27 May to Saturday 4th June
12am to 6pm free, 6pm to midnight £15
Courtyard off King’s Stables Road
8-20 King’s Stables Road
Edinburgh
EH1 2JY
I will include a note on this for sake of completeness, I am so not the target audience for this sort of thing. This is one of those hidden courtyards that persist in the city. Presumably used for some vaguely council purpose it has been converted to a short lived pop up festival site. It was relatively easy to find, head to the Grassmarket then take the road round by the rock face of the the castle on the west side of the Grassmarket.
You enter via a dark curtained twisty corridor, every other exhibition these days seems to entail going through some curtains to gain entry. Inside the courtyard some installation art, a bit Occupy, some street food stands, a couple of bars. Although there were a few folk about the place was not terribly lively when I was there, but if you are happy to use a portaloo and drink wine from plastic cups, then this offers an urban alternative to festivals. There is a full programme of events, so this could be good place to hang out for a mix of art culture and drinking.

Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2016 = Evolution House

28th May – 5th June 2016
11:00 – 17:00
Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh

Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2016 = Evolution House
As ever this covers a variety of disciplines, some of which lend themselves far more to exhibitions than others. Design Informatics seems a relatively new addition, and there were some interesting ideas on display, for example a forlorn bin chasing someone while another bin ran away from people.
The jewellery was strong, with the tactile creations like luminous deep sea creatures by Wanshu Li being the most novel. I also liked the botanical illustrator who used plants to inform her jewellery.
As ever Illustration was a highlight for me, particularly the little self portraits and notebooks. If I were to criticise then it might be helpful to force the illustrators out of their comfort zone a bit more. They seemed to be reinforcing their existing styles rather than redefining their boundaries.
Overall the standout for me was the product design, with a strong selection of strongly evidence pieces, starter kits for coral reefs, a surf board made from cigarette ends, a lifebelt that could make potable water, a siren that could put out fires, basalt ceramics, that were both thought provoking, attractive and often quite covetable.

Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2016 = Main Building

28th May – 5th June 2016
11:00 – 17:00
Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh

Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2016 - Main Building
This is probably the starting point for most visitors to the Degree show. On the way in you spot a few oversized children’s toy sucker arrows. The main atrium is well used with the performance costumes, which are displayed with some real exuberance. It was nice to see some futuristic and different stuff, nice as steampunk is, it can be overdone at these things.
I thought that the photography was particularly strong and as ever persevering to the remote corners of the West wing can lead to some very evocative room sized installations. My perennial favourites are the animations. However I really wish that they would just upload them all to Vimeo for people to enjoy. I watched two,

GNOME by Ben Cresswell

which was dark strange and really rather wonderful 

and

THE GIRL WHO STOLE THE SUN by Atikah Zailani

which packed an involving story into a short running time. 

I did not see much painting, traditionally strong, but this is probably because I missed those galleries. It would really take a few visits to get the best out of this show.

Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2016 = Minto and Adam House

28th May – 5th June 2016
11:00 – 17:00

Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh
Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2016 = Minto and Adam House
There really is far too much to the ECA degree show to try and cover it all in the one posting, so I will split it up by buildings. I had a good look round most of the various rooms but even with a visit of a few hours you are just skimming the surface of what is on offer.
First off I will cover the architecture students.
It is nice to see the architecture students really getting some space at the degree show and show what they are capable of. There was a range of strong material across a variety of floors at both Minto and Adam House, but for me the strongest material was in Minto House, it was also the most interesting building to get into as well.
Many pieces were highly stylised visions of a near future. There was a strong sense of place in most of the displays, often a reaction or commentary of some very distinctive existing landscape. A dystopian nightmare of Japan set out a powerful and pervasive vision, reminiscent of the classic Ghost in the Shell. At times things seemed to be as much moody set design as architecture.
There was consistently strong model work, evocative illustrations and even short video segments. While models and computer graphics featured strongly the couple of notebooks that I opened up and looked at included relatively little material. While the illustrators and other visual artists seem inveterate notebook users, the notebook seems to be on the way out for architects. A handy spot for the odd working out of some detail, but not much more.
For some reason the architecture students do not appear to feature in the usual free newspaper style programme so I have included a few photos of things that I liked. Even non architecture buffs should find this an impressive and evocative experience.

Lewis Baltz with works by C Andre and C Posenake exhibition

Lewis Baltz with works by C Andre and C Posenake - exhibition
Saturday 30th April to Saturday 9th July 2016, Monday to Saturday 11am to 6pm
Stills (Gallery) 23 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1BP

This is an odd but welcome addition to the Festival of Architecture exhibitions, events, etc, running over 2016. I am really not sighted on modern photography at all. Accordingly on first looking through the photos, a large array of black and white photos of non descript bits of land, mounds of earth, etc, I was really wondering whether I was stupidly missing something deeply profound about each single image.
There is a short five minute video that is well worth a look and my take on what Baltz (the photographer) was saying, was that by taking photos he was really seeking to put a frame on something to draw attention to it. Sometimes it might simply be a pleasing arrangement of architectural details or some nondescript land pared back of anything of interest.
Whereas the work of the French landscape artist Claude Lorrain created an ideal of beauty that was then translated by landscape gardeners into created landscapes, Baltz had taken the existing banality of our surroundings, framed it, and challenged us to see the beauty in it what we have ourselves created.
The exhibition also features some minimal art pieces, to parallel and perhaps offer their own commentary. In fact these pieces are so minimal as to be quite unobtrusive, there were aluminium floor panels (illustrated) and perhaps something that looked like ducting, or was that really just ducting, I am not sure.
While no single item here carried a great deal of meaning, as a whole the effect was contemplative and thought provoking.

Innovation, Architecture or Design? Exhibition - Edinburgh

Innovation, Architecture or Design? Exhibition - Edinburgh
Monday 25th April to Friday 29th July 2016, opening hours Monday to Friday 9.30am to 6pm.
Studio DuB, 17a, at flat 2 West Crosscauseway, Edinburgh EH8 9JW
This is another little gem of an exhibition under the aegis of the Festival of Architecture. I love the idea of pop up displays repurposing space, and testing the boundaries of what an exhibition might be. This is a fine example of the genre, an architectural practice has used an enclosed garage space, to put up a series of display boards, and if you press the buzzer they will let you in to see them. According to the website the shutters can also be raised to allow disabled access.
The projects are an imaginative mix, some fairly grounded, some fairly out there, but all well presented and thoughtful. I have incorporated a few photos of projects that particularly caught my eye.
It did take me a while to figure out exactly where the exhibition was, it is behind the shutters in the last photo, use the entry phone to the right of the shutters and the press button and ask to be let in. Once I found the place (eventually) I had no trouble gaining access, but inevitably with something as ad hoc as this, access might be a bit patchy.
Kudos to Studio DuB for putting on this exhibition, an inspiring demonstration of creativity and real generosity of spirit.

The Ideal Hut Show - Edinburgh

The Ideal Hut Show - Edinburgh
Saturday 30th April to Monday 30th May 2016, 10am to 6pm.
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

my latest excursion to keep up with the by now totally bewildering array of events that constitute the Festival of Architecture was to the Ideal Hut Show at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. This is a couple of rows, totalling eighteen huts. A few themes recur, there are various huts that you can look inside, kaleidoscope style, a negative space absence of hut, an expanded hut, many decorated huts. Unfortunately jamming the huts together in two neat rows does detract from their impact. Had they been spaced out around a larger area they would have carried more impact.
It would also appear that these are conceptual pieces, someone somewhere has drawn a plan, and someone else has constructed the finished item. This runs contrary to the usual principles of shed as man made man-cave, and none of these really seem to function as sheds. Overall worth a look and a ponder, but likely to be of more interest to architecture buffs than the average man in the street.
The Botanic Gardens are always worth a look, with plenty to see, so worth incorporating a look at these huts into a trip on a fine day. If you head towards the glasshouses, and then towards the big pond then you should spot them quite easily.