I've been reading Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis. I haven't read extensively about the founding of the United States, but I am struck by the political compromises that took place, and how the avoidance of conflict and the justifications lead to larger problems and greater conflict in the future. The most conspicuous of which was the question of slavery. Ellis will give a much more nuanced description, but there were two arguments for not upsetting the status quo that struck me as resonating today. One was the issue of compensation for slave holders for the loss of their property, and the other was that slavery was woven into the fabric of southern life.
In 1790, opponents to abolition had a "relentless focus on the impractical dimensions of all plans for abolition." The estimates for the cost of emancipating the slaves at the time was ranged between $70 and $140 million. At a time when the total federal budget was $7 million annually, this had the appearance of an insurmountable obstacle. However, Ellis goes on to describe how a gradual emancipation would have worked, and the numbers seem much more reasonable when looked at over time. With 20/20 hindsight, we see the subsequent 200 years of internecine strife in the Civil War, and the barbarism of segregation and the struggle for civil rights, the history of which affects us to this day.
The other argument was that slavery "was grafted onto the character fo the southern states during the colonial era and had become a permanent part of American society south of the Potomac" and that it was "one of those habits established long before the Constitution, and could not now be remedied."
Thus the reasons for not addressing the single most obvious moral failure of the founding of this country could not be addressed for economic and cultural reasons.
This old story continues today, and echoes of this argument exist today in two contemporary issues: that of health care reform, and that of climate change.
The opponents of health care reform, in particular the opponents to the public option, frequently cite the costs of such a program, and use inflated numbers and fail to recognize the societal benefit and the long-term savings. They portray the expense as an insurmountable obstacle.
The same are the arguments regarding fossil fuel use: that such use and the cheap cost of energy are long established, and to try to change would be a terrible burden on the American people. These arguments perpetuate the inertia. Yet, as we see with the Civil War, that inertia ultimately leads to an explosive result, untold death, destruction and misery. We already see the results of our moral failure on the health care issue. The pain from climate change will be far more severe and final, and potentially threaten the survival of our species. Our "leaders" are morally derelict. They are unwilling to make the hard decisions to change the behavior of this nation because of political patronage and the status quo. In the face of a common enemy our political system has provided positive leadership that has significantly altered past patterns. We need this leadership again.
31 December 2009
24 August 2009
The Artist's Words
"The poems in this book are written some in Running Rhythm, the common rhythm in English use, some in Sprung Rhythm, and some in a mixture of the two. And those in the common rhythm are some counterpointed, some not."
-Gerard Manley Hopkins, first paragraph of the Author's Preface to a collection of poems.
"Is all verse poetry or all poetry verse? - Depends on definitions of both. Poetry is speech framed for contemplation of the mind by the way of hearing or speech framed to be heard for its own sake and interest even over and above its interest of meaning. Some matter and meaning is essential to it but only as an element necessary to support and employ the shape which is contemplated for its own sake."
-Gerard Manley Hopkins, from "Poetry and Verse"
What struck me about the first paragraph was the pure discussion of form and technique. It is an achingly dull 300-400 words describing the two types of verse. however, the man is clearly fascinated by these two forms, and the impact that these forms of verse have on the sound of the language. He goes on to speak of content or meaning, and that it is secondary to the form. This is supported by Edgar Allen Poe:
"Every poem, it is said, should inculcate a moral; and by this moral is the poetical merit of the work to be adjudged… We have taken into our heads that to write a poem simply for the poem’s sake, and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in true Poetic dignity and force: - but the simple fact is, that, would we but permit ourselves to look into our own souls, we should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified – more supremely noble than this very poem – this poem per se – this poem which is a poem and nothing more – this poem written solely for the poem’s sake."
-Edgar Allen Poe, The Poetic Principle
Poe, whose content is one of the great contemplative thinkers of the language, herein seems to discount the importance of the narrative. Although I have also argued elsewhere that the meaning of Poe's words had to do more with the need for a lesson, and that the argument is for a level of ambiguity. But Poe's words echo Hopkins' - that there is merit in the form of the poem. Indeed, the music of "never more" etches that poem deep into our consciences, and without it we would never recall it.
The reason for this discussion of poetic form is to illuminate how artists discuss their own work. There is a rare discussion of the origins of an image, the meaning of a poem. More frequently, the discussion devolves upon the pragmatic, the process of making, the technique.
“In my own case, the process is more or less unvarying. I begin with the glimpse of a form, a kind of remote island, which will eventually be a story or a poem. I see the end and I see the beginning, but not what is in between. That is gradually revealed to me, when the stars are propitious. More than once I have to retrace my steps by way of the shadows. The notion of art as compromise is a simplification, for no one knows entirely what he is doing.”
-Jorge Luis Borges
-Gerard Manley Hopkins, first paragraph of the Author's Preface to a collection of poems.
"Is all verse poetry or all poetry verse? - Depends on definitions of both. Poetry is speech framed for contemplation of the mind by the way of hearing or speech framed to be heard for its own sake and interest even over and above its interest of meaning. Some matter and meaning is essential to it but only as an element necessary to support and employ the shape which is contemplated for its own sake."
-Gerard Manley Hopkins, from "Poetry and Verse"
What struck me about the first paragraph was the pure discussion of form and technique. It is an achingly dull 300-400 words describing the two types of verse. however, the man is clearly fascinated by these two forms, and the impact that these forms of verse have on the sound of the language. He goes on to speak of content or meaning, and that it is secondary to the form. This is supported by Edgar Allen Poe:
"Every poem, it is said, should inculcate a moral; and by this moral is the poetical merit of the work to be adjudged… We have taken into our heads that to write a poem simply for the poem’s sake, and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in true Poetic dignity and force: - but the simple fact is, that, would we but permit ourselves to look into our own souls, we should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified – more supremely noble than this very poem – this poem per se – this poem which is a poem and nothing more – this poem written solely for the poem’s sake."
-Edgar Allen Poe, The Poetic Principle
Poe, whose content is one of the great contemplative thinkers of the language, herein seems to discount the importance of the narrative. Although I have also argued elsewhere that the meaning of Poe's words had to do more with the need for a lesson, and that the argument is for a level of ambiguity. But Poe's words echo Hopkins' - that there is merit in the form of the poem. Indeed, the music of "never more" etches that poem deep into our consciences, and without it we would never recall it.
The reason for this discussion of poetic form is to illuminate how artists discuss their own work. There is a rare discussion of the origins of an image, the meaning of a poem. More frequently, the discussion devolves upon the pragmatic, the process of making, the technique.
“In my own case, the process is more or less unvarying. I begin with the glimpse of a form, a kind of remote island, which will eventually be a story or a poem. I see the end and I see the beginning, but not what is in between. That is gradually revealed to me, when the stars are propitious. More than once I have to retrace my steps by way of the shadows. The notion of art as compromise is a simplification, for no one knows entirely what he is doing.”
-Jorge Luis Borges
08 March 2009
How to Save General Motors
In general, I say let GM tank. They have not kept current. A bail out to keep doing business as usual? I don't think so.
But let's look at GM's assets.
-It has huge manufacturing infrastructure - buildings, machines, networks of providers. There is a huge capital investment in this company.
-It has a tremendous intellectual capital. It has decades of experienced designers, managers, and manufacturing personnel. As a designer, my heart aches when I think about the loss of this capital. People with skill and imagination sidelined by regressive upper management.
What to do?
In WWII, these industries went to work building trucks and tanks and fighters and bombers. What do we need now?
-Massive quantities of wind turbines, tide turbines, hydro power and other ways of harnessing the kinetic energy of the earth to produce "clean cheap electrons." GM needs to put its core strength of manufacturing complex large machines to work solving the climate crisis.
-Toyota is building manufactured housing. This concept is accepted in Japan, and there is a great deal of innovation. Buckminster Fuller had this concept with his Dymaxion House. The contemporary manufactured house need have no resemblance to the double wide or the trailer home. Americans have an unimaginative prejudice against the concept. The manufactured housing made by GM should be highly efficient and completely green.
GM has the seeds of its resurrection, it has probably thought of them and discounted them years ago. It has relentlessly followed a narrow focus, rather than being the leader and innovator that it was at its founding. If it cannot change its course and innovate its way towards solvency without a massive taxpayer bailout, then let it die.
But let's look at GM's assets.
-It has huge manufacturing infrastructure - buildings, machines, networks of providers. There is a huge capital investment in this company.
-It has a tremendous intellectual capital. It has decades of experienced designers, managers, and manufacturing personnel. As a designer, my heart aches when I think about the loss of this capital. People with skill and imagination sidelined by regressive upper management.
What to do?
In WWII, these industries went to work building trucks and tanks and fighters and bombers. What do we need now?
-Massive quantities of wind turbines, tide turbines, hydro power and other ways of harnessing the kinetic energy of the earth to produce "clean cheap electrons." GM needs to put its core strength of manufacturing complex large machines to work solving the climate crisis.
-Toyota is building manufactured housing. This concept is accepted in Japan, and there is a great deal of innovation. Buckminster Fuller had this concept with his Dymaxion House. The contemporary manufactured house need have no resemblance to the double wide or the trailer home. Americans have an unimaginative prejudice against the concept. The manufactured housing made by GM should be highly efficient and completely green.
GM has the seeds of its resurrection, it has probably thought of them and discounted them years ago. It has relentlessly followed a narrow focus, rather than being the leader and innovator that it was at its founding. If it cannot change its course and innovate its way towards solvency without a massive taxpayer bailout, then let it die.
19 February 2009
Form Poems, Autodidactic Drawings, Useless Drawings
The great gift of architecture is its ability to create worlds. We value architecture’s utility, but we prize its ability to astonish. These drawings are a means of creating architecture. They have several names, for not one title describes them: Form Poems, autodidactic drawings, useless drawings. They are useless in that they have no immediate utility in the making of a building; they are autodidactic in that they are a means of self teaching; and they are poems in their desire to express, and seek to express an ineffable quality.
Every poem, it is said, should inculcate a moral; and by this moral is the poetical merit of the work to be adjudged… We have taken into our heads that to write a poem simply for the poem’s sake, and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in true Poetic dignity and force: - but the simple fact is, that, would we but permit ourselves to look into our own souls, we should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified – more supremely noble than this very poem – this poem per se – this poem which is a poem and nothing more – this poem written solely for the poem’s sake.
-Edgar Allen Poe
How are these drawings practice? As admittedly “useless” drawings, they have no utility in the making of buildings. Their object pointedly eschews any form of problem solving. They are selfish and personal. Yet as autodidactic drawings, they function to self-educate. They are generators of an architectural language that ultimately influence built work and teaching. But as Poe indicates above, these drawings, as Form Poems, do not seek to achieve a larger social good (unless, of course, we allow that the making of beautiful things is a social good). They are, for the most part, made solely for the drawing’s sake.
In my own case, the process is more or less unvarying. I begin with the glimpse of a form, a kind of remote island, which will eventually be a story or a poem. I see the end and I see the beginning, but not what is in between. That is gradually revealed to me, when the stars or chance are propitious. More than once, I have to retrace my steps by way of the shadows. I try to interfere as little as possible in the evolution of the work. I do not want it to be distorted by my opinions, which are the most trivial things about us. The notion of art as compromise is a simplification, for no one knows entirely what he is doing.
-Jorge Luis Borges
Borges describes a process that is recognizable to most that make. We have ideas that form in the mind that must be hammered out through testing using the tools at our disposal. In the case of the work collected here, it is drawing. The process involves becoming lost and discovering. The process requires erasure, iteration, labor. The process involves luck. The process of making as Borges describes it, and as I see it, is much like the surrealist practice of automatic drawing. Though logical rules for the making of form are employed, often there is no rational motivation for a form’s presence. The movement of the pencil, the presence of a figure are the result of intuition and conjecture.
There is a habit to making. The drawings herein are the product of a daily practice. The titles are the dates upon which they were drawn (year month day). As such they are akin to diary entries. There are gaps in the sequences as daily life overwhelms the creative discipline. Even so, there are close to 300 drawings produced over the last 2 years. The work contained herein constitutes a focus to explore, exploit, and potentially exhaust a single medium. The format is a 6” square of paper and graphite. Recent experiments have been in other media in an attempt to challenge habit, but the core focus is simple. When asked why he didn’t explore color in his photographs, my brother replied “I haven’t begun to scratch the surface of black and white.” Centuries of graphite drawings indicate that this work barely begins to exhaust the possibilities.
The word “poem” has its origins in ancient Greek as a term for something made, but usually in relation to words: a fiction. The relationship, therefore, between the poet and the architect in terms of what they do is a strong one. A poet is a “maker.” The architect makes. Both use a language (the poet: words; the architect: lines, tones, models, pixels) to call into existence that which is not there.
There is, however, a class of fancies, of exquisite delicacy, which are not thoughts, and to which, as yet, I have found it absolutely impossible to adapt language.
-Edgar Allen Poe
What is there to say? When the drawings are at their best, there is nothing to say.
Every poem, it is said, should inculcate a moral; and by this moral is the poetical merit of the work to be adjudged… We have taken into our heads that to write a poem simply for the poem’s sake, and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in true Poetic dignity and force: - but the simple fact is, that, would we but permit ourselves to look into our own souls, we should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified – more supremely noble than this very poem – this poem per se – this poem which is a poem and nothing more – this poem written solely for the poem’s sake.
-Edgar Allen Poe
How are these drawings practice? As admittedly “useless” drawings, they have no utility in the making of buildings. Their object pointedly eschews any form of problem solving. They are selfish and personal. Yet as autodidactic drawings, they function to self-educate. They are generators of an architectural language that ultimately influence built work and teaching. But as Poe indicates above, these drawings, as Form Poems, do not seek to achieve a larger social good (unless, of course, we allow that the making of beautiful things is a social good). They are, for the most part, made solely for the drawing’s sake.
In my own case, the process is more or less unvarying. I begin with the glimpse of a form, a kind of remote island, which will eventually be a story or a poem. I see the end and I see the beginning, but not what is in between. That is gradually revealed to me, when the stars or chance are propitious. More than once, I have to retrace my steps by way of the shadows. I try to interfere as little as possible in the evolution of the work. I do not want it to be distorted by my opinions, which are the most trivial things about us. The notion of art as compromise is a simplification, for no one knows entirely what he is doing.
-Jorge Luis Borges
Borges describes a process that is recognizable to most that make. We have ideas that form in the mind that must be hammered out through testing using the tools at our disposal. In the case of the work collected here, it is drawing. The process involves becoming lost and discovering. The process requires erasure, iteration, labor. The process involves luck. The process of making as Borges describes it, and as I see it, is much like the surrealist practice of automatic drawing. Though logical rules for the making of form are employed, often there is no rational motivation for a form’s presence. The movement of the pencil, the presence of a figure are the result of intuition and conjecture.
There is a habit to making. The drawings herein are the product of a daily practice. The titles are the dates upon which they were drawn (year month day). As such they are akin to diary entries. There are gaps in the sequences as daily life overwhelms the creative discipline. Even so, there are close to 300 drawings produced over the last 2 years. The work contained herein constitutes a focus to explore, exploit, and potentially exhaust a single medium. The format is a 6” square of paper and graphite. Recent experiments have been in other media in an attempt to challenge habit, but the core focus is simple. When asked why he didn’t explore color in his photographs, my brother replied “I haven’t begun to scratch the surface of black and white.” Centuries of graphite drawings indicate that this work barely begins to exhaust the possibilities.
The word “poem” has its origins in ancient Greek as a term for something made, but usually in relation to words: a fiction. The relationship, therefore, between the poet and the architect in terms of what they do is a strong one. A poet is a “maker.” The architect makes. Both use a language (the poet: words; the architect: lines, tones, models, pixels) to call into existence that which is not there.
There is, however, a class of fancies, of exquisite delicacy, which are not thoughts, and to which, as yet, I have found it absolutely impossible to adapt language.
-Edgar Allen Poe
What is there to say? When the drawings are at their best, there is nothing to say.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)