I have recently discovered Quayola, an audiovisual artist whose works carry an appealing architectural sense. He also uses processing, VRAY and not surprisingly video editing as primary tools. Among his works there are some that I thought could be inspiring for our investigation on interacting the tools we have.
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/11764688#[/vimeo]
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/11760582[/vimeo]
Google has just announced that Google Reader is to be shut down by July. This is a sad news for those who use RSS to stay up to date. There are other RSS readers however not as much as handy as Google Reader is. On the other hand we recently discovered a very useful platform for following news in particular interests. Scoop it enables you create your own and specified compilation on the very deep of the web.
We as MAS LA have also a page where we share projects, essays, videos, books and other links we find inspiring relating to landscape architecture and design simulation. You can follow us here.
The first workshop as a length of Modul 4 has begun today under the guidance of Martina Voser who is a practicing landscape architect and also a former member of the chair. She gave a lecture regarding to her own approach to landscape architecture by showing several projects done by her practice. Among the topics she referred to while discussing the projects, topography, flood, public space, strategies and politics, rule based design, infrastructure were distinguishable. In addition to these contemporary dimensions of landscape architecture today she emphasized one aspect which presents a powerful underpinning approach of the profession that is succession theory. In wiki we trust so here is some information. 
Claudia presenting her video skecth
[youtube]http://youtu.be/UkZYEHGQtMY[/youtube]
Saskia Sassen talks about urbanized technologies and how city “talks back”.
Landscape Vision Motion is the first issue of Landskript publishing series of the chair and consists of several essays with different aspects to landscape and motion. At the last part Sébastien Marot examines films of Eric Rohmer in the scope of landscape. Among the various mentioned works I was particularly curious about one which then I found at the link below. But it is only in French that makes life harder for me.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/33320205[/vimeo]
Modul 3 just ended yesterday with final presentations. This time we started with very conceptual exercises without questioning either landscape design or the given site for the thesis. But towards the end we slightly approach to the main goal again. The final task was to create maps out of certain layers that we already had and by using only Processing. Results were astonishing that none of us expected indeed. Many thanks to Pia and Georg!!
And I just found this video of the British band Foals which I thought is quite related to the content what we have been discussing such as urbanism, topography, contour lines, programming, numbers, fractals, modeling, connectivity etc. Like all in the same pot, with music of course.
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/58447276[/vimeo]
I wish a nice break to everyone.
“In Landscape Architecture, activities that increase the possibilities of exchanging a sense of wonder are more important for promoting environmental awareness than just creating an ecological appearance.”
The best label I’ve heard lately as derived from scape, landscape etc is SCAPEGOAT. It is a Canada based online and non-profit magazine focusing on architecture, landscape and political economy. Is being the scapegoat of man not the fate of landscape anyway?
Being done with Processing I think this video is a good example for what could be done with sound. It is even better especially if you are a Joy Division fan just like me.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/12103113[/vimeo]
From now on there will be a series of quotes we like while reading or listening or watching. Send me if you can! Here comes the first one.
La nature est le sol qui nous porte.
Nature is the ground that carries us.
Said by Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
Caught by Marina.