IN VU

esther STOCKER

"Esther Stocker, born 1974 in Silandro, Italy, graduated in 1999 from the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Stocker's work oscillates between the exactitudes of formal minimalism and the ambiguities of abstraction. She builds deviations, optical breaks and hurdles, which simultaneously open-up and withhold the complex systems inherent in her thoroughly architectural forms."
source1

Interview from Don't Panic, 'The Art of Esther Stocker':

How extensive is your lack of knowledge about space?

It is really hard to describe, but I never really know where one thing is at... like myself for instance. How to describe where one is? You could describe the things around you, if they could define your position. But then I have to define their position.

Imagine I am on a chair. The chair is two meters from a wall. The wall is on the second floor of a house in Vienna and so on. But what relates to what? Even the solar system is dependent on being described by some unclear idea of a universe being described by a confused human observer. That’s why it seems so unclear to me. Why should I trust a chair to tell me where I am? It seems highly absurd when you start to think about it.

It is the close relationship to the observer that makes the concept of space so unclear to me. I cannot describe any position. So I want to admit that there is more than one thing that I don’t know about space. I don’t know my position and that is why I don’t clearly know the position of other things too.

Your work seems to say something profound about space, despite and perhaps because of your ignorance of its nature.

It is ironic, as the 'fact' of space somehow enters the work unasked. All I ever wanted to know is how a relation functions. What one thing is doing next to another, why we can differentiate things or why we want to differentiate things. Even if we cannot describe the point where one thing becomes another, we seem to somehow know that it happens. That fascinates me.

Is there a certain intuitive understanding in these fuzzy, imprecise areas of your/our knowledge?

Decisions, even the most minimal formal decisions, have a consequence in space. Somehow they describe an exact position somewhere. The somewhere is space. I am completely convinced that fuzziness is logical. It is something unstable to hold on too. It’s paradoxical that we can rely on something so imprecise.

Is the heavy use of black in both your installation and your paintings a reference to this unknown?

It is the highest differentiation that I can build up in a relation - something you can easily distinguish on a formal level; something that at first sight seems like a clear thing to distinguish, where you immediately know what one thing is compared to the other. The fuzziness is still there, just lying within how the things are positioned or what they do. If they slightly disappoint your expectations, you might loose your orientation. It is about doubting our sense of control.

Can you tell us what the physical ingredients of this instillation are? Gaffer tape? Any sticky-back plastic?

Ordinary gaffer tape from the hardware store next door and some black cardboard for the reinforced parts.

This is the Science issue of our magazine, which works well because there seems to be a lot of references to scientific imagery (graphs/grids/static) in this work. How can art draw inspiration from science?

The first science text I have ever been excited about was Perception of Texture by Bela Julesz. He beautifully describes the limitations of our perceptive apparatus - how cognitive processes support low level perception and how the recognition of the continuity of complex patterns is limited by the gradual overload of the perceptive apparatus.

I owe a lot to science. I really enjoy following the research of human perception and cognition, and I am fascinated by the aesthetic elegance of some scientific research, as well as the importance that images play for some science, as evidence for a theory.

And after reading some scientific theory I usually end up with something precious - with a better knowledge of the limitations of our human understanding."
source2

"There are many things to say about the notion of a 'simple grid'. In the case of painting it concerns the equal distribution of parts, and in this respect is an expansive structure. The grid allows a non-hierarchical image-organization and plays an important role not just in architecture, city-planning, construction etc., but also as a tool for the distinction in a simple figure/ground scheme which leads to the discussion of relational questions: How minimal can the difference of brightness be to still reassemble some parts? Where is the point which connects the structure of the grid and where does it fall apart? The fascinating fact for me is the continuous redefinition of things through the perception process, always linked to a larger field of meaning. A certain feature or a paradox that appears in painting is the contradicting fact that grids and other arrangements of exact geometrical forms can lead to 'vague' visual experiences. This can be caused through minimal changes within a regular structure. The reduction of visual constructs and their constituent elements helps to demonstrate specific interactions or relations inherent within those constructs."
source3

'What I don't know about space', Museum 52, London, 2008.
'What I don't know about space', Museum 52, London, 2008.
'What I don't know about space', Museum 52, London, 2008.

'Abstract thought is a warm puppy', CCNOA, Brussels, 2008.

'Geometrisch Betrachtet', Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Wien, 2008.

'O.T.', Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, 2006.
'O.T.', Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, 2006.

Esther Stocker

koichi SUZONO / shinya KAMURO - torafu ARCHITECTS

   

left
"Koichi Suzuno was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1973 and graduated from Yokohama National University Graduate School of Engineering with a Master degree from the Department of Architecture in 1998. After working at K&H, NMBW Architecture Studio, and Krestin Thompson Architects, Suzuno started Torafu with Shinya Kamuro in February 2004. Koichi is currently a part-time lecturer at Showa Women's University in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan."

right
"Shinya Kamuro was born in Shimane Prefecture in 1974 and graduated from Meiji University School of Science and Technology with a Master degree from the Department of Architecture in 1999. After working at Jun Aoki, Kamuro started Torafu with Koichi Suzuno in February 2004. Shinya is currently a part-time lecturer at Showa Women's University in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan."

The Claska Hotel - 'Template' Wall

"The Claska is a recent hotel renovation project on Meguro-dori that was completed in September 2003 and is Tokyo’s first boutique hotel. It was created by renovating the 35-year-old "Hotel New Meguro", which first opened in 1967 and was one of the most luxurious hotels in Tokyo. "Claska" is derived from "dou kurasuka", means "how best to live" in Japanese

In 2004, Claska appointed Torafu Architects to re-design three long-term guest rooms so that they could be rented on a weekly or monthly basis. These three rooms are different in size and shape. All of these are no larger than 194ft² and were designed to accommodate contemporary Japanese artwork, an AIBO, furniture and the guest’s belongings.

With the mission of "creating a well-organized yet comfortable ambiance in a small space" in mind, Torafu designed a wall-spanning storage unit in mahogany-veneered MDF with laser-cut niches named,  'templates'. The shape of each 'template' reflects the shape of the object that is intended to store. The templates accommodate 35 common items, all necessary, including a television, stereo components, DVD player, mini refrigerator, hair dryer, light, suitcase, jacket, books and magazines, a dust bin, coffee cups and your key. The niches are backlit, transforming each item into framed art and illuminating the room."

"We drew up a template of various hotel amenities as well as customer belongings and literally cut out the exact same shapes along a single thin wall. Indirect lighting was created through a cutout of a lamp. A closet, desk, chair, as well as elements from other furniture are embedded into the wall creating space solutions on a single plane. Guest's personal belongings can also be added to allow for a customized, private space."
source1
source2
source3

Very immaculate and wonderful concept though I know that I have seen a very similar work.

Koichi Suzono / Shinya Kamuro - Torafu Architects

jürg LEHNI w/ alex RICH

    

top
"Jürg Lehni, born in Lucerne, Switzerland,  is a graphic designer who collaborates with a wide range of disciplines in his work. In 2002, while an undergraduate at the École Cantonale d'art de Lausanne (Écal), Lehni invented a machine named Hektor with a software programme called "Scriptographer". Scriptographer allowed someone sitting at a computer keyboard to control a robot with a spray-can (Hektor), to paint and create the user defined art. The immediate work, in black aerosol on a white wall was gestural, and similar to that of Sol LeWitt."

“I wanted to make new things with new meanings using what I knew already,” he says. “I wanted to bring back the spirit of printing or publishing or design from the past, but using modern technology. My computers became my working tools, my brushes and paint.”

"We are all being sold proprietary software all the time and being told how to use it in a prescriptive way, but it is possible, if we know how, to bend it to our own will and to use it in a different way. The capacity o this software is not anticipated by us and it often has poetic potential."

bottom
"Alex Rich, born in Caerphilly, Wales, approaches design from a multi-disciplinary perspective. As a member of the jury that judged Lehni's Écal degree show in 2002, and seeing one of Lehni's drawing machines at work, Rich – a deft observer of accidental meaning – opened a discussion with the designer about the machine's historical and cultural context. Rich viewed the work as, “the translation of imagery from mind to machine to wall," and suggested assembling compilations with similar writing and drawing machines. ‘A Recent History of Writing and Drawing’ is the result of their ensuing collaboration."

A Recent History of Writing and Drawing

"The exhibit explores the evolving relationship between technologies of communication and their users , demonstrating the "poetic potential" Lehni and Rich see in contemporary technology. They transform basic elements into complex actions that inject a degree of humanity into the mechanical nature of machines.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is Viktor, a large wall-drawing machine that is controlled by an adapted design software and powered by four small industrial motors. During the exhibition Viktor traces imagery in chalk on the black gallery wall."
source1
source2

I applaud the previous work implemented through Hektor but feel that this new exhibition attains a higher appreciation of skill and elegance.

Jürg Lehni w/ Alex Rich

alfredo HABERLI

"Born in Argentina in 1964 and now living and working in Zurich, Haberli is part of an international group of designers, including Jasper Morrison and Konstantin Grcic, who follow in the footsteps of Achille Casiglioni and Enzo Mari. and although the pursuit of the natural, though not necessarily obvious or humorless, solution to the question at hand - typical of the work of these Italian product design pioneers - underlies Haberli's approach, the also brings to his work a sensuous charm. His creations have a clear, rational base, the result of his orientation and training, but they also have a fragile, emotional, even poetic, quality that stems from his openness and his culturally diverse upbringing."

"When you come from someplace else, you can raise more questions, be more critical."
biography

"I do what I like to do. I'm lucky to be able to do what I love. I have a lot of respect for others, and I expect to be treated with respect as well. Hopefully this attitude is evident in my projects. I couldn't mess with people. but in design, it can be a thin line. Phillipe Starck sometimes crosses it. It may take the form of humor, or it may be making fun of people. But is there anything funny about his new lamps for Flos, make of gold-plated rifles? How can I explain such idiocy to my kids, who are 6 and 4?"
interview

Eine neue Art Schuh

A shoe that becomes a "different kind of footwear", a system, thanks to the two-part division.
(This invention was the product of research for a company that wanted to diminish production costs; it caused an uproar there until a new manager was appointed who halted the project at the prototype stage.)

Beautiful. Tragic.

Alfredo Haberli

skylar TIBBITS aka SJET

"SJET was initiated by Skylar Tibbits, as a catalogue and source of further inspiration for continual studies in experimental computation. Skylar is interested in mathematical logic, and he develops algorithms that generate three-dimensional structures based on principles like fractals, recursion, and tessellation."

"It's never initially about developing space," Tibbits says. "You're developing relationships or organizations or scientific rules, and out of that comes space."
biography

Tesselion: Adaptive Quadrilateral Flat Panelization.

"Tesselion is a built project which demonstrates a system of flat panel tessellation derived from complex surfaces to enable ease in constructibility and a directly evolved spatial environment through lighting, programmatic adaptation and structural simplicity. Each panel’s uniqueness is afforded by the efficiency of digital fabrication while coded parametric relationships allow an emergent structural efficiency, from a single panel to the complete adaptability of the surface as a whole."
tesselion

Aperiodic Vertebrae v.2
(3/16" polyethylene with 3/16" acrylic connections)

   

Fascinating.

SJET