Moby on making an architecture blog, and documenting the weird stuff

Composer, Moby is interviewed here about his thoughts on architecture. His sentiments about the representation of architecture through photography are similar to mine. Many of the photos of architecture in this blog are what I regard as `buildings without makeup`. The glamour removed, no fancy lenses, just like the shots of `stars without makeup`.  As I am not a professional photographer, the images/photos therefore can show the weirdness or uniqueness of a building, or in the context of everyday life.

Link to Moby`s original interview here.

Vienna waits for you (part 5)

when will I make it to Vienna…..

 

When design is so bad, its good!

 

 

When design is so bad it’s good! Oliver Steele in Zürich

Switzerlands` stolen generation

Australian broadcaster SBS has made a documentary that covers a dark chapter in Switzerland’s’ recent history.

Made for an Australian audience, titled ‘Switzerland’s stolen generation’ references the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families in Australia by the Australian government between approximately 1909and 1969.

In Switzerland, poor children as young a 5years old, were removed from their families, and sometimes put to forced labour on farms. Some young adults, including teenager women who were rebellious or sexually active could have been incarcerated in one of Switzerland’s morality detentions, and resulting electro-convulsive therapy.

Vienna waits for you (part 3)

 

 

This BBC documentary about Vienna by Joseph Koener goes for 1 1/2 hours, an intriguing look at one of the most explosive moments in modern history.

‘Vienna was the site of one of the most explosive moments in history. 100 years ago, this city gave birth painfully to the most radical new movements and ideas.Viennese visionaries and demagogues dreamt the dreams and nightmares that shaped our modern lives, in art and architecture, in literature and music, in philosophy and politics, revolutionaries like Freud, Schiele, Klimt and Schoenberg created the modern world by scandalising it while Vienna’s terrible apprentice Hitler plotted destruction here.

It was in Vienna where much of what we think of as distinctively modern burst forth, where the ideas that still challenge us were first thought, what was special about this city? Why of all places here, where an old world lingered were everywhere else collapsed.

I am on a personal quest as well. In 1938 my father a Jew was forced to leave his birthplace here, yet he returned to Vienna obsessively, with us, his family in tow. I am trying to find out what drew him back to this scene of his trauma, city of dreams?’  Joseph Koener

Vienna waits for you (part 1)

Great short film about Vienna by  Austrian filmmaker and photographer, Georg Riha.

Shifting Ground: Peter Zumthor and the Urbanisation of the Alps

ETH Proffessor, Dr Phillip Usprung speaks here about Swiss photographer Hans Danuser. Although the title of Usprung`s  talk refers to the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, he primarily discusses an insight into the development of architectural representation though photography in Switzerland during the 80`s and 90`s.  The presentation goes for more than one hour, but very interesting!

Oliver visits the rif raf of Zürich

Nothing is higher than architect

sparkles in those Tyrolean mountains

In 2003, the Swarovski Crystal Palace collection visited Australia. I was working in a Sydney architecture office,  and the furniture showroom DeDeCe that shared our building, was the exhibition venue.

The ‘modern chandelier’ had been birthed with some interesting international designers such as Tord Boontje and the Campana Brothers commissioned to reinvent the concept of the chandelier and modernise it. Since then, Swarovksi have gone on to commission over 62 new designs for the Crystal Palace collection, such as Zaha Hadid, Yves Behar, DillerScofidio, and Tokujin Yoshioka.

In Innsbruck, Austria, a new boutique and mueseum has opened displaying some of the Crystal Palace pieces, in addition to showcasing the history of Swarovski crystals in Hollywood. Marilyn Monroe’s `happy birthday Mr President` dress, Lady Gaga`s crystal monster shoes displayed with Nicole Kidman’s neck piece from the film Moulin Rouge. A popular chandelier, Vincent Van Duysen`‘Cascade’  featured in the film Oceans 13, is on display.

Swarovski have since forged and rebranded itself as a modern fashion and design company.

Orson Wells great cuckoo clock speach

Harry Lime, played by Orson Wells, justifies his evil in the film The Third Man, set in post war Vienna. He states that  the greatest works of art, inventions and cultural leaps have come out of the most tyrannous of times. The example, Switzerland, had never gone to war, had only invented the cuckoo clock.

To view the film, The Third Man, click here.

To see `now and then` scenes and locations of Vienna, click here.

And film director Steven Soderbergh`s commentary about the film, here.