Bring in the fog

Aerial perspectives are a challenge. This detail is from full sheet size, 22" x 30", for a project that's likely to raise a lot of hackles. For conceptual illustrations where there is no architectural info available, the context-obliterating clouds of of Chinese and Japanese landscape style, sansui-ga, from the 15th c. is appealing. Only salient scenes would have to be drawn, with mist intervening where no design info is available. In the 21st c, I have to invent built forms, continuous to the property line, where none may ever be built. The result of can be beautiful and give its viewer a sense of soaring. That's great for fund-raising and approving boards of directors who may operate from a detached position. When no end-user will ever soar, is it disingenuous to sell an idea this way? Does it bridge or exacerbate the gap between end-user and promoter?

space cowboy

My visit to Rosslyn Chapel included a hike down the steep ravine beyond in search of the spot from which JMW Turner painted the Rosslyn castle ruins. From where did he see that awesome color-fields of atmosphere? I would sketch it, too. Wandering the ravine I found lots of mud (Scotland) but no dark crag, no crashing rapids. It turns out Turner embellished. Fabricated. For a nanosecond I felt cheated. The ruins exist, but the rest of the landscape is studied free-association. He made comprehensive preliminary sketches one can see @the Tate: a bounty of view angles, accuracy on building detail, but no time for foliage details in the field.  The rugged unruliness of nature was turned up to eleven later.
I suspect Turner bothers to include a representational tidbit to indicate the distance he's about to travel from reality. I like my Turner with very small bits of reality.

get another perspective

 

The above OFS clip (and fantastic soundtrack) grants thinking space to create one's own relationship with the visual data presented. A morning TV news show packaged video footage described as "another perspective" on the Gulf oil spill. Amidst anxious narrative and jumpy editing in the news clip, the broad associative power of visual content is diminished. Underwater footage is always slightly uncomfortable, since the familiar figure/ground orientation is denied its usual ground. The landlubber's eye seeks horizontal planes: an undulating sandy ocean bottom, the occasional sparkling sunlit surface above. Apart from reminding me of Turner's atmospheres, the OFS clip is uncomfortable on all accounts.

you ain't seen nothin' yet

Systems theorist Fritjof Capra, in his book on the science of Leonardo da Vinci, argues that our most creative insights emerge from states of uncertainty and confusion according to a process of "emergence", the creation of new forms of order out of chaos and confusion. So our pals at the Albany Bulb may be at the cusp of a life-changing insight, about to radically alter their beings. Or not. 
Earthquakes changing landforms changing waterways finds a parallel to hair growth patterns where the skin has scarred, or the way a form is perceived in a drawing after a lost period of erasures and scribbling. Leonardo had an ear for the harmony of these orders; he documented and compared phenomena throughout his life. Conceding our wisp of consequence on the celestial time line, he wrote "nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience."

more than camping

Some of us in liminal states, self-imposed, genetically predisposed (!), or socially imposed, have found space to contemplate our integration/isolation, rent-free, at the Albany bulb. A variety of ad hoc pods, encampments and fortresses provide rich data to observe spatial relations and boundary setting behavior among liminal beings. I'm not talking about the sculpture or painting there; I'm curious about the red rags and rearranged foam blocks -- the creation of physical limits when social, psychological and spiritual boundaries are in flux.

gimme scale

Most architects and planners now have their designs on a computer instead of paper, and an information void has opened. When it's time to share the design, we often rely on PDF format. Unfortunately, the scale of an orthographic drawing is not automatically translated to the PDF. Items that were grouped in CAD software no longer self-segregate in the PDF.

When a model shot is sent in PDF or JPG format, the situation becomes even worse for determining the actual measure of lines or objects. Although the CAD user-designer is one click away from measurements and attributes, the recipient of the PDF can only guess!

A design team, working from files shared on their server, has access to all the project information; members can check details not yet generated as a document page. Outside consultants must rely on PDF files. The designers cannot assume their consultants have updated project information in a source file as they do. Best practice: Gimme scale.
Leave a scale indicator or a literal dimension (55") on the image file that's enlarge/reduce-proof, or back up a PDF with a DWG file, which DOES contain scale info. A PDF update can be sent in moments, but a faulty dimension can lead to a chain of errors that take time and money to rewind. Alternatively, upload entire files for sharing with external consultants and notify when updating.