The Assessment on Skateboarding

Skateboarding is apart of my DNA I can’t escape the passion of a kick-flip or cathin some big air off a service gap. It was once said in the move Johnny Tsunami “GO BIG, or GO HOME!” in the world of skateboarding each day you have to push yourself past your limits. Trick after trick, a skater mind is always focused on consistency and progression. Now as an architect student I find the two worlds combined. As a skater we are perfectionist of balance and laws of physics. I now understand when growing up, that architecture was my playground.

The Glamour Shot

The glamour shot every skater wants to have. A glamour shot highlights the impossible and extraordinary interaction between man and architecture. Skateboarding pictures become examples and proof that architecture can and should be looked at differently. If you think about it, Skateboard magazines help distribute the knowledge of architectural spaces in different parts of the world. Filled with articles on travels around the world and the discusion on how each country has a different impact or experience for skateboards. Architects can use the syntax behind skateboarding pictures and the explote them as means of exploration. We always look at architectural magazines for inspiration and help. What if you adopted the process and technique a skateboard magazine uses to communicate abstract thoughts within a project? One cool feature that skateboard magazines use to communicate to skaters and non-skaters alike, is "time frame shooting". Skateboarding deals with the elements of time and physical space. Therefore, this type of technique of communication is required for clarification and understanding. Instead of one picture showcasing the skater, the user is exposed to multiple frames of one trick, showing the whole process of the trick. What if architects looked at the creation of a building as the expression as a skateboarding sequence shot? Could there be a method of sequencing architecture? Would it positive or would it be negative? Where can the introduction of art and style come into play? Just like the magazine, can it be used to communicate to a client? Just the meaning behind a skateboarding trick requires balance, boundry, location, momentum, style, and process. I think the similarities between architecture and skateboarding are rich, wouldn’t you say?



Cites as playgrounds

As architects we all study streets, corridors, corners, walls, nodes, and plazas. Everybody knows this, but not everybody perceives theses elements as the genetic make-up of a playground. The urban context always provides skaters with opportunities for challenges and self progression. Who would have thought that skaters use architecture as means of emotional relief? It makes sense, there have been studies in the medical field that facing a hospital bed toward a vegetative court yard, a patience may show signs of early recovery. The built environment becomes a skater’s sense of Zen. I’m pretty sure that a business man walking down a set of 10 stairs doesn't feel that this is dangerous or a challenge. Skaters find the justification of accomplishment in doing a trick down 10 stairs. Within that one moment a skater will have emotions of fear, excitement, confidence, and joy all wrapped up in one trick. That is what I call a pretty extensive interaction between man and architecture in one space. What people see as boundary skater see as opportunity. You also can’t forget to realize that architecture and the materials we choose to create an object can become very unforgiving. It’s not the best feeling in the world when you fall or run onto a concrete wall or floor. Streets and buildings have given us the freedom of expression, an expression that most people will not find walking, or riding a car. Riding through a city can become very poetic to a skater, and the connection is more received and respected when on four little wheels. The video below showcases a skate boarding team traveling to Barcelona Spain. I like this video because it’s really shows how architecture can coexist with skating.



Re-using architecture
Maybe architects see us as little menaces to society; that we are the representation of destruction, or, as an unmoral, rebellious gang of hoodlums. I consider our selves to be what i'd like to call Urban Artists. If people only realized that skaters have the power to highlight and express architecture in a positive manner. So I pose a question; should architects, or landscape architects hate skaters? I should think that they would embrace skaters. Architecture and skateboarding really go hand-in-hand. Architects should give a close look at how skaters are using a space. Skaters are very resourceful in reusing abandon and broken spaces. Let’s face it, we have ugly architecture! But, ugly or not skateboarders hold no prejudice. We usually highlight unwanted space. When or where did you see a Wal-mart service area on the front of a magazine? The only place i have is on a Skate mag. I think this issue of lost space and unwanted space can be addressed with the revery of skating. Think, could a broken down “project” development become a positive heaven for inner city kids by creating skate parks??? The movie below highlights one of my favorite’s skaters and shows how he creatively re-uses architecture.


Here are so more videos of Chris using architecture... It's pretty CRAZY!

U Suck at Photoshop

This man seems to have all the answers! watch as Donny teaches photoshop to you and has inquiry to life questions. If you haven't seen the "you suck at photoshop" series's... then you don't know how to live life.

A Photo for Thought

It all started when I was little. I guess you can say I grew up with them. Cameras, they have been shoved all up in my face my whole life. My father loves to take pictures, and started to get really serious before I was born. He even had the camera in the birthing room when I was being born. So, I’m no stranger to the awkwardness of striking a pose for a camera. For this reason, I see bits of the world through a lens. The way the sun can hit a building during sunset or how light can frame a book hanging off the table, I envision the shot. Over the years I put it into my mind, “if it would look good as a background image on my computer, then I probability like it.” One thing that is funny, when I do graphic work I put that same principle into it. I have gotten a lot of responses about my photos and my graphics I might as well share them with who ever wants it. So, here is the first batch. Enjoy!!

Journey of Inheritance

What are VA Prize Competitions?
For those of you, who don’t know about the VA Prize, let me tell you what it is about. Basically it is all the architecture schools in Virginia that host a competition for architecture students. It is an annual event that is presented in the second semester of school (in January). From 1st year to thesis, each student is required to come up with an individual design for the competition. Each year one school will host the completion, last year was UVA this year Hampton University hosted the competition. All the students received the design brief at 5pm on Friday and had until 9am on Monday to turn in the design on a printed 20” x 30” board. Basically to summaries the project, in the 1800 during the time of confederates and union states, slavery was beginning its process of change. 3 slaves traveled to Fort Monroe (located in Hampton Virginia) and ended up as contrabands slaves. They refer Fort Monroe as the Ellis Island for Black Americans. Once other slaves heard of freedom at Fort Monroe, slaves came flocking from all over the US to be free. Of course it is deeper than that, but that was to give you a general idea of what the history of Fort Monroe was as far as slavery was concern.

Introduction to Our Design Brief
Our design problem was to create a temporary structure or exhibit within the fort. The stages that we had to highlight were how the slaves traveled to the fort and how they arrived and then pass through the fort. These types of competition can get very symbolic and abstract, so get that type of mindset for this project. Anyway, one criteria for the project was that the public or tourists of today had to travel to the main entry by a 4 man raft or what the slaves use to call it a skiff. Then you had to create an event for visitors inside the fort walls or “casement”. You then had to design an experience once they left the fort walls and into the heart or of the village. This would represent the point of arrival of free slaves. Here is the website if you would like more into it http://www.2008virginiaprize.com/ I suggest you check it out. It has links to interesting articles about Black America and the design brief.

Late in the Midnight Hour
My process for this competition was to start off with a lot of RESEARCH. I knew I needed to really understand the entire context of the time period and design problem. Luckily, Hampton had a lecture from a lovely black activist woman to come talk to us, which help out tremendously. So, once I knew the story I picked out the events I wanted to highlight. Now, for me, I always have had a hard time thinking abstractly on these projects, but I think since being so frustrated on last years VA Prize I think it was a little bit more easer to just let it all go. I may not be an expert on competitions, but I do know that you need to be confident in your abilities and process thinking. Also, what is really important is to understand if you are better at drawing, computer graphics, or modeling? For my project I used all three. Knowing this will save you a lot of time and stress. Anyway back to the project. I started out with an idea that was really abstract and had a lot of symbolism in the board. I worked and I work on that first concept, until Saturday night around 1 in the morning I took a step back and looked at what I had created and saw that……..IT WAS BOO BOO… it was garbage! So, I’m like “Ahh mannn!” and I decided to change my whole board lay out and concept!! NOW, I would never suggest that you ever…ever…ever start from scratch when you have 1 an-half-days to finish you project. But some how God gave me favor and I finished.


Now I can Start
Once I gathered myself together, I started writing a small list of key words such as journey, inheritance, dismal, struggle and so on. Then mimicking that process, I made up a list of key people that help shape slavery such and General Butler and the three slave who first escaped. Then I wrote down the events that the slaves went through to freedom, and then proceed to match them with the criteria of the design brief. So all I had was a small diagram of words. Then it became connect-the-dots. I matched up the adjectives and verbs with the events. From there the words helped me create the abstraction needed for each event. I kind of broke the rules when I chose two different paths for a tourist. The reason for this was that I waned to give the people whose ancestors came from Fort Monroe a special path because it was there blood line that took the risk. So, I had them take a different rout to claim their inheritance, and the public would take a different path then blend back into to the path of the inheritance. I got a comment by someone saying that by making two paths I created segregation all over again, and I agree with that, but history hurts my friends and I think that at least the ones who suffered and scarified the most needed a special commemoration for them. So, that is why I split the tourist, from the inheritance.

How to Tell the Story
The next step was to figure out how I was I going to tell the story graphically. I flipped the presentation board from vertical to horizontal, and then looked at what the criteria fromthe design brief wanted (section, site plan, plan, and perspective). I saw the perspective as a long horizontal element; I thought it resembled a timeline. So, my section showed all the events that a person would take on this journey. I knew the section was going to be an important story telling element. I wanted it to stretch across the whole board to help the reader reference that graphic when they analyzed the rest of the story. That kicked me off in thinking about how to highlight these events, and since it was a timeline all I had to do was put little blurbs of that particular scene underneath the time line. Thus, that would mimic the dates and descriptions shown on regular time line. Once I had my board layout figured out I started to work on how I was going to graphically display those events, which would have had met the requirement of perspective for the project.

Perspective 1
I started off with the Great Dismal Swamp. For those of you who don’t know this, the three slaves had to travel at night through a dark and dangerous swamp to get to Fort Monroe. I blended different medias for this graphic because I wasn’t comfortable enough to draw a swamp, so I decided to make a model and fix it up in Photoshop later. The model only took me like ten minutes to make, so, it was a time saver and that was what I needed. As you can see it went trough different stages to get to the final project. The poles coming up out of the ground symbolized millions of slaves running to Fort Monroe and the slaves luggage carrier "if you will" (look at the first picture) blended in with the swamp. So, the number of poles are a representation of the number of slaves and gave a re-presentation of trees in the Great Dismal Swamp the swamp.


Perspective 2
From there I used the same concept of the wooden poles and put them into the “casement” (the exhibit). The catch would be that a specific amount of poles protruding and hanging from the floor and ceiling would be added. The meaning behind that was the visitor would have a specific interaction with the poles symbolizing something else which I’ll explain later. hu hu hu Ha Ha. Anyway, my twist to the project was that I would recreate and abstraction of the process the slaves took to freedom. In “laminas term” it’s a historical reenactment with people playing historical characters. Once visitors inter into the casement they are greeted by an actor who plays General Armstrong, and asks them to find their ancestors names on a very old and dusty book. Once they found their ancestors name there was a place to sign their own name next to it. This symbolized that our generation has not forgotten their struggles and sacrifices.


Perspective 3
For the last “perspective” I knew I had needed some element to put all this together, and looking at the board from last year winner I noticed he had told his story with a narrative. So, why not? I told the story from one of the inheritances point of view while going through each stage. This way it would give the audience another description of my ideas that my graphics couldn’t do. I had a Fort More militia soldier confront the narrator which end result was that he received a metal plate with the number 585 engraved on it. The meaning behind this was that he would represent a 1 contraband slave out of 585 slaves who built Fort Monroe. The narrator would continue through the different stages of the journey to the casement, until he got to the wooden poles that I had mentioned earlier. The purpose of the poles was meant for the narrative to place his number on one of the poles and to place slavery on a temporary structure (the exhibit) and live without the bondages and chains of that hardship.





The only thing left to do was put all of the components together. What I can say is that it is a tremendous advantage to know how each media can cater and lends its self in the design process. It will say you time and headache! Although I started my concept from scratch at the last minute, it just proves that these techniques can and do work. Overall I am proud of my work and it showed me how i process and produce and idea.



This board won on the local level the award of “Excellence”
I GIVE ALL THE CREDIT TO GOD

Comics and Architecture?? Part 1.

What can we learn from comics? Comics have a poetic way of telling a story. A combination of graphic and words wraps its audience in a spellbinding story. Whether it is action, tragedy, romance, comedy or drama I believe that comics are telescopes zooming in on own our inner most secrets and desires and manifesting them in graphic form.

How can comics help architects students learn and create?
The graphic tone and composition of comics can help architects out tremendously! From project conception, to board layout, comics lend hints of good story telling techniques. As architects, displaying your work to others, you have to express and sum up the concept and features of your design. The right balance of words and graphics to successfully communicate a story to your audience is critical. Just like we do, comics have to go through the same constraints; and I must say the discipline of making comics is a profession that understands the many different means of story telling. As architects our relationship towards comics is that we use site plans, section, axons and perspectives as tools to explain the story. I believe comics have shown the world another unique and effective way by using those tools. How comics explains and entice its reader, so must we as architects.

Page layout
In the world of comics the only initial rules the reader has is to start from the top of the page and move from left to right. With the freedom of non-convectional ways of telling a story, comics express the correct movement a reader can take. Hierarchy is one way of summing up the graphic language. The placement and proportion of scenes and text blurbs guides the reader from page to page. A question I raise is why can’t we do the same and if we do can we do better? Why not express your work in a media that best captures the audience while highlighting your design? Comics can and should become graphic precedents. Something that we are familiar with is the nine-square page layout. I am not saying that a box layout only limits your story telling techniques because if the project calls for it boxes can be proportioned to give the reader an easy and secure way of reading. It can say what ever you are expressing is equal in importance and in the sequence of process making. A box set up can give balance to a page and utilize its entire space. So please use that technique when and if necessary.

Then you have pages in comics that disregard the safety net of equally proportioned boxes. As seen in these examples there are little scenes that explain the main tone or idea of a particular event. The cool thing is a reader can have a really good assumption of how and what a character is contributing to the story without ever reading the text. I think as architect students should do the same. Comics display a beautiful understanding of graphic hierarchy. They use a poet language to show the reader what the focus is on that particular page. For example, the graphic of a main event or person spills into other scenes forcing you to referring back and forth when reading the rest of the page. The eye doesn’t wonder that much when one scene overpowers the rest. One can surmise comics show different ways to balance a page. Our projects and designs should do the same!

Environments

They live in our world but don’t follow our rules. Super hero’s go places we normally don’t go to sit and contemplate on life. Whether, Sewer, roof tops or hidden caves they see the world in every perspective and angle. A building or series or buildings become apart of their identity and their super power. There is the always classic contemplation pose that a hero will do on a roof top on the tallest building in the city saying, “Hey, I may be a super hero, but my life is crumbling in front of me.” Whether it is bashing a person’s skull through several walls, or using dark allies for escape, the urban environment lends itself as a prop for epic battles. For example Batman would not be Batman if it weren’t for dark allies and Spiderman survives off of the density of urban environments. Also for Spiderman, the cluster and clutter of buildings acts as his web for him in which he moves from scene to scene. From any architect’s point of view, comics give an imaginative and unique way of how one can move through a city or how a building can be used. Have you ever thought if Hollywood has ever respected architecture? We see more and more building being blown-up; like it didn’t take years and year of time and money for that building. All it takes is 3…2…1 ACTION and your nine-to-five job is over with. Comics do the opposite, yeah there is some buildings being blown-up, and some walls being knocked through, but comics can give a accurate account of how man and building can have peek moments of conscious interaction with one another. Comics can preview the consequences of war and destruction of life. Comics should remind the architect to respect and explore their built environment.

One Graphic One Statement
Comics can have a powerful influence on a culture. Then even have the power to express and personify the concerns of a nation. Comics lend them selves to be tools and vessels for political platforms and statements. Comics have a unique nature of turning death into life and despair into hope. The creation of hero’s and villains become the by product of human nature. They express the “what if” in life, the dreams of little boys and girls, while reviling the depth and truth about morality and justice. To my fellow architects and students use comics as a precedent for expressing beliefs and ideals that lay dormant inside of you. Notice that the most powerful statements and ways of expressing feelings and moods are with one full page. Sometime simplicity says more than congestion. With one look you can surmise what the story is going to be about.

Hey Dudes and Dudet’s!!!!!!

It’s your brother from anotha motha, my goal is to let you guys see what a fourth year architect student experiences. I'm going to take you through a rollercoaster ride of projects, ideals, theories, and off the wall ideas that I have. Complete exposure of how I view and see the world is my gift to you. I take my profession with great optimism and delight. Architecture has given me a unique tool to examine and express the world around me. For me, I guess you can say it opened up a can of.... "SHUT UR MOUTH"!!