Church of Planets Past

[Image: Photo courtesy of Andrea Tintori and Discovery News].

I love this story: the polished rock walls of a Catholic church in northern Italy have been found to contain the skull of a dinosaur. "The rock contains what appears to be a horizontal section of a dinosaur’s skull," paleontologist Andrea Tintori explained to Discovery News. "The image looks like a CT scan, and clearly shows the cranium, the nasal cavities, and numerous teeth.”

The skull itself was hewn in two; "indeed," we read, "Tintori found a second section of the same skull in another slab nearby."

[Image: Photo courtesy of Andrea Tintori and Discovery News].

The rock itself—called Broccatello—comes from a fossil-rich quarry in southern Switzerland and dates back to the Jurassic. According to the book Fossil Crinoids, "The Broccatello (from brocade) was given its name by stone masons; this flaming, multicoloured 'marble' has been used in countless Italian and Swiss baroque and rococo churches"—implying, of course, that other fossil finds are waiting to be found in Alpine baroque churches. "In the quarries of Arzo, southern Switzerland," the book continues, "crinoids [the fossilized bodies of ancient marine organisms] account for up to half of the bulk of the Broccatello, which is usually a few metres thick."

In any case, to figure out exactly what kind of dinosaur it is, the rock slab might be removed from the church altogether for 3D imaging in a lab; a new piece of Broccatello rock, mined from southern Switzerland, could be use as its replacement.

The larger idea of discovering something historically new and even terrestrially unexpected in the rocks of a city, or in the walls of the buildings around you—as if the most important fossil site in current geology might someday be the rock walls of a ruined castle and not a cliff face or gorge—brings to mind recent books like Richard Fortey's fantastic Earth: An Intimate History, with its geological introduction to sites like Central Park, Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology, and the Geologic City Reports (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) by Friends of the Pleistocene. These latter research files present New York City through the lens of its lumpen underpinnings, focusing on bedrock, mineral veins, and salt, not the city's cultural districts or ethnic history.

But, of course, the H.P. Lovecraftian overtones of this story—a monstrous skull in a church wall—are too obvious not to mention: an easy scenario for imagining whole plots and storylines in which the ancient forms of an unknown species are discovered hidden in cathedral masonry, opening previously unimagined horizons of time and radically revising theories of the history of life on earth.

I just absolutely love the idea that a piece of architecture can become a site for paleontological research, framing an unlikely forensic study of the earth's biological past.

The Access Maze

[Image: A fenced-off, back alley security stair in Toronto, via Google Street View; view larger].

A link on Twitter from Andrew Lovett-Barron led me to this otherwise innocuous fenced-in back alley staircase in Toronto, pictured here via Google Street View (view larger).

There's something oddly compelling about this minor architecture of out-of-place private access—as if implying that buildings could begin blocks and blocks away from where they actually rest in urban space, splayed out into the neighborhoods around them like chain-linked octopi, reaching out with stairways, doors, and catwalks across the roofs and back streets of the city. A Home Depot vernacular stretched to Berlin Wall-like proportions.

You don't like your address, you simply hurl a chain-linked access stair up over and out to whatever street you prefer—and you enter there, turning a key and stepping into a steel maze of steps and ladders, cantilevered walkways and pillared decks. Fifteen minutes later, passing over and beneath ribbons of other parallel geographies, looping down alleys and nesting briefly on thin platforms in the canopies of trees, walking alone in this isolated cocoon like a private enclave in the city, you're home.

Stitch Up

[Image: Oceangoing ships clipped and stitched from Google Maps by artist Jenny Odell, via things and SpaceInvading].

Buy an Archipelago

Another story I meant to link here long ago is this real estate listing for an entire Scottish archipelago.

For £250,000—approximately $398,000—you can be the owner of "a wonderful and remote island group... a small archipelego centred around two main islands 25 miles north east of Lerwick, Shetland and extending to about 600 acres in all." It comes complete with a "private airstrip" and seasonal wild flowers.

Perhaps you want to establish a writers' residence. Perhaps you're fed up. Perhaps you want to declare a private city-state. Or perhaps you simply want to reinvigorate the struggling private island market.

Whatever the case may be, "a charter flight can also be arranged from Tinwall just to the north of Lerwick."

[Earlier on BLDGBLOG: Buy a Map, Buy a Torpedo-Testing Facility, Buy a Fort, Buy a Church, and Buy a Silk Mill].

Buy a Map

[Image: Photo by Barney Peterson, courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle].

Something I meant to post three few weeks ago, before October became the Great Lost Month of constant busyness and over-commitment, is the story of a 70-ton relief map of California, unseen by the public for half a century, that has been re-discovered in San Francisco, sitting in "an undisclosed location on the city's waterfront."

[Image: Photo by Barney Peterson, courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle].

In its time, the map was considered far too marvelous for simply cutting up and storing—but that's exactly what's happened to it.

It was as long as two football fields and showed California in all its splendor, from Oregon to Mexico, with snow-capped mountains, national parks, redwood forests, a glorious coastline, orchards and miniature cities basking in the sun. It was made of plaster, wire, paint, and bits of rock and sand. In the summer of 1924, Scientific American magazine said it was the largest map in the world.

However, we read, "The problem with the map is simple: it is huge and would cost a lot of money to move, restore and display it. The last estimate was in the range of $500,000. And that was 30 years ago. It is a classic white elephant, too valuable to scrap, but too expensive to keep."

And, today, it's not going anywhere: "The Port of San Francisco has no plans to be anything but stewards of its storage, and no one else has come forward in half a century to rescue the map." If you have half-a-million dollars or so, and heavy moving equipment at your disposal, then perhaps it could soon be yours.

(Thanks to Steve Silberman for the link. In the archives: San Francisco Bay Hydrological Model; Buy a Torpedo-Testing Facility, Buy a Fort, Buy a Church, and Buy a Silk Mill].

The Development of Personal Style

I was talking to a friend the other day about why I photograph and interview older people. We went over how I was very close to my grandmother and how I wanted to bring focus on the advanced style set and show that beauty, style, and creativity don't disappear at a certain age.She had an interesting point. She feels that many of these people continue on from a peak moment in their lives. Their hairstyles, way of dress, and manner of decorum are carried over from a time when they first began to feel comfortable in their own skin and elements of this moment become frozen in time.This form of developed presentation is what I am capturing on Advanced Style. A majority of the ladies and gentleman I talk to tell me that although they have had interests in style throughout their lives, that it is in their later years that their personal style really developed as a result of years of experience.


I try and feature a range of styles in my photographs, but I am particularly interested in this idea of a "peak moment",frozen in time, where street style portraits speak not only about fashion history but also personal development. I spent most of my youth watching black and white movies with my grandmother. Seeing an older woman walking down the street dressed in the same style that she has been wearing for 40 years brings me back to these beautiful and graceful images.That's not to say that people don't continue to "advance" their sense of style.This is what makes my subjects so interesting to me,the combined wisdom and experience of a lifetime of dressing along with a willingness to adapt new ideas and trends into one's lifestyle.The woman below mixes old fashioned charm with contemporary chicness. Her orange suit, although classically cut is made of Neoprene. She is a wonderful example of how one becomes comfortable with certain things like her vintage gloves and classic tailoring, but the unexpected material of her suit exemplifies a willingness and desire to continue to learn, progress and advance.The key to looking stylish is confidence and older people have had time to develop not only a personal sense of style, but a comfort in who they are.

The Carter Burden Center for the Aging Annual Fashion Show

I attended The Carter Burden Center for the Aging 9Th annual fashion show where stylish seniors strutted down the runaway in their most fashionable attire. It was great fun watching these vital ladies and gentleman dance their way down the red carpet strutting their stuff for other senior members and staff. The Carter Burden Center for the Aging is an incredible organization that seeks to change the face of aging. The center," promotes the well-being of individuals 60 and older through a broad array of direct social services and volunteer programs oriented to individual, family and community needs" and they are "dedicated to supporting the efforts of older people to remain in their own homes living independently, safely and with dignity." Check out their website for more information on the center on the programs they have to offer http://burdencenter.org/ .

Softcore

Just a quick reminder that you have till December 10 to submit to Bracket 2, published by Actar, Archinect, and InfraNet Lab:

Bracket 2 invites the submission of critical articles and unpublished design projects that investigate physical and virtual soft systems, as they pertain to infrastructure, ecologies, landscapes, environments, and networks... Bracket 2 seeks to critically position and define soft systems, in order to expand the scope and potential for new spatial networks, and new formats of architecture, urbanization and nature. From soft politics, soft power and soft spaces to fluid territories, software and soft programming, Bracket 2 questions the use and role of responsive, indeterminate, flexible, and immaterial systems in design. Bracket 2 invites designers, architects, theorists, ecologists, scientists, and landscape architects to position and leverage the role of soft systems and recuperate the development of the soft project.

Check out InfraNet Lab and the Bracket website for more info. Keep your eye out, as well, for InfraNet Lab's forthcoming Pamphlet Architecture installment, Coupling: Strategies for Infrastructural Opportunism.

The Museum of Speculative Archaeological Devices

Perhaps a short list of speculative mechanisms for future archaeological research would be interesting to produce.

[Image: A toy antique oscilloscope by Andrew Smith, courtesy of Gadget Master and otherwise unrelated to this post].

Ground-scanners, Transparent-Earth (PDF) eyeglasses, metal detectors, 4D earth-modeling environments used to visualize abandoned settlements, and giant magnets that pull buried cities from the earth.

Autonomous LIDAR drones over the jungles of South America. Fast, cheap, and out of control portable muon arrays. Driverless ground-penetrating radar trucks roving through the British landscape.

Or we could install upside-down periscopes on the sidewalks of NYC so pedestrians can peer into subterranean infrastructure, exploring subways, cellars, and buried streams. Franchise this to London, Istanbul, and Jerusalem, scanning back and forth through ruined foundations.

Holograph-bombs—ArchaeoGrenades™—that spark into life when you throw them, World of Warcraft-style, out into the landscape, and the blue-flickering ancient walls of missing buildings come to life like an old TV channel, hazy and distorted above the ground. Mechanisms of ancient light unfold to reveal lost architecture in the earth.

[Image: An LED cube by Pic Projects, otherwise unrelated to this post].

Or there could be football-field-sized milling machines that re-cut and sculpt muddy landscapes into the cities and towns that once stood above them. A peat-bog miller. Leave it operating for several years and it reconstructs whole Iron Age villages in situ.

Simultaneous milling/scanning devices that bring into being the very structures they claim to study. Ancient fortifications 3D-printed in realtime as you scan unreachable sites beneath your city's streets.

Deep-earth projection equipment that impregnates the earth's crust with holograms of missing cities, outlining three-dimensional sites a mile below ground; dazed miners stumble upon the shining walls of imaginary buildings like a laser show in the rocks around them.

Or a distributed iPhone app for registering and recording previously undiscovered archaeological sites (through gravitational anomalies, perhaps, or minor compass swerves caused by old iron nails, lost swords, and medieval dining tools embedded in the ground). Like SETI, but archaeological and directed back into the earth. As Steven Glaser writes in the PDF linked above, "We can image deep space and the formation of stars, but at present we have great difficulty imaging even tens of meters into the earth. We want to develop the Hubble into, not away from, the earth."

Artificially geomagnetized flocks of migratory birds, like "GPS pigeons," used as distributed earth-anomaly detectors in the name of experimental archaeology.

[Image: "GPS pigeons" by Beatriz da Costa, courtesy of Pruned].

So perhaps there could be two simultaneous goals here: to produce a list of such devices—impossible tools of future excavation—but also to design a museum for housing them.

What might a museum of speculative archaeological devices look like? A Mercer Museum for experimental excavation?

(Thanks to Rob Holmes and Alex Trevi for engaging with some of these ideas over email).

Style With a Heart

Marcia is one of my favorite ladies to photograph because she is not only extremely stylish, but she has a big heart as well. By day Marcia dresses for work at a fashionable boutique, while the rest of her time is spent running her organization, Women Beyond Survival, which rebuilds and revitalizes communities ravaged by warfare http://www.womenbeyondsurvival.org/ .

The photos above were taken for a series of articles that I am writing for the AARP website. My latest article, about fashionable sunglasses has just been posted. I hope you get the chance to check it out and I would love your feedback!

My AARP article can be found here
http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/fashion-beauty/info-10-2010/hi_lo_fashions.html

Trap Rooms Redux

[Image: An old asylum and its floorplan, courtesy of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, otherwise unrelated to the present post].

We recently looked at the phenomenon of trap rooms, but that same idea came to mind again while reading about an interestingly architectural anxiety.

Amongst the many illnesses pushed to the limit by schizophrenic judge Daniel Paul Schreber—a figure who should be familiar to all readers of Deleuze & Guattari—was a kind of architectural paranoia. That is, Judge Schreber suffered an "anxious concern," as Victoria Nelson explains in her book The Secret Life of Puppets, "about the physical layout of the clinics in which he was housed (whose floor plans he includes in the Memoirs) and his occasional conviction that he was in a room that 'does not tally with any one of the rooms known to me' in the asylum."

He was inside the building, sure—but he was inside something else, an architectural circumstance he could neither abstractly understand nor spatially fathom. Perhaps, we might say, it was a trap room: a space neither here nor there, off the plan entirely, part of the very structure it will remain forever outside of.

Dress How You Feel, Not By Your Age

One of the many lessons I have learned from the ladies and gentleman of Advanced Style is to dress how you feel. The lady above offered some great advice when I asked about her style inspiration,"You shouldn't dress by age, you should dress how you feel and look the very best you can at whatever age you are." Advanced Style's wonderful videographer Lina Plioplyte captured these fantastic words of wisdom in the clip below.



[Video by Lina Plioplyte]

The Top Ten Ways to Stay Stylish and Look Great at 98

The other day I had the wonderful opportunity to interview an amazingly stylish 98 year old woman by the name of Rose . I met her a few weeks ago when I stopped to take her photo off of Madison Ave. She told me that she never allows anyone to take her picture, and she is not quite sure why she decided to say yes to me that fateful day. After appearing on Advanced Style, her grandchildren emailed me telling me that Rose loved her picture and that I could come by her place and ask a few questions about her life and style! Even more inspiring than Roses' fantastic fashion sense is positive outlook on life; Enjoy every moment and be happy with what you have.At 98, she has more vitality and spirit than most people half her age. Check below for some of her cherished fashion secrets.

Here are Rose's top ten beauty and lifestyle secrets on how to look and feel great at 98

1. Find your perfect perfume, people will remember you by your scent. Rose is known for her Pauline Trigere fragrance.She tells her granddaughter "I'll give you anything in the world, but I won't give you my perfume."
2. Belts and Beads. Rose believes that a belt or unique strand of beads can really make an outfit and they don't have to cost a fortune.
3. Take care of your feet and wear good shoes, but when you are going out for a night on the town "Fashion comes before comfort" At 98, Rose goes out every single night!
4. "Walking is a must, its better than doctors or medicine"
5. No need to use expensive moisturizers, Rose swears by Oil of Olay which she has been using for decades.
6. "Inexspensive lipstick is as good as expensive, only better!" Rose has tried every brand from Chanel to Lauder and has recently been turned on to Revlon.
7. Be Unique: "If Everyone is wearing it, then its not for me"
8. "Be smart enough to know what you don't know"
9. If you have trouble reading the dinner menu, Lorgnettes are a fashionable and elegant alternative to reading glasses(see example above)
10. "Be Happy, enjoy what you have at every moment!"

Mal Cross: The Magic of Style

I ran into magician Mal Cross, on the Upper West Side, in his stylish yellow suit and hip green shoes. CLICK HERE to check out his site and book him for your next party.

All Plaid

I have recently been wearing a lot of plaid and this gentleman inspires me to take my favor of plaid to the next level. I saw him the day after taking his photo wearing all red Christmas plaid. He has a great sense of personal style full of character and commitment.

Gitte Lee Models For Celine

Who better to capture the style and elegance of Celine than my gorgeous friend Gitte Lee. You may recognize her from some of my previous posts but it seems I'm not the only one who appreciates her beauty and vibrancy these days. She lends a sophistication and charm to anything she does. Bravo to to Celine for recognizing such a wonderful individual and for using an older woman in their campaign.

The Art of Simplicity:Dress to Suit Your Mood

Advanced Style is about personal style and expression. Oftentimes I feature people who wear bright colors and unexpected pairings of patterns. I have come to appreciate those who are daring, who get older and bolder, who take risks and live life to the fullest.

On the opposite side of the style spectrum are those who keep it simple and elegant. Their style shines, through their graceful and elegant approach to fashion and aging. The ladies above look chic, comfortable and confident. The Advanced Stylistas have taught me that you can dress to suit your mood, some days simple, others more eccentric, as long as you feel beautiful and comfortable!

A Well Designed Cane

The other day I went to visit the offices of a wonderful company called OMHU. The staff there believes that life is both imperfect and beautiful and their aim is to," change the way people think and feel about aging and disability" by offering "joyful products that support people’s abilities as they change throughout life."

I photographed Carolyn Korb,mother of one of the company's founders, with one of OMHU's striking canes. The cane is not only well designed and beautifully constructed, but it is the perfect mobility aid for the modern age. One doesn't have to hide their metal cane any longer, in fact they can proudly display their independence with a stylish and contemporary option. For more details on OMHU check out their informative blog http://omhublog.blogspot.com/ .

Malcah Zeldis: Older and Bolder

Advanced Style Presents: Malcah Zeldis from teenage peanut video productions on Vimeo.

Back in March I had the opportunity to meet the amazing artist Malcah Zeldis. We had a fantastic time exploring her studio and hearing about how her work has influenced her life and vice versa.Lina Plioplyte put together this wonderful video of Malcah explaining her work and philosohphy on style .Malcah explains that as she gets older she gets bolder. What an inspiring way to look at life! CLICK HERE to read more about Malcah Zeldis and enjoy the photos and video above.

The Migration of Mel and Judith

[Image: From "The Migration of Mel and Judith" by Thomas Hillier].

Thomas Hillier, of Emperor's Castle fame, has sent in a newly documented but chronologically older project of his called "The Migration of Mel and Judith."

"The Migration of Mel and Judith," Hillier writes, "was the pre-cursor to The Emperor’s Castle and my first real exploration into using narrative as the vehicle for generating and scrutinizing my architectural ideas. It was also where I began using craft-based techniques and 2/3-dimensional assemblage to illustrate the design process."

The Migration, though, is not only an entire storyline packaged inside a beautifully realized, miniature architectural world—it's also told inside a lampshade.

[Images: From "The Migration of Mel and Judith" by Thomas Hillier].

Mel and Judith, Hillier explains, are "a recently retired couple from Croydon who have decided to give up on their life in London’s third City and travel Europe," looking for a place to touch down for a while (and for better weather).

[Images: From "The Migration of Mel and Judith" by Thomas Hillier].

Soon enough, though, they get homesick—and the architectural transformation of their caravan-home begins:

To combat thier longing they slowly adapt and customise their caravan-house to feel a little more like home. Walls of the caravan become aroma filled bricks of white bread, especially made by Mel & Judith themselves. Other adaptations include the pebbledash façade reminiscent of their Croydon abode. A green lawn-carpet that is much cooler underfoot than the hot Marbella sand and when it gets too hot there's always the sprinkler system and snow-chimney.

The couple's mobile slice of English domesticity becomes all but entombed beneath the ornament of personal nostalgia.

[Images: From "The Migration of Mel and Judith" by Thomas Hillier].

This, too, steeped in English nostalgia, becomes too staid for them, and the couple decides to leave Europe altogether, alighting for the more exotic climes of Luxor, Egypt.

[Image: From "The Migration of Mel and Judith" by Thomas Hillier].

There, they settle "on a small, uninhabited island situated on the River Nile, where in their weird and wonderful ‘Do-It-Yourself’ English manor Mel brews beer in his bathtub-brewery whilst Judith bakes rose-bread in the bread-garden."

Their island comes alive during the holiday season creating an English retreat in the middle of Luxor, a retreat that lures in English tourists with the opportunity to be surrounded by the sights, sounds and smells of home. The smell of roses and freshly baked bread drift through the air whilst the temptation to drink beer (which is illegal in Luxor) is impossible to resist.

Maps of riverine estuaries have thus been sewn into the lampshade alongside windfarms, fishing boats, photo-collages, and even a portrait of Princess Diana.

[Images: From "The Migration of Mel and Judith" by Thomas Hillier].

If you pull back, though, and look at the whole project within its physical and visual frame, the self-enclosed curling world of the lampshade adds a wonderfully anti-perspectival, frilly concavity to the couple's journey. These latter scenes become both explosive and disorienting.

Like the spaceships in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001, the walls of their representational frame simply turn and turn, bringing us over and over again back through the same space, as if unwilling to let go of what's come before. Here, that space is asprawl with tidal flats and marshlands, fishing spots and coves. The couple, living now in Luxor, welcome visitors, dry their clothes aboard the boat deck, catch some afternoon sunlight, and grow old together, retired into this deliberately over-nostalgic world of their own making, constantly cycling back in memory through their shared past.

They have built a frame to fit themselves within, as if to give their lives narrative completion.

[Images: From "The Migration of Mel and Judith" by Thomas Hillier].

Check out The Emperor's Castle, meanwhile, if you haven't seen it already, and then click through to Hillier's website.