My apologies for not beginning this earlier... but as most of you know, I've been extremely busy lately.
I'll begin by explaining how the group got started and then I'll explain a little bit about our mission, goals and intentions with fully awake.
A few weeks ago, Danny, Ray and I were hanging out at a bar discussing architectural issues (as we usually do at certain points in every conversation) and we were having a good discussion about the future of the world, of cities, and of the profession of architecture. We saw the need to create a group for discussion of issues relevant to our education because we felt that there was very little discussion occurring in our educational institutions (especially at DIS) inside and outside of studios.
We also saw this as an opportunity to create a discussion panel for those of us currently working our thesis project in hopes that it would not only help us get feedback on our projects, but also inspire others who will begin thesis soon.
The name "Fully Awake" comes from the state of mind the students at the legendary Black Mountain College were asked to be at during their educational experience.
"Every moment there seemed alive in a way that few have since. This had to do with being asked to be fully awake, to be at a new threshold of perception, whether in class, in the work program, in our own work, or in the life of the community...it let us perceive how much we, each of us, had meaning in the process of the life of the community. That was our education."
-A.G. (Black Mountain College student, 1943-1946)
Yes, many of us have been disillusioned with architectural education at some point during this year because of the lack of objectivity and creativity in the program at DIS, but there is no benefit to staying that way. We want to create a forum for the discussion of any and all ideas in an attempt to motivate students and spread our thirst for knowledge.
Fully Awake will be a mix of discussion events and thesis presentations open to all who want to engage in intellectual discussions.
Fully Awake will serve as a forum and symposium for students to supplement their education and discuss ideas and knowledge at its essence.Full Awake will attempt to create "agitation" in architectural discourse, as discussed by Jeffrey Inaba, Mark Wigley, and Ole Bouman in their latest issue of Volume, to encourage in-depth discussions and break from the traditional definition of education we have grown up with.
"The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking."
-M. Heidegger
5 comments:
props to wilson for his dedication to fully awake by creating this blog. i would also like to add to this symposium, which is committed to developing the ideology of new education in architecture, that we vision architecture as fluid. i do agree that DIS had blocked our flow of investigations of innovative architecture by having us decorate boxes and pointing out things that we left out of our projects rather than guiding us in improving our ideas. technology will always advance, people are always changing and society follows that change so architecture should keep up. in our aggregation, we will be discussing our visions of tomorrow's architecture. we are interested in all topics; architectural, philisophical, structural, ecological, historical, economical, phenomenal, archeological, social, visual, programmatic, environmental and technological. this symposium is our reaction towards an education of invariable architecture! [danny_thai]
Dear Wilson, Danny, Jon, Eric, Tim and Karen...I am very excited and proud of your initiative to form this blog site! I am sorry to hear your experience in Denmark was less than innovative and inspirationsl. There is lots of work to be done to advance architecture and ideas surrounding the profession.
Our studio meets every MWF afternoon and Friday morning. We have been running powerpoint presentations almost continuously in an effort to generate dialogue and develop ideas. Can we organize to coordinate a time to discuss as a group? We also will be holding a mid-review in a couple weeks--maybe we can find a way to hold a virtual review of your work?
I have lots of comments to make.{SPARCHS]
hey this is just for the fifth year thesis group. tim was suggesting that we could skype as a group from copenhagen to interact with those at cal poly and karen from florence for our review that's coming up. does anybody else have a better idea?
[danny_thai]
hey what's up guys i was just joking about the DIS faculty being ineffective when it comes to architecture education. i've actually learned a good amount here. perhaps my previous instructor forgot her backbone at home for that last review for project 2 and had to agree with everything mr. sustainable had to say which was the biggest bullshit i've ever heard. the tool suggested that i take his course in order to learn how to make a proper layout. it sounds like instead of saving trees, mr. sustainable smoked too many trees.
haha. okay, for those of you interested in meeting for the next discussion group, is tuesday or thursday good for you guys?
well, a virtual review may be possible if we all post our work through the site and somehow have a live conference through skype or another program like that. any suggestions? time difference may make it a little difficult, but we can work around it. [w.rodas]
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