January 17, 2009 – 12:10 am
Like train-spotter’s who revel in the joy of unexpectedly seeing that carriage or engine appear on a line it shouldn’t, my visit to S.M.A.K, in Ghent (arguable one of the most interesting contemporary galleries in Europe), was blessed with a surprise sprinkling of work by the Belgian/Flemish artist Panamarenko. Alongside a series of sketches the museum displayed two of his three-dimensional models, developed as part of his long term fascination with the concept of flight.
http://www.panamarenko.org/home.php
January 17, 2009 – 12:07 am
Having re-encountered a series of Constant Niewenhuis’ models in Berlin at the end of 2008 (image above), at the interesting ‘Megastructure Reloaded’ exhibition being held at the cities former state mint, it was exciting to explore them in more detail on a recent student study visit to Amsterdam, where a series were on display at the Gemeente Museum in Den Haag.
Developed over 18 years from 1956-74 Constant embarked on an attempt to imagine a global city designed to accommodate the possibility of human mobility in a world in which the need for work would be eradicated by vast changes in technology. Envisioning the future, Constant’s models seem to have recently grown in public profile again. As the idea of city and even global planning becomes a hot topic once more amongst both cultural critics and architects alike (I’m thinking particularly of developments taking place in the Gulf states) Constant’s work has re-emerged a number of times as a marker (whether as warning or hopeful signification) that the problems and possibilities that come with thinking big are back on the table again.
January 8, 2009 – 11:58 pm
On the American leg of its journey and amidst anticipation of Obama’s up-coming inauguration, Repetition & Difference opened at Georgetown University, Washington yesterday. Installed with drawings, objects and 3D digital video, the exhibition received strong support from the university and local press alike. On show until 20th February, the work is accessible to the public Monday to Friday during college hours.
November 1, 2008 – 11:58 pm
A few still-shots taken at Studio Eliasson in Berlin whilst shooting a film about Olafur Eliasson’s long working collaboration with one of this years MAKE Lecture Series speakers: the geometrist and architect Einar Thorsteinn.
October 26, 2008 – 2:00 am
This year’s MAKE lecture series drew to a close on Thursday evening with Richard Armiger of Network Modelmakers talking to students, staff and guests at UCA Rochester about his distinguished career in modelmaking. An alumni of the university, Richard talked openly about current changes in the industry, outlining his company’s projects past and present and giving current undergraduate students a real taste of what it’s like working in the field.
Richard’s lecture will be made available on-line with the rest of this year’s lectures, under the research section of our website in the coming weeks.
October 5, 2008 – 9:00 pm
The Repetition & Difference catalogue is now available to download on-line.
Click here to download
October 2, 2008 – 10:46 pm
Yesterday night saw the first leg of MAKE’s Repetition & Difference open at Keynes College, University of Kent in Canterbury. We also had the pleasure of launching the cluster’s first publication (published by the UKC) If all goes to plan we should have a digital version of the catalogue on-line at www.makemodels.co.uk within the next week. The exhibition is now open for 3 months until 16th December, before heading across the pond to Georgetown University in Washington DC in January 2009.
September 27, 2008 – 8:29 pm
Chris Wraith has forwarded me a link to the BBCi player site, where there is only a day left to view a beautiful documentary about the Natural History Museum’s endeavor to construct a full size model of a blue whale. As the world marched towards war in 1938, a determined group of men at the museum undertook the unprecedented task of building a life-sized model of the largest creature that has ever lived.
Link to Arena documentary
September 26, 2008 – 10:08 pm
Last night the MAKE Research Cluster welcomed the Icelandic architect and artist Einar Thorsteinn to speak at UCA Rochester. A good turn out, particularly from the university’s MA students, had the pleasure of listening to Thorsteinn recall, at times very personally, the fabric of his interests and ideas over the last 40 years, a period which has seen him work with, amongst others, Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto and more recently Olafur Eliasson.
For those that missed the opportunity of attending the lecture, it is downloadable from the research section of our site by simply clicking here.
September 20, 2008 – 12:58 pm
The first event of this year’s MAKE Lecture Series kicked off on Thursday night, with students, staff and guests gathering to hear talks from Derek Flippance, of the Royal Engineers Museum, and Richard Holdsworth, the Museums and Heritage Director for the Chatham Historic Dockyards. Derek spoke with great passion about some of the rare models in the museum’s collection, bringing along examples for the audience to see. Speaking about the role the models play in ‘Sapper’ training, he recalled the personal stories that accompanied the vehicles and bridges the models illustrated. Following Derek’s lecture, Richard Holdsworth outlined Chatham Dockyard’s future plans for a new international museum that will bring together a rare collection of over 4000 maritime artefacts, including over 3000 model ships. The plans and building, which is already underway on the site’s listed Smythery building, will also include a gallery for travelling national exhibitions in the creative arts.
We are currently uploading an MP3 and MP4 of both lectures onto our MAKE website and these should be available to download from the ‘research’ section of our site early next week. A reminder to everyone that next Thursday we have the second event of this year’s Lecture Series, with the architect Einar Thorsteinn (geometry and structures adviser to Olafur Eliasson) visiting us from Berlin to talk about his use of analogue models in the development of a new three-dimensional tessellating form he has been developing over the last 20 years.
