Organization Spce - Easterling

NETWORK(topic-based):
A system of interrelated objects; interconnected components.
Organization or arrangement of elements.

ECCENTRICITY(descriptive/active):
An oddity or peculiarity.
Quality or amount by which something is eccentric.
Distance between two centers - as in cylindrical objects in machinery.
Measure of deviation from an elliptical path.

"When a small desire meets large volumes of consumers, or a dumb component is multiplied within a banal or repetitive environment, it has the power to gradually reconstitute an organization. Repetitive housing, for instance, critiqued for its monotony, potentially amplifies a small fitting or detail. Similarly, transportation redundancies might be valued since they present opportunistic sites for installing intelligent switching between networks." - Easterling

Recycling Recycling by Mark Wigley
ARTIFICIAL (topic-based):
Lacking all spontaneity or naturalness, as if evidently made by mankind.
Based on arbitrary, superficial characteristics not necessarily indicative of natural interrelationships.
Produced without regard to true existing demands/needs.
Of or belonging to art.

EXTENSION (descriptive/active):
An additional allotment of time provided for one to meet an obligation.
An addition to a space.
The property of a body by which it occupies space, either directly, via a form of prosthetic, or even an emanating aura.
To expand or stretch as to increase overall surface area or impact.
To enlarge the influence or scope of / Increase the duration


“The technological world becomes the new nature, the artificial nature that needs to be analyzed in ecological terms. The prosthetic body grows into a landscape, a terrain that can be occupied” (Mark Wigley).

Article summary: Recycling.

A Tour of Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey by Smithson:
MONUMENT (topic-based):
A object erected in commemoration or celebration of a person, event, etc., as enduring evidence or example for others.
An area preserved and maintained with historical significance, beauty, or intrigue for the public.

ENTROPY (descriptive/active):
A general lack or pattern or organization.
A measure of energy that is unavailable to perform work during a closed thermodynamic process.
A measure of chaos within a closed system.
A measure of the loss of information during transmittal.
A uniform temperature throughout the universe, for all matter, regardless of material that results in “heat death”. (A theory was formulated that over time entropy would build up and all motion would eventually cease. For this to occur, if ever, far more time than would impact us as a species would need to go by.)
A doctrine of unavoidable social degradation and inevitable decline.


“The last monument was a sand box or a model desert. Under the dead light of the Passaic afternoon the desert became a map of infinite disintegration and forgetfulness. This monument of minute particles blazed under the bleakly glowing sun, and suggested the sullen dissolution of entire continents, the drying up of oceans—no longer were there green forests and high mountains—all that existed were millions of grains of sand and was a dead metaphor that equaled timelessness and to decipher such metaphors would take one through the false mirror of eternity. This sand box somehow doubled as an open grave—a grave that children cheerfully played in” (Robert Smithson).

Article summary: Passaic.

The Architecture of Inception

"What's the most resilient parasite? An Idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules. Which is why I have to steal it." - Dom Cobb, Inception.


Inception, the new film directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is a story of dreams, deceit, and redemption. Leonardo plays Dom Cobb, a thief and architectural prodigy, finds himself tasked with the art of corporate espionage. However, this time he wont be stealing an idea. Instead he is recklessly embarking on new territory: inception -- the insertion of an idea and therefore the perfect crime. In the subconscious Cobb relies on a team of specialists to design, manipulate, and react to the dreamscape around them. But no amount of careful planning can prepare them for what awaits in the deepest crevices of the human mind.

Inception uses sensational computer graphics and visual art to bring an active and adaptive city to life. In this dream state physics can be challenged, sometimes ignored, as in the actualization of Penrose stairs and other paradoxical illusions. This dreamworld is a form of artificial living environment and the stage for inception.

(Image courtesy of imdb.com)

Living Artificial Environments

Takashi Amano, a Japanese photographer, designer, and entrepreneur, creates ecological systems in an aquarium tank. He introduces carbon dioxide into the aquarium, which is absorbed by aquatic plants that photosynthesize producing rich oxygen, and in turn stimulating the environment for fish and other microorganisms. These synthetic aquatic ecosystems derive from his imagination as well as experiences visiting and documenting the Amazon, Borneo, West Africa, and his native Japan.

He produces wonderful works of natural art which have earned him international acclaim as well as his photographs, which include two images displayed at the 34th G8 summit. More on these living artificial environments can be found here.


I had the privilege of attending a seminar by Amano while staying in Beijing. He shared photographs with accompanying stories and even the design of an artificial living environment before our very eyes.

Lexicon Initiated

Wildness by Kwinter:
ENVIRONMENT (topic-based):
External factors that influence an entity; often physical, but sometimes social or cultural. These can be either natural (undisturbed by mankind) or designed. It is also the background against which a person or thing is observed.

EMERGENCE (descriptive/active):
A state of evolutionary process; a visual development, or outgrowth, through the introduction of new properties, often resulting in a distortion of the previous entity.

"Design today must find ways to approximate these ecological forces and structures, to tap, approximate, borrow, and transform morphogenetic processes from all aspects of wild nature, to invent artificial means of creating living artificial environments" (Sanford Kwinter).

Nonlinear History by De Landa
ENERGY(topic-based):
Heat or power produced in a variety of forms such as fossil fuels, electricity, wind, tidal, nuclear, thermal, chemical, or solar radiation capable of vigorous activity by undergoing a transformation from one form to another.

AUTOCATALYTIC (descriptive/active):
An action, initiated as a reaction to an agent, occurring between two or more entities. Said agent remains unaffected by the action in occurrence.

"Human history is a narrative of contingencies, not necessities, of missed opportunities to follow different routes of development, not of a unilinear succession of ways to convert energy, matter, and information into cultural products" (Manuel De Landa).

Article summaries updated: Wildness & Nonlinear History.

Wonder the Sea

Daily Mail reports that "wave and tidal power could produce enough energy for up to 15 million homes, provide thousands of jobs and slash emissions by mid-century, the Government claimed today. Energy Minister Lord Hunt said harnessing the power of the UK's seas would provide clean and secure energy and export opportunities as he launched an action plan for developing the industry."


Read more here.

Active Horizon

Alternative Energy News provides a glimpse at the future cityscape; "Residents of Dubai may one day experience a unique and constantly changing skyline thanks to Dynamic Architecture’s wind powered rotating skyscraper. The main idea behind their concept involves a central concrete core surrounded by 59 independently rotating levels. The skyscraper would generate its own electricity from the massive horizontal wind turbines that would be stacked in between each floor."

Find the story here.

Initial Launch

Testing...