[…]

“Nietzche also proposed another kind of tourism, whereby we may learn how our societies and identities have been formed by the past and so acquire a sense of continuity and belonging. The person practising this kind of tourism ‘looks beyond his own individual transitory existence and feels himself/herself to be the spirit of his/her house his/her race, his/her city’. He/She can gaze at old buildings and feel the ‘happiness of knowing that he/she is not wholly accidental and arbitary but grown out of a past as its heir, flower and fruit, that his/her existence is thus excused and indeed justified’ .”

The art of travel, Allain de Botton

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“…if our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few acitivities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest- in all its ardour and paradoxes-than our travels. They express, however inarticulately, an understanding of what life might be about, outside of the constraints of work and of the struggle for survival. Yet rarely are they considered to present philosophical problems-that is, issues requiring thought beyond the practical. We are inundated with advice on where to travel to, but we hear little of why and how we should go, even though the art of travel seems naturally to sustain a number of questions neither so simple nor so trivial, and whose study might in modest ways contribute to an understanding of what Greek philosophers beautifuylly termed ‘eudaimonia’, or ‘human flourishing’ […] ”

The art of travel,Alain de Botton
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Renderings and “model making” photos from an ongoing project at DFAB lab (Gramazio and Kohler), ETH Zurich.

This project is part of an elective course that is focusing on the notion of Digital Materiality, which describes emerging changes in the expression of architecture. Today, materiality is increasingly enriched with digital properties and is developing into a formative effect of our built environment. Digital Materiality arises from the interplay between digital and material processes during designing and building. Data and material, programming and design are intertwined. This synthesis is made possible by digital fabrication.

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Photos from the installation we just completed for our second production module. Our conceptual departure point is an approach towards a more dynamic, less efficient but therefore faster changing architecture. Thus, comes the demand for more temporality, for an architecture which doesn’t have to last forever but instead can decay while simultaneously being renewed and adjusted, appropriately representing our times of tremendous globalization, increased connectivity and digital identity – a molecular utopia. Within this module, organized by Manuel Kretzer we focused on the DIY aspect in making and using (smart) materials to create an interactive installation.

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Description:  Crease series is a suggestion towards an updated paradigm in which jewelry could reflect the contemporary reality by incorporating aspects of it in its production process, while being a symbolic link to temporality and longevity The design and production process, aim to bring in a dialectic discussion issues like the analog/physical in relation to the digital,as well as the traditional/local in relation to the contemporary/global. Via combining programming and digital design methods, with the use of CAD/CAM technology and the vital knowledge of vernacular craftsmen in a unified and relentlessly informed system, which is not appropriately location restricted, seeks to establish a new “ritual” in the making of jewelry .  Digital tools and media are implemented,  according to the user’s preferences, in order to develop,input with meaning and finally fabricate a piece of jewelry. The existing heritage and the craftsmen’s long experience become an active consultancy mechanism in every step of the above process (more…)

*mixed media: analog and digital sketching sketch, photography.

references

Al Farrow. Artist. http://www.alfarrow.com/

Farrow is known to make models of churches, temples and mosques from bullets and gun parts to hghlight the relationship between war and religion.

The picture of the above model was taken in De Young Museum in San franscisco 2010.

Miro Roman. Architect . http://miro.romanvlahovic.com/

Roman is currently doing a research on how could we introduce new perspectives under the light of computation in architecture’s fundamental archetypes, like cathedrals.

Press release

Topotheque is currently having a show with a series of both laser etched and painted artworks at the exhibition space “Lounge Art Gallery” of the “Cafe-Bar Lounge” located at Pargis square in Ioannina, Greece.

The exhibition is open to the public daily from 9:00pm-2:00am, from Friday 6th of April up until Friday 18th of May.
Δελτίο Τύπου

Το δημιουργικό γραφείο Topotheque πραγματοποιεί εικαστική έκθεση με έργα Ζωγραφικής και Πυρογραφίας στον εκθεσιακό χώρο Lounge Art Gallery στο Cafe-Bar Lounge στην Πλατεία Πάργης στα Ιωάννινα.
Ώρες Λειτουργίας Έκθεσης: 9:00 π.μ. - 2:00 π.μ.
Διάρκεια Έκθεσης: Παρασκευή 6 απριλίου 2012 έως Παρασκευή 18 Μαϊου 2012 (more…)

Photography and Sketching are both an art of observation.

It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place…

It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them…

It is a record of the way one lives, for anyone who really sees.

By sketching constantly,or taking photos incessantly,

one fine day you might discover to your surprise that you have rendered something

in its true character.

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