mohit.santram

Road Tripping - Museum Report

Museum Reports

Over the summer I embarked upon a cross country road trip. Traveling with a friend, we left New York and drove for about ten days until we got to Casper, Wyoming. I dropped off my friend, and then resumed my trip to San Francisco. Whenever I think back of the time spent on the trip, images from everywhere flood my senses.

Some of my fondest memories of the trip are based around discovering new places along the way in the least expected places. Others were places already known and pre-marked as mandatory destinations.

Falling Water
http://www.paconserve.org/index-fw1.asp

Falling Water was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935, who completed construction on the home in 1939. Built for the Kaufmann family outside of Pittsburgh, the house was groundbreaking in it’s conception and design. The Kaufmann family owned a series of department stores in Pittsburgh and were able to employ Wright to design and build the home along the banks of a waterfall on Bear Run. Wright surveyed the site and decided to build the home on top of the waterfall. Using a unique design of cantilevered concrete ledges, which were secured to adjacent rock, the house effectively hovers over the landscape.

I first learned about the house during high school from my art teacher. I was an avid fan of This Old House, a PBS show where homes are rebuilt and/or constructed, and I was amazed at the pictures I saw of the house. Needless to say stepping into the actual house for a tour was highly anticipated. The house itself is breathtaking.

http://flickr.com/photos/mojo/14659262/

Stepping into the home you learn about the Kaufmann family, Frank Lloyd Wright, and their plans to build the home. The house is now owned and maintained by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy foundation which recently spent seven million dollars to restore the home to proper condition. The artifacts in the home are as as they were when the Kaufmann’s owned the home. The furniture, the belongings, everything is as it was. As a historical time piece, it is a testament to Frank Lloyd Wright’s design and revolutionary planning as an architect. It is well worth the drive to Western Pennsylvania at any time of the year.

City Museum
http://www.citymuseum.org/

Located in downtown St. Louis, Missorui; City Museum was a fantastic find along the road trip. Though I am not able to find the actual historical specifics, I was told that City Museum was created by an St. Louis artist who bought the former office building for 250 thousand dollars. The artist decided to repurpose the building as a living breathing museum by essentially recycling discarded pieces of industry, transportation, buildings, and art. Essentially, one can look at City Museum as a playground for everyone. On the outside of the building, one will find such varied items as buses, airplanes, suspended climbing apparatus, mazes, remnants of industrial buildings, an aquarium, a cave, and much more.

http://flickr.com/photos/mojo/tags/citymuseum/

It sounds crazy, but I am not alone in my love of this place. Though I think playground may be a better description of the site, City Museum is a great destination if you are in St. Louis.

http://www.wired.com/news/roadtrip/riverroad/0,2704,65172,00.html

Eames House
http://www.eamesfoundation.org/

The Eames House is located in Santa Monica, California. Designed and Built by Ray and Charles Eames in the 1940’s, the house was completed by Christmas Eve, 1949. The house was first designed by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen using pre-fabircated off-the-shelf parts as a response to the Case Study House program. The program was started by John Estenza, the publisher of Arts and Architecture magazine. Though due to the war efforts, supplies were in shortage until after WWII when Ray and Charles redesigned and built the home. Well known for the breadth of their work, this house pushed the concept of building a home out of everyday parts. They preserved the meadow surrounding their home, which overlooks the pacific palisades and the Santa Monica beach.

I spent a summer in Santa Monica in 1995, yet never went to the house. Ten years later, I made up for it and saw the home. Unfortunately, you cannot walk through the home, as they have put up velvet ropes to preserve the home, and the furnishings, like those within Falling Water, have been preserved since the Eames left the home.

http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/shulman/image_collection/Eames.html

Creative act final proposal thoughts

Part 1: Define and explore your area of interest.
Identify an area of the Creative Act (within the context of this class) that is of interest to you. Try to find something that is both general enough to apply to a range of possible creative experiences and that resonates with you on a personal level. In one page or more, fully explore this issue. Please reference any personal experiences, specific projects and writings that are relevant. Frame the issue and your interest in it as clearly as possible. If you have an idea but can’t think of how to approach thinking/writing about it, send me an email and I will try and ask you specific questions to guide you.

I, like most of us in the class, am interested in the creative process. How does it begin? What inspires us to tell our stories? How do we relate our own experiences and thoughts to our friends? Understanding the requirements of a narrative is key for survival and relevancy. But how do we self edit and display that which we think is interesting to other people? Do we tag objects? What do tags actually mean to other people and how are they relevant to anyone outside of the storyteller’s immediate circle?

Part 2: Propose a project.
In no less than one page, define a project that will allow you to directly confront and explore the area of interest that you defined above. The project should not just be a “study” of that interest… Be as specific as possible about how your area of interest is potentially addressed. Talk about methodology, materials, difficulties and their possible solutions. Try to talk about any criteria for success you might have for the final work, or for any portion of of the process. Above all find a project you will be excited to work on for two weeks…and present to the class.

I want to explore how people tell stories, through text, images, motion, video. I’m interested in understanding how people use medium to express their narratives. Beyond understanding the thought, planning, and execution of an idea to a narrative, I want to test the process by executing narratives in as many mediums as possible.

this is still a work in progress.

thanks everyone…

for all the creative posts.

i hope you discover something new…

on your next trip.

every picture tells a story…

as does everyone’s entries.

(this was meant to be posted yesterday)

go on…

slide down the banister .

to all you late night posters

soon, you’ll be able to sleep in.

for jeff

this one’s all for you buddy.

i signed you up for their newsletter so you can keep up on all the latest del taco news! oh yes, del taco!

for mouna, sean, chris, dee, shagun, and jeff

the aftermath wasn’t so bad…

liar.

same ole poop.

liar!

liar!

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

five years into it, and he’s still lying.

advertisers lie.

they lie all the time.

liar’s poker

lie like you mean it.

metamorphosis

alcoholism

Originally uploaded by mojo!.

it’s been hard to admit. but i thnk i may have a problem.

wish i was lying about this one…

just so you know, (in case you forgot) moving and copying files are two terribly different things…

when you copy a file, you copy it and have it in both places. when you move a file, you copy it to the destination and delete it from the source in one operation. i found this out for the 100th time this evening.

if a lie’s lie is a lie, is it a truth?

oh perhaps.

blindfolded…

think of something to do, then make it impossibly difficult. find a can of soup, open it, and eat it.

campbell’s

today was a day of soup.

ensuing bird flu

too much bbq chicken.

notebook sketches

stay inside the box, dammit!