My Site Meter was Hacked

The funny 666 stabilized all day long.....counting zero last hour and beginning to give me back some visits...

I had been under somebody's investigation for approximately 15 days. Site Meter allows you the opportunity to count the daily visits, the location of the computer, time of visit, references, etc. So, I could see "somebody" was constantly connected to my blog, not a researcher, as he/she wouldn't have time, not a student... I could find the location of the computer which hacked my blog and made the corresponding report to site meter. Today, though the new visitors are shown in the flag counter, the current visitors are not counting, supposedly I have 0 visits today and for yesterday, though I've seen more than 100 at night, today, I have a report of 13, changed then to 26. Early today, 100 visitors were "erased" from the icon below. I won't have any other choice than to erase the site meter and choose another company. Unless they resolve this problem today. If I leave site meter, they will be losing a potential client, because at first is free, but then, if the blog grows, it is better to pay the service.

I understand my visitors clicks are going somewhere else, with the purpose of commercialization of any other blog. The good news, is that the hacker's interest is showing me that my blog was growing, every day, with great expectations. In a few months, I got more than 5000 visitors from so many different countries all around the world. And be adviced that every time I enter, I am not counting.

The bad part of it, is that now, I cannot see the subjects that need more attention, or the scholars' interest. The funniest part of it, the page views stabilized in 666, so, if it was the joke, the hacker is brute enough not to understand that what the Bible says is a symbol, nobody can say exactly they are numbers.

This is modern life, it's not a big deal, but a hacker must be a person who has studied, and it is sad somebody with a certain culture is getting profits with frauds. Thank you.

Thoughts About Urban Reconstruction

Sichuan earthquake, China. Web download

New Orleans, Katrina. Internet download.

China, earthquake of may 2008, web download.

With such a disaster in Haiti, I cannot leave aside the topic of the reconstruction and it is necessary to question us if it would be useful the application of the fractal geometry in the study of the new coming forms. In general, the antecedents show the creation of streets, avenues and public spaces in a rational and “practical” way that provide a (future) solution in a big scale. Under these circumstances, people in absolute poverty, cannot wait plans of years’ term that are prolonged years beyond -considering that the authorities would be also in economic crisis - and it could happen, like in the reconstruction of Tokyo, that the vernacular, precarious houses, arise as dispersed mushrooms, ruining the plans of the reconstruction, too idealistic, perhaps, to be implemented in an era of austerity. If the consideration arises of keeping, at least temporarily, these settlements, the urban analyses would be more appropriate -at first- applying tools of fractal geometry to collaborate in the restoration of the daily life of the survivors that have chosen a seemingly disordered, disorganized cluster.

Not all the drastic urban changes are for spontaneous settlements. In Japan, the materials of waste of the air bombings have been used to stuff rivers and to obtain new quick tract maps for sale that obviously affected the closest neighbourhoods. Another issue is that to open streets and parks, lands were expropriated from their owners, in the places where the works were implemented. For further reading, see Takashi Yasuda, Peter Larkham and Junichi Hasegawa. Reconstruction, replanning and the future of cities in Japan and the UK. In Faculty working paper series Not 1, UCE Birmingham. Faculty of Law, Humanities, Development and Society. 2006

But experience tells me that more Brad Pitt’s sponsoring ecological proposals will be accepted, and the starchitects’ studios will be busy to captivate the public’s attention. I have kept lots of newspapers cut sheets from Katrina’s disaster, and many people wanted to come back to the old houses where they kept their memories, they don’t understand about modern ecological, beautiful designs, and they don’t care, they only want to come back and not to be a burden for relatives and friends. It is also a matter of their lives' reconstruction.

Will there be any students, open architects’ competitions? I don’t think so.

The backstage is even worst. In moments like these, one feels like theory is not enough and it’s better to be immediately effective. If I were a reader of this blog, I’d be wondering, what does this architect do after so much speaking about earthquakes and so on? At my age, 47, I decided that it was time to have some “action”, or “real practice” immersing in the real world problems. So, a couple of months ago, I looked for telephone numbers in Craig’s list job applications, those belonging to officers in the USA Army. I made tow telephone calls, and plainly explained my profile and my intention to work in reconstruction design, -never in destruction- based on my research. The answers were “Sorry, you are out of the required age” (It sounded to me, hey, you old woman!..). Insisting, I sent two or three emails to Army officers, they never answered. There was also an available position in the Red Cross, filial of Santa Ana, California. A position to organize, to train people for disasters, to move boxes, etc. I applied, I left four messages (to different people at the Red Cross), sent two emails to the person in human resources, and the only answer I received was a recorded message, they would be considering the profiles and maybe I would be contacted. Nobody called me or emailed me to say “thank you for your interest”, the minimum words you could expect. Based on this story, I’ll keep on adding my little sand grain to the resolution of these urban and social problems, from my rented apartment. By the way, I’ve never get a cent for my research, except for a small grant at my University.

My screen shot from the movie Aftershock. Here, the dragon flies that provide the first clue of the earthquake

International Help for Haiti

Picture downloaded from dailymail.co.uk

Picture downloaded from dailymail.co.uk

Picture downloaded from Clarin.com.ar gallery

My sincere condolences to Haitians. And thanks to the Argentinian hospital working desperately to save them. There is a "hospital de campaña¨ (on site hospital) with independent electricity. In our country, Argentinian doctors have always worked under a very low salary, in dispite of this, our hospitals are crowded with people from different countries, with no fees.

HOW TO DONATE

To give to the Red Cross Haiti appeal visit www.redcross.org.uk/haitiearthquake or call 08450 535353

To donate through Christian Aid go to www.christianaid.org.uk/haiti-appeal

To give to the Oxfam appeal call 0300 200 1999, visit www.oxfam.org.uk or call in at a local Oxfam shop

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1242885/Haiti-earthquake-Victims-forced-dig-rubble-bare-hands-free-surivors.html#ixzz0cVWbOqAr

Disaster Relief Fund

You can help people affected by disasters, like the recent snow storms and flooding, by donating to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. On those rare occasions when donations exceed Red Cross expenses for a specific disaster, contributions are used to prepare for and serve victims of other disasters. Your gift enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, emotional support and other assistance to victims of all disasters. You may also call 1-800 RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) or mail your donation, to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013.

This paragraph is from the newspaper Clarin.com.ar:

La comunidad internacional se moviliza hoy con rapidez para ayudar a las numerosas víctimas del terremoto que ha azotado a Haití, el país más pobre de América y uno de los más pobres del mundo, en el caos y la destrucción.

Una veintena de países han anunciado ya el envío urgente de ayuda al país, donde, aunque aún se desconoce la cifra de muertos y heridos, la magnitud del temblor hace temer un número muy elevado, sobre todo en la capital, Puerto Príncipe.

Alemania anunció el envío de un millón y medio de euros (2,18 millones de dólares) de ayuda; España ha desbloqueado tres millones de euros (4,3 millones de dólares) y va a enviar tres aviones con 150 toneladas de ayuda humanitaria; Brasil donará diez millones de dólares; Unión Europea (UE) prometió la concesión de 3 millones de euros (cerca de 4,3 millones de dólares).

En tanto, la Federación Internacional de la Cruz Roja (FICR) se prepara a ayudar a "un máximo de tres millones de personas" que podrían estar afectadas por el fuerte terremoto que sacudió el martes a Haití, afirmó este miércoles un portavoz, Jean-Luc Martinage.

(Fuente: Agencias)

Spaciousness and Crowding (part 2)

Oedipus and the Sphinx. From http://people.brandeis.edu/~jhale/Art/moreau/moreau_oedipus_sphinx.jpg

The definition for Spaciousness is given in music and economy. For music: “Spaciousness or spatial impression is a term that was introduced in the 1970s to refer to a listener's feeling of being enveloped in the music. Much research on this concept has occurred in the past three decades, and now two aspects of spaciousness have been identified: Auditory Source Width (ASW) and Listener Envelopment (LE). ASW describes how large and wide the sound source appears to the listener. Listener envelopment, meanwhile, addresses how the listener feels surrounded by the music, rather than listening to it as if through a window”.

From http://www.concerthalls.unomaha.edu/discussion/spacious.htm

Conventionally, it is agreed that music envelopment is caused by lateral sound energy in rooms. The paradox, small rooms usually have many lateral reflections but they are not spacious. It brings us to the problem of size.

A minimalist cabin. From http://15.media.tumblr.com/cTJZbmxfr5ttq9ekjIYLCf2U_400.jpg

Spaciousness describes the place itself, its extent, its width, but it means more than size. Size it’s only one of its characteristics. The interesting issue about spaciousness is that there is no qualitative judgement connected to the size. A small open space maybe is very good for a Chinese, and pretty bad for an American. The qualification can be a cultural matter, a personal feeling, or a professional appreciation. So, size is considered in its capability to accommodate certain programmes, occupants, furniture. Size is not related only to a room; the concept can be applied to topography, walkable distances, vegetation, that lead to the sense of openness.

As I said in part 1 of Spaciousness and Crowding, openness can be felt in the city’s streets. Again, it depends on the person. “Sense of openness, though connected to size, reflects this manipulation by providing a more sensual, qualitative measure for the spatial success of open urban space. It relates to the occupation and function of the space as well as to its position in the urban grid and its connectivity. Integration into inter-connecting urban routes enhances the significance of individual open space within any urban network. To be able to walk continuously onwards from an open urban space extends the space beyond itself and into a very fine and slow layer of inner city movement. The potential for such movement encourages occupation and occupants as well as shaping the form and layout of open urban space. It also introduces change and renewal to the space, therewith offering a particular persistent visual stimulation. Stimuli can be drawn from a variety of sources, such as occupancy (events, activity, movement, etc) but they are mostly strongly linked to the natural environment…….Visual stimulation refers back to spaciousness, as a visually stimulating space is more likely to be judged as appropriately sized”. (André Viljoen, Katrin Bohn, p. 109-110)

Spaciousness and crowding for Jewish prisoners in the Holocaust. From http://www.portalplanetasedna.com.ar/archivos_varios/holocausto03.jpg

Spaciousness and crowding in slaves ship. From http://www.sonofthesouth.net/slavery/slave-ship_Picture1.jpg

The terrible slaves spaciousness and crowding in ships. http://z.about.com/d/africanhistory/1/0/1/J/SlaveShipBrookes002.jpg

Virginia Indians seated around a fire. By Bernard Picart after Theodore de Bry. Engraved book page, 1721. They generate their spatiality with the fire, in open spaciousness. From http://www.vahistorical.org/cole/2.1a.jpg

The geographer Yi-Fu Tuan indicates that freedom is associated with spaciousness, and he exemplifies with an infant and a prisoner. Both of them are unfree, their movements are restricted, same for an old person. The first measurement would be based on our stretched arms, but the distance is increased when the person shoots an arrow or throws a stone. The body can feel both measures. Vehicles also enlarge the sense of space.

Movement is also part of spaciousness and in theory, it is acquired step by step. A pedestrian learns how to ride a bicycle, then to drive a car, then he could become a pilot and greater distances are overcome. Tuan notes that when the transportation is a passive experience, the conquest of space can mean its diminishment. His example is very clear: a person crossing a continent in an airplane, in a few hours, cannot experience the speed and space is probably less vivid than that of a motorcyclist roaring down in a freeway. And movement is also restricted in our life. The Sphinx of Oedipus’ legend knew it very well: What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening? Oedipus was lucky to solve the riddle and save his life; nevertheless, he had bad consequences on doing this…..

Turkish underground city. From http://kickthemallout.com/images/Photos/TurkishUndergroundCity/subterranea1-450x299.jpg

Cellular network city, by Jinqi Huang. 2006-2008

The last planning tendencies propose initiatives for healthy livings, in a car-less urban environment, combined with high density living in big open green spaces. Obviously, it will affect humans’ spaciousness. And I’m not saying for good or bad, it’ll be simply different. Careful reflections should be needed for underground developments. Many utopian projects are seen published everywhere, with people living underground, light coming from huge skylights in an effort to improve the environment –trying to keep it “untouched”-. Basically, these projects have organic beautiful morphologies that seem to mimic the landscape, usually the focus is on the form, not on inhabitants’ spaciousness.

REFERENCES

Editor Andre Viljoen. CPULs. Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes. P. 109-110 Oxford, Great Britain. 2005
Yi-Fu Tuan. Space and Place. The perspective of experience. Chapter 5. University of Minnesota Press. 2007

Spaciousness and Crowding (part 1)

Crowdedness. From http://enchantingchallenge.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/crowdedness.jpg

The feeling of spaciousness is related to our vivéncies. It happened to me, that living many years in such a crowded city as Buenos Aires, I felt something was missing in Californian streets, I could feel the emptiness, my tall buildings were not protecting me from the streets….On the other hand, an Argentine friend told me her daughter, being born in California, and raised up in the mountains, felt dizziness when she was a ¨compressed¨ tourist in Buenos Aires city.

Below, it is the reference for chapter five, in the book ¨Space and Place¨ by Yi Fu Tuan. Let us do this exercise: a combination of Yi Fu Tuan´s words and Yes´ lyrics in the voice of Jon Anderson ¨Heart of the Sunrise¨. (One of my favorite songs).

¨Space and spaciousness are closely related terms, as are population density and crowding; but ample space is not always experienced as spaciousness, and high density does not necessarily mean crowding. Spaciousness and crowding are antithetical feelings. The point as which one feeling turns into another depends on conditions that are hard to generalize. To understand how space and human number, spaciousness and crowding are related….¨. ¨Spaciousness is closely associated with the sense of being free. Freedom implies space; it means having the power and enough room in which to act. Being free has several levels of meaning. Fundamental is the ability to transcend the present condition, and this transcendence is most simply manifest as the elementary power to move. In the act of moving, space and its attributes are directly experienced. An immobile person will have difficulty mastering even primitive ideas of abstract space, for such ideas develop into movement –out of the direct experiencing of space through movement.¨

Crowded city. http://trendsupdates.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/crowded-city.jpg

Let us see what Yes' lyrics say:

Love comes to you and you follow
Lose one on to the heart of the sunrise
SHARP-DISTANCE
How can the wind with its arms
All around me
Lost on a wave and then after
Dream on on to the heart of the sunrise
SHARP-DISTANCE
How can the wind with so many around me
Lost in the city
Lost in their eyes as you hurry by
Counting the broken ties they decide
Love comes to you and then after
Dream on on to the heart of the sunrise
Lost on a wave that you're dreaming
Dream on on to the heart of the sunrise
SHARP-DISTANCE
How can the wind with its arms all around Me
SHARP-DISTANCE
How can the wind with so many around me
I feel lost in the city
Lost in their eyes as you hurry by
Counting the broken ties they decided
Straight light moving and removing
SHARPNESS of the colour sun shine
Straight light searching all the meanings
Of the song
Long last treatment of the telling that
Relates to all the words sung
Dreamer easy in the chair that really fits You
Love comes to you and then after
Dream on on to the heart of the sunrise
SHARP-DISTANCE
How can the sun with its arms all around Me
SHARP-DISTANCE
How can the wind with so many around me
I feel lost in the city

For those who'd love to listen to this song, here we have the links: Yes playing with Rick Wakeman! Part 1 and 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_l4-TMq4yI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBPzHvI-YTE&NR=1
Then, an unplugged great version with Spanish guitars (Guitarras criollas) at a Cafe in California, singing Jon Anderson, of course, who else?....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig6WOlsAYuk

Rochester subway. http://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester_01.jpg

Worship Buildings: Discussion on their Mysticism

The Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. Picture by Myriam Mahiques

I have visited the Crystal Cathedral designed by architect Philip Johnson twice. It is located in the city of Garden Grove, California, just two miles from Disneyland. Though it bears the name of cathedral, the building itself is not imbued with a mystic spirit. Anyway, it is beautiful and impressive, it is all light in the glorification of the metallic structures. My husband, an architect too, said he does not like it very much, because it could represent any public building. I reminded him that, Philip Johnson explored the idea of ethereal walls through a complete permeability to light, but the functional program for this building, was not to create a place for prayers, but a huge TV studio.

In 1955, the Protestant broadcasting evangelist Robert H. Schuller (born September 16, 1926) preached outdoors to a flock gathered in their cars at a rented drive-in movie theater; ¨Most such churches begin by taking over a drive-in theater on Sunday morning. Minister, choir and organ perch atop the projection booth or a makeshift stage, and the sermon is piped into cars through window speakers. Among the most impressive of several new churches specially built for drive-in congregations are Schuller's Garden Grove Community Church (designed by Richard Neutra)¨ From Time. Churches: Drive in Devotion. November 3, 1967. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837478,00.html

By 1970, he was preaching to a congregation of millions gathered around of TV sets on his weekly Sunday program The Hour of Prayer. Pastor Schuller thought he could design himself a suitable spectacular TV studio, but lately he realized he needed an architect. He chose arch. Philip Johnson when he read in “Time” that Johnson was a leading famous architect. The story is not clear for me, but it seems to be the main reason for Johnson’s contract.

Inside the Crystal Cathedral. Picture by Myriam Mahiques

A great organ in the second floor of the Crystal Cathedral. See the low ceiling with the entrances, there is no transition for the change of scale, what makes it much more impressive. Picture by Myriam Mahiques

The "campanile". Picture by Janine Hannois.

Anyway, church or not, I admire this building. I felt the emotion to enter under a low ceiling, and suddenly, the discovery of the change of scale inside the great structure through which the sky is seen. It is curious for me that Christians do not include religious imaginary inside their worship buildings, but, there are allegories of Jesuschrist’s birth in statues all around in the landscape. And in spite of the lack of pictures, every year there is a great event of Christmas where real animals with actors and dancers perform “The Glory of Christmas”. The event gives us much more than images, you can even smell the animals in their absence……

“The Glory of Christmas” event at the Crystal Cathedral. From http://www.crystalcathedral.org

A family picture outside the Crystal Cathedral, picture by Luis Makianich.

“The Glory of Christmas” event at the Crystal Cathedral. From http://www.crystalcathedral.org

Remember the effectiveness of theatre in religious teaching. Priests in the Conquest of America used to take the advantage of theatralizations;  Indians were the performers.

Scenography for "The Glory of Christmas". Picture by Myriam Mahiques

Pastor Schuller’s methods reminded me some similar methods in the Catholic Church, institution that has always held a primary place for ornament and sacred imaginary that evoke the historical events. I’m not an expert in the subject so I will add excerpts from “A Soul for the Liturgical Space” (Un Alma para el Espacio Litúrgico) by my Italian colleague and virtual friend Architect Ciro Lomonte, who is an expert church designer, who lives and works in Palermo, Sicily. He has edited in Italian L’Architettura del Corpo Mistico. Progettare chiese secondo il Concilio Vaticano II by Steven J. Schloeder (L’Epos, Palermo 2005).

So, questions arise, are all architects qualified to design sacred places? Or, do they focus on their own personal propaganda without taking into account what the parishioners feel? Which are the consequences of modern proceedings? Let us see what arch. Lomonte writes:

¨Modern churches are not convincing. Visiting them you can perceive the difficulty contemporaries have in expressing transcendentality in works of sacred art. The faithful are forced to attend churches that are often similar to gymnasiums, garages, supermarkets, schools, or even swimming pools. Perhaps those who designed them meant to reproduce daily life situations in the places reserved for an encounter with the Trinity. However in alienating atmospheres such as these one can neither establish a relationship with God nor with men. At times only solitude is perceived here, even more here than anywhere else. And to think that the church, by now, is no longer a place where one prays, but where assemblies are held, just as in halls of Protestant worship¨………

¨So where shall we begin again? On the one hand it is necessary that buildings for worship be beautiful, on the other that they adequately perform the function for which they were designed. The two requirements are connected closely.

Let us consider in the first place the aesthetic difficulties. Decorum has been excluded on principle from the syntax of modern architecture, though it is an indispensable component in the design of Catholic churches. This is essential reason for which modern churches are unadorned, as if they had undergone a preventive iconoclastic fury. The architect’s concept of God, usually abstract, is expressed with an unjustified grandiloquence of volumes. Seemingly out-of-place images of the Holy Three, of the Madonna and of the saints are hung on the bare walls, all of which could be removed or moved without modifying their combined effect. One enters anodyne realms, without knowing where to head, since there is no particular reason why the crucifix or the tabernacle are in one place rather than in another¨……….

¨To design a church requires an understanding of the places for celebration, in particular the tribune for the proclamation of the Word of God and the ara on which the sacrifice of the Calvary is renewed. The design should begin with the altar, not its container.

From this point of view the chief responsibility for the inadequacy of modern churches lies with those who commission them¨………………..

Arch. Lomonte published some astonishing pictures of weird icons at the Church of Saint Luca in Graz, Austria, that I reproduce here with his permission:

Altar. What if the artist meant that Christ’s sacrifice can be celebrated everywhere, in open nature, for example?

Tabernacle

Lights at the tabernacle. Does it mean Christ is everywhere in cities? Or is it a warning sign for us to decide if our soul is ”clean” enough for communion?

¨Some say that the Church has ceased to dialogue with artists for at least two centuries. This affirmation, on closer examination, is not convincing because the Liturgical Movement immediately brought about a search for new artistic forms. The trouble is that it did so in the name of an exaggerated egalitarianism, elaborating a conception of “universal space”, where all the participants and areas of ritual action have the same weight,…¨

¨One of the essential materials for architectonic composition is luminous energy. In the case of churches it possesses a precise symbolic charge. Not long ago the Pope explained it lyrically.

«It is the radiance of his transcendent mystery that is communicated to humanity. In fact, the light is outside us, we can neither grasp it nor hold on to it; yet it envelops, enlightens and warms us. God is like this, both distant and yet close, someone beyond us yet beside us, in fact willing to be with us and in us. The earth responds with a chorus of praise to the revelation of his majesty: it is a cosmic response, a prayer to which man gives voice¨…...

Light through the chapel's window. Mission of San Juan Capistrano, California.

Picture by Myriam B. Mahiques

Light through the chapel's window. Mission of San Juan Capistrano, California.

Picture by Myriam B. Mahiques

Then arch. Lomonte discusses about the advantages and disadvantages of different layout of elements that make ceremonies develop in many ways. And he also shows an interesting picture of a dancing priest. Events are also being performed inside Catholic churches.

The subject introduced here, is continued in the manifesto for

http://www.appelloalpapa.blogspot.com

Any architect, designer, artist has the right to express him/herself. I think the real problem resides in what people perceive and comprehend, which is a delicate issue considering it’s all about religion. I am not sure if the Graz community is prepared to understand the artist’s intentions, setting aside the liturgical problem briefly exposed here. In my particular case, I have my favorite church in Buenos Aires downtown, St. Michael Archangel. And it is a dark building with sad statues inside. That is my personal selection, and I leave it to phenomenology, to what I feel when I get in contact with the building. There is a Satan church in Santa Barbara, I cannot remember the name and sorry I did not have my camera and could not find it in the web, it is a brick building with vitreaux (stained glass) mostly in red color, with dubious images, a few glasses were broken and there was a little vandal graffiti. The building is so sinister, that even before I realized it was for Satan worship, I felt the rejection in the hidden memories associated with such a construction or such a practice. So strong feelings worship places trigger in us, rejection, admiration, extasis, happiness, respect…..

REFERENCES

Lomonte, Ciro. Un alma para el espacio litúrgico. Revista Humanitas, Santiago del Cile, n° 36, octubre-diciembre 2004

Great Buildings of the World by editors of Time. Page 68. New York, 2004

Space and Mirrors

Narcissus in love with his image, 1728. Painting by François Lemoyne, 1688-1728. Hamburger Kunsthalle. http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Narcissus.html

Narcissus’ story is the myth of the origin of the flower bearing his name and I would say the myth of the mirror. Narcissus is counted among the most handsome young men; per the Roman poet Ovid's retelling of the myth, he was the son of the river god Cephisus and the nymph Liriope.

When Narcissus was born, Tiresias was asked whether the child would live a long life, and the seer, aware of the difficulties of the enigmatic maxim "Know thyself", replied: "If he never knows himself." (Tiresias. Ovid, Metamorphoses).

He was destined to love himself –to his own image on the water- and not gain the thing he loved. He fell in love with his own reflection. And since he could not obtain the immaterial object of his love, he died of sorrow by the quiet spring. His body was never found, but in its place, there was a flower, purple within and surrounded with white leaves.

As an additional data, the spring where Narcissus saw himself is said to be in the territory of the Thespians, in a place called Donacon. Some reject the story of Narcissus being unable to distinguish a man from a man's reflection. Instead they assert that Narcissus had a twin sister, and that both were exactly alike in appearance. Supposedly, he fell in love with his sister, and when she died he used to visit the spring, knowing well that he saw his reflection, but finding some relief for his love because it reminded him of his sister. (From Greek Mythology Link, a web site created by Carlos Parada).

Rococo architecture, Amalienburg. Internet download.

The mirror is a fascinating object that changes or disguises the relationship of objects with their spatial environments. The artificial effects used by Rococo decorators is well known: large mirrors were place opposite one another on the walls of rooms.

Painting by Aguilar. Internet download

The event Smoke and Mirrors in New York, a production of non architectural space. “Through sensatory distortions a supernatural environment was created. The notoriously sour New York architecture scene found temporary solace in this wondrous atmosphere of dynamic projections and reflections set within a dense haze. One room was filled with a dense fog, reducing visibility at this networking party to the bare minimum. Poisonous yellow light created a fake ceiling through which one could descend into the haze.” By Solid Objectives. http://so-il.org/artifact/26

Painting by Aguilar. Internet download

In Henri Lefevre’s words “ The mirror discloses the relationship between me and myself, my body and t he consciousness of my body –not because the reflection constitutes my unity qua subjet,…..but because it transforms what I am into the sign of what I am. This ice-smooth barrier, itself merely an inert sheen, reproduces and displays what I am –in a word, signifies what I am- within an imaginary sphere which is yet quite real. A process of abstraction then –but fascinating abstraction. In order to know myself, I “separate myself out from myself”. The effect is dizzying. Should the “Ego” fail to reassert hegemony over itself by defying its own image, it must become Narcissus –or Alice. It will then be in danger of never rediscovering itself, space qua figment will have swallowed it up, and the glacial surface of the mirror will hold it forever captive in its emptiness, in an absence devoid of all conceivable presence or bodily warmth. The mirror thus presents or offers the most unifying but also the most disjunctive relationship between form and content: forms therein have a powerful reality yet remain unreal; they readily expel or contain their contents, yet these contents retain an irreducible force, an irreducible opacity, and this is as true for my boddy (the content of “my consciousness”) as for other bodies, for bodies in general. So many objects have this dual character: they are transitional inasmuch as they tend towards something else, yet they are also aims or “objectives” in their own right…..There is in fact little justification for any systematic generalization from the effects of this particular object, whose role is properly confined to a sphere within the immediate vicinity of the body…..The mirror introduces a truly dual spatiality: a space which is imaginary with respect to origin and separation, but also concrete and practical with respect to coexistence and differentiation”. (H. Lefevre, p. 185-186, 1999).

Psyche's Mirror in the Funhouse, at the Burning Man event, 2005. 'Anamorphic art' uses a curved mirror to straighten out a distorted image. Ray Allen installed this and Michael Heatherton is keeping it relatively clean. Painting is of Two Ambassadors by the Dutch artist Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543). Picture by Tom Pendergast.

The mirror conceptualization also offers us the opportunity to enjoy bilateral symmetries in architecture. In the words of Kim Williams “Identifying a type of symmetry in a two-dimensional composition is relatively straightforward; the identification of symmetry types in a three-dimensional object such as a sculpture is somewhat more complicated because our perception of the object changes as we move around it. In the case of architecture, we not only move around it, but we move through it as well. This means that architecture provides us with a special opportunity to experience symmetry as well as to see it”. (Cited in landscapedesignweb.com)

REFERENCES

http://www.loggia.com/myth/echo2.html

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Narcissus.html
http://landscapedesignweb.com/2008/02/24/inspiration-for-landscape-space-symmetry-in-architecture/
Le Fevre, Henri. The Production of Space. Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Massachusetts, USA. 1999

No Internet Conexion for a few Days (?)

Dear Readers,
I wish you all a Happy New Year!
I've just moved the computers, and I'm still with no Internet conexion, if I'm lucky I'll be able to post again next week. Thank you!