ArtsFAD 2021 Exhibition Inauguration

 On 1 June, at the Design Hub Barcelona, the FAD Awards 2021 Exhibition opened. Great level of art works were selected for this year, among them Nasrid Diptychs, by CritTeam. Exhibition will be open until the last day of August. 

2002 Eqbal Ahmad Lecture • Fateema Mernissi • Hampshire College

Edward Hopper's Creative Process

Education Now: Helping Children Cope with Racial Trauma

Sir Ken Robinson died

Surely the most influential speaker on education of all times has passed away. Sir Ken Robinson, not only pointed out the huge failure of global education system, he engaged until last minute in improving it. In pandemic time, Sir Robinson was busy gathering info and experience first hand from parents on learning from home.

As always, even in this trouble times, Sir Robinson saw an opportunity for changing education paradigms. I had registered for his next seminar in order to learn from the best in the world how to make things a little bit more effective in education today.

We are all alone now in pushing creativity through education. Rest in peace master.

Arte y pandemia

Pieter Brueghel The Elder, The Triumph of Death, circa 1562

Arte y pandemia es un tema más fértil de lo que parece a simple vista, por más que nos sintamos saturados ya (¡y lo que nos falta todavía!) del tema.

En lo personal, tengo para mí como un referente de lo que es crear en medio del confinamiento por el Covid-19 la obra "A Day's Harvest" de mi admirado y tremendo (en todos los sentidos de la palabra) Francesc Torres. Por su post me enteré de la muerte del igualmente grande Germano Celant. No decía Francesc en su post que Germano había muerto de Covid-19. Tampoco sabía (o tenía presente), antes de confinarnos por primera vez, que Apollinaire también murió de coronavirus, del coronavirus anterior a este, el de 1917.

El hecho de que la pandemia previa, la de principios del siglo XX, coincidiese con la primera guerra mundial determinó que se ocultase toda información sobre ella en la prensa del momento y, lo que es absolutamente inaceptable, de la historiografía canónica sobre dicho siglo. No sólo se resienten así las biografías de Munch, Klimt y Schiele (también víctimas del Covid previo) sino que los locos años 1920, la gran depresión, la obsesión higiénica de la arquitectura moderna, la transformación del "Warfare State" en "Welfare state", el New Deal, todo este entramado trepidante de inicios del siglo XX, de la modernidad más próxima, se explica mucho mejor si se tiene en cuenta esa pandemia previa que mató a más gente que las mismas guerras.

Las vanguardias históricas, a caballo de una pesadilla como la que estamos viviendo, demuestran que la creatividad surge hasta en los terrenos más adversos. Este artículo aborda el tema del arte en tiempos de pandemia desde Chile.

Architectural Drawing as Art Element

Painter Julie Mehretu uses architectural drawing in her way of painting. Nevertheless, what is more architectural in her paintings is the scale: just as Mies van der Rohe use to do with architectural model and photographs, her paintings are so big and well structured that the spectator feels that  he/she "enters" the canvas. The way she works also is linked to how architects work drawings, projecting images, layering, info, simultaneous data, etc. Surely it is the bricolage nature of architectural way of working what makes it potentially artistic. Julie pushes this potentiality to a beautiful level. 

e-Book La dimensión reflexiva de la arquitectura moderna

20 años no es nada. En el mundo del conocimiento al menos.

Sin embargo, sí es tiempo suficiente para comprobar si una idea se aguanta, si es sólida. Y esa idea que se aguanta dos décadas, por ahora, es la idea de que la racionalidad de la arquitectura moderna no tiene que ver con el positivismo y la adoración a la técnica y la tecnología, tanto como con una idea de arte que asume esa autonomía antes reservada en exclusiva a la razón. Los edificios de los años 1920 se hubieran quedado tan obsoletos como los primeros automóviles si esto no fuera cierto.

Ahora aparece La dimensión reflexiva de la arquitectura moderna, 20 años después de su edición original,  en formato electrónico, y a muy buen precio. Cumplo con avisarlo. El link lleva a  la editorial.

https://ebooks.eunsa.es/library/publication/la-dimension-reflexiva-de-la-arquitectura-moderna

Even Ugly Buildings have a Photo

I remember a comment by Catalá-Roca, one of the best photographers ever, that he went to visit locations he wanted to photograph before doing so, without a camera, and he saw the photos then. I think I could have gone hundreds of times to this ugly building, the Museum of Natural Science at Barcelona Forum, and I would not have found this picture. It was by chance, in the midst of confinement phase 1 that just bumped into it. I learned from the experience that even the ugliest building have a photo, just have to discover it. 

President Larry Bacow | Honoring the Harvard Class of 2020

Back on the Road

Taking advantage of the allowed scrolls I bumped into this wonderful piece of architecture by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue. Art always takes us back to that essential emotion called aesthetic fruition even when we are unaware that we are in front of a work of art. Enjoy it!

Zayed Mosque

When a monument is done for god, it is not unusual that we are able to reach heaven through the eyes

HOME

It is nice to be back home. After a certain period of time without posting here I am. Art, architecture and education is going to be the main interest of this blog. It bilingual character will remain and I guess arts will start taking more place among other themes as experience is pushing things towards this way of being in the world. 

Architecture and Cultural Heritage in India, Arabia and Maghreb

Interesting site

http://www.archiam-centre.com/Index.aspx

El Árbol de la Arquitectura

Edificio 13, Universidad Pompeu Fabra. Autor: Juan Navarro Baldeweg

Mientras la arquitectura siga haciendo posible espacios como este, la arquitectura no desaparecerá.

10º Aniversario del Colegio de Pedagogos de Catalunya

El mismo día de la celebración del 10º aniversario del COPEC sale la  Revista EIX, en la cual viene el artículo "Música, Diseño y Sistema Educativo" escrito por Eugenia López Reus y Miguel Jaime. El artículo propone extender a todo el sistema educativo la pedagogía reflexiva responsable del éxito del Sistema de Orquestas de Venezuela y las prácticas reflexivas del taller de diseño.

The Future of Architectural Education

The future is currently the most uncertain thing to think about. But present is not easy to understand either: what is going on right now has become a matter of experts, no common sense stuff. Education is not an exception, and architectural education even more.

The best idea to get a glimpse of how future architects will be taught is to ask the experts. The link takes to 5 very short essays by educational experts (click on them and they will open) that predict future architectural education.

The point of view of this blog is that, in the near future, architects will become aware of the fact that they have been self-teaching themselves for more than a century now, so they will have the opportunity of starting doing it better, much better. This is the reflexive (r)evolution ahead in pedagogical terms, not only in architecture but especially in it.

Figuring Things Out

Professor Eleonor Dockworth, cognitive psychologist and pedagogue, describes learning in a perfect Deweyian manner: "figuring things out".

We all shouldn't forget that figure is synonym of design, so to figure out (which means understanding, learning, thinking) means in some way designing, designing in our minds. Any more proofs needed of the connection between designing and learning?

The New School

Classrooms are over. Dewey, Vigotsky, Schön would be moved by this picture. Education is going in the direction they suggested, at least in some places. The school in the picture is Orestad College, in Denmark.

The building was done trying that the "physical structure supports the visions of knowledge sharing, interdisciplinarity cooperation and competencies". The bad news is that it is only happening in North European Countries. The good news is that class is over.

Improving Teaching

Since 2009, the MET (Messuring Effective Teaching) Project, is trying to make objective remarks on good teaching practices. That's the way more teachers can improve the way they do things later on. Improving, is what education is all about, and improving education is the most reflective iniciative ever (except designing, of course).