Thursday Posting: Defense Architecture: Bunkers

Fortifications

“Approximately 1,500 bunkers were built during World War II along the French shores to forestall an Allied landing—“the Atlantic Wall.” Decommissioned after the Allied invasion of Normandy, this elaborate defense system now lies abandoned.”

-Rosecrans Baldwin

Virilio, Paul.  Bunker Archeology.  “The Frightening Beauty of Bunkers.”  Princeton Architectural Press, 1975.

In this article Virilio discusses his youth and how you grew to find bunkers appealing, and even comforting.Virilio states:“I see it clearly now as a case of intuition and also as a convergence between the reality of the structure and the fact of its implantation alongside the ocean: a convergence between my awareness of spatial phenomena.”  After Virilio’s first encounter with a bunker, he began to hunt for them, driven by a purely archeological purposes.  Upon viewing different bunkers, he found himself asking the questions: “why would these extraordinary constructions, compared to the seaside villas, not be perceived or even recognized? Why this analogy between the funeral archetype and military architecture? Why this insane situation looking out over the ocean?”  Virilio points out that in previous eras, fortifications and bunkers were oriented towards a specific passageway, valley or port.  The bunkers from the WWII era are placed “at the summit of dunes, cliffs, and across beaches.”  The essay then goes on to describe the delight and intrigue Virilio had in finding bunkers.  He states: “My activities often led me into teeming ports, and what most surprised and intrigued me there was finding once again in the middle of courtyards and gardens my concrete shelters; their blind, low mass and rounded profile were out of tune with the urban environment. These objects had been left behind, and were colorless; their gray cement relief was silent witness to a warlike climate.”

This article interested me in its topic of abandonment, which is a major theme in my current series.  While Virilio only discusses the abandonment of bunkers, he does a good job analyzing them against their surroundings, and brings up important points about their placement and original use.  

Monday Entry: Alan Kupchick

I couldn’t find a lot of information on Alan Kupchick, but I was immediately drawn to his colorful, crisp images of sparse buildings set beneath bright blue skies.  In THE Magazine they state that on Kupchick’s road trips across America, he “has taken a fresh look at our urban and natural landscapes.  Filtered through his unique insight and wry humor, these images are presented in bold chromatic statements.  In a statement from Kupchick, he explains his work by saying: “I create photographs that make the world look like a well organized, good-looking, well structured place, which of course it isn’t.  But it makes me feel better to portray it that way.” His use of clean lines and shapes makes urban environments look pristine and organized, and almost believable. 

Gallery representing artist:

http://www.photoeye.com/gallery/forms2/index.cfm?image=4&id=187266&imagePosition=1&Door=2&Portfolio=Portfolio1&Gallery=2

Thursday Posting: Fall out shelters

Paranoia/preparedness

“Trust Me!  You can survive a nuclear or dirty bomb attack.  It will not be the end of the world.  But, you must be prepared!”

            -undergroundbombshelter,com

Civil Defense: The Family Fallout Shelter.  Nebraskastudies.org. 

http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0900/frameset_reset.html?http://www.nebraskastudies.or g/0900/stories/0901_0132.html

This article explores the logistics of family fallout shelters, and the various ways one can go about building one.  It also explains the history of bomb shelters, and the reasoning and events that for many made a fall out shelter a necessity.  Fall out shelters were very popular in the 50s and 60s during the height of the cold war.  According to the article, “A fallout shelter built in the corner of a basement was the least expensive type, and it supposedly offered "substantial protection." In many plans, concrete blocks provided the walls. An open doorway and vents near the floor provided ventilation. The shelter's entrance was constructed with a sharp turn to reduce radiation intensity.”  This was one plan for fall out shelter.  Other plans consisted of constructing a separate fall out shelter several feet underground.  Just by placing the shelter four or five feet underground significantly reduces the level of gamma radiation that would reach the family.  According to the article, “one plan suggested that the roof of the shelter can be used as an attractive patio.”  The article also explains the protocol for what to do if such a nuclear disaster were to strike.  Families were recommended to stay in their fall out shelters for at least two weeks after the nuclear blast.

Reading this article was interesting to understand the psychology and mindset that occupied people living through the cold war.  Certainly there are people today that still have bomb shelters, as the threat of nuclear war is ever present.  I was especially intrigued by the camouflaging of the shelters as a patio or another kind of functional object, and I think this could bring an interesting aspect to my work.  

Monday Post: Willie Doherty

Doherty was born in 1959 in Derry, Ireland.  He studied sculpture at Ulster Polytechnic in Belfast.  When he was a child he witnessed Bloody Sunday, which greatly influences themes and subject matter in his work.  According to Wikipedia, “Doherty has again suggested that this interest may stem from his witnessing of Bloody Sunday and subsequent knowledge that many photos of the incident did not tell the whole truth.”  Doherty makes both photographs and video installations, with the latter being said to contain aspects of film noir.  He rose to acclaim in the 1980s with his series of photographic works with text overlay.  According to Arts Council of Northern Ireland, these photographs “explore the complexities of living in a divided community, especially in his native Northern Ireland. Much of his work refers to an undercurrent of fear, oppression and uncertainty that for many was a daily experience of life in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.”  Doherty currently lives and works in Derry, Ireland.

Gallery representing artist:

http://www.alexanderandbonin.com/artists/doherty/doherty.html

Artist Interview:

http://www.jca-online.com/doherty.html

Security Testing of Corporate Buildings

Sheltered

“In recent years, corporate building owners have become increasingly blast conscious. They are now aware that specialized materials, such as safety glass films, can help mitigate damage caused by attack or natural disaster.”

-Carol Borow, President of CHB Industries

Larkin, Jay.  “The Science of Safety.” Security Magazine.  1 July 2004. 

http://www.securitymagazine.com/Articles/Feature_Article/395086fa164d8010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____

 

Larkin is a contributing writer for Security Magazine.  His article explores different tests and experiments that corporate buildings are undergoing to determine how secure their buildings are in the face of natural or man-made disaster.  One of the first things Larkin points out is that the catalyst for this testing was not 9/11, as many would think, but was the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.  Larkin goes rather in-depth discussing the security enhancing safety films that are placed on windows to reduce deadly shrapnel that occurs when windows explode.  He also discusses the various blast-assessment tests are done to find out the building’s customized risk-reduction solution.  The part of the article that I found most interesting was when Larkin discussed perimeter security, which “is typically deployed to protect structures from external attacks, such as car bombs, or short-range strikes like the recent attack on the Sheraton Baghdad.”  Larkin then goes on to say that traditional blockades like the Jersey barriers and steel pylons are no longer popular because of the negative aesthetic value they  produced, and their negative impact on employee productivity.  Apparently employees did not like being aware of the risk they faced on a daily basis just by coming in to work.  So, as Larkin explains, buildings are improving and updating perimeter security by installing “more natural exterior barriers” that don’t alarm employees.  According to Larkin, “Many commercial complexes have positioned large concrete planters along the border of the building and some have even placed hefty rocks in front of high risk areas. These techniques provide the same basic function as would a Jersey barrier, but do so more discretely, without disrupting the delicate balance between security and comfort levels.” 

Reading this article was helpful to give me a better understanding of how corporate buildings evaluate their security.  While new information was presented, the majority of the article reaffirmed what I already knew about the ever-tightening security of the corporate world.

 

 

Lecture # 4: Amy Stein

During Stein’s lecture she explained two of her most prominent series, Domesticated and Stranded.  While showing these series she explained her background and how it influenced her in creating these series.  As a photographer, Stein had almost no formal training, but her background in politics becomes evident in her photos which show American families and communities coping in hard economic times.  However, this is not the overwhelming factor in her imagery.  Her series Domesticated consists of staged images based on real stories about encounters that locals of Matamoras, PA, have had.  These staged scenes always involve taxidermied animals of some sort, and sometimes involve interactions between people and animals.  Stein stated that the purpose of this series is to examine the boundary between the built environment and the natural world, as well as the tension between humans and animals.  Given her intent, I think her series accomplishes its mission, because upon viewing the images I immediately feel a tension between the domesticated and the wild, even though I know the images are staged.  Her other series, Stranded is almost the opposite of Domesticated, in the sense that it is not staged, and doesn’t involve props of stuffed dead animals.  When working on this series Stein realized that she wanted to take portraits of stranded motorists, and that by doing this all over the country she would also be documenting the political and economic temperature of the time.  This series began right after Hurricane Katrina, and ended around the same time as the Bush Administration, and certainly shows people in a certain light that no doubt were affected by the times.  Over all I really enjoyed viewing Steins images, and the way in which she works.  Though both Domesticated and Stranded are two very different series, they both revolve around a central structured element – and it is partly this structure that makes them so successful.  

Monday Post: Doris Salcedo

Salcedo is a sculptor who was born in 1958 in Colombia.  After obtaining her bachelors in Colombia, she traveled to New York where she obtained her MFA at NYU.  Her sculpture and installations are based on her experiences from living in Colombia, and usually are based around everyday items of furniture.  According to Wikepedia, “Doris Salcedo addresses the question of forgetting and memory in her installation artwork. In pieces such as Unland: The Orhan’s Tunic from 1997and the La Casa Viuda series from the early 1990’s, Salcedo takes ordinary household items, such as a chair and table, and transforms them into memorials for victims of the Civil War in Columbia.”  Andreas Huyssen, a writer and professor at Columbia University writes about Salcedo’s exhibition Unland: The Orphan’s Tunic, stating a seemingly mundane table, when looked at closely, “captures the viewer’s imagination in its unexpected, haunting visual and material presence.”

Gallery representing artist:

http://www.whitecube.com/artists/salcedo/

Interview with Artist:

http://www.tate.org.uk/tateshots/episode.jsp?item=12198