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

Thursday Posting: Fortress-Style Houses

Impenetrable

“Architects and builders say the house of the next decade will reflect end-of-the-century anxieties about privacy and security.”

-June Fletcher, “Home Front,” Wall Street Journal

Lewis, Roger. “The Neo-Fortress Home: Can the Concept Be Defended?”  The Washington

            Post.  5 September 1998, Saturday, Final ed.. 

In Lewis’s article he discusses a recent article in the Wall Street Journal by June Fletcher, who is reporting on current architectural trends, and what’s in and out when it comes to homes.  Fletcher’s article delves into the new wave of architecture that is to come (was to come, since the article was written over 10 years ago), citing an increase in anxiety about security as the propeller for the Neo-Fortress Movement.  Lewis scoffs at the idea that Fletcher would claim specific architectural elements such as “Greek columns” as being outdated, stating that fortress-style houses are only something millionaires could afford.  To clarify, a Neo-Fortress style house is defined by having “towers and turrets; walled yards; locked gates; and tall, narrow windows.”  Lewis has many issues with the Neo-Fortress house, but one of his main problems with the idea is that it is not always practical, nor affordable.  He states: “these design elements and strategies for shaping a house should be employed when they fit the circumstances and context pertaining to the house, its location and site, its occupants and its occupants' budget.”  However, Lewis has an even greater concern than that: he believes that the Neo-Fortress houses show how Americans are increasingly more concerned with segregation and isolation, and that his preoccupation extends to the creation of more gated communities, as well as gated homes.

This article helped solidify my belief that current architecture’s main priority is now security.  While style will always have some importance in the design of buildings, architects are now focusing mainly on terror-proofing, resulting in more fortress-style buildings, both in the corporate and residential worlds.  While this article doesn’t particularly fit into my idea of an abandoned utopia, I think I can get something out of the message that it delivers.  As society progresses, our interest in protection and security increases exponentially, resulting in buildings and homes that seemingly are more cut off from society and the real world, and more interested in living in their own individual bubble. 

 

Monday Post: Paolo Soleri

Soleri was born in 1919 in Turin, Italy.  In 1946 he obtained a degree in architecture from the Politecnico di Torino.  He then went to the United States where he spent a year and a half doing a fellowship with Frank Lloyd Wright in Taliesin West, Arizona and Taliesin Spring Green, Wisconsin.  Shortly after Soleri received international recognition for a bridge design that was on display at the MoMA.  After returning to Italy in the 1950’s to design a ceramics factory, he became familiar with several ceramic processes, which “led to his award-winning designs of ceramic and bronze windbells and siltcast architectural structures” (Wikipedia).  By 1956 Soleri had returned to the United States, settling in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife.  There the two “made a life-long commitment to research and experimentation in urban planning, and established the Cosanti Foundation” (Wikipedia).  The foundation’s most famous project is Arcosanti, a planned community that Soleri designed for 5,000 people, and which has been under construction since the 1970s.  Arcosanti is located about 70 miles outside of Phoenix, and according to Wikipedia it is based on Soleri’s concept of ‘Arcology’ : architecture that is coherent with ecology.  Wikipedia states: “An arcology is a hyperdense city designed to maximize human interaction; maximize access to shared, cost-effective infrastructural services like water and sewage; minimize the use of energy, raw materials and land; reduce waste and environmental pollution; and allow interaction with the surrounding natural environment. Arcosanti is the prototype of the desert arcology.”  Arcosanti is still an ongoing project, and as of 2005 it remains on 3% complete. 

Artist website:

http://www.arcosanti.org/

Artist interview:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/egg/308/soleri/interview_content_1.html