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| Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016

Architecture students win Detroit competition

Neil Griffin
TECHNEWS WRITER

With Detroit in the process of
redefining itself and incentivizing people to
move back into the urban core of the city,
Bedrock Development reached out to a few
schools in the Midwest area to come up
with innovative strategies for development.
The relationships between the community,
municipalities, companies, and startups are
dynamic and evolving to creating a greater
Detroit. The winning project, ‘The Hive” is
“a new mixed—use typology built to meet the
needs of today and for generations to come.”
Collaborators Zhehang Li, Tyler Baldwin, and
Neil Griffin took home first place for Illinois
Tech in the competition with other IIT teams
placing second and receiving honorable
mentions. They realized, after visiting Detroit,
that the city was made of “disconnected,
vast open spaces that separated the unique
things happening” I recalled. Their project
was founded on the Miesian philosophy of
flexibility over time, and that by “providing a

framework that is a combination of concrete
and wood, our strategy can be modified and
added onto over time in a sustainable, practical

 

Image courtesy of Neil Grifign
way” Tyler Baldwin explained. Two of the
winning projects had a DIY theme, with all
of the projects incorporating smaller living

WIIT brings nerdcore to

Reno Waswil
TECHNEWS WRITER

To the untrained ear, the genre
popularly referred to as nerdcore may sound
indistinguishable from typical hip—hop
music. There is oftentimes not very much
tonally different between the two. Sometimes
nerdcore is tracked with characteristically
8—bit and chiptune music, or using samples or
sounds reminiscent of nerd culture, but more
frequently the sources for the musicality of
hip—hop are the same as the vast majority of
non—nerdcore hip—hop artists. The definitional
distinction can be found in the lyrics and often
the lifestyles of the performers, which is that of
a nerdy quality.

Though there are no hard and fast
rules about what themes are focused on in
the genre as the characteristics defining nerd
culture are often up for debate, nerdcore
rappers” lyrics tend to focus heavily on topics
of video games, technology, science, science
fiction, fantasy, and being awkward or uncool.
Many rappers throughout the history of hip—
hop have incorporated these ideas, MF Doom
being a notable example, but only nerdcore

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rappers such as MC Frontalot, YTCracker, and
the ones that will be discussed further in this
article define themselves by it.

Due to the uniqueness of the genre,
as well as the cult followingthat it held at Illinois
Tech and the interest it would incur at what
is considered an exceptionally nerdy school,
Illinois Tech’s student run radio station, WIIT
88.9 FM decided to bring a couple of nerdcore
artists to The Bog the night of January 23, in an
event called Nerdcore @ The Bog.

The acts brought in were South Bend,
Indiana—based duo Soup or Villianz, consisting
of Remi—son and Viet Vu, and Dallas, Texas—
based 1—UP Creative Mind Frame who, despite
being a solo performer, brought with him a
dedicated posse that played, a great deal into
his show.

The event that evening was preceded
by the first installment of Union Board’s
weekly dance performance and class “All The
Riite Moves,” that week featuring an epic and
belly dancing performance given by three
dancers. In the course of the show, the dancers
invited some of the audience members up to
the stage, one of them being none other than
Remison, who—being a showman himself—

was a natural.

Another novelty of the night was the
group of people who arrived about a half an
hour or so before the actual beginning of the
show, 20 to 30 minutes after 9 p.m., with their
own set of sound and recording equipment
for, what we later found out, was for a sort of
reality show or documentary about Soup or
Villainz. The duo also left the venue several
times throughout the night when they were
not on stage, seemingly to shoot more and
with the crew, including what seemed to be a
false exit.

Nerdcore @ The Bog saw a large
crowd turnout and some great performances,
and was deemed by WIIT and those in
attendance as success and a fun night all—
around. After some trouble finding the first act
when it was time for them to go up, Soup or
Villianz went up first with a wild and fantastic
show. Some memorable songs of their set
included “Why You Akin’ So Cray Cray” and
“Keyz,” the later of which, may it be noted,
became an instant favorite due to its repeated
use of the phrase, “Where my keys at?” and
the line “I promise when I get home I’ll give
you orgasm.” Although there was a blatant and

spaces with a live—work component. The Brush
Park Competition Jury said the proposals
were “brave and brilliant” and “risky—helps
change the conversation”, while including that
“participants thought big and bold when it
came to the new opportunities for residential
and mixed use architecture in Detroit.”

Even though the final proposals
won’t be built, the ideas presented will inform
the other five local architecture firms that
are working on the larger site of possible
directions to pursue. With $70 million being
invested into this neighborhood, there will be
some interesting projects in the near future
to exemplify Detroit being named the City of
Design. Back on campus, eight of the students
from this Detroit Studio will be working with
administration, community organizations,
and the Illinois Tech community to redesign
the campus master plan. Be on the lookout
for surveys and events to get student feedback
towards what the future of Illinois Tech could
be. If you would like to see all the competition
submissions in full, please visit http://www.
brushparkdetroit.com/student—competition/.

he Bog

unattractive semicircle at the front of the stage
towards the beginning of the show, the less
timid of the bunch succeeded in bringing the
crowd closer as the night grew longer.

The crowd, having dispersed after

the first act had finished, was lighter for 1—UP’s
show, but those who stuck in found an equality
great, and evidently much nerdier show than
the prior. Sadly, 1—UP’s relationship with the
projector put him at a disadvantage because
the videos and pictures were so tied into his
set. Still, 1—UP was able to get the crowd on
their feet and dancing with songs like “Corny
Pickup Lines” and “8—Bit Hero.”
Let Nerdcore @ The Bog be the first of
demonstration of 2016 of WIIT’s continual
goal to host events in and out of The Bog
to establish IIT as a hub of great, novel, and
interesting music and art based shows, as well
as of the station’s commitment to representing
all genres and forms of expression. For those
interested in hearing more nerdcore, WIIT’s
weekly show “Nerdy Nonsense: Remixed,”
broadcast every Friday from 11:30 am. to
12:30 p.m., gives you a weekly dose of both
nerdcore and chiptune music, listen to it on
radio.iit.edu.

 

Photos by Soren Spicknall