Tuesday, March 8th, 2016 | TechNeWS campus@technewsiit_com I a: I“: i : EEI 3

Dean's Lecture Series debates existence of art

Peter Rigali
TEC H N EWS W RITE R

Today’s lecture started out
differently, held in the MTCC auditorium, two
speakerstookthe stage? The ﬁrst, anArgentinian
architect Florencia Rodriguez, well known
for her work as an architectural critic and
owner/publisher of Plot a subscription based
magazine in South America The second Jean
Crousse, founder Barclay & Crousse in Paris,
France in 1994 but is currently located in
Lima, Peru? Which he founded 5 years after
obtaining a Master in Architecture at the
Politecnico di Milano in Rodriguez starts her
lecture with various images meant to highlight
a few concepts The ﬁrst is a discussion with
the prompt does art even exist in a postmodern
world? And second, what does it mean when
something can be not only experienced but
also shared at the same time to everyone? For
this she ﬂashes a picture of the moon landing
and precedes to joust at the fact that it’s
plausible it never happened?

Next, she brings to light the fact
that taboo in the original sense doesn’t exist
anymore? No topic is too foreign, no black
spots too hidden and what does that mean in
today’s present era

Finally she creates the metaphor that
ideas are like tupperware, interchangeable,

replaceable and stackable in ways never before
conceived? She uses the above frame to

then dive into the role of a critic, acknowledging
that this is the ﬁrst time in history where

the entire world has the potential to have a
voice? How we now have become obsessed
with complaining and is that a good thing? She
ﬁnishes that part making the statement that
we have that urge because we want things to
be better, the paradox being that progress and
growth is at an all time high and life is the best
it’s ever been?

Then she jumps into why she started
her critical magazine and the important points
she tries to convey through its publication
Believes editing is consistent with a narrative,
with hope the reader will establish the
connections like a game so to speak “Plot" is
broken into 3 parts: the entertainment, analysis
of practices, and theory Through this she has
begun to break the profession into 5 categories

Nonemodern: Speciﬁcally with
relationship to the past but anchored in reality

Naturalist: Trying to discover
something relating nature to the built
environment, basis in science and changing
norms in culture?

Artisans/CraftsmenUsing sustainable
counterculture means of production Do it
yourself, asking what is and what will be?

Neo tropicanist: The mixing of

international/ universal trophs with local
means and culture?

Disruptive: Breaking deﬁnitions,
heavy use of aesthetics to create pure presence?
The second half of the lecture was centered on
the work of Jean Pierre Crousser

He begins by discussing his initial
fascination with the many ruins found in Peru
and their relationship to the current built
environment? Exploring the idea of temporary
and permanent, how the earth nurtures our
ways of living and how we can intern nurture
the Earth Crousse breaks down his time
relating two of his projects and their time line
of 20?

The ﬁrst Casa Equis, an 1800 square
foot residential project on the west coast of
Peru just outside of Lima The beautiful form
a product of needing absolutely zero climate
control systems, because of where Peru is on
the globe and the Andes Mountains cause a
really unique humid desert environment that
deals with sharp changes in vertical elevations
Because of this situation the building acts as a
vessel to exploit the beautiful nature landscape?
This begins his discussion that architecture
is just an extension of the landscape and
should never lose touch with where the site is
grounded? He uses reinforced concrete, painted
in natural earthen tones, formed using pressed
board construction to highlight texture?

The second being a convention
center build as a memorial to the thousands
of lives lost throughout history to terrorist
regimes The title of the project is simply The
Place of Remembrance? Here he uses the linear
orientation of the site to project a sense of hope
by creating a museum as a progression ending
on the roof, slowly approaching the
horizon symbolizing hope for the future? Using
ramps as a system to theoretically slow
time, this paired with the rough pressed
concrete to symbolize the imperfection of our
existence? An important point is his
acknowledgement of how unskilled the
workers of the area are, using that as a medium
to convey uniformity in the quality or lack of
in the construction

Finishing, his forms are reminiscent
of the ruins he once played in, it’s clear his
goals are to create a built environment that
will mirror its existence in future generations
Space will endure as maps with efforts to
become a connection through time? He
ends stating his view and asks a question
Architecture is and should be a response to
the climate/ environment preserving that form
in time? Then, what does technology give/take
from what is possible?

Hawaiian musician Justin Young performs at Hawks Coffeehouse to great acclaim

Reno Waswil
TECHNEWS WRITER

Justin Young is a popular contempoe
rary Hawaiian songwriter, guitarist, ukulelist,
and keyboardist with four number one hits
on the Hawaiian music charts from his 1997
album “Soothe You" alone? He has won “Best
Performance By a Rhythm & Blues Artist" and
“New Artist of the Year" at the Hawaiian Music
Awards, and continues to tour with associated
act and ﬁance Colbie Caillat (for which their
engagement is the dominating result in a quick
internet search of Young) performing his dis,
cography of mus icr

He graced Illinois Tech students
with a performance at the latest installment
of the bieweekly Tuesday evening recurring
Hawks Coffeehouse event hosted by Union
Board, which took place on Tuesday, March 1
from 7 to 8 pm? in the MTCC Welcome Cene
terr This event allows attendees to sit and relax
with a coﬁ’eehouseestyle musical performance
in a cozy atmosphere, with hot drinks and
sweet snacks provided to catalyze the content,
ing experience? By the time the event actually
started, the food catered for that event (Pine,
apple Upsideedown Cake bites) was nearly all
taken, and the 2 gallons of hot chocolate were
entirely gone? Additionally, as usual, although
there was more than enough coffee remaining
throughout the night, Sodexo’s provided paper

 

cups for to drink it were gone within 10 min
utes of the beginning of the performance to the
chagrin of those who arrived later

Young’s height, as well as the large,
starkwhite guitar case with which he arrived,
made an instant impression on those that saw
him from afar? After a quick sound check with
Alien Sound and Lighting at 6 pm, Justin ace
cepted Reno FeraeDucatt and Anna Garcia’s ref

Adverﬁse in

Image Courtesy Hqustin Ymmg

quest to come on their WllT 889 FM Chicago
radio show “Unknown Talent" (broadcasting
live on WIIT from 5 to 7 pm? every Tuesday)
for a brief discussion? He entered the show
during a conversation with that day’s guest
Electronic musician and multieinstrumentale
ist Colin McAllister, who was in the midst of
explaining his recent attempts at learning the
Ukulele? Young joked that everyone born in

Hawaii was born with a Ukulele in their hand
and spoke on the notoriety of the instrument
in the culture?

His music, folk/acoustic oriented,
was reminiscent of elements characteristic of
traditional Hawaiian music with Reggae inﬂu
ences As well, lyrically, the music also took
inspiration from the nature, climate, and of
Young’s personal experiences with and cone
ceptions of the islands Among the students
in attendance, he was lauded for both his great
and soulful music as well as his attractiveness,
and it was encouraged that he come back to the
school to perform again next year?

As a side curiosity, in the middle of

the performance, when the food had long been
exhausted, two women with Red Bull branded
backpacks walked into the area and began uni
loading cans of the energy drink from their
packs onto the table on which the catering for
the event was placed in some sort of public,
ity stunt by the company A few minutes after
they left, a Red Bull mobile could be seen drive
ing down State Street from the windows of the
Welcome Center?
The next Hawks Coffeehouse will take place,
after Spring Break, on Tuesday, March 29
from 7 to 8 pm? with guest musical artist Sam
Nelms, leader of the funk band Dizzy Punch,
doing a solo acoustic performance?

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