zine_  typically a self-published not-for-profit magazine.  Heterogeneity characterizes the zine world, which spawns diversity in format, size, scope, purpose, and periodicity (often erratic).  In my opinion, one of the best attributes of many zines is honesty.  Zines form out of passion, not profit, and so a reader often finds viewpoints and ideas not commonly found in commercial magazines.  A zine can provide refreshing purity of content in comparison with the watered-down mainstream media

"reality consists of colourless, shapeless, and formless essences”,

                                                                             

                                                             plato

in·ci·den·tal  

–adjective

1.

happening or likely to happen in an unplanned or subordinate conjunction with something else.

2.

incurred casually and in addition to the regular or main amount

3.

likely to happen or naturally appertaining (usually fol. by to).

acknowledging the incidental

"beauty demands, perhaps, the slavish imitation of what is indeterminable in things." 

adorno, g.; tiedemann, r.; hullot-kentor, r. in aesthetic theory

this work is an inquiry into the incidental: that over which we have little control, the overlooked aspects of our everyday environment.  as a architect, designer, maker-of-things, one can create a construct- physically or metaphysically, but before one even begins, the forces of the incidental, have begun to act upon it.  we may strive for eternal control, but often the most beautiful moments are those which occur unexpectedly.

aspects of the incidental

time:  the inescapable truth.  whatever we do, create, think exists within, and inevitably changes, with time.  

intuition: the duality between intuition and logic is unavoidable, but often discounted perhaps because of the unmeasurable nature of this relationship. 

accident: the unintentional and unplanned contribute further layers in the emergence of beauty.

an awareness of the incidental enriches experience and contributes to a deeper understanding of our environment and our actions upon it. overlooking these aspects leads to unstable things and ideas and paranoid control. 

a japanese sentiment:

“the most precious thing in life is uncertainty”  

Kenko (c. 1283-1350), “Essays in Idleness"

"We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it mere appearance in order to the more easily dispose of it. We can no longer be sure that whoever sneers at [beauty] as if she were an ornament of a bourgeois past can no longer pray and will soon no longer be able to love." hans urs von balthasar

Beauty is a quality familiar to us all; a value which is notoriously difficult to define; a sensation evoked in us, which catches the breath, lifts the spirit, freezing reality momentarily. Beauty possesses the incongruous capacity to captivate the imagination, but not "engender a desire to possess or consume” [Eco, 2004]; an immersive and addictive desire, but one which cannot be satisfied. In a similar way to ideas of ‘love’ or ‘truth’, the familiar yet elusive nature of beauty is precisely what has made it so intriguing. 

there has always existed within the human mind an enduring desire to simply contemplate the beautiful: that which exists for no other purpose than beauty; one might call this, 'the aspect beyond function'. 

this exhibition is the first in a series of works investigating notions of beauty and creative practice. 'beauty and the ideal' describes an imagined space. a space with no external form. a space with no function, but which makes reference to the common perception of simple beauties found in nature. the project builds on previous investigations into reduction as a method of achieving a universal beauty. the notion of true beauty involves a consideration, care, and time. with this in mind, every aspect of the project is given equal aesthetic attention. the intention is that although arising from a spatial design, each fragment [plan, section, detail] is a beautiful thing in itself, while existing as a piece of an unified whole.

love, beauty and how to boil an egg...

internally and externally generated beauty


arthur coleman danto

absence makes the heart grow fonder
but swans can die in separation...

review jan 2010

is there enough complexity?

surely thats the whole point of what i've been doing? reductionist approach, reaching some kind of minimal aesthetic in relation to beauty. but i do see that the frustration i have with my work might be related to the complexity of context.

it was conceded that two projects should be continued in parallel: the ideal and the incidental. the ideal looks at spatial beauty as an ideal, and at the process of design and representation as an aesthetic pursuit. each element in the process should exist alone as well as as part of the greater whole, and should have a similar degree of aesthetic consideration. the idea of the perfect fragment.

the incidental considers  an awakening to everyday beauties. working with an existing derelict building, the project will engage with the existing fabric on an intuitive and purely aesthetic level,  considering interventions as minimal gestures.

the 3rd element is the curation of the work for the final exhibition. the engagement of viewer and work requiring a degree of attention and sensitivity?

"beauty is the purgation of superfluities"


michelangelo buonarotti

"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: infinite.
For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks in his cavern."




william blake

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malevich black square 1923

 malevich white on white 1918

ad reinhart black painting 1960-66

beauty: the approximation of perfection

true beauty: the pure aesthetic experience


"when i married the painting to the environment, suddenly it had to deal with the environment around it as being equal to the figure and having as much meaning"        

robert irwin

"Art is a jealous mistress; and if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider."
 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, U.S. Poet, essayist and transcendentalist (1803-1882)
 
 

if uncertainty is the most precious thing in life, then i am going through a very precious faze. its odd how doubt creeps in, and shakes the ground on which i seemed so sure.

reduction in form is not reduction in content.

the recent review illustrated quite clearly my lack of stability on where i am and what i'm doing. this must be reconfirmed.

comment was made that although individually the objects i am making might be beautiful, the curation of the work did not reinforce this. i think this can also be said for much of my past work. the making of architecture is the curation of public space, often placing objects within an existing fabric. i would argue that responding appropriately to context is one of the most difficult tasks of the architect. the real impact will always be speculative until completion, when the work then will exist, but still within an environment in constant flux. i suppose this is the challange of translation: from conception to realisation. one of the issues in the work i have been creating is that it is without context. transporting this work from the safety of the protective studio environment, to a 'real' place, will bring new challenges.

i intend to use the site of the vulcan works, perth, to site pieces directly related to the place, and to the notion of beauty and the process of making. in the back of my mind i have considered how a process of physically engaging with a site on a purely aesthetic level, ie negating programme and brief, could become the first step in the design process, where the creation of beauty is a central concern.

beauty in imperfection:

my work has a very personal aspect, which i have always thought of as its strength, however it may have become a weakness. "are you afraid of this?" why am i scared? i think there is a tentative feel about some of the things i create which is most deffinately limiting. the fear of the average, and the fear of losing control.

if beauty is in the imperfections, or perhaps the approximation of perfection, then i am the main source of imperfection in the work. how can i utilise this further? how can i inhabit the work further? i dont think that this is about a conscious attempt to create imperfections, but it does relate to the passion i have for the hand made, 'the touch of man'.

why the cube?

it seems to me very natural to arrive here. the cube is a universal form. in some way i think it is symbolic of the ideal- a stiving for perfection and beauty which seem just out of reach, or of some other realm [plato]. further to this the cube is a form which may have very little abstraction. removing the aspect of representation, ie an abstraction of something else, the cube exists in its own right [although i am aware that now this form does reference some 20th century work of minimalism and abstract expressionism.] one person commented that the cube is cold- perhaps i have become institutionalised in my realm of the cube, but i disagree. however on reflection, i wonder whether it is exactly the imperfect nature of the pieces i have made which i find captivating. would i feel the same way about a machined form?

where is the content?

the search is what everyone would undertake if he were not stuck in the everydayness of his own life.

to be aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something.

not to be onto something is to be in despair.

 walker percy

"this consequence brings us, in a future perhaps remote, towards the end of art as a thing

separated from our surrounding environment,

which is this plastic reality.

but this end is at the same time a new beginning.

art will not only continue but will realise itself more and more.

by the unification of architecture, sculpture, painting,

a new plasic reality will be created. painting and sculpture

will not manifest themselves as separate objects,

nor as "mural art" which destroys architecture itself,

nor as "applied" art, but being purely constructive

will aid the creation of a surrounding not merely utilitarian or rational

but also pure and complete in its beauty."

piet mondrian

"quantities are no more real than qualities
 intellect is no more true than feelings
 truth is no greater an aspiration than beauty"


 robert irwin

on donald judd

"material beauty and impeccable perfection in construction and execution amount to much more than indulgence in pleasure. his notorious diatribes against museaums that allow work to get damaged or destroyed through improper handling, point to what i believe to be a moral conviction: beauty and perfection are ultimately matters of dignity, not only of the artwork but of nature and culture in general. beauty is a very special and noble state. beauty is the condition that makes the artwork rare and special, distiguishing it from ordinary objects and utensils[...] like the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, people have a right to things beautiful, pleasant and as well-made as possible. art demonstrates that beauty."

rudi fuchs

essence . reduction . en . theme . variation

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