House imprints

photo by Marcus Buck

Pruned blog writes:

(From our repository of decorative whatnots and filler knickknackeries, this photogenic ghostly imprint of aborted architecture. Some refer to them as medianeras, others as the unconscious art of demolition. Our own fancy phraseology is urban graffiti of absence. The photograph above by Marcus Buck comes from his photo series called Restarchitektur, viewable via “Freie Arbeiten” on his flash website. With thanks to the artist for the photo.)

[via kottke]

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These inadvertent documentations of houses remind me of Rachel Whiteread's work. Whiteread is best known for her negative-space casts of rooms and houses:

Mel Chin's Safehouse

Natalie Sciortino on ArtForum wrote:

New Orleans is one of the most lead-polluted cities in the US. Nearly eighty-six thousand regional properties don't meet EPA lead standards. Addressing this environmental hazard is Mel Chin's Safehouse, 2008, a residence painted completely white, on a once-abandoned lot in the neighborhood of St. Roch. An enormous, circular portion of this tabula rasa-cum-house facade has been cut out and mounted on a massive hinge, to form a mammoth bank-vault-like door that opens onto a mostly barren front yard sprinkled with jagged green shrubbery. In an elaborate performance piece enacted during the opening weekend of the Prospect.1 biennial, five participants dressed as security guards pulled up to the front of the house and ordered the audience to stand back as they ceremoniously opened the vault to reveal Chin and his team sitting amid thousands of fake hundred-dollar bills created by locals.

As part of Operation Paydirt, 2008, viewers are invited to contribute to the growing stash of "fundreds" in the Safehouse, until it attains a symbolic three hundred million dollars--the estimated cost of treating New Orleans's soil for lead contamination. For the next stage of the project, an armored truck will collect these bills on a cross-country tour, arriving at the steps of Congress with a request for an even exchange with valid US currency. This type of work is a natural progression from Chin's environmentally remedial projects such as S.P.A.W.N., 2001-2003, in Detroit, and Revival Field, 1990-1993, in Minnesota. By gathering work from individuals nationwide, Chin metaphorically reverses the post-Katrina diaspora, while fighting to provide suitable land--eventually encouraging residents to return home. Safehouse becomes a sculptural signifier for far-reaching and monumental political engagement that has the potential to truly transform a polluted land, while immediately calling attention to what is most valuable in our society. Among some of the most dynamic work found within the biennial, Chin's venture creates an effective synergy between aesthetics and activism.

[via Art21 Blog and NEWSgrist]

Rotating skyscraper

The Dynamic Tower, designed by Italian architect David Fisher, is being built in Dubai with another one planned for Moscow. The floors, powered by the wind, rotate independently from one another to drive electricity-generating turbines. A rotation takes about an hour. I wonder if an apartment-owner can lock the apartment's position when desired.

Another unique feature is that the floors are pre-fab units--apparently a first for skyscrapers.