#march week 3

[kagelama-tobiyolo]

Okay I'll seriously stop posting my ugly bullet journal and start posting more writing T ~ T.

🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️ I'm sorry.

[kyeleereads]

Chemical Architecture - Greg Lynn

First published in Log Fall 2011 ‘Observations on architecture and the contemporary city’. 

Background of Author: 

Greg Lynn (born 1964) teaches in Angewandte (University of applied arts, Vienna), a studio professor at UCLA School of Arts and Architecture, Davenport Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture. 

He is distinguished for using CAD to produce biomorphic, irregular architectural forms through the use of mathematical equations. He pioneered the realm of blobitecture and has written extensively on the subject. 

Chemical Architecture 

This text starts by indicating a need for a shift of architectural thinking by:

“A rejection of the logic of tectonics that celebrates details between structure and building envelope” 

“new spatial sensibilities related to surfaces and sandwiches constructed of plastics”

rather than occupying oneself with joints and connections - a mechanical way of thinking, it should holistic. Architecture can be and will be created by one composite material through a certain creating process. 

He introduces new terms:

Plasticity

“The term plasticity was used by Heinrich Woelfflin to describe the spatial and sculptural flow of baroque space”

“ later, by Sigfried Giedion to describe the modernist free-plan space around sculptural form”

His ultimate conclusion of what interests him in plasticity:“Of particular interest are the characteristics of formal, material and spatial continuity” and “lack of redundancy between form and its regulating lines and structure.”

Lynn describes his ideas about plasticity and “composite surfaces” and how can this shift be achieved. 

“shift to a finite element analysis (FEA) description of surfaces rather than a parametric modelling of components. ... the problem of structure is addressed by a fused, layered surface with a gradient pattern corresponding to plastic stresses” 

how does this work? See the examples below - 

Seattle Public Library - OMA  “additional layers of structure are bonded as a laminate-grid skin” 

CCTV - OMA “additional members are added to reduce spans in high-stress regions” 

Composite Materials & Other Industries

“A Plastic sensibility rejects discrete, freestanding, detachable elements altogether” 

“reject tectonic sensibilities in favor of composite shells and surfaces.” 

Car Chassis

Aircraft Frame “Now commercial aircraft bodies are three-dimensionally woven fibers and tapes on mandrels ...” 

Pre-preg 

is a term for "pre-impregnated" composite fibers where a matrix material, such as epoxy, is already present. The fibers often take the form of a weave and the matrix is used to bond them together and to other components during manufacture.

Lynn continues to name various composite materials .

Architecture as a guide

“architecture is expected to make connections and relationships between a sensibility of assembly and composition and broader cultural practices and significance ... aesthetics”

Lynn indicates that architecture as as a guide, a role model in the built environment to hold cultural and engineering factors. When compared to other fields of design: Technology comes first (i.e. transportation). so how to find balance?

“An architectural focus on composites is not a chase toward new materials but toward a new aesthetic sensibility that has material,formal typological, and spatial implications.” 

seems like a super daunting task for dem architects

[teaforlupin]

Revamped my kitchen altar—I'm not celebrating the equinox per se this year, but the weather is turning more autumnal and Pip and I collected pine cones and acorns the other morning, so the time was ripe ^__^

[a-bookish-wildling]

GC: March Week 3 - Thursday

Spell Activity: Create a potion. What is the purpose of this potion? How will it be used? Write out your process for making the potion. Make it.  Use your spell procedure sheet to document the results.

Creativity Potion - drink to inspire creative expression

Needed:

Orange citrine Ace of Wands tarot card 1 to 3 cups of water* Strawberry flowers** Mint leaves** Chamomile** Violets (not African Violets) Glass bowl

If desired, an orange candle and honeysuckle incense

*you can use full moon water if you are sure it is potable. **you can use fresh flowers or tea. I'll probably use tea.

On a Wednesday night (or not), light the candle and incense. Boil the water and pour into a glass bowl, which you have placed on top of the Tarot card, of equal parts strawberry, chamomile, and mint (1 tea bag or 1 tablespoon, or so, each). Add 5 violets.  As the tea steeps add a small piece of orange citrine. Say,

“Orange crystal, brew sublime, awaken now my stagnant mind.“

Once cooled, strain and pour into a container. Keep in the fridge to store. Drink right before your creative working or when you need to be inspired. Keep the citrine in your pocket.

[grimoirechallenge]

Hello! Welcome to the week that almost wasn’t, because nothing throws this witch off quite like a time change! Hope you guys aren’t as discombobulated as I am. We’ve got a full week ahead of us, so I hope you’re ready! We’re rounding out this month with some holiday preparation and some serious research into different herb and what they do.

If you’re just joining us, feel free to go ahead and jump in! Don’t worry about trying to catch up from the beginning - there will be time to play catch up later. If you’re new, take a moment to check out the FAQ! If you don’t see the answer to your question there or in the tag (which is linked on the FAQ page, please feel free to shoot me an ask. If you’re looking for previous challenges, please click here for past months and click “current month” for March’s earlier challenges.  

If you see a resource post that you’d like me to reblog, you can @ mention @grimoirechallenge, and I’ll be sure to reblog it! 

Monday

Journal Activity: Choose another goal from your herbal goal list. Research this goal. Create an action plan for how you will achieve this goal and start working toward that goal.

Holiday Activity: Depending on your location, either Ostara or Mabon is right around the corner. What will you be doing for this holiday? Do you have a plan? Are you going to change up your altar or plan a celebration? 

Tuesday

Divination Activity: Complete another tasseomancy reading. If you are able to, complete one for another person as well, but if you aren’t, don’t worry about it. Reflect on your experiences with tasseomancy. If you like, continue to practice throughout this week. 

Sigil Activity: Make sigils for five areas of your practice. If you are planning on making a ‘codebook’ of sorts for your sigils, make one that represents you.

Wednesday

Correspondence Activity: How do the different lunar cycles play into your magic? If the moon isn’t your area, what is something in your practice that has cyclical phases that you use? What are their meanings and how can you use them most effectively?

Scrying Activity: List out the different methods you can use for scrying and mark the ones you are interested in trying. If you need to gather any materials, do so now. 

Thursday

Spell Activity: Create a potion. What is the purpose of this potion? How will it be used? Write out your process for making the potion. Make it.  Use your spell procedure sheet to document the results.

Herbal Activity: Choose an herb to study. It may be an herb that you already have a list of correspondences for or it may be a brand new herb. Get to know the herb; research it. What are the positive aspects of this herb? What are the negative aspects of this herb? What can you do with this herb? What can you make with this herb? Learn everything you can about this herb. If you like, you may research more than one herb. 

Friday

Herbal Activity: Choose an herb to study. It may be an herb that you already have a list of correspondences for or it may be a brand new herb. Get to know the herb; research it. What are the positive aspects of this herb? What are the negative aspects of this herb? What can you do with this herb? What can you make with this herb? Learn everything you can about this herb. If you like, you may research more than one herb. 

Full Moon Activity: There’s a full moon coming soon. What will you be doing for this moon?

[kyeleereads]

Overcoming the Problematics of Art - The writings of Yves Klein

For this set of readings (as we move onto week 3, slowly but surely) I would like to push the pace a bit! Will be completing these by next week. 

lets do this

Background of Author:

Yves Klein (1928-1960 died prematurely) was a french nouveau realisme artist who pioneered performance art, minimal art and pop art. Among his friends, he chose the route of manipulating ethereal space:

“With this famous symbolic gesture of singing the sky, Klein had foreseen, as in a reverie, the thrust of his art from the time onwards - a quest to reach the far side of the infinite” 

His works includes the investigation of color - “The Blue Epoch”. He invented this famous blue color. 

Before this choosing this blue, he created simple palates of color and assembled an exhibition - however he was disappointed with the result:

‘[Klein] realized that ...viewers thought his various, uniformly colored canvases amounted to a new kind of bright abstract interior decoration...shocked by this misunderstanding...from that time onwards he would concentrate on a single, primary color alone: blue” 

Another one of his works included a music piece (Monotone Silence Symphony) featuring one note for 20 minutes. He also did a Aeroworks, a series of photomontage where Klein leaped into the sky. It was a criticism on NASA’s exploration into space - defiling the idea of ‘god’. 

Project for an architecture of air

This extract is called “XIX. Project for an Architecture of Air” written in partnership with a german architect Werner Ruhnau. It is split into two sections: The first one is a manifesto for architecture to be hypothetically built in the air with two aims:

Finding means of climatization

Protection of a city by means of a floating roof of air. - Immaterial Architecture

Everything is transparent as it is made of glass. 

So how does it all work?

Klein aims to solve the mechanical problems by creating a “mechanical support zone” and separate “service zones” 

Social constructs of privacy?

“a new atmosphere of human intimacy prevails”, Klein wishes everything to be connected, body x nature. We have no ties to work or family any longer. “leisure” is the aim of living. 

Key Quotes:

“human sensibility has merged with the cosmos” - one with ‘nature’, the world around us. 

“a new human dimension, guided by the soul” 

He ends with a quote:

“He who does not believe in miracles is not a realist.” by David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973) He was a minister of Israel. This referred to Israel when he was rebuilding the country. 

Lecture at the Sorbonne

The second part is description of the manifesto. It was lecture at Sorbenne, France. 

Klein indicates the major problem of current architectural methods: “he (man) will live in a state of absolute concord with a nature that is invisible and imperceptible by the sense...abstraction effected through psychological nature”

There are two major aims of architecture of air: 

“To protect against the elements”

“And the function of thermal conditioning”

The ultimate result is the “immaterialization of the cities of the future”. Through the use of “the three classic elements of fire. air and water, tomorrow’s city will be built and will at last be flexible, spiritual and immaterial”. 

He cites Frei Otto’s work in suspended roofs  

The 2015 Pritzker prize winner. He was an advocate for research in form and engineering techniques:

"The ability to build assumes the knowledge of all architecture and construction forms, as well as their development. To build means to advance this process, to investigate, and to make. The development of buildings began over ten thousand years ago and has reached an extremely high level, but is in no way a closed process. There are still an infinite number of open possibilities, infinite discoveries to make."

Klein wanted his efforts in recreating architecture involved with his manifesto.

Concluding thoughts

Klein indicates a new way of living - going back to nature and the senses. How we do this? Is really up to us. He does not provide such guidelines, such details but instead strive for an overall, macro scale change. He indicates several areas of the human conciousness:

1.Social aspect

Architecture should act as a facilitator of social relationships - We should rethink our constructs within society from the realms of privacy, to the social norm, to the working class.

2. Materiality

Solving everything through creating mechanical support zones appears to be Kleins argument.He also indicated a service quarter / region. Engineering is to solve the human processes of eating, sanitary purposes and functions of the human body

On the thermal conditioning, Klein indicated the use of passive architecture - where materials are dynamic and flexible. We strive to accommodate nature, rather than the fight we have right now. 

Overall

His manifesto is clear and succinct. I enjoy the grandeur he brings. 

[a-bookish-wildling]

GC: March Week 3 - Wednesday

Correspondence Activity

How do the different lunar cycles play into your magic? If the moon isn’t your area, what is something in your practice that has cyclical phases that you use? What are their meanings and how can you use them most effectively?

I tend to do certain types of spells depending on the phase of the moon. I think I follow the typically known correspondences for this.  I also do full and new moon rites, where I will do outer workings and hedge riding on the full moon (I love to dance with the Devil in the pale moonlight) and inner focus and particular rites for Hekate on the new.

I also incorporate the cycle of Venus into my work. Inanna's journey focuses on that of Venus as the morning- and evening star, and so I try to incorporate those phases into my practice.  Although, more and more, I have been changing my honoring of her to be more on a seasonal cycle.

Scrying Activity

List out the different methods you can use for scrying and mark the ones you are interested in trying. If you need to gather any materials, do so now.

Crystal Water* Mirror* Flame or fire* Smoke

[teaforlupin]

March week 3 - Cycles, lunar and otherwise

I currently don’t pay a huge amount of attention to the lunar cycles in relation to my witchcraft practice. I used to try to be aware of the phases of the moon, the astrological sign it’s in, void of course and so on, but I found that it just put an extra barrier between me and my practice; rather than being helpful, it made me feel that unless I could get everything EXACTLY right there wasn’t much point in bothering, so guess what I did—not bother. These days I am generally loosely aware of the current phase of the moon—waxing, waning, full, etc—and if a supposedly ‘propitious’ phase happens to coincide with the magic I want to do at a given moment, that’s great and possibly provides a bit of extra oomph, but I don’t let it dictate my practice, and I don’t mark the full moon in any particular way. I don’t think that there is anything else particularly cyclical that plays into my practice other than the overarching seasons and the associated fire festivals—Samhain, Imbolc, Beltaine, Lughnasa. My witchcraft practice in general tends to be mostly ‘one-off’ spells and so on that I perform as needed, and so they don’t particularly fit into a cyclical structure. My personal, broad correspondences for each season: • Winter—darkness, inward-turning, quietness, the dead, waiting, thinking • Spring—promise, light, greenness, growth, looking out • Summer—heat, the fae, burning, patience, waiting, broadening, looking down • Autumn—looking back, harvest, preservation, greyness, gathering

[a-bookish-wildling]

GC: March Week 3 - Tuesday

Sigil Activity

Make sigils for five areas of your practice. If you are planning on making a ‘codebook’ of sorts for your sigils, make one that represents you.

I designed sigils for these five areas of practice: Ritual endeavors (magickal power), Ancestor veneration (personal), Spell casting (manifest desire), Divination (true vision), and Hedge riding (safe journey).

[a-bookish-wildling]

GC: March Week 3 - Monday

Journal - Herbalism Goals

One of my goals is to become more familiar with my the trees and shrubs in my neighborhood.

I want to walk around the neighborhood and, using a field guide or my own knowledge, ID the publicly accessible trees and shrubs, note where they are located, and take a photo (probably with my phone). I can start by documenting my immediate housing unit (I live in a townhouse "community"), and spread out from there. About 1.5 miles away is a canal with a tow path. It extends much further than I would want or be able to document, but I'll investigate a mile or so. I already know what is reported to grow there - I just need to be able to ID it for myself.

I think I can cover a good amount just walking around on weekends, once things begin to grow.

Plan 1. March - find (and buy) a good pocket field guide for my area 2. April - scout immediate neighborhood 3. May - investigate the canal - (continue through early fall to see change of growth)

Holiday Activity

I'll do a small ritual honoring Vernal Equinox - focusing on balance and renewal. I'll make offerings, and bless seeds and ritually plant them - I'll plant in the garden later.