I should be asleep right now, but instead I’m in this weird state of trying to write an essay and instead checking out new music. I’m supposed to be writing essays for my application to study in Finland over the summer, but they’re on such inane topics that they’re hard to focus on.
Good news of a sort – I got my Environmental Controls Systems classes waived. That means that I have one less class of work to do this term, which should help loosen up my schedule a bit, and that next term I can take a different technical skills class. All that work at Oberlin payed off. I’m a bit worried that I’ll be missing out on an essential part of the Oregon experience, but as Alison (the professor) pointed out, I can always GTF for the class.
So, I’m planning as of now to use the time to read the textbook and just refresh my memory a bit, as well as doing more studio work and explorations in the library. I took my first action in that vein today – I made six tiny models that were mostly just about making six tiny models. They explored some of the concepts I wanted to get at, but they are pretty much just objects that I’ll enjoy looking at over the semester. Studio seems to be going very well so far. I’m hoping that my efforts in plan drawing this weekend aren’t getting me too stuck in my ideas, but I’m making a pretty conscious effort to stay loose with the whole thing. I’m getting a lot out of my professor, too, so far.
The energy this semester seems markedly different than last semester. There’s the fact that I’m TAing, which is a lot of fun even though it’s pretty scary to be the person being looked to for wisdom. There’s the Savage Lectures, which have been pretty fascinating so far. There’s the excitement of actually knowing people in other years, and having a little bit larger social circle. There’s a sense of action, better weather, and the beginning of terminal studios for the upper level students. I’m having a good time, and expect to continue doing so…
Tonight I saw Brook Muller, one of our professors, give a lecture presentation of his fall studio’s work. The studio studied how to create infill development in Eugene that would simultaneously increase the density of human inhabitation and create wildlife corridors. After seeing the work, I’m looking forward to taking a studio with him. The thing that was most interesting to me was that he was working with a landscape ecologist. Evidently landscape ecologists study “how spatial variation in the landscape affects ecological processes such as the distribution and flow of energy, materials and individuals in the environment.” It’s funny how I’ve learned many of the principles that come from the field, but never knew it existed as such. Turns out that many of the principles are analogous to architectural principles and can be strong generators of form in architectural applications.
My reaction was that it seemed very much like Second Nature, that moment when we recognize that we must start to garden our wilderness in order to preserve it.
Ok, now I’m really starting to not make enough sense to keep writing. So I’ll add Dan’s blog to my blogroll and go to sleep, and finish my essays in the morning.