But Does It Float: Blog

But Does It Float Found this nice blog a week or so ago . . . definitely some nice collections neatly organized . . .

Aggregated Websites : Creative Jobs/Portfolios

Sifting through the expansive inter-webs, numerous websites post and host a catalog of creative's portfolios. The following are a snippet of curated faves. If you are a creative, I suggest a 'Bat-Belt' full of utility websites to further your creative pursuits. (you know, when Twitter and Facebook just aren't enough) . . .



The Behance Network a collection of user profiles, gallery of work, job postings and more.



Core 77 Likely one of the best and favorite websites geared towards industrial design but spanning the gamut of design. This site keeps inspiring fresh minds published and exhibited.



Coroflot A sister link to/from Core 77 is the every helpful Coroflot. An online forum for designers to post their digital portfolios and hunt for jobs. Check out their blog [creative seeds]



Index Exhibit is likely the epitome of minimal online portfolios. Allowing users to participate giving they follow the clean, minimal pre determined format provided. This site offers an interesting combination of designers and artists.

Color Selection Web Sites

Found these while searching for color schemes to map floor plans. They both have interactive color selection interfaces.

Kuler


















Color Blender

The Sketchbook Project

'It's like a concert tour but with sketchbook's" says the website tag line. Thanks to JKyle for sending this my way! What a cool idea for a tour. You can select a theme and the tour swings through Brooklyn, Atlanta, San Fran, Austin, Portland and Chicago. Books are cheap, you can get it scanned and lots of people can see your work and you can see theirs. You have to use their Blue/Red moleskine book but other than that it's pretty open ended as long as you do something in the book ...

Anyone else in? thesketchbookproject

kitsune noir

cool website, cool projects, cool cool cool. nice wallpapers too.

kitsunenoir

some logos

hey dudes,

lets spice the season up a little. everyone throw down a quick sketch of what our 'the big 4401' logo should look like and we can collab, mashup, use, post whatever we come up with for 2010. just thought we could energize the site a little and its a fun collab we can all do in about 20 min.


_jeremy 01

TSTOUT

amazed! alamo drafthouse loves his work and so should you! and if you don't know the alamo drafthouse you should cause they are the bad ass movie theatres in Austin where you can eat your food, watch awesome movies and drink - did i mention beer while you watch movies, obscure movies, amazing movies, monster movies, any movie ... and what a talented artist they have doing their posters! shock and awe! does this compute? sweet.


tyler stout

tstout alamo drafthouse

apple tablet concepts

check out more concepts here. i am curious to see what apple actually creates. one person even made his own tablet ... here.

junktion

junktion

If I had the time I would be all over making junk into useful stuff! This idea has been one of my childhood dreams! Making cool, fun, silly useful stuff out of junk - my first project in architectonics was centered on this concept - though it ended up being a cereal box collage due to time constraints... Hooray junk - it reminds me of 3rd grade and movies where kids make their tree fort and equipment out of bicycyle parts, found junk, etc. that becomes simple machines and useful parts of the fort. The bike seat stools are totally cool! Some of the creations are silly/campy but also retain a neat enough solution that they are fun.

designs to save newspapers

give power to designers, kicking proportions, serious spreads, good message - not detailed

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/architects-named-in-human-rights-row/5202585.article

Kate Gibb - HUCK - If You Could

Kate Gibb in her studio
If you Could : 'I'd See the World Symetrically'
WTF HUCK?

About a year ago I was rummaging the internet and stumbled upon this site IfYouCould and purchased the above sweet limited edition print by Kate Gibb. Stumbling around the internet again looking for more of her work, HUCK popped up. Huck has a tight collection of art, culture, music etc. It's chocked full of cool interviews, artwork, style and blogs ... Kate Gibb Check it - its full of cool stuff - I didn't see an architecture part of the site but some of the art was rather sculptural...maybe they need some peeps to write for them?

Twat Me!

Another great article on BLDGBLOG check this shizzy out : a rather inflamed discussion about Twitter.

The BLDBLOG post has much to do with architecture contrary to the author's caveat. Twitter, a new form of digital communication allows the ability to communicate and respond while providing a multitude of possibilities within the broad realm of architecture. The OP-Ed by Maureen Dowd, from the NY TIMES, from where the original post initiates, however, has little concern with architecture and lacks substance. Dowd is a critic and has a history of writing for established publications - and yet her Twitter Op-Ed (more of a documented interview) does not reflect her abilities.

The way we engage one another within/without spaces, through written literature, oral language, imagery, art, voice, song etc. shapes the culture, society and structure of living. The documentation of history is an episodic collection of these engagements. This documentation takes a form, prior to the digital age these documents were created in analog format. The author of the blog 'HOW THE OTHER HALF WRITES: IN DEFENSE OF TWITTER' defends Twitter as a valid form of note taking because it has constraints.

"The fact that so many people now use Twitter as a public email system, or as a way to instant-message their friends in front of other people, is immaterial; Twitter is a note-taking technology, end of story. You take short-form notes with it, limited to 140 characters. The clichéd analogy here has been with Japanese haiku, but perhaps we might even reference the Oulipo: in other words, Twitter means that you are writing, but you are writing within constraints."

Oulipo: The group defines the term 'littérature potentielle' as (rough translation): "the seeking of new structures and patterns which may be used by writers in any way they enjoy." & "...he group devises new techniques, often based on mathematical problems..."

Oulipo Example Work: "Queneau's Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes is inspired by children's picture books in which each page is cut into horizontal strips which can be turned independently, allowing different pictures (usually of people) to be combined in many ways. Queneau applies this technique to poetry: the book contains 10 sonnets, each on a page. Each page is split into 14 strips, one for each line. The author estimates in the introductory explanation that it would take approximately 200 million years to read all possible combinations."



Oulip Example Constraint: The "N+7" method: Replace every noun in a text with the noun seven entries after it in a dictionary. For example, "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago..." (from Moby-Dick) becomes "Call me islander. Some yeggs ago...". Results will vary depending upon the dictionary used. This technique can also be performed on other lexical classes, such as verbs.

The assumed defense of Twitter's capabilities supported by the Oulipo method of constraints is short winded and dwindles into a rant better suited for the pro's and con's of ANALOG vs.DIGITAL. The Oulipo method engages a creator in a series of constraints that they themselves define mathematically. The cited N+7 constraint and Queneau's Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes are each analog methods. There is no digitalization required.

Question the digital constraints of Twitter. 1. electricity 2. computer with keyboard 3. free subscription to Twitter 4. web browser to support twitter 5. cell phone/iphone 6. Twitterer 7. Twittee 8. limit of 140 characters 9. misc. other constraint
How do these constraints enhance, exonerate, probe, develop and inspire creativity? I do not have a Twitter account and do not fully understand the desire for digital note taking? The creators have developed a widget capable of conveying notes, messages, alerts etc. My assumption: Twitter is an enhanced chat.

What is Twitter? From www.twitter.com
"Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?"

From the Twitter Blog:
"Every public update sent to Twitter from anywhere in the world 24/7 can be instantly indexed and made discoverable via our newly launched real-time search. What was that loud noise outside your apartment? Did you just feel an earthquake? What do people think about your company, your product, or your city? With this newly launched feature, Twitter has become something unexpectedly important—a discovery engine for finding out what is happening right now."

The BLDBLOG author continues the rant arguing that a ball point pen/journal are comparable to Twitter. A pen and a journal have constraints other than the physical nature of the object. If you use the pen to write/draw then all the ink is used eventually. If you use a journal for collage, post cards, drawing, folding etc. These constraints are independent of the constraints used for Twitter's defense. The author has created an argument to compare two separate objects. Digital Note Taking vs. Infinite variations of ideas. Variables of each form ANALOG vs. DIGITAL provide a drastically different set of parameters.

Thoughts? I have never used Twitter. Not that I don't intend to but I have plenty of paper to recycle and personally I'd much rather post my artwork and writing where people interact with real tangible spaces.

sam potts

SAM POTTS

watch the ted - 1. yea you heard eggers 2. he name drops his friend 3. i dutifully check out this wonderfully inspiring and talented desigener's website 4. how sarcastic that he already knows why i am here 6. click on work >> look left >> see the little pink link >> it says>>'probably why you are here' very clever Potts! very clean. very intelligent. very sarcastic. very lovely. very factual.

ornette coleman

1950's - 1960's influential jazz saxophone musician famous for harmolodic jazz "free jazz." Originating from Ft. Worth, TX - Ornette started playing at a young age. Texas was not the place for jazz so he travelled to LA. He started his quartet and began his career exploring 'free jazz.' The man is a beast and has garnered awards and some incredible recognition. He currently resides in NYC.

This weekend while Tyler was in town and we were sharing music, architecture websites etc. he directed me to Aaron Boucher's (TTU buddy) current work which is the Ornette Coleman website - here. So while we were attending the Austin Record Convention today, I came across an Ornette Coleman LP, This is Our Music. I'm about to drop it on the turntable and check it out...

on the back of the LP:

"...the most important part of our music is the improvisation which is done as spontaneously as possible, with each man contributing his musical expression to create the form."

-Ornette Coleman : This is Our Music, The Ornette Coleman Quartet released on Atlantic.