http://lifewithoutbuildings.net Architecture out of context. Observations on the built environment, with a penchant towards pop culture and Postmodernism. Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:40:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [The Colossus of Rhodes by Salvador Dali]What is it about giant anthropomorphic statues that so captures our imagination? Is it the astonishing craftsmanship? The audacious use of material? Or perhaps it's the primal thrill of seeing our bodies represented at the scale of a god? Whatever the reason, No statue ... http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/2008/12/colossus-redux.html [Christopher Saucedo, untitled, installation at Good Children]A sculptor with a sense of humor ("postmodernist fun," some have said), Chris Saucedo creates site-specific work that transforms galleries into gameboards and back again. In the above image, a small scale-model of the New Orleans art gallery, Good Children, has been built in ... http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/2008/11/from-gallery-to-gamespace-the-site-specific-work-of-chris-saucedo.html [image via io9]From J.J. Abram's new Star Trek prequel / re-imagining, comes this construction shot of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701. However, in a counter-intuitive and perhaps counter-canonical move, it appears that the iconic ship is under construction planetside. We've already seen terrestrial ship-breaking yards for crashed and decommissioned space craft, ... http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/2008/11/more-terrestrial-starship-yards.html [image via ABC]In Monday night's episode of How I Met You Mother, main character Ted Mosby Architect is competing against "Swedish architecture collective" Sven for a Manhattan high rise commission. In a perfect parody of hipper-than-thou über architects, the three architects named Sven made their pitch like we imagine every ... http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/2008/11/the-most-awesome-building-in-the-universe.html In the wake up the economic, housing, and automaker crises, we find ourselves in he midst of a new global dilemma — enter: The Shipping Container Crisis. Yes, The Shipping Container Crisis. An NPR piece describes the ready-for-cinema story of complex personal relationships and interweaving lives (paging Paul Haggis...) affected ... http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/2008/11/a-crisis-of-conscience-and-containers.html Some architecturally relevant little-known-facts about President-elect Barack Obama, courtesy the Daily Telegraph: He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician His house in Chicago has four fire places He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds His favourite artist ... http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/2008/11/barack-obama-first-architect.html During last week's trip to New York, I came across the above image when Google mapping my temporary Brooklyn digs. Apparently, the convergence of light rain, Google's cameras, and a stoplight, yield some sort of abstract light web — an urban intersection a la Olafur Eliasson or a tensile traffic ... http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/2008/11/park-slope-light-space.html http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/2008/11/yes-we-can.html Posting to LWB has been infrequent of late because I've been preparing for a trip to the News. Orleans, York, and Haven, to be precise. In a sublime mix of business and pleasure, I'll be visiting New Orleans for the Prospect.1 Art Biennial, then it's off to New York to ... http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/2008/10/life-without-buildings-in-the-news.html An excerpt from the astounding Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, by Lewis Carroll:"What a useful thing a pocket-map is!" I remarked. "That's another thing we've learned from your Nation," said Mein Herr, "map-making. But we've carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really ... http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/2008/10/lit-without-buildings-the-apocryphal-cartographies-of-carroll-and-borges.html