Archive for the ‘site news’ Category

Refresh

Posted on August 3rd, 2006 in site news and

It’s too damn hot. Things need to be lightened up a bit—clothes shed, bags dropped, drinks iced, and designs de-frocked. So, next year’s model is here, or something. Please refresh your browsers. Update your RSS feeds. Lighten up.

Actually, the unbearable weight of design struck one before the unbearable heat of the concrete world did. It seems so hard to escape the Brand. It seems that to design is to brand, to reduce for consumption, to package so nicely, and to sell, to be instantly apparent. One wishes to be clear and to convey information in a reasonable, digestable manner: one brands oneself. “So step back a bit,” one says to oneself. It can be clear and structured—and there can be a spot of blue!—and maybe not so much the identity package for a luxury sedan. (Although, next year’s model is already available here.) It might be a lost cause. These days, to give the thing a name is to begin the descent (or ascent) to Brand Hell (or Heaven).

Maybe the overheated argument is more plausible. It’s just too damn hot, and you gotta lighten up.

Meaning Building 2005

Posted on February 13th, 2005 in site news and

All right, all right. Attention visitors: please refresh your browsers. Meaning Building has a fresh face for 2005.

This redesign has been a couple months coming, and I almost scrapped it a few weeks ago (as can often happen in a too-lengthy design phase). I was (and still am) feeling very antagonistic towards the rigid templating which seems a prerequisite for “good” web design, especially when a CMS is involved. However, in the end I reconciled my frustrations with standardization in the realization that the information I want to convey in my site and the audience I am conveying it too really do require a recognizable architecture. I will just have to look forward to other concepts for sites which allow for a more organic and non-repetitive design and structure. Something with a bit more narrative potential.

There are probably some holes left in parts of the site (I really needed to just get it up here) and I have been less a stickler about validation, too. But, for the most part, everything should be pretty OK. Again, if I haven’t said it already, thanks for looking and reading.

New work

Posted on September 25th, 2004 in site news and

A recently completed series of collage drawings has been uploaded to the practice section of Meaning Building: El pais: souvenir intimes! ¡Viva Espagna!

Meaning Building Foto Log

Posted on April 18th, 2004 in site news and

After much procrastination regarding the future of the foto section of this site, I finally decided upon a format for presenting whatever pictures I collect and deem interesting enough to hurl into webspace. Announcing the Foto Log. Simply, it uses the same Movable Type application as this blog to post and archive photographs by date and by category. Who knows what it will become. Finally the void that was the foto section is occupied.

projects update

Posted on January 23rd, 2004 in site news and

Two of the older projects have been updated: C. book and 64 Rooms. Also, another day of documentation has been added to Project 01 in Unbinding Boundaries. Speaking of said series, video documentation of the initial action will be added soon, and Project 02 may happen this weekend (weather permitting).

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Hello

I live and work in Philadelphia, USA where I am an Assistant Professor in Multimedia in the College of Media and Communication at The University of the Arts. I am the Director of the Department for the Investigation of Meaning in The Think Tank that has yet to be named and I am a strategic designer in The Action Mill.

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Projects & Research

  • Nature Study, An Ambivalent Guide

    A guidebook and installation which catalog a contemplation of the ambivalence that defines humankind’s complex relationship to the natural environment.

  • The ARPANET Dialogues

    An archive of rare conversations within the contemporary social, political, and cultural milieu.

  • Manifesta 8

    Co-curating the European biennial of contemporary with Bassam El Baroni and Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum.

  • alex-sm
    Place In Place Of: Alexandria

    Site-specific interventions, performances, lectures and documents created in Alexandria, Egypt.

  • terrainc-sm
    Terra Incognita

    Marking the impact of the University of the Arts on land use in Center City Philadelphia.