ISSUE 12: MAJOR PROJECT AS PRACTICE W/ ANTHONY IP

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ISSUE 12_MAJOR PROJECT AS PRACTICE
_EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE WITH ANTHONY IP, RMIT GRADUATE 2015
-BY DAN SCHULZ
_SUBJECTS_ #MAJORPROJECT #RMIT ARCHITECTURE
.
DEAR ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL...
_DANSCHULZ
Hi Anthony,
Would it possible to get a
copy of your Major Project
panels and some key images?
I’m working on a publication
about the RMIT short list for
the 201 6 Australian Institute
of Architects Practice Prize
for Architectural Excellence.
_ANTHONYIP
Hi Dan,
Would I be able to ask what
type of publication you are
working on?
_DANSCHULZ
It is an independent student
publication called FLOG which
is print media.
The request for work is
just for the purposes of my
own research. The piece I
am submitting is an essay
on awards systems and to
question their place in a
major project.
Thanks very much.
_ANTHONYIP
Sounds like an interesting
piece, hope all goes well.
Would you mind sending me
the essay when your done,
would be keen to see your
perspective on the awards
system for major project.
_DANSCHULZ
Thanks. Of course.
I’m also developing a
serial to sit alongside it
which is an interview with
a MP student about their
‘practice’ (as to not be too
cynical about the awards but
to provide an alternative
outlet for major students to
represent themselves).
Would this be something
you are interested in
participating in?
_ANTHONYIP
Yeah would like to help you
out with this, however I
currently live in Brisbane.
So don’t know how that would
work for you, maybe we could
do this through email, Skype
or other forms of media?
_DANSCHULZ
Well that’s actually quite
interesting though - I mean
the conversation around
Brisbane as a place to pursue
practice.
I’m into all sorts of media
forms, especially informal,
conversational ones such as
this email dialogue. Are you
originally from Brisbane? Was
Brisbane always ‘the plan’?
_ANTHONYIP
Well, my architectural
education began in Brisbane
because I studied bachelors
in the University of
Queensland before the
decision was made (like many
others) to study masters at
RMIT. This was mostly because
it was almost discouraged to
have radical ideas at such a
technical university during
that period, whereas you know
RMIT encourages ‘rebellious’
behavior through design.
(Unless there is an RMIT
style that exists...)
Returning to Brisbane wasn’t
really ‘the plan’ but it was
‘A’ plan.
The usual tendency is
for graduates to stay
in Melbourne seduced by
its excitement, artistic
environment and architecture!
But possibly foolishly, I
chose to return to Brisbane
because I believe Brisbane
is a growing city currently
going through ‘architectural
puberty’ and has more
potential to be influenced
by critical design as
compared to Melbourne and
Sydney. Personally, I also
think it lacks (other than
m3 architects) academic
discourse on the cultures,
philosophy, utopic theory
that Melbourne architecture
is all about. Which could be
a market for a practice to
tap into and pursue.
_DANSCHULZ
Haha. ‘Possibly foolishly’ -
you can always jump back on a
plane! Melbourne will always
be here for you!
So part of what you are
hoping for is a sort of
curatorial role perhaps?
Are you a collector of
interesting people - hoping
to construct a community
of rebels? Or is there a
possibility to teach at the
uni there and further your
practice in an academic
context?
I have explored glitch
art previously - actually
I think my current studio
is slipping into glitch
territory at the moment -
which means my dreams are
haunted by horrifying GIFF
images of cats datamoshed
with jack nicholson from The
Shining.... (who comes up
with this stuff?)
Where did you first discover
glitch as architectural
possibility?
Is your project a polemic
(satirical perhaps) about the
digital age or is there some
formal interest?
_ANTHONYIP
ha ha, hopefully by the next
time I return to Melbourne
the Design Hub will have a
REAL awning!
Haven’t thought of it as a
curatorial role yet, but the
interest is something more
social to gather a few other
people equally as passionate
about architecture and to
debate over the bar table our
opinions.
Actually I am planning with
a few friends to create
a research laboratory,
hopefully as the momentum of
that builds up we will have
more influence in the scene.
In terms of teaching at uni,
I think right now I am too
young to teach and would need
a few more years of maturity
in the industry to be fit for
the role.
Great to hear you have
explored glitch art
previously.
It’s alright, there is no
need to see a doctor...until
you start talking to your
friends with bright magenta
cat parts merging with their
faces...
Actually for the first four
weeks of Major, I was
struggling laboriously to find
the idea, eventually I landed
on the theme of the internet
as this era’s popular culture
and that although it has
connected us globally and an
amalgamation of all ideas,
it’s own essence is styleless.
Which eventually led to
the glitch and that was the
only phenomena that influenced
us as a society now.
So if Italian cities were
designed from a large culture
of churches (creating the
piazza) and Las Vegas
was designed from mass
entertainment (creating the
strip) what would a city look
like if it were designed from
the basis of the digital
glitch? Through research,
this led to the largest
question “Is Architecture
truly safe from the robotic
Industry?” “Can the Glitch be
robotic creativity?”
You are right, the images
produced are not construction
drawings, but satires, memes
and exaggerations of today’s
society depicted through
architecture. The MP was
not the design of a single
building or masterplan, but
the design of a series of
images.
_DANSCHULZ
What kind of outputs were you
thinking the laboratory would
produce, paper experiments,
small builds/installations?
Or a combination?
I really like Brisbane. That
trip along the river is like
sailing down the river Styx
and seeing the architectural
rejects of the overworld on
full display - couple of good
brutalist carparks and stuff
but you can’t go past the
State Law Building - that
thing is like something out
of Dark City (1998) where the
world is ruled by a vampiric
robot.
“Is Architecture truly safe
from the robotic Industry?”
“Can the Glitch be robotic
creativity?”
There is something about
the glitch... our lives
become increasingly
governed by imperative
algorithms underlying
our social media profiles,
communications systems,
methods of production...
Is the glitch the cry of
the machines themselves? or
is it ecology penetrating
through the screen? Is it
morbid or emancipatory?
Accident or catastrophe?
I feel like this article
featuring Timothy Morton
is one interesting take on
it: http://archinect.com/
features/article/149934079/
timothy-morton-on-hauntedarchitecture-
dark-ecologyand-
other-objects
I like how you went for
a sort of orgy of digiaesthetics...
total porn...
Roman-esque, Trimalchio’s
feast, 120 Days of Sodom....
So obviously your MP
stretched away from the
original intention? how
and for what reason did it
change? what were the methods
of production that were most
useful for you? (peers/
comrades, supervisor) Would
you say MP is continuing? The
beginning of something rather
than the end?
_ANTHONYIP
We are still discussing the
direction of the research
lab, the idea would be to
start with paper experiments
with hard critiques and with
time the longer goal would
be for us to fabricate these
visions.
Ha ha, I’m still trying to
find people interested enough
before the next step arrives!
That was an interesting
read, I do think an OOO type
of thinking could release
us into understanding
architecture as a whole
new object and could be a
tool for form-finding in the
academic sense.
Totally off-topic, but this
read was great. It’s about
past Melbourne competitions
: http://architectureau.
com/articles/anotherfailed-
melbourne-designcompetition-
c1978/
“I like how you went for
a sort of orgy of digiaesthetics...
total porn...
Roman-esque, Trimalchio’s
feast, 120 Days of Sodom....”
Yes. As we both know,
internet content isn’t
ordered in a beautiful
manner but rather (quoting
Adam Savage) “Like a Serial
Pervert” with a fucked up,
mentally unstable and an
essentially random mind.
This over-saturation of
content (orgy as you say)
was an interpreted depiction
of how the Internet as a
tool visualized/observed
our world as a ‘subjective
vision’. This was illustrated
through the design of the
architecture and the medium
of the images.
There were many original
intentions from Robotic
cities, Sustainability
satires, an entire virtual
reality world. It’s difficult
to describe every change that
occurred in the evolution
of the idea, but the best
thing I did was to constantly
propose new directions for
the project each week.
Although, most of the time
these ideas were on the
table my tutors looked a bit
bamboozled and slaughtered
me for the poorer ones - the
better ones matured through
guided discussion. What
also helped was to create a
schedule of weekly goals to
be achieved in the semester,
like a timetable to make
sure you keep yourself on
track for the final goal of MP
presentation.
I believe the Abstracted
Glitches of Architecture were
the beginning of seemingly
a new trajectory though not
a new idea of amalgamated
culture and glitches
manipulation for designing
the built environment.
Near the end of the
research, Mark, Tim and I
discovered that principles
of this idea had already
been used throughout
history before in Ancient
Egyptian architecture,
Caryatids, Gargoyles,
Petra are all examples
of sculptural forms
synthesized with buildings,
Art AND Architecture, never
Art vs. Architecture;
the Mannerist period of
breaking all the rules of
Classical architecture,
killing it’s father! Not
unlike using the machine as a
tool to break all the rules
of modernism.
Thus, I would say I am only
the observer of a repeated
cycle of design history
and this MP was only the
foreplay, we will see how
long the sex lasts.
.
.
.

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[VAN SCHAIK,LEON] "LET'S GET CRITICAL: RESPONSE TO THE 2012 AIA NATIONAL AWARD WINNERS", ARCHITECTURE AUSTRALIA 101/6 (NOV/DEC 2012)

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[PAYNE, MELINDA] "ARCHITECTURAL JOURNALS AND THE AVANTE-GARDE", 1998. TRANSITION, ISSUES 59/60 P23be

https://www.jdavidstark.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/aristotle-organon-v-1.pdf

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