Hey hey the MLE,

As you know, we share the MOTHandRUST London studio with a few other creatives, which is great and very inspiring. Well, if you actually take the time to talk to people, which I don't do cause I'm a bit of an antisocial workaholic.

Anyway, finally after about two years of sitting near Mr Tak Hoshino I actually stopped by his desk this morning to meet him and to see what he was doing. And I was amazed! I am sharing a studio space with a genius! Who would have known!?

Tak has his Masters in Civil Engineering and is an Architectural Design lecturer at the University of East London. This is one of his latest projects:

- Made a steel ring out of a rod and played for a while
- Replaced my hand holding the ring with an axel
- Replaced my hand holding the axel with a vertical rod
- Replaced my hand turning around the rod with a steering post
- Learn more here, with images:
Biofact

Here are this assumptions:

1. We makes artefacts (prosthetics) to support our biological (mental, physical and collective) existence.
2. Without them we cannot sustain our life
3. Therefore all artefacts are part of our biological existence (biofacts) as tools.
4. All tools have handles, connections to our bodies.
5. They are not supported by the genetic morphogenesis.
6. But by the support of our language (and the structure of social interactions)
Confused? Well, like I said, he is a genius, and as such he obviously is not easy to understand. Unless you speak with the man directly, and when you do it all makes sense…

He had a lovely video on his computer of this device in action, twirling beautifully around someone in a big room. The movements of both the person and machine together were so graceful.

Tak: So, I built my prototype and tested it out and thought - it could help teach people to dance!

Me: Of course, I love it!

Tak: But then I thought it could also serve to demonstrate the movements of the cosmos. The person is the Earth, the smaller wheel the moon, and the larger wheel the sun. Everything moves about the room using the same laws of physics as our solar system (talked in detail about physics here, no idea what he was on about).

Me (thinking in my head): So this is what this guy sitting near me does? WTF? Why don't I talk to people more often?

Me (speaking out loud): Of course, I totally understand! Can I write about this on my blog?
Suzan xxxx

Hi Suzan! So sorry for my long absence! As you know, we're just recently back from an amazing, fantastic trip to Sri Lanka. I can't say enough good things about it! We took some time out from our busy schedule of playing on the beach and swimming in the pool to go and check out a place called Lunuganga, an estate built by Sri Lanka’s most prominent and prolific architect, Geoffrey Bawa. He has designed tons of buildings all around Sri Lanka, but this one used to be his own country house, built in 1947 and apparently it was where he tried out new ideas. Now it’s open to the public and the buildings are used as a guesthouse. The grounds are stunning, and the houses seamlessly merge outdoor and indoor space, antique and modern furnishings. So inspiring, you can't help but imagine how it would be to wake up in such an environment every day! Beautiful. Might need to stay there a few nights on our next trip to Sri Lanka....

E xx

Hey Suzan!

Welcome back from India! Can't wait to see photos from your trip. So here's yet another post about architectural photography! I came across Christopher Payne's website via the Swiss Miss blog - and am especially intrigued by his "Asylum" series, where he traveled across America over a period of 6 years documenting abandoned mental hospitals. Sounds like it would be a scary, disturbing and ugly body of work – but instead, his photographs bring to light the fact that many of these places were once majestic buildings built by famous architects, born out of noble intentions, and often had actually functioned as self-sustaining communities capable of producing  everything on-site, such as food, power, water and clothes. Ok, so I'm sure tons of awful scary stuff did happen in those places, but in a way that makes these once-grandiose environments even more fascinating! Not to mention that on a purely visual level, the decay is gorgeous...

PS. Check out the Eames chairs in the autopsy theatre. Doing the grotesque in style... nice!!

Hey Suzan! Last week I went to check out the new Anton Corbijn exhibit at Fotografiska, the photography museum in Stockholm. It's the perfect place to take the little monkey on a weekday afternoon.... quiet and spacious (therefore good for prams), and very importantly, has a cafe with a lovely panoramic view of the city. Anyway, the Corbijn show was alright – sure, a lot of nicely done black and white portraits of famous people, but nothing I felt I hadn't seen before. On the other hand, I was much more excited about one of the other non-headlining shows happening there, Spanish photographer Aitor Ortiz. He photographs monumental architectural structures in a stunning abstract way.... quiet, powerful, meditative. I left thinking it was interesting how these images of stark, empty, uninhabited spaces felt more impactful and engaging than the distinctly human Corbijn portraits...I guess the image of a face is not always the thing that speaks the most...