To-do list: Day before Interim Crit

What do we hate most? Thursdays

7:00 am Porridge Breakfast

7:30 am *bugs meetup - fresh morning start

1. Plot Plan + Section

2. Scenarios - pencil drawing/ Photoshop fake things/relationship with trees... 

3. Scan scenarios

11:00 am Bring files to ECA Print shop

11:30 am Dog Walking

(Packed lunch: Tofu seaweed soba) 

4. Draw Plan (x1.5) and Section (x1) 

5. Finish MODEL - base

6. MODEL - TREES

18:00 Yoga

Finish off MODEL

RELAX and have FUN

Studio day

Various ways of eating like a King.

1. asian company that flashed their cameras around once sat down + hainan chicken@ Boston chinatown.

2. bubble tea @ whirlwind trip to NYC, heartwarming hide out @ Soho bookshop.

3. hearty company + hearty (read carbs) italian food @ Harvard square. Dark hot chocolate for desert. Am cheating here, chocolate place pic is from christmas time.

4. self-cooked meal for the sick self. Alas, it's more fulfilling, healing and healthy than anything one can imagine.

At this point I realise, heart-warming moments happen all the time, when you let them happen and not guilt-treat yourself for feeling that way. Why talk about how much of thesis work you have to do, how meaningless a meeting was, what a waste of time it is to read when there is something else to talk about. Some people (I think I am like that too, but cases I've met this year is much much much much worse) are really like tape recorders, they sit down on the dining hall table, a 'play' button of their woeful life of work gets pressed, the tape keeps rolling as they eat and talk, and it finishes playing the moment they're done with their food. A cup of awful dining hall coffee (and more complaints about that, obviously), and they're off to the rooms for more miserable work that they take pride in.

When I feel that this horrible environment is trying to eat into me, I think about our times at PCC, the starnights, tramrides we spent talking about random things, sitting around, looking at Holing sleeping. And then there is always something to look forward to, food, tea to be drank, good company, laughter, people that I will see OUTSIDE of that damn library.

Sun. shine. on. me (4/infinity : )

Life's so : ) 

esp when the sun is shining on the green soft grass and the budding flowers all over meadows. 

Have to speed up in model-building

Sun. shine. on. me (3/infinity : )

Visiting artist studio again, we all liked this one a lot, with SO MANY pastels.........
I love the Germany bakery, matthew pointed out it's not called BAKERY, something like Konditioner..... hmm
hahaha
PRetty sunday, can't wait to go out : )

Brioche, cat friend, flaneur, red door

The coming Friday is the infamous interim crit, to have a stress-free crit week, I must start pre-planning my schedule.

Picture: Unfinished lamp, badges painted in 20 minutes and captured fragrance

[Recollection] 

The past week was ... very packed

Weekend away, Chinese New Year celebrations x 4, Skiing, Isabel visiting, visited a prettier artist studio in Edinburgh, finished posters for Ellie and her Vice-president campaign. dog walked twice : ) 
CNY @ host family home; Jap dinner + Outsider's; Outsider lunch (HK arch); Tron (post-ski); German Konditorei and Backerei; Glass and Thompson...... Let's welcome pre-easter new healthy plan! 

[On Gallery]

One of my favourite little gallery in Edinburgh accept work submission, one of my c hing lol in Edinburgh draw really pretty line drawings (even my professor's archi firm use his design as the logo) and he sell his art pieces, prints and badges, and postcards there too. 

[Interim Review] 

My recent photo updates has stirred up some random guessing among my coursemates, they always complain about not having to do anything apart from work...... so nowadays, when they see me, they usually ask things like "Are you planning to be an artist?" or.... " Do you go away every weekend?" (My friend randomly flies back to HK or sth sometimes, so we both give off this wrong impression) Nevertheless, we are going to be ging in this interim crit (well at least will try to! shineee) yay! 


[Coming week]
Chinese New Year week = ate out way too much! So let's follow the lent 40 days tradition, and start a real big new healthy plan! MUST! So now I must go out for a jog for some sunshine and fresh air, before I come home again. for the other half of my lunch. 

Best CNY present ever.

A graduate school offer.
And a room full of balloons.

Happy Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year 2010... no festive feeling, even though we wore colour clothes lol 

I feel extremely disturbed by WWS, who encouraged starting this blog, but disappeared now....

College Videos

Video sharing time!

First I watched this:

A mockumentary by a Wesleyan guy:

Watch from 14:40

The I watched the original:

I think I saw a friend XD XD XD

Then I learnt where "Harvard Sucks" comes from!!!

And this is where I first heard "Harvard Sucks"

at 1:55

Hahaha then I might keep on watching spirits videos... or not lol

Maoshan's not an architect

I have received an architectural compliment today isn't it weird! (if you could call it that)

Today, I walked into tutorial, with my beautiful, all white, minimalist model. and my sketchbook. Before I said anything, my tutor introduced me to the other two guest tutors as "the Sejima of the class!" 

Note: Sejima together with Ryue Nishizawa forms SANAA, my architectural idol! who have designed the Naoshima Marine Port, Kanazawa 21st Century Museum, The Serpentine Pavilion in London etc....

RAOR

It's hard to accept the fact that it's my zodiac year so soon...! I dislike this idea. Today is also my lunar birthday, I realize XD

I'm done with my senior essay! Music Under New York: Negotiating Aesthetics in the Public Space. oooooh Artsy fartsy, who cares XD

A drop of reflection

"The surprise of Feu d'Issey is total: smelling it is like a frantic videoclip of objects that fly past at warp speed: fresh baguette, lime peel, clean wet linen, shower soap, hot stone, salty skin, even a fleeting touch of vitamin B pills. Whoever created this has that rarest of qualities in perfumery, a sense of humour. A reminder that perfume is, among other things, the most portable form of intelligence."

Thus the monster is born

Artist's Humour

Recently there has been much written about minimal art, but I have not discovered anyone who admits to doing this kind of thing. There are other art forms around called primary structures, reductive, ejective, cool, and mini-art. No artist I know will own up to any of these either. Therefore I conclude that it is part of a secret language that art critics use when communicating with each other through the medium of art magazines. Mini-art is best because it reminds one of miniskirts and long-legged girls. It must refer to very small works of art. This is a very good idea. Perhaps "mini-art" shows could be sent around the country in matchboxes. Or maybe the mini-artist is a very small person; say less than five feet tall. If so, much good work will be found in the Primary schools (primary school primary structures).

- Quoted from Sol Lewitt's "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art"
- Sol Lewitt, Serial Project I (A, B, C, D), 1966. Stove enamel on aluminium. 83*576*576 (33*227*227)

Lola in sunshine

This morning, I saw myself in the mirror, and thought, how insignificant I am, among the 6,800,000,000 population in the world, each with their own dreams and uniqueness. But on a second thought, maybe it's not so bad... as there's only one, single, me, special me. 
There was another special encounter this morning, through a very cute baby, chatted with a beautiful Music Professor at Pyard. Off to Dean Gallery and the Scottish Contemporary Art Gallery now, I don't even know why I am going there, maybe the sunshine the river and the landscape? Hope it'd be nice : ) 
Shall I get you, Issey Miyake? 

Monster Recruitment

Recruiting monster!

so for the opera I'm in, I need to decide for myself what monster character I embody. In the first few dance rehearsals I thought I would gravitate towards sea creature-like movements, and was trying to be like a jellyfish, but that might not be working too well.

Do you know of clips/ videos of monster/ freaky movements? Anything from dance videos, animations to documentaries of weird-moving creatures would work for me!!

We tried on some costumes today... what? I hate leotards...

Rehearsals and Roses

Hansel is assistant conductor for the choir this semester...

3 different roses! I like to occupy my hands...

Tookie - Chinchilla in my house

The atmosphere of this post is the exact opposite of my mood...

Daffodils, Lavender, beautiful sunshine and lala

Guilt. This is where my sadness branched from. Even though I have all the reasons to justify my act. 

Most of my group mates worked overnight in the studio, although this is only the first review. totally unnecessary. People always love to exaggerate on workload instead of working efficiently. The number of working hours clearly has no correlation to the amount of work produced.

So naturally I didn't join them both last night and this morning, as I find it totally pointless and wasting my youth, (also other reasons, like their lack of punctuality)

I love the team spirit of working overnight together, complaining etc. but NO. 休想

Anyways, today would have been one of my prototypical perfect day, apart from the the cloud casted by the unjustified guilt

Warm sunshine shone on my face all morning, 7 am half conscious, most productive time of the day
Received an email from the Children's book artist's assistant I worked for in Japan, they will write me a reference letter AND will be exhibiting in Paris on 19th March, 2010; (my final crit is on 17th March) meaning I will GO TO PARIS AND MEET THEM! 
SO this morning, there was a baby black labrador outside Peter's yard, waiting for her owner, she got so excited during our brief chat , but started leaning on me once calmed down... baby girl. that's how baby girl dogs are like.


Later on, a very pretty girl, that look totally French with huge eyes and tall nose started chatting with me, she's German, doing Phd here in Edinburgh on the *History of the Book* lol, she worked in a Children's Publisher for TWO years in Germany before coming there.


Had Bean + potato soup for lunch; Went back to studio, had lecture; viewing the castle at the calming outsider; had Beetroot coleslaw and bread as dinner; then YOGA! yayayayaya YOGA! 


Dissertation, no conclusion. 
sleep early wake early! 

Childhood memories; Reflection of the day

(First pic - the street of my first home in Vancouver, i used to think that slope was reli reli steep, as I could toboggan there in snow)
Looking at pictures of my second home in Canada, through Google Earth, it's so scary how u can see everything from this software.... so CLEAR! My dad designed this home himself, and it took like a whole year to construct, and he checks with the progress every single day (so he'd stay "on site"),  during that period of time, I need to travel over a district/an hour - to get to the new school every morning.

Spacious streets and a lot of greens. I haven't been back to Vancouver since 11 or 12 years old, meaning it's around 10 years, it has changed so much - it consists of SO Much childhood memories, the kinda loving close relationship with my parents - did it vanished with our moving back to Hong Kong? (me starting to board, and etc. etc.).... but also just normal adolescence... Once again highlights the difference between me and my sister.
Making lists are totally pointless unless we reflect on whether we were really able to follow the list:
(Done) 1. Go to Sainbury's - soya milk, Brussels sprout and carrot
(Done) 2. Bring Spring onion to my friend
(Done) 3. Cook lunch - catfish and vegetable and sweetcorn
(Went to Peter's Yard with Elliot and MW)
(Done super super hea) 4. Finish stupid InDesign panel
(Done) 5. Come back to studio, finish stupid panels and hopefully my groupmate will be here...

(Done) Leave studio -
(Met Mark at Edinburgh's Children's Library)
not done:
6. Draw a postcard and write it to the artist in Japan
7. Further planning with dissertation(?)
8. Illustrate my story

3rd February - day plan

Occasionally I hate group work, my group mate is reli good and ging, but never appears on time, but whenever he appears he does a lot more than me, which makes me kinda guilty... anyways, i just can't wait till it's handed in this afternoon. My upper year friend agreed with me "school work could be such an obstacle in life"

My friends joined my in my 7 am breakfast, and we drew a postcard for a cute tutor who's now away to do PhD in harvard. We also worked a bit on our dissertation.. maybe I should finish this stupid "InDesign" Panel once i get home, while cooking...
1. Go to Sainbury's - soya milk, Brussels sprout and carrot
2. Bring Spring onion to my friend
3. Cook lunch - catfish and vegetable and sweetcorn
4. Finish stupid InDesign panel
5. Come back to studio, finish stupid panels and hopefully my groupmate will be here...

Leave studio -
6. Draw a postcard and write it to the artist in Japan
7. Further planning with dissertation(?)
8. Illustrate my story
Dinner - Honey Carrot soup? cat fish? or porridge...

Trident Booksellers & Cafe

Was supposed to go for a concert tonight in Boston. Got stuck in traffic, in the cold (today is -10, GOD, how can it be so cold) and hunger. So my half jap friend (she has crazily huge eyes, so sweet, so encouraging all the time) and I went into Trident and ordered ourselves juices, french onion soup + toast, trident cobbler which is something like a pie with peach and blueberry fillings + silky smooth vanilla ice cream, and cappuccinos.

The cafe was too warm and cosy to leave, when we had to walk 2 miles (!) to the concert venue that we didn't even know where it was.

Ultra warm, delicious, luxurious meal for a Tuesday evening.

The bill? I don't even want to THINK about it. Broke for the week.
(did I mention I was exhausted from chilling out too hard last weekend?)

Sometimes I just see something I want to post here and realize that I never have my camera with me.

I am hiding from a dance rehearsal - I will go to it soon but I just want to skip the warm up part...

It's a dance rehearsal for an opera about monsters - someone's music senior thesis.

Today the costume designers sent us an email. These are their inspirations:

so yeah. monsters.

You know, contemporary dance is nice. I agree that everyone should try it. I appreciate a lot of things about modern dance, like the way they play with balance and weight shifts, contact and interaction, mood and expression, attention to human anatomy...

But sometimes I just hate it. Like now. Always ask me to THINK. It just gets really annoying...

I think I should go dance now...

I think I'll mostly talk about shows and performances here...

Fresh Snow.

is simply too beautiful.

Birds. Snow. Sunset.

Lately really want to try out bird watching, yearning to experience the process of waiting, identifying, and witnessing lives of such wonderful creatures. Would I be crouching in some bushes waiting for them to appear? Does it feel like a predator, only that you're not waiting for game? There's a bird's next outside the windows of my room, so now i can actually watch them everyday. I was talking to 3 of them the other day, when the weather was still warm.

It suddenly started snowing today, the whole campus became a somewhat a winterwonderland. I walked back from one end of campus to my room, looking at snowflakes falling, accumulating a thin layer of white on tree branches, the yellowed grass. It is also so quiet, so bright, so beautiful. Snowflakes linger on people's hair, coats, hands - such a calm presence. I even tasted some snow. Walking on fresh snow is such a peculiar sensation, leaving your very footprint on something that is so fresh, new, almost innocent. If it's quiet one can even hear the sound of one's foot stepping on snow. Almost crunchy, but so delicate, so soft, yet strong and dignified. The foot prints are but traces that will be gone in no time, whether it's being covered by new snow, or overrode by some other footprint.

I'm preoccupied with traces that we leave behind - footprints, lingering thoughts, musical notes and sounds, images, paint on canvas, scraps of plaster or marble that were carved out when sculptures are made. Objects owned, forgotten, thrown away. Do we ever forget them completely? Do they remember their own meanings, traces, or lament their being forgotten?

Breathtaking. Simplicity.

The other night, we had long chats in our friend's living room - on architecture. on Naoshima. Seto Inland Sea. Miranda talked the piece of architecture that touched her to tears. 
Yes. makes your heart beat. eyes sour. 
SANAA you are too ging, we love you! lol

Just like when I read "JA" and El Croquis on Japan architecture, makes your heart beat. Frankly, I am not big big fans of architecture. Before ET and Seto Inland, (and I am not lying, if you know me, I must have somehow said it to you before) - I often feel like -"I have never seen a piece of architecture that TOUCHED me") -
"Which is your favouite building?" "Who's your favourite architect?"
I always see many famous building being famous only because, they marked some turning point in the history of architecture... and to people without architectural education - because they are irregular, they are pretty? Or because they used titanium to make a light floor that is removable but never removed in its lifespan? 


But! the small primary schools in Japan, simple marine port... white residents stuck in the middle of dense urban scape...so intelligent, so smart - never ceased to tempt you to inhabit the space, like a string pulling you! that is attraction. 
The serenity, connection between interior and exterior, calmness, lightness... subtle undulating concrete ground.... it's a very zen feeling, like a perfect space for yoga. 


If there's one reason I am still studying architecture, I must be encouraged and inspired by Japan, as if there's still some hope shining through the tiny tiny crack on the ground. We thought our professor probably prefer BOLD and weird design instead of the Japanese style of lightness. But I don't care, this is my LAST architectural project in life (hopefully), and I will do I what I like. I come here not to study his taste and preference! 


Hello my linguist, artist, musician, sociologist.. or-whatever-other-professions-friends - why not treat your eyes a delicious trip to a Page One or the library - let your mind wander off the colourful pages - a magical box that contains the architects' years of struggles and innovations! 

求知若飢，虛心若愚

圖片係《Whole Earth Catalog》停刊號的封底，寫著 "Stay hungry. Stay foolish"，一點也不易。

A forest of things - origin of our blog

A forest of things, our moleskines, blogs, diaries for examples, could potentially be silva rerum. It is especially appropriate for us  because that was not a journal that was kept solely by one person, but a multigenerational family journal kept by members of the whole family, and passed on. It has itself turned into a writing tradition, some notable examples have been widely printed and distributed. 



Most of them are far from being a simple diary, but tied with the events going on in the wider world. Apart from writings, it would have its original art works. 
A commonplace book  - a place to collect poems, quotes, lists, anything you don't want to forget, prayers, proverbs..... 
Fascinating. 
My photo for yesterday. was an unfinished one. Not a great one to start with, wondering if I should colour it in? Any opinions? 
Maybe we could guide each other through our own silva rerum, and in turn collaborate the "maps" into one.