This morning reading my friend ML's blog I discovered a photographer named Wolfgang Tillmans. I saw some his works randomly but never in a deep way. So, while waiting for a meeting, I started searching in the web more info about him. But one thing lead to another and so on and I found myself reading some blogs of very interesting people. Some of them just pumped up my adrenaline more than my second coffee!! Images, writings, insights and pure visula poetry! Just to name a few: Buffet, Ben Huff, Liz Kuball, Michael Werner. I will add them and more on my blog list!

I read a book lately about the science of shopping and it gave me some good insight...not only about shopping also about projecting some consumeristic theories to human behaviours. The book, "Why we buy" explains the way retailers organize and advertise their store with the only intent of inviting people to go in their store and ultimately buy. From the display of windows, to lighting organization, to internal layouts. A good windows is the base of a good invitation. It is funny how strategically in many stores men fashion is the first thing you encounter. Why? Because statistically women have no problem walking through a store to go to their department. But what interested me the most was the exteriority of marketing. We see what they sell. Or at least a portion of it. You want to go deeper in to find what you are looking for and maybe more. Some store become a work of art, some of them just tell you "come in, there is more", some of them though have such a bad front window that you just do not look or maybe you don't even see. But are people like shopping windows? Do they fix their appearances to invite you in? To let them know you? Some people I hanged around with do it, but in a way a really bad store would do! What you see outside is just a big lie. Once you penetrate deep in their soul/mind what you find is scaring shit!!! Fake expensive brands as if to show their status...a fake one obviously! They hang around rich people to be elevated in some sort of new social level that exist only in their fake existence. WHY??? So, I rather prefer a shitty window that at least doesn't lie to me than one that promises gold and in fact it only offers trash! And I love trash, I even did a photo series with it...but I was looking for it!
Great book the Paco Underhill one...I probably just subjectivized too much the content!!!

Sometimes life has some interesting turns. You look for blue and you find pink! It was like the discourse we had years ago in studio at SCi-Arc. Sometimes you look for something in your design and you turn out with something else. Something you were not even looking at. They call it "serendipity", talking about "the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely". I was looking for a big change in my life. Turn everything upside down. Change the its structure. Change who is around me. For good. But before doing that I said to myself I needed a moment of solitude, spending time reading, writing and cleaning up the dirt of my everyday. I went to the lake this weekend with one only goal. Stay by myself and do nothing but relax. But my dad decided otherwise! So, he introduced me to some people he met couple of weeks ago. Went out for drinks with them and then spent time at the house talking, drinking, eating. Funnily, I found myself having a great time. I was almost sure before friday that it was impossible to find interesting people here, just looking at all the bad experiences I had lately. But I was wrong. I was looking for solitude and I found some good new people. A writer, Nicole, her husband Hans. It is really true that sometimes you just need to let things go their own way without really trying to force them into a new perspective.

We are constantly framing the world. Day by day, we take pictures, we look at things, we fragment life in little pieces and collect them in our brains or in our digital world. Photography is nothing more than framing a moment in time to keep it for future times. Emotions, rememberance, mere visuality or a moment. Our eyes too become a tool of framing our everyday. Always a fragmentation of reality. We see what's in front of us...never what's behind! Then, our brain, assumes position of the caretaker of our daily visual fragments. How many times does it happen that you think back at a certain point of your life and suddently your brain start acting like a powerpoint presentation? But, there is difference between a camera and our eyes/brain collection of visual items: I never take photos of bad things. Never take pictures of moments that give me a bad feeling. I frame moments, objects or whatever that, when looking back at them I feel good, happy, energetic or else. But our eyes and brain work differently. They capture and it frames. Whatever comes in and gets stored. And sometimes it's just hard. Sometimes you find yourself forced to stare at mental photos of a bad event, of something that visually takes you back to a sad moment. What do you do when that happens? Just ask the caretaker of your visual world to turn off the visual and spiritual powerpoint presentation of your life! But that isn't that easy! Well, one thing you can do? Let the eyes capture beautiful things. Turn around when you encounter the bad ones!

Something a friend of mine said today really got me to think. She was talking about moving away from her hometown to go somewhere else. " I've got to find a place to live where I am challenged". I had a doctor appointment and, while waiting, I started thinking about what she said. Where do we really belong to? This I think is a big dilemma for people who think. People who want to be a part of something, but ultimately the dilemma is for people who want to belong somewhere. Physically but, on top of everything, psychologically. I have the dilemma too. Every morning when I wake up I ask myself "am I happy here?" or "is this the right place for me?". But, to be honest, I am not really sure I belong here in this hell hole where I live right now. I would love to run away so many times. But the question of belonging I believe is more related to our psychological health, our intellectual status, our relationship to something deeper than the physicality of a place. I am too, like my friend, not really challenged here. The people I hang around with are not very interested in anything beside waking up in the morning and go to work just to receive the paycheck at the end of the month. I want to love what I do. The paycheck is a different story. But now still the question remains: Where do we belong? Where do I belong? Who knows! Someday I think it is ok to be here. I escape reality through a good book or movie. Sometimes then, when I need it, I fly somewhere to recharge myself and get back the creative side of my brain that has been extrapolated from me by this bad thing we call "routine". But is this enough to complete a person and give her/him back the sense of place/belonging she/he is looking for??? I guess that is, for people like me or my friend, the big question, and I am sure one day we will find the answer.

I spent the last days feeling pathetic. There really are things I do not tolerate anymore. I need a big change! I need to finally realize that things aren't the way I always thought (or wished) they were. So, there is simply one thing to do. I need to approach my life, from now on, exactly as I did 5 years ago when I was told I was lactose intolerant. Later the intolerance transformed itself into allergy and that really fucked me up a little. Imagine being swiss, adoring cheese..oh god...a good raclette? A fondue? And suddently you feel like diing everytime you eat something that contains that damn lactose!!! So, after doing all the tests I was told it was irreversible and therefore I cannot eat any of those amazing food we have here ever again!! I had to eliminate every single thing that contained it, cheese, yougurt, butter, and every other type of food that uses lactose as a preservant. And ultimately the list of food I couldn't eat became endless. But then I told myself it wasn't a big deal. I discovered other good stuff to eat or drink that were as good, if not better, than before. I discover goat cheese (which doesn't contain enough lactose to kill me!) oh my god how good is that!!! Life is like a food intolerance. You wake up one morning and you realize some people make you sick. You become aware that certain actions (your or others) make you ill. Well, right now I am writing a list of things I am intolerant in my life. And I just do not want to have anything to do with them anymore. If really my theory of life being like a food intolerance I will certainly discover better stuff than what I have right now!

My previous post was about me thinking. About my life and my future. But I guess my brain wasn't up to that. My brain was more up to screwing me up. I wish I could go back in time and change some things. Change some friends (or maybe just change my path back in time so I wouldn't meet them), change the way my life is structured and organized, change, change, change. But then I get real and think about the future, about this shitty city I live in. I just want to do things I love to do. I want to leave and go somewhere and get inspired. I want to leave. I want to live my life without the troubles of life!

The weekend is finally here! I am going to spend it relaxing and thinking.. Thinking about my fututre, about creative projects, about travels, about contructive things...at least I hope so! Tomorrow I will probably know for sure the date of my trip at the Venice Biennale. I can't wait! I hope to have some ideas to pursue. I am sure my camera will know when it is the time to frame pieces of reality. And I am also sure that when I will look at them they will be distorted but still pieces of my reality.

° Almost all amphibians, reptiles and mammals which have fingers or toes have five of them on each extremity.

° In Greek Orthodox Christian mysticism, the number 5 symbolizes the Holy Spirit as the bearer of all life.

° The Khamsa, an ancient symbol shaped like a hand with five fingers, is used as a protective amulet by Jews.

° According to some traditions of Maya mythology, we are now living in the Fifth World.

° Modern musical notation uses a musical staff made of five horizontal lines.

° In the United States legal system, the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution can be referred to in court as "pleading the fifth", absolving the defendant from self-incrimination.

° The five basic tastes are sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami.

° No. 5, 1948 is an abstract painting by Jackson Pollock.

° According to one story of the creation of Chanel No. 5, Coco Chanel commissioned the renowned perfumer Ernest Beaux to make six perfumes for her choosing. They were labelled No. 1, No. 2, etc. through No. 6. (Breaux himself, q.v., relates a slightly different version of the story). It was bottle No. 5 that was to Chanel's liking and became the chosen formula. The number "5" was also her lucky number.

STUmbling over

STUpendous

STUpid

STUff

This set of photos brought up couple of interesting issues! Since it is quite strange for some that even here in the land of chocolate we cultivate rice, in fact we actually do! And I never expected that some of the one I am eating is from a land next door. So, since I grabbed some of it I decided to extract some of its beauty before it gets cleaned and processed for culinary use. I took a piece of paper with words on it. So, while I am shooting these pictures my mother asks me "do you know what that paper is?" Obviously I didn't even look, I just thought it was a nice old piece of papers with words on it. "We wrote that in 1971, me and your father, while eating. It was sort of a list of what we owned back then". A memory of what rice looks before getting processed overlaid over the memory of family possessions! Now they are captured in one thing!

I was downloading the images I took today and I started laughing by myself while this one came up on screen! I totally fucked up something because what you see here has absolutely nothing to do with what I shot! My mom got bunch of roses last night at a conference she was attending. While exploring the properties of my digital I decided to try out with flowers. I am not really a fan of nature when it comes to photography but what the hell, I am just experimenting! So, the roses were a shiny strong red-bloodish color and behind them was a really black (really black!!!) cabinet!!! I fucked up something because as you can see none of the colors came out right!!!! Bt I love this photo even though it's not real...but still...at the end.... "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose"

Today I still don't feel that great. The flu this time takes a little too much to get away. I felt dizzy all afternoon, and obviously I thought it was the cold! Somebody from the other room starts screaming "you didn't eat enough today that's way you are dizzy, plus you are very pissy...you didn't eat enough"!!! It's true!!! If I dont eat enough I get into this aweful mood and treat everybody like hell! I guess they are right! Since I woke up this morning I walked around with my camera: at the table, kitchen, in the park with the dog, and I kept taking pictures all day, of everything. At lunch I was too busy trying to capture the hidden content of my food that I didn't even finish it!! And seriously there wasn't any hidden content!!! Just a baguette filled with roastbeef and a funky salad. Visually though I seriously believe the hidden beauty came out..this macro lens transforms everything into a better thing!!!

LETTERS

NUMBERS

Remember when we still had to draw by hand those crappy projects at the office? No typing, all by hand. Even letters, word and entire sentences! I adored that though! With the ink spreading all over the place! Thinking back I realized how much importance we gave to this words. But funnily the importance was more an aesthetic issue, not really of meaning!

I got this nickname at sciarc. This instructor once told me "Lily you are a rebel and on top of that you are very funny...you should have your own sit com on tv". I remember me and Efrem laughing so hard about this. Then, I opened my email account (hotmail was brand new) I I was so into the rebel thing that it became rebel28. Years have passed, and people still call me "the rebel". In politics I was the "political rebel", which at the end didn't really pay much being like that. In architecture same thing. But then, ultimately, I think I just am a rebel. A more tired one. More tired than 10 years ago when life seemed so easy. But let me tell you: I love being a rebel. Eventhought it doesn't always turn out good, but at least I live my life like I want. Like a non diplomatic rebel!!!This image I just shot was a page from a german newspaper my mother kept and hanged on her wall (both my parents are architects and are around here at the office)...it was the right shot done the right day!!!!

Then, after being inspired by Mel and Vezzoli I started really doing my thing!!!! RockingRose! I love rocks and stones. Everytime I have a chance I start collecting them! Sometimes I find myself at the site for work and instead of looking up I look for a perfect stone!!! Well everybody has an obsession! I guess mine are stones and trash!!

My friend Mel today searched an artist named Vezzoli. I didn't know about him nor about his work. So I looked him up on the web. Very interesting work. I really liked his art. So, after looking for inspiration all day, I just took my camera around the office trying to capture the moment.

Today I am just looking around for inspiratons! This one is seriously one of them! Beautiful creation of an artist, Anna Garforth, who wrote a poem on a wall with moss. So inspiring!

I was wondering about the meaning of the word architect. So, does an architect only have to build a house? Or can he/she design a purse? Or a chair? or a lamp? What if I don't want to design building but I want to design funky bandaids? I actually had this dream couple of years ago, to design a huge selection of bandaid because I thought: "well lily, two thing s are for sure in business, blood and death" seriously...think about it. If you design coffins you know for sure your job is going to last forever because the thing is people die. If you design houses well, there can be an economic crisis, or people simply don't have money or they just want to rent it...well, then you are really screwed! Even with bandaids. People cut themselves, always. And they need bandaids. So, my idea, I thought at that time, was very interesting. I could design an entire line. But then somebody invented the "spray-bandaid" and my idea just died. Bottom line: how do you categorize a person? By the degree, by the phD, by what? Is Zaha an artist because her work is hanging at Moma next to a Miro? Was Rocco Barocco a fashion designer? Yet he was named "the architect of fashion". No wonder!

When I think about ink all I can think about is the liquid inside my pen. Its odor, its color, its temperature when it gets on my fingers! I do not think about magnetism neither of music. That's what I found! Magnetic Ink combined with music and video. Superbe! Space and music!!!



Magnetic Ink, Process video from flight404 on Vimeo

This is another interpretation of space use. A temporary yet contemporary use of empty spaces. This is a temporary Benetton store in Milan. What the brand did is simple. Open a store only for a period of time. Which is nothing new if you think about farmers market (a temporary use of the city), but here I guess is part of a marketing agenda.. Smart. Sell what you still have (maybe the last things of the summer collection) and wait for the new one. I wish I had this space for myself and just hang photos, writings, and stuff. Together with my virtual artist friends!

When I was living in LA I found myself wondering, from time to time, why can't we build in the so called "inbetween spaces". So much space in cities is just left there without knowing how to use it. Space, even if it is the tiniest one, has potentials. Either if you build in it or if you plant some green. Many ideas come to mind when talking about small inbetween space. How can you use it? This image is one solution: a building!! Two belgian architects (Pieter Peerlings and Silvia Mertens) found an interesting solution for an inbetween space in Antwerp. 2.5 meters to fill. And that's what they did. With a building composed by 4 containers. Each one is lit by a specific light during the night differentiating every single space (or container). Idea, space, light. The idea is not new, using container to construct a building, since already others have done it. The bast example is, in my opinion, the Freitag Store in Zurich. But here, in Antwerp, the beauty of the project, is about using a space that is left there with no apparent future.

Here is the news of the day: "dear participants at the architecture competition...you did not pass the first round...we are sorry ...blah blah blah".
I didn't pass the first round of a competition and the strange part of it is that I do not really care!!! I have to be honest though, I worked very hard on it, but I know how the architecture world works here in Switzerland. It's like a music contest that you already know before it starts who is gonna win it. Stupid me that I even did it! But it was fun, I had fun doing it and that's the important part of the entire experience. At the office we put a name in an envelope. We'll open it after the winner will be announced and guess what? I am sure the name in the envelope is going to be the same!
I hate this freakin way of doing things. In some part of the world they call it mafia. Here they call it open competition...