Japanese Metabolism
via Wallpaper
Metabolism’s genesis as an architectural tool for social change was defined by the times. It was in the 1950s that the seeds of the movement were first planted amid the ashes of Japan’s widespread post-war urban annihilation and subsequent renaissance.
As Japan’s recovery journey gathered pace, a string of young architects in Tokyo – including Kisho Kurokawa, Fumihiko Maki, Kiyonori Kikutake – were deeply drawn to explorations of flexible, modular and organic urban design, with inspiration rooted in biology, technology and futurism.
Soon after, Japan was on the brink of enormous economic growth. A few years later, in 1964, Japan hosted the Tokyo Olympics and launched its first shinkansen bullet trains – a seminal moment that confirmed to the world its reinvention from war-hit nation to global leader. Added to the mix was a rapidly growing population – all combining to create the perfect conditions for questioning how to reorganise a fast-evolving urban society for the future.
At the same time, ideas of renewal and impermanence have also long been timelessly ingrained across traditional Japanese culture – from its Zen Buddhist philosophies and aesthetics to its ritual of rebuilding Ise-Jingu, one of Japan’s most important shrines, every 20 years.
buffalo measuring
Today at least is going to be spent flapper-disking the next big metalwork project which has now morphed into one and a half metalwork projects (ad has made the project that it was going to be become something else entirely further on down the road) because, as Brad Bird's favorite axiom goes, Use every part of the buffalo. This one's going to push me further into woodworking, for which I've yet to find a genuine, visceral love: if (my ignorance-fueled iteration of) metalwork is more like cooking, throwing ingredients into a pot to make something new and tasty, then woodwork is more like baking, precise measurements required to make the pieces fit, measure twice cut once, stir stir stir. Then again, 3D printing is very similar to baking – I do, after all, jestingly refer to my printer as an easy-bake oven. I guess it's not so much that I dislike woodworking (I don't, not at all) but that I don't find it as harmonizing with the type of creativity that makes me feel whole. I admire those that do it well and make beautiful things with it, but I get far more creatively turned on by seeing a rusty spring than I ever could a beautiful piece of timber: both have their place but the latter requires a creative vein which I've yet to tap into.
metal_0052 :: WarPig
A shovel, an adze head, and the bottom panel of an electrical box met in my Shed, dug up some lawnmower wheels and, thanks to a bit of FURY ROAD / FURIOSA inspiration and an overflowing scraps of scraps drawer became WarPig, the Wasteland's deadliest pull toy. Because if you’re not making your tetanus booster work overtime, can you really call it playtime?
DD
Now that Ahmed's DAREDEVIL run has (mercifully) concluded and GREEN ARROW is (sadly) ending in December, can we please please please get ARROW's Chris Condon and Montos on DAREDEVIL? Ahmed's DD was the most uninteresting DD run I've read in years: though it started off intriguingly enough, it quickly became a slog that I continued solely out of my love of the character - something I swore I wouldn't do but it' DD. Thankfully, Erica Schultz's two Elektra-DD minis, (WOMAN WITHOUT FEAR and UNLEASH HELL) were both solid; wouldn't mind seeing her take on the main book, especially with how Ahmed left things.
coneholio, phase one - finale
Heading into the last five+ of Kirby's 72-hour enconement and I'm all set with having a cone jammed behind my knees. At least it doesn't knock me over anymore (thank you, yoga balance). As for Kirby, he's doing fine. No complications from surgery (right side canines, upper and lower were removed), and everything is healing up nicely. He's digging the soft food that he's on for the next 11+ days – as are the smaller yet larger dogchildren girlz (no meal is now complete without them getting the can scrapings in their dry tidings you scurrolous heathen you). Another three+ weeks until he's allowed hard chew toys (which got us into this mess in the first place and which he probably won't be getting back) and then we start the process all over again the first week of November, when the left side canines come out and Coneholio returns for a soft-food, knee-bashing encore.
