2013年04月07日

Top architect named: Tour Toyo Ito's unusual buidingsプリツカー建築賞の今年の受賞者に、建築家の伊東豊雄氏





「建築のノーベル賞」といわれるプリツカー建築賞の今年の受賞者に、建築家の伊東豊雄氏(71)が決まった

主催する米ハイアット財団が2013年3月17日(日本時間18日)、発表した

日本人では、2010年に建築ユニット「SANAA」(妹島〈せじま〉和世さんと西沢立衛〈りゅうえ〉さん)が受賞して以来、6人目

 仙台市のせんだいメディアテークなどを通して建築の可能性を広げようとしたことや、作品の精神性、詩的な広がりが評価された

東日本大震災の被災者が立ち寄れる集会施設「みんなの家」(仙台市、岩手県陸前高田市など)を手がけていることも、「建築家の社会的責任の体現」とされた(朝日新聞)


伊東氏がCNNに話したことは 上記 朝日の記事とすこし異なるようだ


自身の設計様式にはこだわらず、建築の可能性を限りなく広げてゆきたい

そして 建築というものをさまざまな制約から解き放ちて 自由奔放さを吹き込みたい(ジョニー私訳)



実際には 都市の景観は建築だけでは決まらず 道路交通網の整備と関わり合って環境が整備されていく

おなじような道路の設計だと 世界のどの街も同じ雰囲気になり そこの住民も世界のどの地域でもおなじような生活と個性の均一化が進んでいく

それをどのようにアレンジして 都市や市街地の個性を創造してゆくか が建築家として問われている と 伊東氏は主張したいのではないか



ジョニーは 個人的には 好きな街並みは

チェコのプラハ かな〜

img_1250566_65961890_0.jpg

石畳みの小路に 繊細で優雅なラインの塔や教会が林立


一日 プラハ城から見下ろしていても飽きない

ジョニは 一年半の間に 二度もここを訪問した




(以下引用)



(CNN) -- Seoul-born, 71-year-old Japanese architect Toyo Ito is this year's recipient of the industry's most coveted prize.

On Monday, the architect was announced the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, joining past Pritzker Laureates that include Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas.

"As I did not expect it, I felt really grateful and honored to be awarded the prize," Ito told CNN.

In addition to his abstract, beautiful buildings, the Tokyo-based architect is also known for his extensive work on communal centers as part of the reconstruction in Japan following the 2011 tsunami.

Ito, whose family ran a miso (bean paste) factory following his father's early death when Ito was 12, has said he wasn't interested in architecture as a youth. He began taking an interest while attending the University of Tokyo.

Throughout his career, Ito's designs have been unusual, vivid and minimalistic -- from the aluminum house he designed for his sister to the Sendai Mediatheque in Miyagi, Japan, which he describes as his professional highlight.
20 of the world's most iconic skyscrapers

The Pritzker committee jury raved about his lifework of defying standard distinctions. It will officially bestow its award at a ceremony in Boston on May 29.

Together with the 40 employees of his namesake firm, Toyo Ito & Associates, the architect is currently working on projects in Taiwan, Singapore and Japan.
"I travel 50 to 60 times per year for work," says Ito. "I love any place where I work."

At Princeton in 2009, he lectured on the development of the grid system in architecture, pointing out that while the system allows for rapid construction, "it also made the world's cities homogenous" and that "it made the people living and working there homogenous, too."

His design aesthetic is "modifying the grid slightly" so buildings can have closer relationships to their environment.

"Not fixing my style, I keep extending the possibilities of architecture," he told CNN. "In other words, I would like to unbridlearchitecture from various restrictions and give it more freedom."

The photo gallery above illustrates how Ito is changing and influencing landscapes of cities around the world.
Where to see the buildings (numbered per the gallery above)



1. Sendai Mediatheque, 2-1 Kasugamachi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan; +82 22 713 3171; open daily 9 a.m.-10 p.m., closed every fourth Thursday; www.smt.jp

3. Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre, Fukashi, Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Japan; +81 263 33 3800; www.mpac.jp

7. Tama Art University Library (Hachioji campus), 2-1723 Yarimizu,Hachioji,Tokyo; +81 42 676 8611; open daily 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; www.tamabi.ac.jp

8. Za-Koenji Public Theatre, 2-1-2 Koenji-Kita, Suginami-ku, Tokyo; +81 3 3223 7300; za-koenji.jp

9. Main Stadium for 2009 World Games, No. 100, Shìyùn Blvd, Zuoying District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan;+886 7 582 9000; open daily 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; www.nssac.gov.tw

10. Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture, 2418 Urado, Omishima-machi, Imabari, Ehime, Japan; +81 897 74 7220; open Tuesday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; www.tima-imabari.jp





coveted  eager to get, most desired to get

communal common use

minimalistic simple

rave highly praise

bestow give a prize

homogenous same quality

unbridle release
posted by 美容外科医ジョニー Plastic Surgeon Johnny at 18:25| 東京 ☀| Comment(0) | ENGLISH | このブログの読者になる | 更新情報をチェックする

2013年03月30日

What is 'national mourning' for ?




national mourning 国喪とは 国と国民が 国家に貢献したと思われる人物の死去に際して
哀しみを国としてカタチに顕わすことなのだが 

国全体が喪に服することは、意義あることなのか

あるいは

ただの政治的で象徴的な政治的思惑がからむ、ジェスチャーというかポーズに過ぎないのか



その対象となる人物がその服喪に値するかどうか で意義あるものかどうかが変わってくると考える

日本の場合

昭和天皇の葬儀、と退屈で死にそうだった服喪の期間


2011年3月11日の 東日本大震災とそれにつづく津波で亡くなった犠牲者への慰霊式典

など


引用文のなかで Prof.Bourkeの言う

Days of national mourning not only reflect a national community but create it

は正鵠を得ていると考える


だれでも知っている有名人が亡くなったときにも 国境を越え、世代を超えてその死を悼む大きな動きが観測される


1997年のダイアナ妃 や

2009年のマイケル・ジャクソンの死去

このときカナダ留学中だったジョニーは 周囲の人々が大騒ぎするのを目の当たりにして、マイケルの存在の大きさを思い知った


日本の場合は・・



1992年の尾崎 豊

2007年のZARD 坂井和泉の死など

が大きなショックだったのではないか



中卒ヤンキーの元歌姫にして 全身整形サイボーグの浜崎あゆみ が亡くなるときには 日本や東南アジアのアラサー世代女子に相当のインパクトを与えそうな感じがする

最後に
 
一人ひとりだと 微妙なニュアンスで複雑な感情が湧出するのに、集団になると 画一的な表現の哀しみにしかならない ことに注意したい

これが 北朝鮮の独裁者の死亡時における、次期独裁者、支配者層のいちばんの狙い ではないか

国民のマインド・コントロールがいちばん自然に誘導できる、絶好のチャンスが 独裁者の死亡したときだ




(以下引用)



Venezuela is holding at least seven days of national mourning following the death of President Hugo Chavez. But, what does this tribute amount to in practice? And is "national" mourning a meaningful expression of grief, or a purely symbolic political gesture?

The state takes the lead. Flags have been lowered to half-mast, cannon shots are being fired each hour until Mr Chavez's funeral, and schools and universities have reportedly closed for three days to allow young people to pay their respects.

Police units have been deployed in the capital, Caracas, in the words of Vice-President Nicolas Maduro, to "accompany and protect our people and guarantee peace".

These seven days of mourning have been echoed by three days of national mourning declared by regional allies including Cuba, Argentina and Ecuador.

"Whenever a state makes some sort of decree like that, it's inherently political," says Jill Scott, a professor at Queen's University, Ontario, who studies the social dynamics of mourning.

"There is no doubt that a good bout of grief is extremely good for national unity."

A declaration of national mourning is, she suggests, not unlike the moment days after the 9/11 attacks when President Bush launched America's "war on terror" saying "grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution".

"The common denominator is that the ruling government made a decision and told the people what they were to do with their grief," says Professor Scott.

However divisive a figure Chavez was in his own country, the grief expressed by many Venezuelans is undoubtedly heartfelt.

Hundreds of thousands of Mr Chavez's supporters, wearing the yellow, blue and red of the country's flag, took to the streets on Wednesday to see the coffin pass by en route to the capital's military academy, where the late president's body was to lie in state before the funeral on Friday.

But national mourning is for more than the individual, says Joanna Bourke, professor at Birkbeck College in London.

"The grief is not only for the loss of an important person and symbol but the loss of a future - the foreclosure of a national future," she says.

"We saw this most potently in the funeral of Queen Victoria when the whole nation went into a kind of shock - despite her age, it was unbelievable that she should die."


Britons last took part in official national mourning for Winston Churchill in 1965
The fervour of the mourning can differ dramatically from one country to another.

Amid a frenzied outpouring of grief in Iran in 1989 at the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, several mourners were killed and thousands injured in a crush at his funeral.

More recently in North Korea, scenes of people weeping and breaking down following the death of Kim Jong-il in 2011 left some in the West doubtful of the authenticity of those emotions.

"Genuine or fake - it's not quite an either/or in North Korea," says analyst Aidan Foster-Carter, honorary senior research fellow at Leeds University.

"It was very much an order, you were certainly supposed to be solemn, but that doesn't mean the tears weren't genuine.

"If you have been taught this person is the centre of the world your whole life, their death might get you quite het up."

The mourning period of less than two weeks for Mr Kim in fact pales in comparison with the three years to mark the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, from 1994 to 1997.


Bin Xu, assistant professor at Florida International University, argues that the "settings" common to so-called "national mourning", such as crowds lining a funeral procession route, help to intensify displays of grief.

"When many other people around us are displaying their grief, we are more likely to wail and even outdisplay our fellow mourners," he says. "We might be surprised by our own feeling display in such settings."

Professor Scott suggests that to some extent, in terms of public grief, a dividing line can be drawn between the "more reserved" northern hemisphere and "more emotional" southern hemisphere.

But, she adds, outpourings of public grief like that for Michael Jackson in 2009, which spanned the globe with no state encouragement, are increasing in an age where media penetration makes people feel they personally know public figures.

The death of Princess Diana in 1997 was even an occasion where the scale and intensity of public grief not only caught UK officials by surprise - but threatened to turn Britons against the Royal Family for their perceived remoteness.

While it was not officially declared a day of mourning, the Saturday of the funeral brought the UK close to standstill as shops and banks closed, sports events were postponed, and theatre and cinema showings cancelled.

Professor Bourke says: "Days of national mourning not only reflect a national community but create it."

Or, as Professor Scott puts it: "There is nothing to pump people up like a good bout of grief."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21685781





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2013年03月25日

When smart is not so smart





ジョニーの友人たちのなかでも 茶店で話の途中、「あれっ あの映画の主役をやったのだれだっけ?」などのとき、いちいち googleで検索する人がいる

なんか話の腰を折られたみたいで、こんな人(mind google)の 検索行為は不評だ

だが PCやスマホなしでは 1日とて過ごすのは不安で手持ち無沙汰になる

I feel like I've lost a limb.
(PCを持たないと)手足をもがれたみたい

と表現する人も多いようだ



この引用記事によれば google幹部が googleを使うと さらに知能指数IQ が20 高くなる

と豪語 波紋を広げている


ジョニーは google に依存すると自分で考え結論を出す という基本の思想が退化、結果として

googleを使うと知能指数 IQは 20以上 低下する と考える





運転中にナビを使うと 道を覚えなくなるのと同じ

google とは悩ましい存在だ

両刃の剣 double edged sword

 



(以下引用)





Are we becoming too reliant on technology and what happens if it is suddenly taken away from us, asks Tom Chatfield.

Google’s “chief technology advocate”, Michael Jones, recently made an astonishingly bold statement.

“Effectively, people are about 20 IQ points smarter now because of Google Search and Maps,” he told the Atlantic magazine. “They don’t give Google credit for it, which is fine; they think they’re smarter, because they can rely on these tools”.

One of the original brains behind Google Maps – a tool whose latest innovations include some of the first ever detailed maps of North Korea – Jones is better placed to justify such a claim than most. Through technological tools, he argued, a “kind of extra-smartness is coming to people”. And it’s being delivered so seamlessly that most people only notice it when things go wrong – at which point “they feel like a fifth of their brain has been taken out.”

“Smart” is one of the iconic words of our times. When the world’s first “smart phone” appeared in 1997, courtesy of Swedish firm Ericsson, the label was carefully chosen to signify an evolutionary leap forward: the transition from a passive tool, used to make and receive calls, to an interactive device offering - in the words of its original packaging - not only an “address book/calendar/notepad” but also the then-miraculous promise of “voice/email/SMS/internet” in one’s pocket.

Today, as Jones’s formulation suggests, “smartness” suggests a particular species of sophistication brought by machines into daily living: the sophistication of tools which so effortlessly augment our capacities for thought and action that we feel like it’s us getting smarter. The “20 IQ points” he says are offered by Google Search and Maps are only the beginning. From smart cars to smart cities, via smart glasses and smart fridges, we live in an age where every facet of the manufactured world will soon come with its own handy hunk of machine intelligence.

‘Antifragile’ creatures

So far as technology advocates are concerned, this is all for the better. Smarter devices mean smarter people, smarter behaviours, and less of the messy incompetence that sees us getting lost, crashing cars and running out of milk. For others, though, “smart” is a dangerous word, and one that merits a particular type of fear: that building a smart world may be an extremely stupid thing to do.

Each year, Edge magazine asks a single question of some of the world’s brightest minds. Its 2013 selection was the cheerful “what should we be worried about?” - and, for the polemical technology author Evgeny Morozov, the best answer was the word “smart” itself.

“All this smart awesomeness will make our environment more plastic and more programmable,” Morozov argued. “It will also make it very tempting to design out all imperfections−just because we can!−from our interactions, social institutions, politics... If problem-solvers can get you to recycle via a game, would they even bother with the less effective path of engaging you in moral reasoning?”

Morozov rejects the claim that smart devices automatically make for “extra-smart” people. Instead, he suggests, a special ignorance lurks within the assumption that “imperfections” should or can be designed out of existence - not least because these imperfections are a crucial part of what makes us resilient, creative and ethically responsible in the first place. “Blinded by the awesomeness of our tools,” he concludes, “we might forget that some problems and imperfections are just the normal costs of accepting the social contract of living with other human beings, treating them with dignity, and ensuring that, in our recent pursuit of a perfect society, we do not shut off the door to change.”


In this, Morozov’s critique overlaps with a second significant contemporary word: “fragility.” As Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains in his 2012 book Antifragile, a “fragile” system is easily broken by unexpected shocks or irregularities. Global finance was one such system at the time of the 2008 crisis, with its locked-in assumptions about risk and cascading series of bad debts.

“Antifragility”, by contrast, describes a system that is able to thrive on uncertainty, and that will not be brought crashing down by circumstances its designers did not anticipate. For Taleb, humans are naturally “antifragile” creatures. Our best qualities, from creativity to compassion, are nurtured by a certain amount of stress, disorder and uncertainty - and are blunted by excessive ease and insulation from consequences.

If we are to grow as people, for Taleb, we must experience surprise, failure and disappointment, and not be seduced into thinking that all consequences have already been anticipated on our behalf. This, as he sees it, “is the tragedy of modernity: as with neurotically overprotective parents, those trying to help are often hurting us the most”.

The hurt doesn’t only lie in failures of personal development. For a central paradox of “smart” technologies is that the power they offer comes hand-in-hand with an unprecedented vulnerability. The more complex the global infrastructure needed to support the most basic tools and services in our lives, the more vulnerable it becomes to unexpected crises - from power outages to civil unrest - and the more vulnerable we become alongside it.

None of which is to deny the utility of Google Maps as a tool - or the giddy joy of exploring places from South Dakota to North Korea through the lens of services like Google Earth. Technologies inconceivable even a few decades ago now nestle in the palms of millions of hands, and these hands gratefully clasp their smart tools. It’s what else these hands do, and don’t do, that really matters; and how far the gifts of each device extract a price elsewhere.

As it was in the realm of finance, so it may be for technology. If the great digital edifices come crashing down – even temporarily - it’s those who most gleefully outsourced themselves to smart tools who’ll be left looking most stupid. Yet we all bear the risks of an uncritical approach to smart living: of a machine-woven social fabric that might, at the push of a button or the snipping of a cable, unravel entirely.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130201-when-smart-is-not-so-smart/1









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