"Gumbasia" by Art Clokey - for fans of Visual Structure

http://www.archive.org/details/Gumbasia

"All rights reserved" - an obstacle in creating the Open Society

To fully realise a society based on the open principle, every individual must have the opportunity to create art and entertainment without any legal restrictions on the use and re-use of other artistic works. Thus the whole concept of intellectual property have to be questioned. In a society where it is unlawful for individuals to re-use artistic works to create new ones and freely distribute them, there is no true artistic freedom. Corporations like ASCAP and TONO claims that they are "protecting their members rights" when attacking the sharing culture and Creative Commons, which represents a legal alternative to the "all rights reserved" based system that goes back to pre-WW2 (in Norway). The systems for free sharing of artistic works in both professional and consumer quality are already here (i.e.archive.org and jamendo.com), but cannot be utilised to the full extent as long as both users and the services themselves run the risk of lawsuits due to copyright issues.

Why Oskar Hansen did not publish "Towards Open Form" with a Creative Commons license remains a mystery. Both Hansen (in his latest written works) and numerous others officially promoting the Open Society signed contracts with publishers prohibiting their works to be shared and re-used noncommercially.

A couple of years ago the norwegian architects' association (NAL) sent their members information on "copyright for architects". They did not even mention the Creative Commons option. Maybe we should all send NAL an email asking them why?



"All rights reserved" - an obstacle in creating the Open Society by Sølve N.T. Lauvås is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Norway License.

Design History: The Trademark in Nazi Germany and the Modern Logo

Design History: The Trademark in Nazi Germany and the Modern Logo from Independent Media Channel on Vimeo.

Claude Bragdon: "Architecture & Democracy" (1918)

Architecture of the human psyche

"The unconscious mind processes information on a more symbolic, metaphorical level than the conscious mind. While your conscious mind is occupied with rationally analyzing the words being listened to, it is the unconscious mind that is more concerned with their meanings"

(From: http://web.archive.org/web/20100727021329/http://www.hypnosisforyou.com/psyche.html)

Very few architects and artists takes the subconscious reactions of the viewer into account when creating their works. It also seems that people who have studied the theories and/or practises of connecting the conscious and subconscious mind easier will understand the logic of Open Form, whether it applies to art, architecture or other fields.

Research in this field includes (but not limited to):

J. B. Deregowski (1989): "Real space and represented space: Cross-cultural perspectives"

Emily Balcetis and David Dunning (2006): "See What You Want to See: Motivational Influences on Visual Perception"

Kappas, Arvid andOlk, Bettina(2008): 'The concept of visual competence as seen from the perspective of
the psychological and brain sciences', Visual Studies, 23: 2, 162 — 173

Zen Gardens

The Japanese rock gardens or "dry landscape" gardens, often called "Zen gardens" were influenced mainly by Zen Buddhism and can be found at Zen temples of meditation.

Japanese gardens are a living work of art in which the plants and trees are ever changing with the seasons. As they grow and mature, they are constantly sculpted to maintain and enhance the overall experience; hence, a Japanese garden is never the same and never really finished. The underlying structure of a Japanese garden is determined by the architecture; that is, the framework of enduring elements such as buildings, verandas and terraces, paths, tsukiyama (artificial hills), and stone compositions. Over time, it is only as good as the careful maintenance that it receives by those skilled in the art of training and pruning. Part of the art is to keep the garden almost still, like a painting.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_rock_garden

http://www.kasrl.org/axiomathes.pdf

Open Form/New Open Form Music

http://www.michaelwilhelmi.de/NewOpenForm/?page_id=311&lang=en

Alan Watts - Work As Play

Alan Watts discusses viewing work as a dance, and how life is spontaneous, instead of driven by external forces. www.alanwatts.com

Art Safari - Relational Art: Is It An Ism? (2004)

http://www.ubu.com/film/relational.html

3 films by Joseph Beuys (1921-1986)

http://www.ubu.com/film/beuys.html

The Relational View - Jan Helderman

Chinese dating site spammers are not completely useless. They can lead you to sites like www.fabc.info, which may be interesting for students of visual structure. To put it short, it is about relations of forms and functions and understanding of these.
Jan Helderman also has a blog at http://janhelderman.blogspot.com/

Oskar Hansen Symposium 2009

OH-SYMPOSIUM 09 - BAS 18. OG 19. DESEMBER 2009 – OPEN FORM 50 ÅR
AT BAS 18th and 19th of December – OPEN FORM 50 YEARS

JUBILEUMSYMPOSIUM - PROGRAM
FREDAG 18. DESEMBER
Friday 18th of December
Time
KL.18 OSKAR HANSEN SYMPOSIUM - OPEN FORM 50 år. v/ Svein Hatløy
Open Form 50 year’s anniversary - Oskar Hansen symposium
KL.19 Helsing til Svein Hatløy.
Greeting to Svein Hatløy
Immatrikulering av 1.klasse. v/ Marianne Skjulhaug
Matriculation of 1.year
OPNING AV 1.ÅRS JULEUTSTILLING OG JULEFEST
1.year’s Exhibition and Christmas party

LAURDAG 19. DESEMBER
Saturday 19th of December
KL.10 Hårsamlinga. Hårinnsamlingskontor www.zeth.no/hair.html
Kurt Johannessen
Hair collection. Hair collection Office
KL.10.20 OF2 – framhaldskurs Open Form, v/ Svein Hatløy
OF2 – continuity course of Open Form
KL.11-11.10 PAUSE, te og kaffi
SHORT BREAK
Økt 2: MARKERING av OPEN FORM 50 ÅR i GUANGZHOU, KINA,
prosjekta til OF2, viste på utstilling og førelesingar - norsk kveld
CELEBRATION in GUANGZHOU, OPEN FORM 50 YEARS
KL.11.10 Prosjektet: Sterk vind – Open Form, metode og praksis i Gulen,
Strong Wind – Open Form, method and practice at Gulen
v/ Mona Steinsland
KL.11.50 Prosjekt: Sjølvbygging ved Lisboa, Portugal
Self building invitation outside Lisbon, Portugal, v/ Jørgen Stavseng
KL.12.20 Prosjekt: Nasjonale turistvegar, CODE Arkitektur og 3RW Arkitektar
v/ Bjarne Ringstad og Espen Rahlff
Reading topological space. Projects and realizations from the National Norwegian Tourist Route Project
KL.13.20 LUNCH - Godt grovt brød og varm suppe
Good bread and hot soup

Økt 3. REPORTS FROM CHINA - RAPPORT FRÅ KINA
KL.14 OPEN FORM 50 YEARS - OPEN FORM INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE - OF2, THE CONTINUATION.
CHINA, GREAT NUMBER, from Shi Pai Guangzhou to Beijing.
KINA, FLEIRTALSFORM, frå Shi Pai, Guangzhou til Beijing.
Open Form 50 år – OF2 i symposiet og 3 verkstadar. Oversyn ved Svein Hatløy og innlegg ved OF2, Mona Steinsland, Jørgen Stavseng, Bjarne Ringstad, Espen Rahlff, Henning Kaland
Open Form 50 year – OF2 in the symposium and 3 workshops. Introduction by Svein Hatløy, and contribution from OF2
Ordskifte - Discussion
KL.15 MIND THE GAP. Diplom 2009. Marit Kornberg
KL.15.15 – 16 WARZAWA SPEL, alle er med – CONTINUITET/SIMULTANITET.
WARSAW GAME everyone takes part – CONTINUITY/SIMULTANEITY

Study Group on Open Form (unofficial) at Bergen School of Architecture.

Starting at December 19. 2009, there will be a study group mainly dedicated to the non-architectural aspects of Open Form.

Planned activities includes:

- Study trip to The Norwegian Knitting Industry Museum for case studies of the integration of art in industry machines and architecture.

- Study trip to Poland including Warszawa and Szumin, for studies of Oskar Hansen's architecture and works.


Contact info: sntlauvaas_(at)_hotmail_(dot)_com

Steampunk Culture - Open Form ideas reborn?

From: http://www.steampunknetwork.co.uk/

An Overview of Ideas

Steampunk is a cultural movement of people who wish to rediscover the adventure, mystery and imagination in the modern world. We take our inspiration from the pre-industrial past, when craftsmanship mattered and before mass-production and vast meta-companies with billion-dollar profits became the norm.

We prize individuality and personal expression, trying to be inclusive rather than exclusive; the wide-scope of people who call themselves Steampunks makes any definition difficult. Anarchists who fight for environmental protection and individual rights, artisans who hand-craft beautiful and functional works of art, story-tellers who explore what could have been, what should have been and what was never going to be, free-thinkers who want to bring some magic back into the world and lead by example, costumers who slip into another set of cloths and another life, engineers trying to find some tactile connection with the world we live in... Everyone's welcome.

Whenever more than half-a-dozen Steampunks gather in one place, it's almost inevitable that a discussion will start as to What Steampunk Is. It normally ends with people agreeing to disagree. Consider us guests at an open party. Anyone can come in. If you find like-minded people and want to stay, you're more than welcome.

Lutz Mommartz: "Denkmaler" (1970)

Monuments: Jurgen Kuhfuss. An attack on the sense of monuments in Duesseldorf.

A pioneer of the film genre known as "other cinema," Lutz Mommartz was born in in Erkelenz in 1934 and spent most of his life in Dusseldorf. He began making movies in 1967 and eventually became Professor of Film at the Kunstakademie Munster. He still lives and works in Germany, dividing his time between Dusseldorf and Berlin.

In this movie, he questions the "traditional" monument in a way similar to Oskar Hansen's theory of "Art as a background for events" (as opposed to "Art for the sake of art".)

More of Lutz Mommartz' films can be found at www.archive.org

Lectures on Visual Structure by Svein Hatløy

What Visual Structure is REALLY about...

Ernie uses visual structure methods to make four cookies look like five by rearranging them on the plate.

Open form wallpaper/desktop backgrounds

Open form/closed form symbolism analysis by Sølve N.T. Lauvås

Ralph Erskine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Erskine_(architect)

The Byker Wall:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byker_Wall