Wednesday, March 13, 2013


OBcities



























Dr. David Suzuki says it best, “With an estimated population of nine billion people by 2050, we cannot continue to consume resources at the same rate and maintain our quality of life.” We have become an obese race, rapidly consuming even more than we physically can. This consumption is occurring at an alarming rate with no regard for the effects that our actions have not only on the health of environment but also indirectly on the health of current and future generations. Society is becoming more diseased and overweight everyday. I am considering further researching this topic through my seminar project for Urban CT. I would like to use the CT as a new lens to look at the parallel between healthy cities and healthy bodies.

"David Suzuki Foundation | Solutions Are in Our Nature." David Suzuki Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2013.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013


The Team




The Body




Monday, March 11, 2013

fragmented visioning


fragmentary visioning from Joshua Atria on Vimeo.

The video was captured through the aid of an iphone strapped to my leg. This unique perspective overlaps the sinusoidal patterning of the dynamic (caused by the motion of the leg) with the visual patterning of the static (the painted lines in the road, trees, etc). Inspired by the excerpt below from Siegfried Kracauer's, "Once Again the Street."

"The Street in the extended sense of the word is not only the arena of fleeting impressions and chance encounters but a place where the flow of life is bound to assert itself....The kaleidoscopic sights mingle with unidentified shapes and fragmentary visual complexes and cancel each other out, thereby preventing the onlooker from following up any of the innumerable suggestions they offer. What appears to him are not so much sharp-contoured individuals engaged in this or that definable pursuit as loose throngs of sketchy, completely indeterminate figure. Each has a story, yet the story is not given. Instead, an incessant flow of possibilities and near-intangible meanings appears."

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Robotic Acceleration

robotic acceleration from Dan Hutcherson on Vimeo.

I see this as a translation of my acceleration through a robotic tool, a large format cutting table. Video and acceleration is captured in three directions to illustrate the mechanical motion.

Living Section

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

CT-scan and Reflexology



The purpose of this video is exposing the hidden connections between the city infrastructure and the foot reflexology. In traditional Chinese medical science, the subtle relationship between the inner body system and outer physique can be reflected through the acupuncture points. This practice of theory has been widely applied into body massage treatment, such as foot and hand. The fact that cities are constructed by hard and soft infrastructure is fairly similar to the human body’s internal and external organs. Based on a brief study of the foot reflexology diagram, the reflex zones can be divided into two parts; one being the internal organs, such as brain and nerves, while the other one being the external organ, such as ear and eye. In this video, the urban soft infrastructure can be understood as things that involved human cultural efforts (graffiti, sculpture, etc.) or natural elements (plants, animals, etc.), while the urban hard infrastructure are things that are essential in constructing a city (road, bridge, building, etc.).