It was about 1:30 Pm when Paige and I arrived at PNCA+FIVE Idea Studios at Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Dr. Saul Ostrow sat at the front of the room and began reading from a small stack of paper in front of him. He had a pleasant, descriptive voice, and his face was illuminated by a small lamp.

Behind him was a projection screen displaying a series of disconnected abstract black and white scenes. Sometimes these scenes had muted scenes of people giving speeches. When Saul spoke, it sometimes looked like these ancient philosophers was coming back to life.

While he spoke, I attempted to write down every thing I could, but some of what he said may be unclear or missing. Please excuse this.

Transcript:

“Before I begin my speech on Models of Critical Production, one of the things that I tend to do is that I need definitions.

We all tend to say — even in the titling of this — we say ‘oh, I know what that means”

I need to clarify what I mean by it.

To model is to give form to or to display.

Critical is a moment of importance.

Practice is to perform with proficiency, or to exercise in order to gain proficiency.

To train in a systematic matter to a given end.

Therefore, what I am going to speak about gives form in a systematic manner to judgment.

System — a number of elements working together in concert, in an ordered manner, to create a whole, or to accomplish a task.

Obviously, we are talking not about something singular, but a complex network of interrelated relationships.

What does one need to make a judgment or to take a position? A position is something that one uses to locate themselves relative to another thing or person.

What are some of the terms of valuation -so that they may be a guide to one’s practice — to one’s performance. What are the standards, values and criteria are to be employed –and how might these come to be.

Standards and criteria are comparable and therefore quantitative .

Values are qualitative and therefore relative.

Criteria — the terms of evaluation or appraisal.
Desirability, or comparative quality. Obviously, these reflect a system.

Ideology –a series of imagined set of relationships that guide one’s actions and guides one’s subjectivity. A sense of self, or identity.

To model a critical practice is to give form or to display one’s sense of self, but what is this sense of self?

A sense of self is how we as individuals understand our individuality and collectivity. How we collectively and individually compare ourselves to each other

It is this self that is the emergent subject that enables us to act as well as inhibiting ourselves.

———–

Let us first clarify the notion of the emergent subject -that which moves under or moves something away

The emergent subject is one who acts, or orders.

One is not fixed. Our actions in the world move us .

We possess the ability to act in an ever new and reflexive way. In other ways we are always manifesting and an ever evolving awareness of ourselves.

It is our awareness that allows us to act, and consequently, the modeling of a critical practice is the display of the awareness by which you experience the world. And how the world might be ordered to the evolving self.

The experience of the self is always for the self and the position of advancing the self — both individually and collectively –

Relative to the subject with this talk — at this point, I’ll remind you — I cannot tell you the whole of this with any certainty — because based on the position I have announced here — I do not know the whole of it.

What I do know that there is more to it.

There are three elements of this model of the self

• Self criticality.
• Ethicality
• The Aesthetic.

Neither a priority or inherent, self criticality is a fail safe as we cannot extract ourselves from our world view.

We cannot understand ourselves except for that which is done in the way of value.

That we invest in ourselves tin that that effort will render up an additional value — in that one believes one needs, or one believes the world needs.

This “putting” into the world requires an aesthetic. We must think of it as an inclusive -as well as a means by which we do things. Ourselves in the world - it is the terms by which we represent our terms of self and the ability to progress. It is the means by which the emergent sel.

The content of such a practice is always political — these politics being the economy of social power.

To revise or transform how it has come to understand. Essential to advancing its position within the world is an affirmation or a means of introduction.

—————-

Thinking of Objects Rather than Systems

This desire to categorize art as object rather than critical discourse

one ends up worrying about the market rather than the cultural effect of the things that are produced.

Art is free. It is in our galleries. We can see it.

If we choose to posses it then we worry about markets. And possessing an object rather than the art.

If all of those fields are the creation of distinctly different things, then how do these ever interact?

Answer: there is never (not any interaction - it’s omnipresent) it is the material conditions of our lives. We are born into this — there is no undoing of it?

Is there value in that? There is only value we subscribe to.

We have common projects — some of us participate in those projects and some of choose not to
And we’ve determined that some of s participate in these things that we deem ed best to me in that collective.
Tom Summer: How is the possibility of communication between this intersubjective space possible? It is by consensus forming one contour of collectivity.

What does it mean to “take care of yourself”?

The fixity of the subject is not attached as an image- - is a restless activity (reminds me of Erving Goffman’s seminal book on the understanding of human existence, ”
If one presents new terms - if one is constantly seeking to unfix something - that is illicit. Once it becomes fixed - put in its place- it ceases to become a critical practice. Constantly offering up new propositions. If that worked, will this work?

Do artists ever fall prey to being licit without knowing it?

Not every artist is involved critical practice — the constant reinvention and rexamination of one’s own thoughts, ideologies, self-presence (except perhaps maybe online?).

Very often we talk of things as a singularity –as an art–as a thing- a singular thing. rather than the notion that there are artists that have little or no interest in criticality, but still culturally produce.
Not any singular practice –

the question of dialogue and intersubjectivity . the clash of these practices makes culture still dynamic.

Entering into the same aesthetic and same assumptions we would have a very structured culture, in which the practices would all be subscribed. There are some of us that unsubscribe — for instance, to say, “Oh I know that position, and I’m not interested in believing that anymore”.

Critical practice is always for something; it is not against something.

If I do away with evil - good will remain.

Theory always moves towards practice. they are interrelated.

Practice without some grounding is habit. if it has no self reflexivity. if it has no affirmation -being informed - we end up engaging in something that is habitual . the notion of theory is that I put things into the world as proposition. even the objects that one makes are always grounded in some sort of theoretical position.

You construct a theory of intuition. theory is the propositions that guide us.

The notion of artificiality - as it is with objects it is with us. They are tremendously unstable objects.

A critical practice is always illicit, but never negative.
—

A theory , in a sense -

Do not pick a meaning inappropriate to the subject.
There are just some things you can’t make a painting out of.
Which need is stronger—to make a painting about that subject or to be a painter?

A person decides to paint a picture of mars and Venus. And so they must learn everything they can about Mars and Venus—the whole story—so they can find the perfect moment in which to it.

in depth research - and understanding of relationships - self reflexivity.

Then it becomes how to represent that appropriate moment.

When models of existing practices should exceed existing structures.

Thomas Zummer: We’re always negotiating conflict.

A system network is constantly in negotiation. Constantly in practice. Constantly informing who and where we are in our positions in the world.

On Human Expiration

Productivity is dependent on death and destruction.

Some argue that what makes our human is the knowledge of our mortality.

In that we attempt to constructs things to leave behind.
The fear of death - drives us to produce the social -drives us to produce civilization.

Death is not destruction. I don’t see death as destructive! You’re talking about violence and I see violence as something else.

—————–

@paigedestroy will be going on a two week retreat with Tom Summers and Saul Ostrow. I’m letting her borrow my tape recorder who can by in multiple places at once.

A formal ind of decay or destruction to be subdued in the destruction is to be consumed in that productively is to be consumed in those forms the the transstion or production of those forms.

Those frameworks are always producing or always creating those decays.

We are dying every moment.

What I Took Away from the Lecture

Bordieu - that we are always reterritorializing things —-moving the boundaries of things. We only see it online because it is newer there – and disconnected. –
at one time you could not frame this with a new body

it is just more mechanical online, the reinvention of self — it does not mean that we do not do it in real life. the distance between spaces in which we do it online is just larger more granular — less resolution. we do not notice it in real life because it is so smooth and there are so many more systems at play — the granularity, the smoothness and the complexity of the system in real life compared to the systems online is so much more that we notice things more easily online. It is not “liquid” modernity” it is not fast and continual flux. it is slower online. much slower.

Moreover, as sociologist Emelie Durkheim said, as society matures and progresses, they flow from mechanical to organic.

We exist in space for a prolonged period and we call that time.
I’m more include to talk about entropy than decay.
These negotiations of certain processes. Things moving to a steady state.

I think its a society looking for its values and world view to be expressed and that it goes back to — reception. Those things we call artists are the agents by which we express something.

——-

I don’t believe in a Zeitgeist -because I don’t know when that time is.
if I could predict what would touch those million people. For instance, I could say, ‘what people really need right now is hope’ — but I don’t really know what hope looks like.

At the end, he pointed out something along the lines of the time cost of painting, adding “It’s better to work in film”.

And in similar vein of Artists are force carriers of culture.

—-

About PNCA+FIVE Idea Studio

————————
This lecture series was part of the PNCA + FIVE Idea Studio: Models of Critical Production
Saul Ostrow will be at Pacific Northwest College of Art from October 13–16.

————————

Event Schedule

Models of Critical Production
October 13 – 16
PNCA Campus
Free and open to the public

October 13
Tom Zummer workshop | Commons | 4 – 5:30 pm

October 14
Saul Ostrow lecture | Commons | 12:30 – 1:30pm
Tom Zummer workshop | Commons | 4 – 5:30pm

October 15
Tom Zummer lecture | Commons | 12:30 – 1:30pm

October 16
Saul Ostrow lecture | Commons | 12:30 – 1:30pm

More at PNCA Lectures occurring this week.

Volume Four of Portland’s Pecha Kucha Series was held last Tuesday, August 12th, 2008.

This particular session was located on NW 8th and Couch Street in artists place that was currently under construction. There was a random amalgamation of wooden benches on the floor facing a large presentation screen. The event was free, and so was free wine and beer. Not bad for a Tuesday night of entertainment!

At 6:30Pm the room was already filled to capacity. There is a large oriental carpet in front of the large projection screen, and the audience overflow is sitting on it.

What is Pecha Kucha?

Pecha Kucha is a Japanese word for the sound of conversation, or chit chat.
It is a presentation technique in which the presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds each.
In this way, an audience can absorb a large amount of information very quickly, because interest is kept up by the rapid change of images and speaker engagement. It’s a way to remove the annoyance that a standard Powerpoint presentations often bring to standard meeting experiences.

Pecha Kucha Presentation Summaries

Andrew Brahe

Confluence Project

Brahe received his B.S. in Architecture from Portland State University, and he has a passion for ethical design and strives for a better way to build.

His presentation started with an audience participation exercise. He had the right side of the room begin to snap their fingers, and got the middle of the room to begin rubbing their hands together. He made the left side of the room made slap their thighs. Then he urged everyone to do their part faster and louder, until the place was filled with a great amount of percussive noise.

Then he made everyone stop.

There was dead silence and darkness; then the first slide showed up on the monitor.

The presentation involved architecture. One of the best slides demonstrated a beautifully formed pedestrian bridge that had been built over a freeway near Ft. Vancouver. He said that this bridge would be opened to the public soon.

The image of the land bridge spanning over the highway was intense. It looked as if green grass had grown all over the highway in an organic arch, partially eroding away the concrete. In reality, the bridge was allowing animals and humans a way to cross over previously impervious territory.

There were a number of other architectural projects shown, including a tall bird observation tower in the middle of the forest with a long ramp all the way to the top. Brahe is also employed as a project manager with Maya Lin (the architect behind the Vietnam memorial in Washington D.C.) on a multi-sited art and architectural installation.

Diane Jacobs and Karen Maurer

Visual Artists

This presentation detailed a future interactive installation at the Disjecta art space in North Portland. The show encourages viewers to “See, feel, open, and act”, and “Find words that begin to transform the present”.

“We abolished slavery, except as a punishment for crime”, the presenter said.

The pieces were about bridging the gaps in multicultural understanding in Portland. One of the most poignant lines: “Don’t let anyone forfeit untapped potential”.

The art show opens Saturday, the 23rd of August from 6-9 pm at the Disjecta. 8371 N Interstate Portland Oregon 97217.
Gallery Hours are Fri-Sun Aug 24-Oct 25 / 12-6 pm, and the Artists Talk is Wednesday, October 1st at 7 pm.

Bill Dieter

Industrial Designer, TERRAZIGN, Inc.

Bill Dieter started Terrazign, Inc., a Portland-based industrial design firm in 1994. The firm works primarily with fabrics and hard woods. His interest is in “integrating the worlds of hard and soft”.

Zippable Plywood Trade Show Booths

One of the first slides demonstrated a trade show booth for a snowboarding company. He was able to integrate zippers into the polished plywood panels to allow the tradeshow display to be zipped together into a study shape and unzipped
into an easily transportable shape once the trade show ended.

“This is the only time I’ve ever gotten splinters from sewing”, he added with a smile.

All Weather Segway Enclosures

He showed off other industrial objects from his firm, including an all-weather enclosure for Segways that made the little personal vehicles look even more ridiculous——>in a good way. Here’s a link to an article (and photos) of the invention on Engadget called Meep Meep.

Backpacks and Military Projects

The next series of slides ranged from inflatable car seats for toddlers (saving time, space, and weight), and Compression backpacks, which do pretty much the same thing while looking awesome at the same time.

He outlined some of the military projects the firm has worked on as well, including a backpack with a hydration frame that made water the structure of the pack.

“This solved the largest issue of military life, which is hydration”. Placing hydration at the center of the bag allowed the soldier the capability to modify what they needed, because the backpack was also modular.

Sparq Training Equipment

Terrazign created a series of collapsible hurdles for Sparq, a training division of Nike. They’re lightweight and foldable, and can withstand and structure serious training.

They also developed weight vests, which were made from monofilament fiber mesh that allows for air flow.

Vertical Treadmills for NASA

Perhaps the most interesting part of Dieter’s presentation involved images of NASA members training for space missions on vertical treadmills. The treadmills were developed by Terrazign to create artificial gravity and the ability to retain bone density while in space. The vertical treadmill is effective because of its capability to simulate gravity equal to body weight.

A group of guys that were playing a series of Mexican folk songs on guitars strode by the event space while we watched a man running on a vertical treadmill on the screen. It was a strange juxtaposition of elements that made the audience consider really what they were looking at.

You can see images of the Vertical Treadmill at the NASA Website.

Severin Villiger

Designer, Teacher

Severin began by telling us that he was going to do a presentation about Italian Airplanes. He was wearing a leather coat, airplane goggles, and a big black biker helmet.

Apparently, he was a Vespa enthusiast. He showed pictures of pinup women riding the bikes, and even had a whole series of them inside the presentation space. The entire presentation was developed with a zany Swiss accent, which made his ability to make the crowd laugh even greater.

Vespa Mania

“Who thinks a Vespa is a toy?” he smiled, “I don’t”.

He showed an image of his group of Vespa riders doing all sorts of interesting activities, and then one of his personal collection of Vespa bikes.

“The best thing about a Vespa scooter?” he stated, “You have four…or ten”.

Want to join the fun? Check out the Portland Vespa Group for more adventures.

Intermission

Matthew Packwood

Radio Producer

“I’m going to do a presentation on Contemporary Classical Music. It’s kind of an oxymoron. Contemporary and classical shouldn’t go together, but they really do”.

“I figured that it is rather difficult to talk about music, so I brought four pieces to share with you, all of which have something to do with Portland”.

He then began to play each piece. Each song had four slides associated with it - a title slide, a picture of what the often complex music looked like, an image of the composer, and an image of what the original cover of the pieces looked like.

These four elements caused a greater understanding of each piece than if simply the music had been played alone. The images of the composers were probably the most compelling of all of the images.

Piece One

Two Celebratory Fanfares (1995)
Composer: David Dzubay (b. 1964)
Performers: John Rommel, trumpet, Edmund Cord, trumpet, Thomas Brown, trumpet, Richard Sandals, trumpet, Amy Schendel, trumpet, Robert White, trumpet, David Dzubay, conductor.

Piece Two

Incidental Music to Corneille’s Cinna (1955-1957) whose cover looked like an old book.
Composer: Lou Harrison (1917-2003)
Performer: Linda Burman-Hall, tack piano.

Piece Three

theater of mineral NADEs [excerpt] (1998)
Composer: Eyvind Kang b. 1971.
Performers: Eyvind Kang

Here, Packwood showed an image of one of Kang’s conceptual sketches. It was as intense as the image of the composer. Extremely detailed and poignant. It told the story of the composer’s mind almost as well as the music.

Piece Four

Open up your Ears. Composer: Bryan Johanson.
Performer: David Starobin, Guitar.

This was an overwhelmingly beautiful piece, and it was a classical piece inspired by a line in the Jimi Hendrix song ‘Can You See Me?’.

Packwood’s presentation was excellent because he chose to let the music speak for him.

If you want to learn more, please check out Packwood’s site Art of the States.

Greg Barton

Designer, Hurricane Katrina Revisited

Greg received architectural training from Tulane University, RISD, and , most recently, the Bartlett in London. He has created exhibits and installations shown in venues from Tyron Creek to AIA Portland Gallery to the recent “PDXplore: Designing Portland” exhibit at PNCA. Before moving to England, Greg worked for Hoist Architecture.

Barton was attending Tulane University in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina displaced his life. The event that caused 81 billion dollars in damages is still affecting the lives of many residents.

He reminded the audience that the hurricane has not finished its toll on the residents of New Orleans. There are 150,000 families still living in FEMA trailers, with an average of three per trailer. Many refugees live in FEMA villages, or “FEMA-villes”.

A far cry from the luxurious representations of trailers from the 1950’s in advertising, there are many health hazards present in trailer life. For instance, Formaldehyde exists in dangerous levels, and there have already been many C02 related deaths.

He then showed how pragmatic restraints began to reshape the public sphere. Some families had placed white picket fences or stone lions in front of their temporary/permament trailers in an attempt to trick their minds into feeling like they had an actual place to live.

Meghan Sinnot and Carl Larson

Advocates, SHIFT - Portland Biking Initiative

Meghan Sinnot came to Portland from Alaska and attended Lewis & Clark college to study Anthropology. Since it was way up on a hill, it was not easy for her to explore the surrounding Portland area without taking a long trek downtown on the college-supplied bus.

Then, Meghan discovered biking. Now she is an part of SHIFT, the Portland bicycle advocacy group.

She began the presentation by taking out a bike and pedaling on it while telling the room about her history.

“Who rode a bike here today?” she asked us. Many hands went up, including mine.

“What we do here at SHIFT is basically an ad-hocracy,” she stated, “but we do have a stash of cash in someone’s basement that they let us get at sometimes”.

She talked about the group’s attempts at serving breakfast to bike commuters on the bridges in the morning. And she talked about Critical Mass, Zoo Bombing, and Pedapalooza—a few of the great Portland bike events that serve the educate and create a nice ground for future bike advocacy.

“In Guadalajara,” she said, “there is one vehicle for every three citizens”.

You can find out more about Portland Bike Culture at shifttobikes.org.

TJ Norris and Chas Bowie

Artists

One of the presenters was masked, and the other unmasked. They talked about the modern condition, asking questions such as, “does the mask control the wearer?” (or does clothing or career control the subject?), and snapshot culture. Click Click Click Click Click Click. Tick tock, Tick tock.

I would write more, but I can’t really describe what they said in the way they did. I was very impressed though, so I am including some links to their work here.

Resources

Read more about TJ Norris, and his show at the New American Art Union. There’s also an article history for Chas Bowie at the Portland Mercury.

————–

Future Pecha Kucha Portland Events

I highly recommend attending any Pecha Kucha event. If you’d like to learn more about upcoming sessions in Portland or elsewhere, and possibly sign up to present, visit http://www.pechakuchaportland.org/.

For more information regarding ciyscope and upcoming events, please visit www.projectcityscope.org.

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Event Sponsors

W.PA - Works Partnership Architecture, LLC
Architecture Foundation of Oregon
FordGraphics
A to Z Wine Works (Delicious).
Quixote Investments (add this link).
Rogue Brewery
Art Institute of Portland

We have a vision for 1 million new people moving into this city. How does design thinking work into this process? What are our hopes and dreams for Portland, and how can we build our city to realize them?

“In the Round: Collective Leadership” was the title of PDXplore #2, part of PNCA’s ongoing Idea Studios. From 6-9 Pm on July 22nd, some of the most active members of Portland’s community attended what would be an important first step in creating a lasting dialog for the intentional and mindful development of Portland’s maturing land and cityscapes.

The panel featured 10 members mayor-elect Sam Adams, Metro president David Bragdon, Hillsboro mayor Tom Hughes, Portland planning director Gil Kelley, and City of Gresham executive manager Alice Rouyere”.

The purpose of the panel was to bring clarity to the relationship between planning and design, while making the needs of a growing population known to important civic leadership. The idea was create a safe space for Elected Officials and Designers to speak about the challenges facing Portland and their vision for the future.

Read the rest of this entry »

Event Notes: PDXplore  - Event Recap
When: Tuesday, July 8, 2008, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location: PNCA, 1241 NW Johnson Street
View Event Details on Upcoming and PNCA News.

I just attended an mind-blowing event called “PDXplore” at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Five outstanding architects and urban planners presented their visions and philosophies on the future of Portland while surrounded by a body of their own work. Diagrams, schematics, and urban plans covered the walls of the college, and before the event, the audience had a chance to view, discuss, and explore the architect’s work. Bram Pitoyo was also sitting next to me and captured the event in his usual lucid, detailed manner. His review is here.

If you get a chance, check out the massive print-out of Portland and surrounding areas lining the entire main floor of PNCA. It’ll make like you’re flyng over a landscape infinitely larger than the view any mortal computer screen could ever offer the eye.

I tried to capture the essence of the entire event, and if I failed in any way, please let me know via Twitter, comment, or E-mail.

—

PDXplore is the first in a series of Architecture panels on the future of the City of Portland. PDXplore #2 occurs on July 22nd, 2008 from 6-9Pm at PNCA. The theme is “Collective Leaderships” and it features mayor-elect Sam Adams, Metro president David Bragdon, Hillsboro mayor Tom Hughes, Portland planning director Gil Kelley, and City of Gresham executive manager Alice Rouyere. RSVP for this event on Yahoo’s Upcoming.

There were five speakers, each were given exactly eight minutes to speak:

Speaker 1. Carol Mayer-Reed, a founding principal of landscape architecture firm Mayer-Reed. She is currently Exploring the larger context of the region in respect to the othe rmajor cities of the rest of the coast

Speaker 2. Rudy Barton, architecture professor at Portland State and longtime chair of the school’s architecture department. He has 30 years of architectural experience as an urban designer and has worked in Jerusalem and Barcelona. He’s also the designer of Portland’s original downtown.

Speaker 3. Mike McCulloch, former head of the city’s Design Commission and a veteran architect. He has designed urban districts and campuses.

Speaker 4. William Tripp, another venerable architect, studied in Finland (a magical place known for its brilliant minimalism and attention to natural processes).

Speaker 5. Rick Potestio, a native Portlander, and one of the city’s most talented architects.

:FIRST SPEAKER | Carol Mayer-Reed:

I’d like to talk about the DNA of Portland. More specifically, why do people live here, and why do people want to move here? This is what I call left coast, right brain. We need to use our right brains to plan our future.

Someone once wrote that, compared to the other cities on the West coast, “Portland is more about small discoveries than spectacular landmarks”.

Over the years Portland has a new and emerging view of itself. Portland now has enough self-esteem to come forward and encourage this type of comparison.

Now many from those other cities on the West Coast are moving here.

Out of 50 US cities, PDX, Seattle, and San Francisco rank high on the vectors of high connectedness and transit, and we have a 21% rate of growth.

Portland also supports collective shared values and sensibilities, and with these shared values and openness comes creativity.

We have rituals unique to Portland; we have farmer’s markets and block parties, bike rides and food carts that colonize our parking lots.

But can we retain these interesting characteristics as we grow, and can we continue to attract people with the same shared values and sensibilities?

Everywhere we look we have green surroundings. Our rivers have meaning; they both divide and connect us.
We’d love to bury Interstate 5 and join it to the east side.

Can we build truly green waterfronts on both riverbanks?

We have to be mindful against poor legislation creeping onto the ballot.

We have a reputation for being green in the US but we’re still a long way from European cities.

You don’t have to necessarily leave the city to access green spaces and places of recreation.

We need more work in linking parks and green spaces.

We redesign ourselves, but we don’t necessarily redevelop ourselves.

Words like quiet elegance, authenticity, and lack of pretence come to mind.

On the optimistic notion that one can make a difference:
Portland tops SF and Seattle in public voting and involvement.

We need to engage the voices. That’s what PDXplore is all about.

It has been demonstrated that periods of crises and questioning are the best opportunities for positive social change.

Let’s not wait for a crises, lets go out ahead of it, and push for more engagement in our public spaces

Let’s let the dialogue continue.

:SECOND SPEAKER | Rudy Barton:

As my wife can attest, I have an ongoing love affair with cities. Cities excite me, and great cities really excite me.

I love to watch them wake them up in the morning, I love to watch them as they go about their days, and I love to watch them rest in the evening.

Rivers and waterfronts are keys to the greatest parts about cties.

There is friction and tension between natural and manmade sources
Changing transportation systems all try to prevent us from getting to the river.

I’ve been accused by my colleagues of ignoring the Columbia river.
But the Willamette and the Columbia are two completely different entities.
Compared to the Willamette, the Columbia is practically a stream.
It is sometimes a mile across in places.

“Raise your hand if you actually saw the river today”, McCulloch said.

The audience shifted in their seats, and about 75% of hands went up in the air.

“Now,” he said, “Raise your hand if you actually touched the Willamette River today”.

Not a hand was raised.

“The Willamette is the largest public space we have in the city, and as we begin to plan the city, we have to plan the role of the river and its engagement with the city.”

“I think it’s better for us in the long run if we confront our anxieties and begin to question what it is like to build next to the river, because the manmade can coexist with nature in places”.

“In urban design terms, Ross Island is a microcosm of the terms and conditions of what we’re going to have to confront in the future of the city’s intersection between the natural and the manmade world. We’re going to need a series of complex strategies to be able to deal with it”.

:THIRD SPEAKER | Mike McCulloch:

I wanted to talk about three things that happened to me that galvanized my participation with this.

What designers look for is a lot of things had stimulate their creativity, and then run some electric current through it and see what happens.

Jaime Lerner of Brazil had the idea that Portland could be as great a city as Curitba, Brazil if only it was courageous enough.

I was very lucky to be able to visit an architecture exhibit in Venice recently, and it was there that I realized that virtually every major city on the face of the earth is rethinking its structure, presence, and identity.

I spent 10 years one the design commission for the city, trying to help get the best projects into the city.

To me, it’s time to design something. It is time to take some dramatic steps to create what the city could be.

First of all, you have to understand how your city has been designed at the very smallest level.

I’ve tried, in my diagrams, to explain things in a way create a new of large concepts, sort of like a constellation map to understand the stars.

Because unless you understand it you can’t protect it.

Make sure you design. Make some mistakes, but make a human intervention to create things so that people understand them.

We need to list out three major areas:

1.    First, our cultural DNA.  Why are we here? What attracted us? How are we different from other cities? What’s the program? Who are we designing for?
2.    Second is the river and the ravines that the rivers have carved (we live in these ravines next to the river).
3.    Third is the urban growth boundary.

And then there’s number four; the room that’s created all of this.

To establish this diagram in the mind of a 4th grader, for them to carry on into the next generation.

I think of the city as a collage — you add to what’s already there.

In the 50’s we made the mistake of bulldozing everything, and then rebuilding. We can’t do that again.

We need to very carefully insert new buildings and new infrastructure into what’s already there.

If you’re thinking of moving to Montana because you think a million people are going to move here in the next few years, don’t. Instead, stay here, and design the city, so that you can keep it the way you want.

Because it’s possible to design the city to be the way we want it.

If planned correctly, the Central East Side could have the density that the West side has.

:FOURTH SPEAKER | William Tripp:

Portland is at a kind of turning point, and that turning point is a kind of issue of density.

There’s another kind of turning pint that Portland’s going to be living through — and that’s a city at the point of commerce that people come to, do their business, and then leave.

On of the challenges then, in making that shift, is to understand what makes a great city as a meaningful place to live.

It’s different to say that your home is your house, than to say that your city is your neighborhood.

Great cities are not defined by a collection of great buildings,

Great cities are communities of great people.

And what do people need to build and sustain communities?

They need a shared public space, the outdoor living rooms of the community.

Portland has a shortage of that kind of space.

It is not that we just need more public outdoor rooms, but that they need to be arranged in a meaningful way.

This brings us to the concept of “ritual space”. A wedding or a funeral takes place in a special type of space.

The a city is not a grid of private property to be developed as a means of raising private wealth, but a network of public space that all of us live in.

As you go about this exhibit, be looking for this community space.

What’s different about a design from an urban planner or a traffic engine?
Design is an intuitive creative act.
At the end of the day you have to make a mark on a piece of paper, you have to say, “It’s shaped like this”.

If you make choices about your garden a home you’re designing, you’re making choices about the “shape” of something.

The reason that design is so important is that design is the tool we use to integrate all of these forces that are otherwise irreconcilable.

To make these rooms at the largest scale to the smallest scale is to make a room and give it shape.

Please take away from this exhibit a new awareness of this exhibit… take away those unifying community spaces of the city that we use to call this place “home”.

:FIFTH SPEAKER | Rick Potestio:

What’s really at stake here? What are the opportunities that we have ahead of us?

We know that may people will be moving her in he future.
We need not to look at this as a problem, but something we need to embrace, and something we have the ability to direct.

We have the opportunity to decide how that investment will be directed.

Or will we be more and more reliant on practices that even now are becoming rapidly obsolete?

I know you all have noticed this Arial photograph of the city covering the ground of this space. It’s this setting that I’m most concerned about.

As a kid I grew up near council crest, and walked up to the top of that mountain and looked out over this green and verdant landscape as far as the eye could see.

And as I grew older i got a bike and took it out further and further, each time discovering more and more how truly unique each space was.

Cities tend to develop at an optimum point, where the rivers and forests and mountains are closest together. It is at this spot that we are now churning under.

We have some of the most spectacular land of anywhere in the world. It is our Eden.

This Eden is what I think is at stake, which is why I and my team have delved into this project.

There is this idea of density influencing the quality of life, as if somehow those have become fused, like an equation.

But it’s not like an equation, it is more like a story problem; a story problem that involves theorems and an understanding of things that can’t be completely proven but that we can somehow intuitively understand.

“Can we fit all half a million people in the confines of what we’ve defined as the city without sacrificing what we already have? Can we do that while also building more into it? While also being able to build better communities with solar panels and community gardens?” If we can make these things, we have a chance at living up to the idea of the city as

“Our time is now — this is our defining moment. She (mother nature) who watches is really wondering “what will we do with this time (that we have)?” ”.

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DISCUSSION:

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Host: so you’re really laid out a very large vision…it’s not about 5, 10, or 25-year plans, but a challenge for us to think about a city in terms of thinking about a forest.

Host: What are the other exemplary cities around the world you think have done exemplary work that you think have built on these  visions?

Barton: It’s about littering every neighborhood in he city with all sorts of public improvements.

McCulloch: one other think is important to look at with other cities is the political structure that leads to that city’s building as well.
well, singapore is great! but their govenrment knows everything, so the city’s going to be just as structured as well.

Tripp. Designers speak in this strange language. we make diagrams…and no one can understand them”.
He pointed to a man named David in the audience and made him stand up. “But David,” he said, “was able to take these rather abstract ideas and create stories out of them”. Meaning accessible to people who were not architects.

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Q+A:

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Q: I noticed that there weren’t any cars populating the designs that were up on the wall. Are cars inherently the enemy of good design?

Potestio: It’s easy to bash on cars. I don’t think they’re going to go away anytime soon. I think that cars have destroyed urban design and our communities as well. They’ve made us a lot more isolated as well.

We can only get that community back by taking a bike ride.

Mayer-Reed: One of the things I noticed about Portland is that we don’t immediately honk at someone when they don’t go immediately at a green light. We let them have a minute. We’re not like other cities in this respect.

If you ask a retailer, they want a busy street outside their door, because it means business.

(Author’s note: In an increasingly digital world, retailers can substitute digital traffic for analog traffic. This takes up less time and less space, allowing for a larger amount of public space with less cars).

Tripp: There is a different between designing open plazas for people that allow cars to go into instead of designing streets for cars that you also allow people to go into. It is a matter of priority.

McCulloch: There is a kind of humility in the way that people design things in this city. One does not takes an investor’s money and go and build the latest, shiniest thing out there. We look down upon that as a community. I think some of our building plans are worthy of recognition (in that respect).

Potestio: There’s the idea of the architect and the ego, and then there is the design that comes from when the designer’s work is generated from a thorough understanding of the problem. Or if the work is an opportunity to show off an idea.

When we think of the great cities, like Florence and Amsterdam, we don’t think of a collection of buildings. We think of a cohesive entity. These cities become contexts that then become admired, respected, and revered throughout history.

Tripp: If you think about it as your own house. You don’t assign a designer to create your house with a different idea in mind for each room — the rooms combine to make the entire house — societies are the same in this way. When you think about Rome you don’t think about this building and that building and this building — you think about the city as a whole.

Understanding Portland is understanding the layers of meaning that are at work in the whole city and then make those meanings visual.

If a building is out of synch with the DNA that is fundamental for the city’s functioning, it won’t be absorbed into the bloodstream of the city. (It’s like transposing type A blood into a B patient).

Harmony has to do with how the forces of the city work through that building.

What are those forces and those alignments of the city that are correct for that building?

Those alignments that cross purposes with our future need to be changed and repurposed. To change those patterns, is to express new lines of change in our city. This takes transforming research into art.

Barton: We want to move our discussion away from the designs of buidlings to the spaces between those buildings.

Audience Member: Why give your kids a big back yard, when you can give them an entire city?”

Potestio: A lot of building design kindles a fear factor; a kind of reluctance to want to know our neighbor. A lot of green spaces are closed off to the tenents of the property who live there. It’s a kind of in-between inaccessible space (often decorative).

Mayer-Reed: I find it interesting that retail centers now imitate small downtowns.

Tripp: I think primarily the role of art is to ask us to look at things in different ways. I think art is like breathing.

—

Potestio then pointed to a blue piece of plastic hanging down from the ceiling, That object is a proposal for a website tool for urban planning”, he said, “we now have these tautological tools now that allow us to create vast amounts of information. The problem then becomes processing that information.

And then there is making sure that each project
draws three blocks in every direction.
When people look at things in this way,
they find themselves discovering new things they haven’t noticed before.

Tripp: What do you do if someone proposes an idea? How does it get discussed? How does it get published? Imagine a kind of room or a kind of space where we can have a more permanent conversation, with monthly exhibits. Not as the kind of event that happens every few months, and not as an event where someone has a great idea, and then it hits the newspapers and is gone.

Potestio: We tend to think of our streets as places that carry us to other places. These streets should really be offering us a very high degree of connectivity”.

Tripp: You don’t prune a tree for the shape. You prune a tree because you know that the part that you prune will turn into a branch. You prune in advance of where it’s going to grow. It is the same in planning a city. We’re all designing a city that we’re never going to see. If you have a clear picture about the future of your city, then it evolves, and it’s not a big deal. It’s not a catastrophe.

The city’s going to grow, no matter if we prune it or not. that’s why the analogy of the fruit tree is wonderful. There are existing patterns that are just going to grow. If you don’t prune a fruit tree, it’s still going to grow.

Thanks to all of the speakers and sponsors who made this event possible, especially PNCA, GBD Architects and Design within Reach.

Want to join in the conversation while learning about latest Portland events? Follow me and the rest of the Portland Community on Twitter.

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Footnote:
Jaime Lerner was elected as mayor of Curitiba three times, and then was elected as govoner of Parana two times. A five-time period of public service, and yet he was an architect and urban planner.

Notes on the Synthesis of Form. Christopher Alexander. Really widely applicable philosophy. Every architecture student is taught this, but hey are taught that it is very difficult to put these concepts into play, because it contradicts the institutional structures of architecture, because architects plan places beforehand in a very modular way.

Pattern Language

Christopher Alexander, an architect and author, coined the term pattern language. He used it to refer to common problems of civil and architectural design, from how cities should be laid out to where windows should be placed in a room. The idea was initially popularized in his book A Pattern Language.

Alexander’s book The Timeless Way of Building describes what he means by pattern language and how it applies to the design and construction of buildings and towns. However, the system has been used in many fields of design, from designing computer programs to designing a classroom curriculum.

The Oregon Experiment - his third book.