December 2009
6 posts
driven to distraction →
on the general tangent of evil - this article is about the promotion of the car phone despite awareness of its potential dangers. Given the state of distraction we live in these days and the questioning of evil (does responsibility lie with profit driven corporations or the consumer) I find this article interesting.
November 2009
11 posts
Tree Harvester Offers to Save Indonesian Forest →
Oh the sick and twisted world of carbon credits
Audio: 'Family': Fundamentalism, Friends In High... →
This is an NPR Fresh Air interview about “The Family”, an extremely political & religious secret society with a strong belief in capitalism and a belief that Jesus’ example is one of Power…
and while this may or may not be related to any particular project in the studio, except perhaps Addi’s since it is about a secret society, the methods and thoughts of this...
Stockholm Syndrome...
Given that none of us actually have clients telling us what they want, the studio has asked for us to be our clients. It has asked that we be the evil, not that we be the hired gun of evil. To play both sides is a mind trick that I am finding increasingly frustrating and angering. In light of this fact, and Kelsey’s recent post of architecture as a cult - I am increasingly convinced that it...
Is the only answer to climate change climate... →
In thoughts of energy consumption (“sustainable” or not) there are these two projects, the first image and title link is a project for Erie Plaza in Milwaukee, by Stoss LU, which uses “sustainable” power sources (water turbines) to heat stormwater to create steam to warm the plaza and grow bamboo in a climate otherwise completely unfit for it. The second project, by...
Transforming the Architecture →
For Michael - An American Journalism Review article about the newsroom of tomorrow
for michael - Murdoch’s Google Gambit →
the evil of banality →
In pondering the role of (us) the consumer of oil - our ignorance, awareness and complicity, I returned to thoughts on the “banality of evil”. This link, a recent article on Slate by Ron Rosenbaum, questions the overuse and origins of this phrase and has left me with an intriguing quote on a possible delineation of what the guilt/evil of participants may be:
“Either one knows...
BP's latest controversies in the news
In the last week BP has not only managed to get slapped with record fines from OSHA for not correcting problems at their Texas City refinery (since the 2005 explosion) but has also become the first oil company to post an oil deal with Iraq since the 2003 US invasion. And on the “green” front, wheat is the way for the UK… I know the USA’s beloved corn is a net negative on...
October 2009
16 posts
what would tinker bell do? →
For Kelsey - After watching a few episodes of Century of Self, I wonder if perhaps we are at yet another point when methods for targeting consumers are shifting in order to try to re-capture our inner desires. That said - maybe this article sheds some more light on what the future of shopping will or could be? Disney hopes to conquer the next generation of shoppers with the help of Steve...
oil rig disasters →
pipeline politics →
methods for resisting evil →
I believe one of the most frightening aspects of evil is how social influence can turn those who are otherwise good, termed the Lucifer Effect by psychologist Phillip Zombardo. Zombardo’s website offers some methods of how to detach oneself from social influences in order to resist its potential to propagate evil. These methods, developed by Robert Cialdini, are broken down into six major...
programming: refined
Ater discovering a wonderful resource on the reuse of offshore oil & gas platforms and meeting with Robert today I have further refined/transformed the programming of what was ecotourism/offshore inhabitation…
Offshore Education Center & Laboratory:
“if we hope for an environmentalism capable of explaining why people abuse the earth as they do, then the nature we study most...
some thoughts on program ideas:
Since last week’s pin-up I have been brainstorming what programing possibilities for BP may be the most valuable for exploring the complexities and pervasiveness of their industry. Out of a much longer list I have narrowed it down to a few which I think are the most intriguing and have the most potential to get to the core of BP. Any thoughts/comments from the studio are welcome and...
Oil giant BP settles price-fixing charges →
Storage appears to be a huge potential asset for a company like BP when they wish to partake in manipulation of the market. Also, I have to say that after reviewing the profits made by BP and the money they pour back into exploration and other investments, all of the fines they have been hit with for safety violations directly attributable to death(s), market manipulation and environmental...
Did Speculation Fuel Oil Price Swings? →
An intriguing quote from this 60 minutes video/article: “Well, who’s the largest oil company in America?’ And (people will) always say, ‘Well, Exxon Mobil or Chevron, or BP.’ But I’ll say, ‘No. Morgan Stanley.’”
OSHA questions BP safety →
Yes, BP’s horrible record on safety continues. Since their extremely deadly Texas City explosion in 2005 there were five more deaths (2005-2008) in their US refineries along with recent failures to meet OSHA’s deadlines for safety upgrades.
in vitro meat: meat in a petri dish →
oil, fully financialized →
An interview with a NYMEX trader regarding how to trade oil.
September 2009
8 posts
crude world →
Leonard Lopate interviews Peter Maass, a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, who wrote Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil.
program proposal (v1.0)
British Petroleum
BP, has a long history of marketing itself as a green company with an environmental conscience that makes them look “Beyond Petroleum”; however, at its heart it is a petroleum company, motivated economically and politically entirely by petroleum. This environmental take is an artifice; a ‘greenwashing’ of their image to the public operates as a marketing ploy in advertising...
an intro to evil
Our studio is evil, or at least that is the name of the game. For my fifth semester at GSAPP I have critics Kazys Varnelis and Robert Sumrell for a studio simply titled: EVIL. As the studio’s brief explains, “If one simply does not care about playing by the rules of the game, but only about seizing power to further one’s own ends, it becomes possible to shed layers of complexity and...