Wednesday 8 October 2014

Mailin's Online Green Light review for Invisible Cities!

Mailin Berg, Invisible Cities, 8/10/2014

Sorry it's just a link for now but this is my work! Will try and make it into a proper pretty scrolly pdf later but need to go.

4 comments:

  1. OGR 09/10/2014

    Hi Mailin,

    Yes please - turn this OGR into a proper, pretty scrolly PDF!

    So - the buried city as a busy, contented burrow... I think you can just about get away with this, because Calvino himself admits to a certain degree of 'unknowability' about the lives of the inhabitants of the buried city; we hear that door slam - maybe the people under the ground are happier than Polo first presumes?

    This is actually a very difficult city to envision, because, as you say, the term 'exterior' is a bit of a contradiction. That said, this is a challenge you need to meet and did like your reference to ants nests and hives as a possible means of installing some 'architecture' and structure into the city. I've got some additional references for you:

    http://www.harunyahya.com/image/the_miracle_of_termite/termite_project.jpg

    http://shirari.com/2011/03/cross-sections-burrows-tunnels-buildings-layers-of-earth/

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Ta_Prohm_Angkor_giant_tree.jpg

    http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/06/20/article-2345008-1A6A4FC2000005DC-920_964x668.jpg

    Somehow, you've got to get some 'space' opened up under the earth, so perhaps think about tree roots as the means by which rooms and stadiums and spaces have been created as pockets or basins. You've also got to think about how oxygen gets into those tunnels, so you might want to think about the technologies the city-dwellers have created to suck the air down into the otherwise airless architecture: for example, ventilation for mines:

    http://www.geevor.com/media/images/Geevor%20Underground/ventilation.JPG

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_moFK8jHyxf8/TPe69i3EMhI/AAAAAAAAAcw/Tis4F_rlvE4/s1600/mcgrawB37_1.jpg

    http://www.sihcon.no/Modules/Product/Userfiles/Product/main/39_93b612ece0fdd76c.jpg

    The secret to ensuring you don't just create a brown, dark, generic set of caves and tunnels is by extending the logic of your civilisation; if your city dwellers are down there, how are they down there? For example - it's a city, cities are big - so transportation systems, and what about your 'insect farms' to feed everyone. And all those fires you talk about in your mission statement - that's an awful lot of people lighting an awful lot of fires, so how is the smoke extracted?

    http://i2.birminghammail.co.uk/incoming/article7055640.ece/alternates/s2197/tunnel-fan.jpg

    http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/09/19/1411140747283_wps_22_FARNBOROUGH_UNITED_KINGDO.jpg

    To lend credibility to this buried world, maybe you should consider looking at the actual design principles of mines?

    http://cache.wists.com/thumbnails/e/8b/e8ba8b67afa583040859d960247b374e-orig

    http://www.uh.edu/engines/wieliczkabig.jpg

    and what about the city extending/growing?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj8-0w7s6qw

    Lots to think about if you want to turn this city of the dead into a credible metropolis. Ask the practical questions, the 'what if?' questions, and your inventiveness and creativity will surprise you (and the rest of us too!).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi there,

    It's really important that first years a) follow the group blog as a matter of habit and b) follow the blogs of year 2 and year 3 students, because we know that, by doing so, year 1 students develop more quickly and get more organised. You might have done all this already, but I know there are those who have not, and I'm keen to get everyone up to speed.

    If you haven't done so already, you need to add these to your Blogger reading list, by clicking on the 'ADD' button on your dashboard, pasting in the URLs and then 'following pubically'.

    Group Blog (You must be following this/checking this feed daily at least).

    http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.co.uk

    Year 2

    http://www.rjfenton.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://rubynewland.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://candice-hiufu.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://joshaldis.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://heidigrover.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://hannah-milliner.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://anthonyjfaulkner.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://adamrichardstone.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://megan--doyle.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://ashley-nwachukwu.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://sukhighai.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://dannyrollings.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://ayunie-adiana.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://scottdturner.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://liviwilmore.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://msliksa.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://tomaboothby.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://samcannoncgart.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://gemmatitch.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://rwinventions.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://scarlettfreeman.blogspot.co.uk/

    Year 3

    http://peta-gayebrown.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://kinblob.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://meganhowett.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://a-animator.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://georgenwosisi.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://samantha-niemczyk.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://stevenpayneuca.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://vikkirh.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://alexnedmonds.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://shannonkmason.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://jakejbryant.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://george-hind.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://emily-clarkson.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://kymmumford.blogspot.co.uk/
    http://nadiayadallee.blogspot.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete
  3. see link:

    http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/barcelona-2015-hurry-just-12-remaining.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Mailin, I have noticed that you are falling a little behind on the the Maya tutorials, it is really important that you catch up really soon.

    ReplyDelete