socks-studio

14/04/2024

“I called them Ghosts”. Visual Poems and Sequences by George Wylesol

https://socks-studio.com/2024/04/14/i-called-them-ghosts-visual-poems-and-sequences-by-george-wylesol/

George Wylesol is a Baltimore-based artist who primarily produces illustrations and comic-like sequences of drawings, often accompanied by written text in the form of short poems. His works blend mundane objects and settings with surreal plots and visual associations, resulting in poetic yet slightly disturbing scenarios. The meticulous attention to everyday objects translates into a celebration of found artefacts, revealing glimpses of past lives and obsolete technologies, abandoned houses, and empty corridors, sparsely populated by uncanny human figures.

More on Socks: https://socks-studio.com/2024/04/14/i-called-them-ghosts-visual-poems-and-sequences-by-george-wylesol/

31/03/2024

90-Degree Axonometrics by Auguste Merle (late 19th – early 20th C.)

https://socks-studio.com/2024/03/31/90-degree-axonometrics-by-auguste-merle-late-19th-early-20th-c/

Auguste Merle was an Art Brut artist living in France at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. His works depict imaginary buildings with meticulous detailing, using graphite on notebook paper.

The rigorous yet inventive forms are depicted in 90-degree axonometric projections, resonating with the paintings of Fernand Léger, Le Corbusier, with the architectural drawings of John Hejduk, and more recently, with the ones in San Rocco Magazine.

More on Socks.
https://socks-studio.com/2024/03/31/90-degree-axonometrics-by-auguste-merle-late-19th-early-20th-c/

24/03/2024

“One Can No Longer Distinguish the Sun’s Outline”: Atlas of Clouds and of States of the Sky (1930)

https://socks-studio.com/2024/03/24/one-can-no-longer-distinguish-the-suns-outline-atlas-of-clouds-and-of-states-of-the-sky-1930/

A cloud atlas is a visual depiction of various types of clouds accompanied by their classification and nomenclature. Cloud atlases were primarily developed starting in the 19th century and utilised for training weather forecasters and meteorologists.

The 1930’s International Atlas of Clouds and of States of the Sky by the Office National Météorologique based in Paris provides a detailed textual description of different kinds of clouds, their shapes, the occurrences of the clouds, their behaviour, and a description of the disturbances the clouds indicate.

Read more on Socks:
https://socks-studio.com/2024/03/24/one-can-no-longer-distinguish-the-suns-outline-atlas-of-clouds-and-of-states-of-the-sky-1930/

04/02/2024

Alain Biltereyst: Traces of Abstraction in the Urban Environment

https://socks-studio.com/2024/02/04/alain-biltereyst-traces-of-abstraction-in-the-urban-environment/

Contemporary Belgian artist Alain Biltereyst works on abstract paintings characterized by bold patterns and colors. Most of the time, the shapes he depicts are not purely the result of chosen arrangements but act as a sort of “found art”: they are extracted from existing signs, advertisements, commercial signage, graphic decorations on trucks, billboards, and streets.

Read more on:
https://socks-studio.com/2024/02/04/alain-biltereyst-traces-of-abstraction-in-the-urban-environment/

02/12/2023

Anthony Bourdain on the late Henry Kissinger:

02/11/2023

A teach-in for all architecture students. November 11, 2023 Dear architecture students around the world Let’s face it, architecture is settler colonialism’s best friend. It is a reality that you may…

15/10/2023

The Hidden Territory: USGS’s 1950’s to 1970’s Isometric Geological Diagrams

https://socks-studio.com/2023/10/15/the-hidden-territory-usgss-1950s-to-1970s-isometric-geological-diagrams/

The online archive of the United States Department of the Interior Geological Survey is a valuable resource filled with detailed three-dimensional territorial maps employing various representational techniques.

Thanks to the work of artist, designer, and developer Jill Hubleys and their dedicated ‘X’ page, we’ve uncovered numerous isometric diagrams. Handpicked here, are a selection of them, including categories such as “Isometric Fence Diagrams”, “Isometric Cross-Section Diagrams”, and “Isometric Block Diagrams”.

See more on SOCKS.
https://socks-studio.com/2023/10/15/the-hidden-territory-usgss-1950s-to-1970s-isometric-geological-diagrams/

11/10/2023

Ricordo dell’intellettuale francese che, lontano dalle certezze, ha sovvertito i fondamenti teorici della didattica e del progetto

09/08/2023

In memory of J-L Cohen, a great collection by Ross Wolfe .

A brief memorial and a collection of Cohen’s writings.

23/04/2023

Architectural Narrative: “New York City: The Edge of Enigma” by Francisco Javier Rencoret (1991)

https://socks-studio.com/2023/04/23/architectural-narrative-new-york-city-the-edge-of-enigma-by-francisco-javier-rencoret-1991/

In 1991, Francisco Javier Rencoret, a Chilean architect and then Fulbright scholar at Cornell University, published New York City: The Edge of Enigma, (Princeton Architectural Press), a visual essay that retraces the myth of the foundation and development of New York City.

Through more than 70 paintings, clearly indebted to Madelon Vriesendorp‘s illustrations of Rem Koolhaas‘ Delirious New York, and succinct texts, the author narrates the fictitious stories of the city, from the arrival of new inhabitants in an isolated island to the development of skyscrapers, Central Park and Times Square.

Read more on SOCKS:
https://socks-studio.com/2023/04/23/architectural-narrative-new-york-city-the-edge-of-enigma-by-francisco-javier-rencoret-1991/

22/01/2023

Carlos Morago. Across the Ordinary Interior

https://socks-studio.com/2023/01/22/carlos-morago-across-the-ordinary-interior/

Contemporary Spanish painter Carlos Morago depicts realistic interior scenes that are mostly reduced to the bare minimum: light floors and walls and sporadical furniture. Empty corridors and rooms are framed through opened doors and walls while opening on uneventful exteriors through windows and balconies.

Read more on: https://socks-studio.com/2023/01/22/carlos-morago-across-the-ordinary-interior/

11/12/2022

A Building to Tell the Time: The Toghrol Tower in Rey, Iran (1063)

https://socks-studio.com/2022/12/11/a-building-to-tell-the-time-the-toghrol-tower-in-rey-iran-1063/

The Toghrol Tower is a 20 meters high tower located in the city of Rey in Iran made of bricks and Sarooj, a water-resistant mortar. It was erected in 1063, and according to some sources, it was conceived as the tomb of Tuğrul Beg, the founder of the Seljuk dynasty. Other scholars report that it was used as a lighthouse to guide the travellers of the Silk Road during foggy days and nights.

The tower has a deep wall and a peculiar geometry: its internal surface is a smooth cylinder of 11m in diameter, while the external shape is a polygon of 24 angles, whose vertex compose a circle of 16m in diameter.

Keep reading on SOCKS:
https://socks-studio.com/2022/12/11/a-building-to-tell-the-time-the-toghrol-tower-in-rey-iran-1063/

27/11/2022

“A poem that demands translation into architecture”*
Mariabruna Fabrizi, Fosco Lucarelli
Socks-Studio - Microcities 2022

https://www.sitterwerk.ch/En/Event/675/OK_Computer_

We designed this installation for the exhibition: “OK Computer - Languages of Order” (OK Computer - Sprachen der Ordnung) at the Sitterwerk Kunstbibliothek in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

"The exhibition brings together positions that deal with the topic of naming and organizing by means of language in various ways: from very personally developed strategies of order to technical utopias and attempts to have the computer write the vocabulary for the catalogue."

Our contribution proposes a hypothesis of spatialisation of content by establishing a series of visual and conceptual correspondences between twelve concrete poems and twelve architectural plans from Renaissance buildings.
The image schemas are the critical elements in this work, operating as connective devices between the plans and the poems and between spatial organisation and language.

The image schemas are patterns for organising thought and developing language that unfolds in every individual’s mind during infancy. They can be visualised and analysed in a diagrammatic way. Based on a bodily experience, an image schema stems from the human mind as a cognitive structure.

This installation creates a bridge between words (written language) and space to organise and retrieve content by connecting the notion of image schemas to concrete poetry and architectural plans. Whereas the former is a visual form of poetry where words and linguistic elements take specific spatial arrangements to construct poetic meaning, the latter are two-dimensional representations aimed to translate data organisation in space. The image schemas, visualised in a diagrammatic way, provide twelve general patterns that can define and explain the attributes of both poems and plans.

A small cabinet hosts the documents, its design is based on a series of image schemas.

Thanks to Roland Fruh and Barbara Biedermann for the invitation, and Catherine H**b and the Sitterwerk’s wood workshop for the fabrication.
“OK Computer: Languages of Order” is visible until February 5 2023.

More info on: https://www.sitterwerk.ch/En/Event/675/OK_Computer_

16/10/2022

This Is A Record Cover: Text-based & conceptual album covers. A project by Socks socks-studio

https://socks-studio.com/2022/10/16/this-is-a-record-cover/
and:
https://www.instagram.com/this.is.a.record.cover/

The second album by British new wave band XTC did not feature any images. Instead, a written essay about how buyers are attracted by album covers to buy records was used.

The paragraph, which begins with: “This is a record cover.” occupies the whole 12″x12″ of Go2 (1978) in a way that was somewhat similar to the cover of Lucy Lippard’s seminal work Six Years. The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972, a book published only five years earlier. Both covers are conceptual observations about their respective roles in the album and the book and provide information on their content.

The “reduction” of an album cover to its essential textual information is a practice found in hundreds of album covers. This fascinating category is the subject of a new spin-off Instagram account from Socks, which we titled like this very post.

Here it is: https://www.instagram.com/this.is.a.record.cover/

More info on: https://socks-studio.com/2022/10/16/this-is-a-record-cover/

09/10/2022

Fragments of an Unknown Civilization: Works by James Lipnickas

https://socks-studio.com/2022/10/09/fragments-of-an-unknown-civilization-works-by-james-lipnickas/

James Lipnickas is a New Haven-based artist and graphic designer. He creates highly evocative scenes representing small architectural stages in axonometric projection. Suspended stairwells, excavated blocks, and plinths separated, or all combined are located in deserted territories in a surrealist fashion.

Read more: https://socks-studio.com/2022/10/09/fragments-of-an-unknown-civilization-works-by-james-lipnickas/

02/10/2022

The Square and the Circle: The Palace of Charles V in Granada (1527)

https://socks-studio.com/2022/10/02/the-square-and-the-circle-the-palace-of-charles-v-in-granada-1527/

The palace of Charles V in Granada was built starting in 1527 as a summer palace for the emperor. The Renaissance building is located inside the Alhambra, the former Nasrid complex on Sabika hill, a notable example of Islamic architecture.

The structure is built in stone and based on rigid geometrical control. It represents a unique type characterized by a square plan of 63 meters per side and a circular interior courtyard. The combination of square and circle becomes a recurring formal principle and is also found in the interior spaces and the staircases.

Read more: https://socks-studio.com/2022/10/02/the-square-and-the-circle-the-palace-of-charles-v-in-granada-1527/

12/06/2022

Poetics of the Greenhouse: Works by Bernard Moninot

https://socks-studio.com/2022/06/12/poetics-of-the-greenhouse-works-by-bernard-moninot/

Bernard Moninot is a French multimedia artist. Over the 1970s and the 1980s, he produced a series of drawings, (inks, crayons and acrylics) of greenhouses based on various modes of representation, from axonometric projections, to outside central perspective or interiors views.

The greenhouses are shown as autonomous realms sporting a striking contrast between the geometric form of the transparent skin and the organic nature of its content, the plants.
The greenhouses are never represented in their larger context, nor as symbols of contemporary industrialized agriculture. They rather appear as slightly decadent, isolated cathedrals whose interior order is provided by regular metallic structures.

See more B. Moninot works at: https://socks-studio.com/2022/06/12/poetics-of-the-greenhouse-works-by-bernard-moninot/