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Videos and CD-ROMs on architecture, culture, and design.
April 2003
Owen Jones: The Grammar of Ornament
Producer: Octavo
CD-ROM; $40.00
www.octavo.com
The nineteenth-century Englishman's curiosity about the world was legendary,
and Jones person-ified this national impulse to collect and record.
One of the best-known scholars of decorative design, he published scientifically
accurate copies of ornamentation from "Hindoo" to Egyptian, from
architectural details and wallpapers to textiles and embroideries. Now his
book has been reproduced in an electronic version, with all its colorful
detail. From its leather-bound book cover to the bright colors rendered
by a lithographic press, his venture is all there on your computer screen.
Mixed Feelings: San Diego/Tijuana
Producer/Director: Phillip Rodriguez
Cinematographer: Claudio Rocha
Video; 26 min.; $50.00
www.mixedfeelings.org
Airing March 26, this PBS documentary looks at the urban issues found in
two neighboring cities that are worlds apart. San Diego, California, and
Tijuana, Mexico, illustrate one of planning's greatest divides--designed
developments that end up sterile and lifeless versus the energy of spontaneous
growth fueled by necessity. Local architects speak to the successes and
failures of each city, and hope they can one day become a transnational
metropolis despite their seemingly insurmountable differences.
Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West
Producer: Planet Architecture
CD-ROM: $29.95
www.planetarchitecture.com
This CD-ROM provides a virtual tour of Wright's sprawling Taliesin West
complex in the Arizona desert, where the architect spent the last decades
of his life working and teaching. Although it is thorough--including two
long interviews with Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, director of the Frank Lloyd
Wright archives; historical photographs; 360 degree virtual panoramas; and
sketches, plans, and elevations from the archives--the inclusion of a critical
voice would have enriched the presentation.
Soundwalk: NYC--Chinatown V1.0
Producer: Oversampling Inc.
CD-ROM; 50 min.; $25.65, $39.00 Canadian
www.soundwalk.com
An alternative to scholarly audio tours, Soundwalks takes listeners to places
they would not ordinarily go (an illegal sweatshop in Chinatown, for example).
Designed for the modern-day flaneur, the non-tech-savvy traveler, or
anyone who seeks to reclaim urban reality, the CD depicts the sounds that
define the neighborhoods they're passing through. Forgotten-era recollections,
interviews with local figures, and indigenous music stream in and out
as residents identify landmarks.
Staypretty
Designer: Remote Inc.
CD-ROM; $25.65; $39.00 Canadian
www.staypretty.net
Though it resembles a zine, Staypretty Volume 1 is actually the whimsical
packaging for a new line of fonts by Toronto graphic designers Remote Inc.
The four included mod-meets-techno typefaces are demonstrated on the ancillary
material--a 16-page book, stickers, paper dolls, and a poster--that accompanies
the CD-ROM. In addition to the font sets, the disk also contains desktop
patterns, screen icons, and "aural accompaniment," music "custom
designed for this volume."
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