norayoung.ca » CBC

Yes, That’s Right, It’s a New Post

Nora — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:50:38 +0000

A while back, I visited experimental architect, Philip Beesley, in his studio in Toronto’s west end. I went to talk to him about the enormous, beautiful, installation piece he’s taking to the Venice Biennale of Architecture, representing Canada. It’s a remarkable work, called Hylozoic Ground. You can see some images here. Hylozoism was the concept that everything contained some sort of life force, and this is reflected in Philip’s work metaphorically. He’s working in the area of ‘responsive architecture,’ where structures can change or move in response to external, environmental conditions, or in response to the way the people within the space are using it.

What I love about Philip’s work is the way he’s breaking down the hard line between the built and the natural environment, creating spaces that are permeable, changeable, and, well, responsive. As we humans start to generate more data about where we are, and how we are using the space around us (for example, with our GPS-enabled phones, we ‘check in’ at locations) will we be able to provide buildings with more information about us, and how we want to use the space? You can imagine a future in which architecture, the environment, and us, are all in a loop of information and response to that information.

Anyhoo, if you’re curious about Beesley’s thoughts, my interview with him on Spark is here

How Soon Is Now?

Nora — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:36:47 +0000

Sending a note to yourself in the future is nothing new. We’ve long called a voicemail message to home, or made use of some of the many ‘send me a message in the future’ online services, such as Future Me. Consider, though, Futuris.tk. (via Crunchbase). The premise is that you can message yourself, or others in your social network, at a specific time, up to 50 years in the future. Your mother (provided she’s in your social network) could message you five years from now with updated reminders to make sure you’re getting enough protein. The project imagines such uses as a parent sending messages to a child in the future, when that child is the same age as the sender is now. Another feature lets you sort of future blog, where you write things that will be read in the future. (Don’t we always write things that will be read in the future?) Or you can use the post-mortem feature, to send messages after you’re dead.

I actually had to spend a fair bit of time looking at it to figure out whether it was ironic, an art project, or a serious social networking cum messaging service. Such is the nature of our time-shifting existence that I find it increasingly difficult, really and truly, to tell whether something is A/completely absurd or B/ a great idea. Is this of a piece, say, leaving a letter with a lawyer to be read after you’re dead? Or is a difference in kind….a sort of proto-time travel?

Back Again

Nora — Tue, 29 May 2007 13:14:00 +0000

We finished making the pilots for a proposed new show for CBC Radio called Spark. I worked with the producers of And Sometimes Y, which was fabulous. They’re really smart, funny, creative people. It makes such a big difference to any type of creative process.