Student Blogs

hi everyone. i understand this is about architecture / studio culture, but for those of you in thesis i wanted to let you know about a student who has been stealing from a lot of people. he was arrested, and for those of you who have had ipods, cameras, etc. stolen you should contact the 88th precinct asap to let them know.

otherwise, studio is lonely.

So today is Tuesday (officially, Wednesday, but whatever. I’m still awake from Tuesday)… and the reviews begin Friday. I’m currently taking a break from 3d modeling my project (which I’ve discovered is strangely prison-like) : a performance art urban commune-culture-industry-esque thesis project, to talk about the next few days.

In the next two days, we have to wrap up our projects, finalize drawings (if they haven’t been finalized already), do our 3d prints, brush the sawdust off our shoulders, put the last piece of basswood/chipboard/foam/plaster/metal into our models, take the last gasp of spray paint, attempt not to panic when our prints don’t come out of the plotter, take over the laser cutter for a last few cuts, and PIN UP.

Reviews begin Friday morning, bright and early for my studio, at 10am. The school is going to be packed with reviews all day Friday and Saturday. Before then, I have to complete my digital model + renderings, finish my hand renders, re-compile my diagrams from the entire semester, re-print my research from last semester,  finalize a 1/64″ site model and a 1/16″ building model, plot my digital work, write up my presentation… and somehow sleep the night before. How I am going to do this… who knows! (I’ll manage… maybe.)

Some studios have announced who is presenting on Saturday, the ultimate day for a thesis student at Pratt Institute. The ‘best’ two-three projects per studio present on that day, and there are huge juries, awesome projects, and a lot of energy. Not to say presenting on Friday isn’t sweet as well (you’re done a day earlier, you have more personalized criticism from your professors, jurors often are familiar w/your project, unlike Saturday reviews, those picked for Saturday sometimes really aren’t the ‘best’ projects)… Personally, I’m looking forward to my Friday presentation (I’m assuming I’m not going on Saturday, but my prof’s haven’t told us yet). It’s time for this project to get torn apart, appreciated, looked at w/an eye that is not my own. It’s time for it to show itself… in all its time-consuming glory and all it’s failures.

It’s been rough, ya know… but I think we’re all ready for this weekend to come.

What gets you through the night?  What will you miss most?  Besides Steve’s quotes (ye uh) The thing about thesis, the thing about studio, the reason I don’t work at home,  is the people.  The interaction, the dialougues, the energy.  The jokes and cigarettes and cups of coffe.  The deliveries and pow wows over chinese food, or sandwhiches, or slices of pizza.  It’s the epiphanies that occur at 3:30 in the morning, about the drawing, about the concept, about life.  It’s finding the strength within yourself to do what needs to be done by sacrificing body and mind…..The all nighter although unhealthy…is empowering.  At least the first few times.  Because those first few times, everyone is right there with you.  The energy in the room is astounding, and you can feed off that.  In a studio it’s so important to have….so if the studio is alive throughout the night, then I find it necessary to be there.  I find it necessary to tap into that energy.  The oppurtunity to do that will be gone soon….and I know there are times when we complain and bitch and moan…..but I know once I’m out I’ll be paraphrasing Christopher Walken: “I got a fever!  And the only perscription….is more Thesis”………a healthy dose.[giancarlo]

Hey guys! Guys! We have two weeks!

How does everyone feel about that little factoid?! [Mollie]

“Get back in your wall”

Marc Schaut quoting the children in KJ’s program responding to the emerging elderly folks who visit from a pocket space in the wall that separates the two ages. (Matt Standeven)

This is probably the most memorable quote from my time at Pratt, which is an unfortunate thing, but entertaining nonetheless. Review starts at 1 with greek food and wine, by three we had 11 drunk critics, sleepless students, parents, and “You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit.” [alanna]

Most of the good quotes happen when it’s 3am and delirium has just soaked in.. + “Why is the RhinoScript manual telling me it’s a good time to take a break and order that girl a heiniken?” .. And some of them are serious..+ “Ah, and we sit down at a table and we need something beautiful to gaze at!  Yes, the woman across from me is beautiful, but you have located the window at a level as to when I look across at her and outside it seems I am staring at her chest and only her chest!  Now tell me, how do you think that dinner will end?!” + “No, you need to make it badass.  That’s the goal, badassness.”  

I only really began writing down quotes from studios in fourth year, mainly with Gamal. We used to get a kick out of the things he said. Most of them don’t necessarily have to do with architecture per say, but they do give you a little snippet of the energy or texture Gamal gave to the classroom… I know Alanna also wrote down many quotes from him, she probably has better ones.

Just a few from Gamal-

+ Women, they are goddesses! They are the first rent controlled apartment that we lived in! A whole nine months, for free! Never charged a penny! Goddesses, I am telling you men!

+ Driving a cab is a very happy event.

+ If you are not a New York Times bestseller by the time you are twenty-five, I will have been insulted. And, as you know, this is not a compliment!

+ I have one life, and I will damage as much as I can!

+ We have lost our myth. Things are not getting better, our history has been vacuous. We are in complete confusion here! Why are you not doing anything about it?

+ Do not graduate if you cannot draw freehand in space, it would be a farce to do so.

+ I’m sorry to make this announcement, but this society? This society is dead!

That’s all for now. [Mollie]