Visual December

The Garden's Perspective

2012-02-21T11:50:00.000+13:00

The Boutique at Stop 7782

2012-02-19T11:20:00.002+13:00

Adding to the collection of bus stops ...

Wellington

2012-02-17T23:58:00.000+13:00

I decided to walk home a different way this evening, and I found a pleasant surprise.

I remembered seeing this house before, but I couldn't remember where, maybe in a magazine, or in a lecture, but I had never realised it was just around the corner...
It's rather incredible in it's immediacy. In the other direction across the street is a magnificent vista across Wellington Harbour, yet it chooses to have these giant concrete panels like a shield. My mind wandered back to thermal conductivity and periodic heat oscillations... Or maybe it's what I'm always reading - about framing and revealing views. I think my previous lecturer would talk about 'caves' and 'nests' a lot here.

What is interesting is the dichotomy between itself and it's neighbour, a historic villa built romantically of wooden panels and neat symmetry. But they share similarities too, like in their relative mass, as can be seen from behind:

There's a strange conversation between these two that I enjoy. I think on reflection too, the villa is probably more 'closed' than the concrete house, with fewer and smaller windows compared with vast walls of glazing. I do wonder what it would be like to live in though.

Venice

2012-02-13T17:41:00.000+13:00

Approaching Venice, I was surprised to pass through worn out industrial settings, contained in the greater area surrounding the old city on the mainland, the Provincia di Venezia. It was only crossing the long road bridge to the 'island,' and taking a ferry to Piazza San Marco that the fantasy Venice that I had seen in paintings came to life.

Piazza San Marco with the Basilica (1730) by Canaletto

Piazza San Marco with the Basilica (2011) by Nick (and Canon)

It was incredible how little the city had changed.

Nighttime Procession in Piazza San Marco (1758) by Guardi

We took a tour through the sometimes incredibly narrow canals by gondola, where our guide would artfully sail us around corners with millimeter precision, giving a gentle kick off the wall to set us down another path in the labyrinth.

Because Venice is like a maze. The only way through Venice is by foot or gondola, and the streets are narrower than the canals. Our tour manager gave us a map but then laughed and told us to not worry about using it. Instead we relied on the intermittent signs that would point either to 'Piazza San Marco' or 'Ponte di Rialto,' being the Rialto Bridge. Only you had to often guess for the five intersecting paths between each one. I managed to head from San Marco following the Rialto signs only to find myself back at San Marco! I took a breath, and tried again...

This time it worked!

View from Ponte di Rialto

On Ponte di Rialto

During a phase of 20th century development in the waterways, Venice began to sink. It has possibly stopped now after drilling in the lagoon was banned, but it has still left much of Venice at risk of high tides, and has forced some dwellings to raise their ground floor.

Sometimes I didn't know how Venice was still standing, following the stone and brick facades crumbling into the water.

And yet somehow this simply complimented the romance the city is famous for. Drifting away again, I felt like Venice would continue to remain in it's own time, ageless.

tiny galactic flowers

2012-02-06T11:16:00.002+13:00

Found in the Milky Way Galaxy

English Transect

2012-01-27T18:34:00.000+13:00

Catching a train from Leamington Spa to London, I attempted to document the changes in the landscape from my carriage window.

World map

2012-01-23T17:18:00.000+13:00

I've come to love the London Underground map, so I thought I would make one for the places I visited on my adventure

Innsbruck

2012-01-05T23:06:00.000+13:00

Driving from Switzerland to Austria, the mountains rose steeply on either side of the bus, framing the sky as if supporting the celling of a vast cathedral. They looked very much like a bar of Toblerone in their topography.

The famous Toblerone Mountains

The sun would rise and set constantly, as it drifted in and out of the summits of the surrounding landscape.

Snow and frost would collect in the shadows,

Until the scenery became like a scene from Narnia,

and we just had to stop and play!

We arrived in Innsbruck just as the sun was setting, casting a beautiful crimson light over the city. Right in the center of town was possibly the most christmas-y christmas market I have encountered. The temperature was quickly approaching zero, and I bought a Nutella crepe from one of the small and brightly lit wooden cabins huddled together amid the beautifully quaint architecture.

The warmth of the light was welcoming against the bitting cold.

We only had about an hour to wander before we were due to meet again and drive to the hotel, during which I managed to get hopelessly lost and had to rely on the very friendly citizens of Innsbruck to help me find the christmas markets again. But during my sojourn, I found that Innsbruck is a fantastically diverse place, full of rich heritage and contemporary design.

I was surprised to find the brandenburg gate (though smaller). I think it was a memorial, though to what I could only guess.

Possibly the briefest place we stayed, Innsbruck became the most intriguing. It fills my imagination with mystery, nestled in the embrace of spectacular mountains, folded in the creases of my map.

London Pocket Museum

2011-12-23T06:42:00.000+13:00

Whenever I am travelling, I find my pockets slowly filling up with things; memories from places I've visited, directions, notes, essentials, misc...

I have just returned again from a short stay in London, and Reading before then, where I visited Henley, Oxford, Windsor, and as many London museums and galleries as I could find time for. I finally returned to Leamington Spa late on Wednesday night, and this is what I found collected in my pockets.

I think this idea came from seeing so many curated collections of fascinating objects, making me feel like creating a little museum of my own in my pockets. (Even though this is from 7 pockets (jeans, jacket, coat, secret inside), it still seemed like a lot!)

Architecture

2011-12-15T12:05:00.000+13:00

Hooray I just received my offer of study for architecture in second year (and beyond!). I will join 80 other students in our quest to dream up better places to live in, in all senses. Architecture has been on my mind especially after the most amazing tour through an incredibly reconstructed and preserved 'back to back' housing block in Birmingham. A 'back to back' I learned is what 75% of the population of Birmingham lived in in the late 1800's during the industrial revolution. They're basically terraced houses that have been cut in half so that one household is a single room deep, either facing the street or the shared inner courtyard. Each house was about three stories, with a tiny spiral staircase crammed in the corner of each.

Built one brick thick, nothing was very private. In fact none of the homes had a bathroom or laundry of their own, instead the whole 'court,' being the households surrounding the internal courtyard, would share a lavatory and wash house. The one I visited, Court 15, contained 11 households with a total of about 60 residents at any one time, maybe 500 in its lifetime, sharing three outdoor loo sheds and one wash house. Built early in the 19th century, back to backs were banned from further construction in the 1870's, due to health and moral concerns. However, because there was nowhere else to live for a long time after, the homes of Court 15 were occupied right up until the 1970's, when they were finally condemned as unfit for human occupation. Through some stroke of luck, Court 15 was forgotten by the demolition crews, and has become the sole surviving example of a back to back court in Birmingham.

A block of back to backs. Court 15 highlighted in red

Court 15. Each coloured square represented one household

The exhibition of them was so interesting. They had set up four houses exquisitely refurbished in the period decor of four unique families who had lived there, from the 1830's, 1870's, 1930's, and 1970's. Fires had been lit in the ranges, paraffin candles spluttered weakly, gas lamps hissed, old radios hummed, bloomers dried; it felt like each family had only just stepped outside a moment ago.

Loo's of 1830 and 1930

It was also very interesting to think about these small communities of cheap housing, and compare them to the social housing projects of today. Instead of living together socially, I feel like the visions of huge tower blocks promote a life alone. But maybe that is also partly a personal choice. It has also been interesting to compare Court 15 with "Kevin's Grand Design" in Britain here, an experiment in better community housing, where the idea of a shared internal space is returned.

Thinking about my own work, I've made a little film including examples of most of my first year projects in architecture school, because I'm not sure even my family really knew what I was working on at my desk in the night...

Sometimes it was tidier than this

Looking in such intimate detail through the reconstructed lives of four families living in each of these tiny back to back houses showed me that the places we live in are profoundly affecting.

Lucerne

2011-12-10T05:48:00.001+13:00

We're up at 6:30am and onto the bus. The fog from the Netherlands had caught up with us again, and it rendered the German forests like a scene from a World War Two film, as they drifted past our windows.

The guys on the bus get excited whenever a flash car busts down the autobahn, overtaking us at 200km/h. Then we reach Switzerland! We head straight to the base of Mt Pilatus, where we jump on a gondola and then cable car as we ascend above the fog.

The gondola was very quiet, and we heard light sounds of bells jingling on the hills, as we floated overhead of swiss cows, producing swiss milk for swiss cheese. The cable car took us just short of the summit, from where we ascend the last few meters up a thin mountain path to the very top. It's a small distance in comparison to our mechanical journey up, but the thin air makes even the fittest of our group puff the 10 minute trail.

But the view was worth it

The air was so clear

As the sun set, we descend back into the fog, and to our hotel in Lucerne. It's a pretty town with a medieval heart, featuring a fantastic wooden bridge that stretched across the river that ran through the town.

I was also lucky to be in town during the week long piano festival, where I came across an exhibition of very lovely pianos that the local residents were playing (very well!)

As well as formal performances, the visiting artists also played informal (free) gigs at the local bars. I went along to one in a very polished establishment, where Chris Hopkins played improvised jazz.

That night I also came across a giant advent calendar!

After two nights in Lucerne, we were set to journey through the alps to Austria.

Rhine Valley (and Cologne)

2011-12-09T11:04:00.001+13:00

We passed from the Netherlands and into Germany at about 10am, flying with the mist that felt like it might extend right across northern Europe, until we saw sunshine break through just in time for lunch in Cologne! The main feature of Cologne (for us) was the enormous gothic church, that at one point in history was the tallest structure in the world, from 1880 till 1884.

Being gothic, it was covered in incredible detail, that continued to grow as you moved closer and closer

Inside was a beautiful rainbow light cast from a modern stained glass window, composed of thousands of coloured square pixels

Excitingly, the christmas markets nearby had just opened that day! But by the time I saw them I was rushing to get back to the bus to continue our journey to St. Goar, our home for the night. Driving through the Rhine Valley during the late afternoon was very beautiful. The light atmosphere gave the landscape a great sense of depth

In the sleepy town of St. Goar, it reminded me of Marahau in Able Tasman, New Zealand. A tiny picturesque town on the gateway to magnificent natural beauty, and also to a highway of comercial and tourist traffic, flowing down the river, and in the air. The river was often thick with large barges of freight, and every time I looked up I was able to see at least 3 different jet planes arching overhead, painting the air with long strokes of contrails.

The main event of the evening was an atmospheric tasting of the local wine in an ancient cellar. The wine was white and dry to start with, becoming sweeter and sweeter until we sipped 'ice-wine,' produced from grapes that must remain frozen on the vine for a specific number of days before being picked. It was so sweet it was like apple juice. Finally we tasted the local mulled wine, warm and red and tasting just like christmas pudding. We meandered the short walk home and spent the rest of the evening in the hotel bar, mild with cigarette smoke (yet to be banned here), where I received an in-depth review of the law, constitution, and history of South Africa, from a practicing Durban lawyer on the tour.

Tomorrow, Switzerland!

Amsterdam

2011-12-08T23:54:00.001+13:00

Travel Day. I wake up with a start at 5:09am with a txt from my sister that beeps under my pillow filling my head with beep. Bleary eyed (the guy in the bunk above me had plumbed timbres of snoring last night I hadn't even thought possible), but excited, I trundle into the dark and still morning, down the road to the Royal National Hotel, where our Grand Tour departs. I meet my fellow travelers for the first time, as we que to get our bags weighed, and then onto the bus and we're off! We were missing two South Africans, who it turned out were weather bound in an Airport and would have to meet us on the way. We thus learned a valuable lesson - the bus will not wait for you!

Driving out of London, we were introduced to our tour manager Ryan and our driver Pedro, with whom in time, all the women on the bus would fall in love with (and the guys too). A brief two hours later, we were at Dover!

The weather for the crossing was beautiful, with the sun rising over the distant coast of France, bathing the white cliffs in warm light.

We drive quickly through France and then Belgium, only stopping for a rest in a truck stop on the boarder.

Finally we arrived in Amsterdam, with our introduction to the local culture as "Ding Ding! Hallo!"

Amsterdam is an incredible biking culture, with bicycles pretty much having right of way to everything except trams. It was incredible walking down a street that had four clearly distinguished and signaled modes of transport; trams in the middle, then either side cars, bikes, and finally footpaths. Although most of the time, walking through the narrow lanes around the canals, the only thing you had to watch out for were bikes.

The buildings in Amsterdam were beautifully narrow and thin, like rows of bean-sprouts.

And of course we tried on the famous clog, at a place called "Cheese and Clogs."

But the most incredible place we visited in Amsterdam was Anne Frank's house, where she and her family hid in the attic for over two years.

This was her front door.

This is the attic window she would gaze out of. It was so still. It was also the only window that wasn't covered in thick blackout cloth, cloaking the rest of their house in permanent darkness.

The window into Peter Van Pels room (black). She would have been able to look out at this church clock tower from the attic above. One of the saddest things was she had started re-writing her diary, as a novel called "Secret Annex." In her diary she wrote "In my head it is as good as finished." I just wish I knew how she would have ended it.

Amsterdam also turned out to be a pretty funky place! As I was walking I passed this strange structure in the middle of the road.

That turned out to be a subterranean exhibition celebrating Super Mario, using space created by the continued drilling of the Amsterdam metro system (over budget, behind schedule, and still incomplete a taxi driver told me later).

Cruising down the canal, Amsterdam was very cold and misty, and very beautiful.

Next: Germany!

London

2011-12-08T08:21:00.000+13:00

My Grand Tour left London early on sunday morning (I had to be there at 5:45am!) which meant I had to stay at least one night in London, so I decided to make it two and have a day in the city before I left.

This was my first time to travel to the city by myself, and it was a little intimidating, though it helped having been there just a week earlier with Jeremy and Ed. I caught the train down in the morning after a nervous start (do I take the sleeping bag? do I not? does it weigh too much? am I taking too much?) I finally said goodbye to Fran in her little shop, gave her the keys to the flat and trundled to the train station. While my suitcase had wheels, it looked fit to bursting, and by the end of my 10min walk I was dearly hoping the Contiki Bus would drop us at the door of our hotels.

(On reflection I think my journey was a little Harry Potterish?, setting off unsure on an adventure to new and exciting places) Once I arrived and had dropped my stuff at the hostel I was staying at, I decided to visit Kings Cross, to see if I could see the famous platform 9 and 3/4. But... like most things in Europe, it was covered in scaffolding. Still, you could catch a glimpse of where it might be...

It was a fabulous day in London and I mostly hung out around Trafalgar Square until it was dark, visiting the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery nearby.

I found dinner in a nice Italian place, where I had possibly the best hot chocolate ever (ironic now I think about, after the actual Italian hot chocolate I had in Rome was thick and syrupy and strange), and then went to a west-end show, the satire 'Yes Prime Minister.'

It was very dry and I'm not sure I got all the British political jokes but it was enjoyable. I was able to get half-price seats because I booked it the same day.

Squeezed onto the tube home, I realised that even though London is huge, once it is broken down in the people next to you, it becomes human sized. The girl changing music on her iPod, the man sharing a cryptic crossword clue with a friend, the gentleman who "didn't miss the tube at all."

The next day I got up early (thanks to the man in the bunk above me playing a fuge on his nose through the night. Such tallent...) and visited New Zealand House to vote before I left for the continent. Afterwards I had the bewildering choice of what to see first! I ended up at St. Pauls and walked through the tent city that formed part of the Occupy movement. There were lots of media there too, giving their sage commentary on the matter.

I then made my way over the Thames on the Millenium Bridge towards the Tate Modern, wondering at London's past, buried in the murky water below.

The Tate was spectacular, with a current exhibition featuring a huge projection of film negatives, that had been treated in a very colourful way. Inside the cavernous Turbine Hall, the images drew your attention like the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

My sister came down at about lunch time and we walked through the christmas markets on the South Bank, until we caught a tube to the Victoria and Albert Museum where we met Ed! There was an exhibition on China, which contained the coolest looking tea pots. They looked like something out of Studio Ghibli, where they might start to slither and walk at any moment.

This one with three legs was actually super old too! over 1500 years!

After dinner in Soho, where we had yum Hipster Vegan Vegetables, Fran caught the train home and Ed and I walked around in a vague sightseeing search for a Pub, and then I went to bed, ready for my big adventure the following morning...

My constant companion

2011-12-07T09:01:00.001+13:00

During my travels, as I visited countless places seeped in rich tapestries of heritage, I would always look for the oldest, who had observed all of these times and places, and all the ones before, to the beginning of history itself. On a clear night, Jupiter would shine brightly above the most incredible places. It put a neat spin on the ancient structures I was seeing, that this most ancient structure had witnessed all of it.

I liked too that it would follow us, from Amsterdam, to Venice, to Rome, to Paris,
my constant companion.

Hallo

2011-11-21T11:39:00.001+13:00

Hello from Amsterdam! It has been good, also foggy and cold. I'm currently finding it easier to tweet, so I will retweet those here
http://t.co/3N67iRc0

http://t.co/GmrM3YN8

http://t.co/sEUOVNnv.

It's nearly midnight here and we drive to Germany tomorrow morning so I will say goodnight. Welterusten!

Windows Part One

2011-11-17T08:19:00.001+13:00

I've been keeping note of the views that I can see through the windows of where I am staying during my journey abroad.

Atlantic Ocean

Leamington Spa

Gretna Green

I seemed to miss the truck-stop down from scotland. I think my camera battery had died.

Bristol

Tomorrow I am off to London for two nights, and then I leave for Europe on the 19th for two weeks, during which I will try to update where I am and what windows I can see. Either here or on twitter, which also is in the side bar top left! See you soon

Scotland

2011-11-16T11:26:00.001+13:00

After driving for two days, we finally passed into Scotland. (Actually we had crossed the boarder the night before, staying in a truck-stop motel outside Gretna Green, the infamous village to elope to, such as with the wicked Mr. Wickham, but we had driven back to England the following day to check out Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall , before making our way truly into the northern country).

Edinburgh is an extremely beautiful city, with my sister deciding it was like a porcupine that had curled up and fossilized, with the population then carving out their homes amid the rock spires. Which is sort of true, as the land has historically been torn and pulled by volcanoes and glaciers before settling into it's current built form carved out of stone.

The city is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site, having been recognized to be "of outstanding value to humanity" Which is a bit a humbling really. This must be why the historic character of the place feels so well cared for.

I loved these alleys. I would always be surprised to see them, hidden away in the gaps between the shadows.

Apparently Edinburgh, becoming a humming metropolis full of the famous artists and poets of the day, was being called 'the Athens of the North,' and the city even started building it's own Parthenon

But it was never finished, as the project ran out of money.

However, the city is not defined by just one building, but by its sum total. While most of the architecture faithfully follows the patterns and ideas of those previous, you can see instances of new experiments..

But mostly it is just old

growing more complex at smaller and smaller scales, like a city sized fractal

Sometimes it just amazed me how old this city was, seeing thick stone steps worn away by thousands of millions of footsteps.

The next day we drove to Glasgow, not a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but functioning more as a place of industry. We were able to gain local insight into how these two cities worked by meeting up with my sister's friend Fiona, who described Edinburgh as a tourist attraction that no-one actually lives in, while Glasgow offers more contemporary culture, diversity, and grit.

The above photograph was taken from the large motorway that carves through the city, flying above it on long overpasses, which I think says a lot about the city. It had a strong feeling of being continually under construction.

But it also had its moments of delicacy.

After Glasgow, we made our way back to England again, and towards Derbyshire...

Winter Star

2011-11-16T06:55:00.001+13:00

Jupiter above the Juniper tree, outside my window in Leamington Spa. I decided to see if I could spot anything else in the sky from the park near by.

Phew it is a chilly 4 degrees outside. I left my gloves inside and the air numbed my fingers. Below is a transect of the sky approximately South to North. (I still find it weird that the sun is now South here...)

I think Britain is just covered in light

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Hello London

2011-11-13T09:37:00.001+13:00

Jeremy and I travelled to London today, meeting Ed along the way too! This was also my first step above ground here, as when I arrived in London Heathrow I had made my way straight to Leamington Spa due to excess luggage and being very tired after travelling so long (so long). And my first impression was of a very fast city. Changing tube lines to weave our way to a particular station felt like moving in a strong current, squeezing and slowing and rushing. Reading the underground line map was a bit confusing at first but I was getting the hang of it at the end of the day.

Above ground the tide of people was strongest only in the most touristy parts of the city, like Piccadilly Circus (below), but it became more relaxed in the large and beautiful parks.

Our first destination was here at St. Pancras station, where all the eurostar trains terminate. It had these huge olympic rings which was pretty exciting.

I was reading that St. Pancras was one of the last great examples of Victorian architecture. I remember learning this year in architecture school how much of a revelation steel had been for the construction of these huge beautifully open spaces.

The exterior of St. Pancras. It reminds me of a gingerbread house.

We then made our way to the Portobello Market in Notting Hill, to try and see Hugh Grant, or at least some of the scenes from the film of the same name

I had this one in my mind as I was walking down the seemingly never ending tents and tables, full of people. (Thousands more than in the scene above)

Some enterprising cafe owners even used the typography of the film title as a handy marketing ploy.

We meet up with Ed and we caught the tube to Green Square (renamed green and yellow square by Ed), and wandered over to see if the Queen was in.

Cross cultural Ed

Buckingham Palace. The gold leaf was extraordinarily bright, it felt as if it were glowing.
The Queen, unfortunately, was out.

We also visited New Zealand House, and 'Kiwifruits' the New Zealand store (complete with New Zealand twanged shop assistant) to stock up on some essentials.

Following the Mall (as in Pal), we found Parliament, in gorgeously elaborate victorian gothic style

I also liked this building, it was like glass filled with smoke.

Finally, we took the tube from Westminster to head back home, entering this huge yet cramped futuristic subterranean cavern, adding to a picture of London as a great, old, dense and continually growing structure.

After rushing around London for the day, it was very peaceful to be able return to Leamington Spa and walk through the quiet countryside under a soft and starry sky.

I'm looking forward to returning later this week and checking out all the amazing galleries and museums... I think I will be spoilt for choice.

Bristol, Bath, and Bed

2011-11-12T12:23:00.001+13:00

So I went to Bristol to visit Cherrie which was excellent, and also see some interesting city things...

Bristol is actually quite colourful

and not just because autumn is painting in soft pastels

but there are lots of these coordinated terraces which are very pretty too.

Terraces are actually a big thing here.

Also in Bath too, where I went for a day. Very sedate..

I love these ceilings. The above is Bath Abbey, while below is St. Marys on Redcliff.

Bristol also has a bit of a checkered past, being a historical hub of slavery, but it confronts this very thoughtfully in a great new museum called the 'M-shed' (not as masculine as it reads)

But Bristol is also pretty funky. This is a picture from the same museum above.

It's like it's in chaotic order.

There is also a significant underground culture, with Banksy celebrated as a famous Bristolian. I thought this was a cool piece of street-art I stumbled on.

I have no idea what the braille is saying (I've since tried to translate it) but either it's a more advanced grade of braille than the simple translation of the alphabet, or it's gibberish. I do hope it says something...

I liked these two. This whole street was just covered in street-art, it was kind of like a mecca.

So this is just a bit of a taste, as I wanted to put something up before I head to London for the day tomorrow! So I'll wish you all goodnight. Thanks Bristol! Goodnight!

Cambridge

2011-11-02T12:04:00.002+13:00

On my first day in the United Kingdom, Fran Jeremy Ed and I drove to Cambridge, where we visited their friends living and studying there, while also scoping the place out

This also became my first encounter (of many) with British motorways. It was strange trying to imagine these same fields as they might once have been (such as those popularised in the fantastic Lark Rise to Candleford), without a four to six lane highway carved through the middle of them.

Once in Cambridge, the first thing I noticed was the diverse and complimentarily odd buildings, all squeezed together in uniformly different shapes. It was confusing trying to distinguish between the truly old buildings, and the recent imitations, as they all seemed so well preserved.

The town is also filled with a huge number of bicyclists, which snake through the tourists on the narrow streets and alleys.

But I think the most overwhelming atribute of Cambridge is its overflowing affluence, containing the second oldest and most wealthiest university in Europe, with an endowment of 4.1 billion pounds just in 2011 This wealth has found form in the beautiful architecture built over its long (long) history (it was amazing just thinking about who's footsteps I might have been walking in... perhaps Isaac Newton passed this way...)

King's College Chapel

Bridge of Sighs

We were lucky to be guided through the various colleges by David, Fran's friend studying at Cambridge, since most of the colleges are usually closed to the general public.

A view back in time

Finally Cambridge has a beautiful canal that is busy with people punting. We took a meander down stream, and I thought about Mr. Gumpy.

Ed paddels the waka

The Mathematical Bridge

A beautiful first day.

Chatsworth House / Pemberley

2011-10-31T06:20:00.000+13:00

My sister, her husband Jeremy and I visited Derbyshire on Saturday as we travelled south again after a beautiful journey to Scotland (You can read their transcribed thoughts about that here - Jeremy blogged on the road)
We had read about Chatsworth House being used as a filming location for "Pride and Prejudice," and so excitedly, we headed over for a look...

Chatsworth House was amazingly opulent. It seemed like every detail was wrapped in wealth, then multiplied a million times over on every surface. Priceless artwork littered the hallways and every wall was a painted masterpiece. I'm not sure even "ten thousand a year" would be enough.

Northwards

2011-10-25T07:11:00.000+13:00

After finishing off my first year of architecture school, I have begun my first adventure to the other side of the world...

Wellington to London

I sat next to a couple and their six month old baby on the plane from Wellington to Auckland, and they wished me luck on my 27 hour journey. I honestly had no idea what to expect. Once in Auckland, as I waited to board, I joined the few people who were stretching and walking - as if preparing for some athletic event. I think we should all have had matching tracksuits...

The stars above Auckland

Our plane roared into the night, and the clear stars engulfed us. Looking out my window they were all I could see, and it was easy to imagine my first step was into space.

LAX

12 hours later, the clouds dispersed to reveal the smog of Los Angeles, spread out like a computer chip.

Mars

But after a short stop, where the United States government took my fingerprints and photograph forever, and I took a copy of "USA Today," we flew east and north, across the Rocky Mountains, which could well have been the surface of Mars, and into my second sunset. A complete diurnal cycle flying west to east is only 15 hours, so even though my flight was a little over a day (or just under half if you adjust for time zone changes), it sometimes felt like two.

Second sunset

I tried to sleep but I was too uncomfortable. Opening the window over Canada, I peered out into the night, trying to see which stars I could see. And I for the first time in my life I saw Orion the same way the ancients who named it saw it... not in a plane 35,000 feet in the air travelling at 900km/h... but the right way up! (except for that time when I stood on my head)

Orion

(Although the 'pot' is now upside down). After taking a long exposure photograph, I noticed strange green light - which seemed to be glowing from the high clouds. But as I watched them, the clouds would change slowly, like a diluting fluid. This confirmed to me that this was the Aurora Borealis, my first Aurora.

Second sunrise

Finally, The sun rose for the second time over the Atlantic Ocean. Clouds covered most of Great Britain and Ireland, but London shone through on a beautiful Friday day.

The river

For a city twice the population of Los Angeles, London to my eyes was the more beautiful. I was able to pick out some of the famous sights that I had only ever read about or seen in images, or heard in media, like the Royal Albert Hall where I had listened to the 2011 BBC Proms concerts on Radio New Zealand Concert.

Thames

I was very glad to be met at the airport by Ed, who was able to put us on a train bound for Leamington Spa, to see my sister, and start the next part of our adventure.

A Stereoscopic Walk

2011-09-17T18:19:00.001+12:00

Hataitai Beach

A Garden Path

I think it is amazing my brain can even make sense of this, and does so every second of every day, without fuss.

My First Stereoscopy

2011-09-17T12:48:00.001+12:00

Cones made with Google SketchUp

This is just a little play with representing space in an image, after we had a lecture given by Takeshi Kominami who loved using stereoscopic and shallow depth of field renders. Also this is the first image produced for architecture school that I have posted on this blog... (though I am planning on putting up all my first year work after this term has finished).

Super-Boom

2011-08-29T14:10:00.001+12:00

10,000 years ago, a star exploded and released as much energy as it produced in it's entire lifetime. For 9,500 years after, the the star continued to shine normally to Earth, until in 1572, astronomers saw it explode.

Composite X-ray image of SN1572, Tycho's Nova, remnant (NASA)

I think this image of the remaining nebula, taken with NASA's Spitzer, Chandra space observatories, and the Calar Alto observatory in Spain, is just beautiful. I can almost hear the distant crackle and pop, like watching an explosion on distant mountain

This was also one of the last supernovae to be observed in our own galaxy, the last being just 32 years later, in 1604. Supernova are thought to occur at least every 100 years or so in galaxies like our own, and so we are long overdue to observe one in our night sky. Although, considering our galaxy is 100,000 lightyears across, it's probable that the event has already occurred. And I thought I had to wait a long time to watch the latest episodes of Doctor Who here in New Zealand.

Snow in Wellington

2011-08-16T15:18:00.001+12:00

For my sister and Jeremy in the UK

My Afternoon Tea in Plan and Elevation

2011-08-05T15:15:00.003+12:00

Plan

Elevation

mmm hot chocolate and a muffin

(note the scale figure in the elevation!)

Quite Possibly

2011-07-22T19:29:00.004+12:00

This made me laugh

Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff

2011-07-04T12:02:00.002+12:00

Our garden in winter

Panorama

2011-07-04T08:45:00.003+12:00

The tumbling southern ocean on the south coast of Wellington, and Matariki rising in the winter morning, with old friends.

A Winter Walk in Central Park and Brooklyn

2011-06-25T18:10:00.003+12:00

In Time

2011-06-09T12:29:00.003+12:00

Len Lye. Free Radicals. 1958

Chris Abbas. Cassini Mission. 2011

The images used for Cassini Mission were taken from the raw frames captured by the Cassini spacecraft as it orbited Saturn and its moons.

The Library at Stop 7334

2011-06-04T19:27:00.003+12:00

Snow sprinkled like flour

2011-05-17T22:09:00.002+12:00

'

On the steps towards uni

Genuine Fake

2011-04-29T16:28:00.008+12:00

My sister recently bought a 'Genuine Apple' Macbook battery off the online auction store 'TradeMe.co.nz' only to find when it arrived that it was not so 'genuine' after all...
Luckily she will get a full refund for the purchase when she sends the product back, but was informed it couldn't be a fake because 'that was illegal.' However - having the old no-longer-working battery that came with the computer to compare, the differences, while subtle, become apparent. I kind of find it interesting how closely they can match the original... and where they cut corners (or not - see below) on the manufacture.

Real

Fake

In the fake, you can see the grey shapes of the apple logo and text slightly overlapping the engraved areas, like black ink printed over colour in a newspaper. You can also see subtle differences in the font used like the 'D' in 'Designed by Apple' or the 'Hg' in brackets at the end, appearing more 'squashed' in the fake compared with the original. The quality of the metal can also be seen in these pictures, with a brushed highly reflective metal used in the real battery, and a more matt, less textured metal in the fake.

Fake

Also suspicious is the use of parts in a 'new' product that appear to have marks and smudges from prior use.

Probably the most obvious sign that something was wrong was that the battery didn't actually fit in the computer - it was getting caught on its edge. Maybe it would have fit if I had forced it but - I didn't try my chances. The cause of this difference is because the fake didn't bother to curve the edges of the casing as much as the real one, as can be seen below, leaving a sharper looking edge on the fake.

Real

Fake

I think it's a testament to Apple's engineering that such a subtle difference could be so noticeable (though not noticeable enough if they are still making them? Strange when even the test battery at the mac store when investigating the old battery slipped in perfectly, unlike this replica). I don't like to think about what might be inside.

Street Art

2011-04-20T09:44:00.003+12:00

I found some cool art work by the local kids on the walk way up to our house yesterday

Alice

2011-02-13T18:04:00.004+13:00

I think I drew this after looking at the absolutely fantastic work of Jillian Tamaki
(who I found from another blog I just disovered called Drawn
(who I found from links provided by the wonderful Kate Beaton. Now, who said the internet was like a big truck?))

December the Thirty First

2011-01-01T15:36:00.001+13:00

December the Thirtieth

2010-12-31T12:06:00.001+13:00

December the Twenty Ninth

2010-12-31T12:05:00.002+13:00

December the Twenty Eighth

2010-12-29T10:28:00.003+13:00

Included are some of the sketches I made while out on my bicycle

Maranui Cafe on Lyall Bay

Pier on Lyall Bay

Family on Lyall Bay

December the Twenty Seventh

2010-12-28T12:09:00.002+13:00

December the Twenty Sixth

2010-12-27T11:04:00.002+13:00

December the Twenty Fifth

2010-12-27T10:51:00.003+13:00

December the Twenty Fourth

2010-12-24T22:54:00.002+13:00

seriously, those mirrors were nearing their diffraction limits!
(exaggeration for effect)

December the Twenty Third

2010-12-23T23:27:00.000+13:00

December the Twenty Second

2010-12-23T23:25:00.001+13:00

December the Twenty First

2010-12-21T22:51:00.001+13:00

December the Twentieth

2010-12-21T22:48:00.001+13:00

December the Nineteenth

2010-12-21T22:46:00.002+13:00

December the Eighteenth

2010-12-19T09:46:00.002+13:00

December the Seventeenth

2010-12-18T08:53:00.001+13:00

December the Sixteenth

2010-12-16T21:33:00.002+13:00

December the Fifteenth

2010-12-16T21:31:00.001+13:00

December the Fourteenth

2010-12-14T22:17:00.002+13:00

December the Thirteenth

2010-12-14T22:15:00.001+13:00

December the Twelfth

2010-12-12T22:39:00.002+13:00

(I mean, cape cod chairs)

December the Eleventh

2010-12-12T22:33:00.002+13:00

When I will draw with clouds

December the Tenth

2010-12-11T08:12:00.002+13:00

December the Ninth

2010-12-10T07:59:00.000+13:00

Less drawing more writing, less writing more physics. Sorry about that!

December the Eighth

2010-12-09T07:43:00.001+13:00

December the Seventh

2010-12-08T07:41:00.001+13:00

December the Sixth

2010-12-07T07:37:00.003+13:00

December the Fifth

2010-12-05T22:11:00.003+13:00

December the Fourth

2010-12-04T21:50:00.002+13:00

and the giant cheese scones flew over head...

December the Third

2010-12-03T20:49:00.005+13:00

My sister and brother in law are in the snow and the cold! But I hope they are warm, and can look forward to a beautiful British summer
And I'm sorry but I have no idea what the BBC weather forecast actually means..

December the Second

2010-12-02T22:40:00.001+13:00

(Click to read the story)

The First of December!

2010-12-02T22:29:00.005+13:00

(Please click the image to read the story!)

(The date line: A good place for a date)
(Sorry it's late! Technically it's still the first of December in Hawaii!)

Dusk on Oriental Parade

2010-11-28T10:36:00.002+13:00

Aurora

2010-11-27T15:43:00.002+13:00

The British Isles & Moon last night

2010-10-21T09:29:00.003+13:00

The Moon and the British Isles

2010-10-17T20:11:00.004+13:00

My sister and brother in law are in Europe at the moment (whose adventures can be found here), and while it is (almost) the furthest you can travel on this Earth from New Zealand (Spain is our antipode), I keep remembering that it is in not as far as many other places. Our Moon is about 5 times bigger than the British Isles, but the British Isles are 30 times closer to New Zealand. So, the picture above is what the British Isles would look like if they were instead in orbit around the Earth at a distance above New Zealand equal to the distance it is below it...

I had originally become excited that they would appear the same size in the sky through some (very strange) cosmic coincidence, but neglected to remember at the time that area is actually proportional to distance squared (The area of the British Isles is 30 times smaller than the visible two dimensional area of the Moon)

Two Moons, and Fourty Pence

2010-10-17T19:12:00.007+13:00

The possible beginnings of a sci-fi adventure? (click for a bigger picture) Alternative history fascinates me, and thinking about how the world and its culture would have diverged if it had grown up with two moons is really interesting. There is a book out there which I haven't found yet that discuses these and other curious questions.

I also must share a beautiful video imagining perspectives from an Earth that has a ring system like that of Saturn.

The making of... The Legend of Korra

2010-10-11T17:02:00.005+13:00

Because I had such fun making it, I took photos of the process too!

A collage of the various drawings before I was ready to colour - from the first sketch (far left) to the final ink (far right). But if you look closely, you can see where I modified the ink while I coloured (giving Korra a face for example)

The inking - I made blue prints to ink onto

The inspiration

The process

And the all important desk - which was my sisters and is very lovely.

(You can find the finished piece here!)

101010

2010-10-11T16:55:00.002+13:00

Yesterday was the 10th of the 10th 2010, and to celebrate there was a magnificent sunset

(Was it a coincidence fellow space travellers that this day in binary was 42? I ask you)

Today is hailing hail, but luckily I am warm inside. I hope the blackbirds digging around in our garden are not too cold (and those students in poorly insulated flats too)

Avatar: The Legend of Korra

2010-10-10T21:30:00.000+13:00

So, this year I was introduced to Avatar: The Last Airbender And then I learned that the next Avatar series was coming and I was a little bit excited to make a short story based around what I imagined might happen in it. It is to be set in a metropolis that is similar to 1920's/ 30's Hong Kong or Shanghai. I hope you like it! I enjoyed making it.

How many stars are in the Universe?

2010-10-10T01:00:00.001+13:00

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field
A picture of a piece of the sky equivalent to holding a 1mm square hole at arms length.
Every point of light is a galaxy, and in every galaxy there are approximately 100 billion stars. Multiplying this over the sphere surrounding us, we find an approximate number for the stars in the universe - about 10 to the power of 22.

I'm lucky to have a collection of them in my room. They're made of sixteen square wooden blocks, and represent every star in the observable universe.

Here is one star:

Let me show you how my little universe is constructed.

To start with, each block is identical and has six sides

And each side can be rotated to appear in four different ways

(I gave the full red and white sides four rotations too because they also can noticeably be rotated)

And each block can exist in any of 16 unique and distinguishable locations on the board.

Each block then has 24 (4 x 6) different orientations. Thus with 24 ways each of the 16 blocks can appear, the total number of configurations of all the blocks must be 24 to the power of 16 (I hope!)

"A trillion billion."

One of my favourite stars is this little one

Where to?

2010-09-19T21:26:00.000+12:00

The Moon in the Spring

2010-09-11T15:54:00.001+12:00

A beautiful moon last night

reading and writing

2010-08-08T14:13:00.006+12:00

Reading: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Brian Lee O'Malley

this page made me laugh

Writing: The air resistance of a falling coin (with all the turning and things going on too. did not work. was I close? Maybe. Just don't forget it's proportional to the velocity squared!

and the Tūī

2010-07-31T11:45:00.001+12:00

The Ocean,

2010-07-31T11:43:00.000+12:00

some July Film

2010-07-30T20:27:00.003+12:00

The beautiful carrot cake made by my sister

space

2010-07-16T13:18:00.004+12:00

Five billion years ago, and half a universe away,
while the Sun and Earth were still circling in a kind of proto-soup,

a massive gamma ray burst occurred. Five billion years later, it is thought to be the largest event of its kind ever recorded by humanity. http://bit.ly/cWVcyc

Also, it was the winter solstice

2010-07-02T19:09:00.005+12:00

(click to make it bigger!)

Water Colour

2010-07-02T10:35:00.001+12:00

New Zealand and the World Cup

2010-06-21T14:19:00.002+12:00

(click to make it bigger)

Basically, we need to win on the 25th to make it to the last 16!

Diana F+

2010-06-09T18:23:00.003+12:00

Kākā!

2010-06-07T18:00:00.002+12:00

We saw two kākā in the garden this rainy Queen's birthday. With a conservation status listed as 'endangered,' I'm glad the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary are able to give them a hand.

Also, I have been doodling instead of doing work...

Tuesday the 1st of June

2010-06-02T12:00:00.003+12:00

I just discovered SocNoc http://kiwiwriters.org/content/southern-cross-novel-challenge
and serendipitously, I had started this story! I have no idea what is going to happen, both to the writing of it, and to the story. But, let's find out.

On Tuesday the 1st of June, I became an old man. My hair was grey, my bones creaked, my face wrinkled and my height shrivelled. I was an old man, no doubt about it. What was odd was that they day before, I had been a twelve year old boy. I had put on my astronaut pyjamas, as usual, gone to bed, as usual, pulled up the covers, as usual, and the next morning, I woke up feeling very tired. Had I not had enough sleep? I leant over to pick up my watch on the floor, and saw a wizened old hand creep over me. I leaped and squirmed away from it as the hand was pulled quickly away again. I stared around, but saw not intruder. Then I saw my hands. I couldn't breath, what was happening to me? I stared at them, willing them to not be true, and then pulled back the covers and looked at my feet. Old. Wrinkled. Slightly smelly. I ran to the mirror. Old wrinkled and... me. My eyes, my nose, my eyebrows, albeit bushy like an overgrown hedge, and grey. I ran out into the kitchen where mum was, cooking toast in her pink dressing gown and reading a book. She looked up at me startled.
"Look! I'm old!" My voice scares me, it's deeper despite the panic and crackling like an old gramophone. I hold my hands to my throat and gasp, making little notes of sound.
Mum looked worried. She'd put down her book and the toast had popped up forgotten.
"George, are you ok?"
I stared at her. Has she not noticed that her son had turned into some kind of geriatric? Maybe she couldn't see... like some kind of magic spell. I started to breath again. Magic spells can be fixed. Magic spells can be un-spelled.
"Your not that old," she says uncertainly. "And those pyjamas at least take a few years off.."
I look down at my astronaut pyjamas.
"They're cool," I say automatically. This isn't a new conversation. I look back at her again, trying to see any kind of reaction. But she's turning back to her toast and starting to butter it.
"Well.." I start, and then trail off. I walk back to my room. My room. How can I be an old man and still live in the same room? Wearing the same pyjamas? How old am I? Did she see? I rush back to mum, now standing eating her toast, with book in the other.
"How old am I?"
She looks startled, then smiles as if some kind of joke, before seeing that I'm serious and wrinkled in concentration.
"Um, 82 Isn't it?"
Oh. No. Oh No.
"82.." I mumbled, the breath gone from my voice again, staring into nothingness. I look back at mum. "Uh. Just checking." I dissapear into my room and stare at the reflection in the mirror. Is this real? I remembered from the movies that people usually pinched themselves to confirm that they were really awake. I did, and it hurt. Awake then, apparently. And I'm pretty sure magic was already established as a fact in Howl's Moving Castle, so that was out too. What then? If this is real... Who is mum? And who am I too her?
What if I was an 82 year old man? What if... what if being twelve had been a dream?
But everything was the same. My desk, my bed, my books, my glass of water... I was sure I had put it there last night, in case I woke up thirsty. It still had the water in it. I closed my eyes and ran a hand through my hair. It was thinning. But my name was still George. Mum, or who ever she was, said that. And how can I have memories of being twelve in the twenty-first century, and then being here, at 82, in the same decade of the same century. Wait. I check the date. No, definitely same decade same century. Something must have happened. But what.. I could hear mum calling form the other side of the door.
"George, do you want some eggs for breakfast?"
Since when had I started liking eggs?
"Ah.." I clear my throat again, un-used to my voice. "Just Coco-Pops, Thanks."
She pauses. "Ok," and walks back to the kitchen.
"Better get dressed then," I mutter to myself.
I look in my draws and gasp. These were not my clothes! What had happened to my clothes? And what kind of underpants do you call these? I pull out a large pair of whites and hold them uncertainly. And... where those plaid trousers?

I appear in the kitchen, looking around uncertainly. Mum looks up from where she is preparing the eggs.
"Feeling better?"
"Yes." I said.
"Lost your suspenders?"
"No?"
"Oh, ok," and she turns back to the eggs. I sit at the table, where the newspaper is laid out. I check the date again. 1 June, 2010. Same year as yesterday. Then I hear the most familliar sound, at once both calming and anoying
"Muuuuum," it trails. "What are you cooookingg?"
My sister, Frayer, nine years old, wanders into the room still asleep.
"Eggs," mum says.
"Oh. Yuck."
"Oh, George, here are your Coco-Pops." She leans over the bench offering me a bowl of delicious brown goop.
"Muuuum can I have Coco-Pops too?"
"No, you can have some porridge though. Do you want a nice bowl of porridge?"
Frayer is wrinkling her nose and poking out her tongue before mum had even finished the sentence. She then frumps, and scowls at my bowl as I eat them. It was very weird, to not be being abused by my sister at this point.
"Can I have toast?" She counters.
"Yes, with peanut butter or marmite," says mum
"Peanut butter please." She then sits down at the table too and looks at the newspaper in front of me.
"George, can I have the TV section?"
I look at her. Does she not recognise me?
"The TV section," she repeats, as if I might not have heard.
"Oh. Oh! The TV section. Sorry." I thumb through and give it to her, which she takes and flips to the children's page at the back, where the comics and puzzles are.

We Shall Post on the Beaches...

2010-05-23T22:51:00.004+12:00

Encouraged by an afternoon tea party, I share these pictures, that I decided looked better in sequence temporally rather than spatially..
I took these when visiting my Nana last week.

Also: In relation to men in suits doing interesting things (I love this music)

Autumn maths

2010-04-19T19:39:00.003+12:00

Plotting the number of post-it notes on the wall with respect to time gives an approximate exponential relationship... The same as that followed by the radioactive decay of atoms. (Most natural systems have exponential relationships. When asked in a physics lecture how something changes, it was often safe to say "exponentially?" if you didn't know).
The model finds a decay constant of -0.05 +/- 0.025 per hour (Figure 1). If the natural log of the data and model are taken (Figure 2), we can see the deviation of the data from a pure exponential (represented by the linear data trend-line, and the model data), to something more complex. This could be due to the small sample size (25), and inhomogeneity in the stuck-ness of the post-it notes.

Autumn Is here

2010-04-18T12:46:00.002+12:00

Immersion

2010-02-13T12:50:00.001+13:00

A reply to an Avatar in Virtual Space

"Welcome to our new house," said the moth

2010-02-09T22:21:00.002+13:00

Hello, moth! And thank you

I Also Work in an Aquarium

2010-01-21T19:34:00.002+13:00

A Summer's Tale

2010-01-21T19:01:00.006+13:00

It had been a dark and stormy night. The temperature was ten degrees below the average, and the forecast was bleak. Babies cried in the night, birds fell out of the sky, and I pulled my covers up without revealing my toes...
As dawn woke, its sunlight revealed a calm and mysterious sight

The world was transforming, into what, and for how long, we did not know.

I decided to find out

I revealed my toes

Some Film

2010-01-03T18:48:00.003+13:00

Thank you to my visitors of the previous month, I hope it has been interesting! You came from 13 cities in 6 countries (New Zealand, Singapore, Germany, United Kindom, Canada, United States) using 3 languages (UK English, US English, and Esperanto)

Here are some things that I have been waiting to share with you:

An arrangement of furniture by the mysterious Night Pudding

My attempt to translate music by Debussy into something I understand...

And my recording of the time pips as they are generated by the atomic clocks at the Measurement Standards Laboratory, and their (almost) simultaneous broadcast on Radio New Zealand National