Behind the blog - land

A behind the blog look into a hand sketch I prepared entitled "land" I was interested at the time to integrate typography directly into the landscape as a plan formation. Here I'm simply drawing on intuition and creating hypothetical spaces replete with lantern canopies sand hills, high reliefs, and other interests at the time.  Image and Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva | Experimental Studio | All Rights Reserved unless otherwise noted   

Mid-Term Critiques at Shih Chien University Department of Architecture

Mid-Term progress critique at Shih Chien University

Mid-term project critiques at Shih Chien University, Department of Architecture.   Image Credits: Pie | Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva | Experimental Studio | All Rights Reserved.

Private Collection - A Rumination about the Mystery of Mixolydian Island (Sketch)

A Rumination about the Mystery of Mixolydian Island

"Somewhere along the terrain of Mixolydian Island rests a stage especially crafted for an audience of a few inhabitants. Here, the delightful musical progression resonates through the soil and foundations of the island. Strings, taut to key, are routed into diagonal tunnel-chambers in significant metrics below grade. A concrete saddle anchors the resonating steel. At the bridge, the resonator vibrates with an encompassing musical vibration like that of a Gothic chapel."  - Excerpt from A Rumination about the Mystery of Mixolydian Island- Concept sketch produced for a private collection held by a Taiwanese musician.    Image and Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva | Experimental Studio | All Rights Reserved.

Line.Scape Topologies: Hyder Distortion

Linework produced from a historical revitalisation project in Fort Worth, Texas. This piece entails the 2d documentation of particulate matter in the architect's detail palette from the 1920's. The building on which the image was inspired is a 2-storey brick-facade building with a fenestration of wooden-framed windows. Flower-like entablatures add richness above the transoms and moulding details. Criss-cross wooden bands span the datums along the facade. Here is a line.Scape interpretation.  Image and Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva | Experimental Studio | All Rights Reserved.

News: NUU- Department of Architecture: Miaoli, Taiwan

I'll be giving a critique to Diploma students at National United University: Department of Architecture: Miaoli, Taiwan 18-DEC-2011
Invitation by Möore Chen

W.I.P.

(Fig. A) Interior Ethereal statement | x-view

(Fig. B) Exterior Field | Possible In-situ. Non Street.

Untitled W.I.P. researches into radial application of 3d casting onto oval surfaces. Each 3d cast anticipates unique sculptural casting morphology.   Image and Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva | Experimental Processes Studio | All Rights Reserved.

Printing for Protest | Meditation Fields and Stages of Protest

Falun Gong is a complicated cultural issue concerning human rights in the People's Republic of China. Their existence as an organization is inflammatory in the eyes of the government. Yet, their grassroots efforts abroad have led to the discovery of practices in the suppression of speech among other policies.(1)

As a matter of fact, the notion of protest is part of an underlying narrative in my mind as I try to cut through the noise in the architectural game, but rarely is it brought forth as direct inspiration. The case is personal but, we, as conceptual designers are looking for ideas and new formations for the different ideals we stand for, but when it hits a political tone, it might conflict with the agenda of the usual architectural static. If we stand for up for politically sensitive topics, is the consequence a potential danger for a successful career in the avant garde?  

Pinpointing, the power players of the future have the chance to question the hypocrisies of text set in mortar as we compare the words of the masters and their built-work. Correspondingly, the old paragons of the avant garde have seemingly betrayed their early radical critiques of institutions which – in-the-end – have become their leading financial backers in the practice of their construction projects. Read: Rem Koolhaas/OMA's et.al project for CCTV in Beijing(2). Are the practices of freedom of speech and creative freedom the compromises if we indulge ripened commercial opportunity?(3)  What democratic utilities do western designers compromise in order to achieve ultimate build-ability in non-democratic states?(4) This text must only entice this idea unto the point of rhetoric; however here, I can present a new image spurned by this underlying argument.


Site Story:  Most recently, I was inspired by the protests in Taipei occurring peacefully along the traffic flows on the commercial dragways.  This road in particular is of Zhongxiao rd., one of the primary - east-west corridors. The practitioners at the tail-end of the protest were the Falun Gong supporting the political demonstration among others. With the help of a faithful translator, all signs in the protest attempted to inform the local Taiwanese, that not all Chinese tow-the-party-line of the Communist government censorship to information(5). The peaceful walk entailed a strategy to counter the widely held notions of an Asian monoculture endorsing one form of political thought. Without precluding the obvious risks of doing so, they walked forth with their families as a diverse set of citizens.


In order to bring forth the corresponding image, one will note the color-ques applied. As a concept, the image recalls the abstract memory in a top-down perspective view. Clusters of people banging drums, wearing yellow, and walking in a solidarity for free-speech on foreign territories.  In the manner of transparency, I was touched by their tribute, and I dedicate this piece to the memory of that demonstration. 

As concept leads to perception and ultimate actualization, other references reveal veritable fields of yellow. Research reveals protestations represented in matrix-like arrangements of meditating practitioners(6). There a stage for protest occurred. But here, for a moment, we might indulge the memory in a new abstracted formation. 

Image and Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva | Experimental Processes Studio | All Rights Reserved.
Footnotes: 
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/world/asia/28china.html
2. While other architectural practices could be added to the line-up, Rem Koolhaas', being widely published, deserves further critique. And while it is not the objective of this piece to call out any of the other hypocrisies occurring within the field of the built environment, we can readily concede that the building process, especially involving governments is never an issue of absolute values. Or is it? In public forums, we must leverage the reticence to critical evaluation of such architectural kingmakers. Visual ques of the building are found here: http://www.arcspace.com/architects/koolhaas/chinese_television/ 
3: http://www.tienmao.com/archives/000858.html
4. Reductionists would invariably invoke Philip Johnson's adage that architects are essentially high-class whores – but this cannot be the stop-end of pursing a radical agenda.
5. "The Chinese government strictly censors the country’s newspapers, broadcast media and the Internet, blocking any information it considers sensitive." Source: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2011/09/05/2003512489
6. http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/16595/ 

Merged Symmetries | Untitled

A piece from the Merged Symmetries series. 
Size: 609x914
Media: Canvas
Image and Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva | Experimental Studio | All Rights Reserved unless otherwise noted   

Super Asian Gothic | Chapter 2 | Funerary Tents

(fig.a) Super Asian Gothic refined.

(fig b) bas-relief decorative clay

A year in review, I needed to refine the terminology of the Super Asian Gothic. Super Asian Gothic is a manifesto on the new aesthetics borne of the post-Globalist hemispherical relationship of architecture. Presented here, (fig. a) is a concept image of the new syllabus for the polemical juncture of Asian Genius Loci and architectural criticism. This confluence of abandoned histories; of reverse synthesis; and an opportunistic gothic emergence is diagrammed here in the post-Daoist tradition.

In this latest chapter of Super Asian Gothic, we can investigate how the native culture can retain traditional ceremonies, of which add to the vitality and individuality of the nation, whilst the country modernizes and further acclimates into global society. This theme concerns itself in the ephemeral elements of urban life along with its inherent portable building temple culture. Students here, can practice in new fashion, the older traditional means of architectural programmatic expression with a fresh, updated perspective. 

The impetus for such an investigation is primed when arriving at discussions of cultural erasure - and how modern western ideals have enabled this erasure.

At once, we can look to semi-spiritual identities embedded into the columns and ornamentation of small neighborhood temples. These can be a source of ethereal inspiration. The still-practiced traditions and the iconography behind them prevail against the megaliths of western globalism. As sentinels and little defenders, we have the doll-like gods ensconced in polychromatic temples serving as mini totems for the afterlife. 

Furthermore, to behold the burning ceremonies of ancestor remembrance and the promise of financial prosperity in Chinatowns with drifting dragons dancing about is not only represented in the metaphorical didactic columns, but the streets themselves. There is much to beseech the ancestors for: As much as financial prosperity and filial obligations ring true - these traditions are on attack from multiple fronts.

This years brief calls for the students to take a deeper look at the temple typology, the role of ancestor worship, and the cross-straight relationship. These project offerings attempt to bridge gaps in traditions of celebrating the sequences of life. We can investigate temporarily-erected funeral celebration temples erected on the streets. What is next? 

Underlying the anticipated flux in architectural culture, what are the predictions for Taiwan in the next 50 years? What makes Taiwan a distinct outpost or stronghold of culture as the island has transitioned from one nation's occupation to another(1)? What are the aesthetics that portray the metaphor of such an invariably definite struggle - between the decaying body, the opulent mind, and the ethereal(1) and ephemeral(2) landscape? 

Site: Students are to select a local site in Taiwan where celebrations have been held. As per tradition, these tents are usually placed along the thoroughfare. Are these the safest locations for these temporary structures? Or is their locations what makes them enduring cultural elements.

Fabrication: Students are highly encouraged to pursue all manner of site construction utilizing rapid-robotics(3) in conjunction with human-labor force. Due to the sensitive nature of this building type construction time is of primary concern. The question arises as such: Does this expedited schedule preclude radical design and thus waver to the forces of pragmatism and rationalist thought? 


Schedule: Students shall consider an abbreviated time-frame of assembly and construction. 


Construction Documentation: Required documents include site plans and urban placement plans. Section 1:50&1:200; Plans; Renderings; Fabrication diagramming; robotic interface; logistic diagrams; parts lists; lighting diagrams; energy-use plans.


 Image and Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva | Experimental Processes Studio | All Rights Reserved.
Footnotes: 
1. Ethereal:  "Extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world."
2. Ephemeral: "Lasting for a very short time."  
3. rapid-robotics: See such examples of portable robotic arms utilized by Gramazio and Kohler of ETH Zurich, and portable 3d printer technology forthcoming to availability.

Recent Work | A Brief Self Critique

(fig a.) A recent design project (a digital model)

(fig b.) A recent design project (a physical model)

The architectural efforts of model-building, drawing, and computer drawing is a constant gap I'm trying to bridge. Here are two examples of how I feel I'm getting closer to ameliorating that previously frustrating gap in my design / creative process. While I still feel my physical modeling abilities have engendered a greater sense of the ORGANIC, the digital is not far behind. I've found that as my ability in technological procedure grows and the procurement of powerful/flexible tools, the greater I am able to bridge this gap of the mind, computation, and hand.   Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva @Experimental Processes Studio | All rights reserved.

News | Line.scape Topologies in Output Publication

Friends & colleagues, check out the forthcoming edition of OUTPUT: November 2011.  It features the award-winning piece entitled Line.Scape Topologies. The forthcoming book will be available on Amazon soon.

Digital Sketching | Impossible Clay

(fig.a) Digital Sketching | Impossible Clay

Current development of formed-clay features on a water-shedding surface. While the construction of the clay-components involve a process including 3d printed clay forms and hand-made forms. Each piece is joined together in Daoist temple- like precision. Overtime I would expect the glazing to wear and chipping might occur on the repetitive units. The components are joined by aluminum dowels which snap into place for a quick assembly. As with most of the parametric fetish, of which this is not generative form, the pieces and construction documentation is certainly an elaborate puzzle for the builder. Luckily, the economic spur of the local construction force will relieve this temporary architectural burden. In fact, the bas-reliefs along the facades thereof will include depictions of this fastidious construction endeavor as simulated on the local architecture here in Taiwan.  At the outset, the fabrication force for this large of a roof foot-print requires 50 laborers snapping the bits into place by a regular scaffold below. 

Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva | Experimental Processes Studio

The earth is moving without our permission | Distortions of buildings

(fig. a) Distortions of buildings and the machines that build them.

A ...recent analog piece I've been working on will be featured in a group exhibition.
Date: August 13th, 2011
Location: Bopiliao Historical Block 剝皮寮歷史街區
Curator: Association of the Visual Arts in Taiwan
Featuring the following artists:
Bradley Sliva、王仁傑、王志文、王鼎超、白如伶、朱麗麗、何孟娟、何季圜、何政宏、何瑞卿、吳心荷、吳易澤、吳祚昌、吳極、李思慧、李慧娟、李燕華、林志偉、林志賢、林怡君、林芸、林雨農、林淑娟、林義隆、林萬士、林豪鏘、邱美玉、邵育仙、邵潤洲、洪紹哲、紀向、胡敬峰、范子翔、凌渝英、席時斌、徐瑞、袁志傑、高義勝、張乃霜、張友鷦、張思涵、張美陵、張家瑀、梁寶卿、莊臥龍、莊培鑫、莊彩琴、莊凱如、莊惠琳、莊普、許小恆、許智瑋、連瑞芬、郭淑莉、郭慧禪、陳文祥、陳孟岠、陳金萬、陳品蓉、陳奎延、陳香伶、陳萬仁、陳歡、曾美禎、曾凱智、曾鈺涓、曾鈺慧、游雯迪、黃于珊、黃尤眉、黃文浩、黃文琳、黃品瑄、黃彥超、黃彥穎、黃郁涵、黃莉莉、黃楷馨、楊上峰、楊紅國、楊郁美、楊紫芹、葉子啟、葉方、董心如、董明晉、詹玉美、詹朝根、趙美珍、趙新梅、劉秀春、劉哲榮、劉榮裕、蔡宛潔、蔡幸娟、蔡淳文、鄭亭亭、鄭詩雋、賴久紅、賴右珊、賴萬家、戴宛蓁、韓秀蓉、簡芝舷、簡福鋛、藍妙齡、魏欣如、魏國龍、羅振宇、羅祤絹、羅惠瑜、蘇子涵、蘇俊吉、蘇修賢、駱麗真。
以上若有相關問題，歡迎來電詢問。
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva @ Experimental Processes Studio

Studio @ the Beach | Playtime, to a degree

(fig.a) Extant condition | Aberrant Rock Formations

(fig. b) New condition | Aberrant Rock Formations

Without a doubt, the idea of returning to the playtime of childhood is an interesting connection in the meta-narrative of the aging process in the education of an architect. Here, on the beach, even the most distant mnemonics of sandscapes and seascapes harken the impulses of the playtime character of which most professionals abandon as they mature. I think it's quite important for the professional designer to embrace those creative impulses they possessed as a child, and perhaps, allow those open-mind-sets to culminate into a more refined personal design narrative. As an educator, the impetus of encouraging design students to channel their innermost passions and goals is of paramount concern if we are to have a richer diversity of architectures in the future. That is, to empower professionals who can offer a unique polemic, in contrast the rampant memes we see today. Extending the idea further, we can challenge the students to merge the rigor of architectural-education skill sets, with the primal urge to both create and destroy (Read: design and edit the landscape) As the child-artist develops into the professional, as mentioned before, the role of playtime is fortified. I offer here a brief personal statement regarding the application of such a practice. 
In context, the application of the genius loci¹ becomes more precise, when at the ground level, we encounter the found object. In such a case as here on the beach.scape, the process of the designer yields to the grain of sand, as compared to the click of a button, or the etching of a pencil stroke. The operational routine is as follows: Feet; submerged partially amidst the water, wading and struggle for stance. Hands; metaphoric shovels shoveling to a drier-ground. These are not ubiquitous sand-castles mind you, although they were in an earlier age. Here, beach v1.0 has evolved into beach v2.0 with a degree. 

This cove in Kenting, Taiwan, where this brief interlude occurred, contains a high numerical degree of rocks on the shoreline. These rock formations occur naturally due to the up-thrusting tectonic shifting of the earth in micro ecological scales. At a glance, they appear as aberrant mysteries when contrasted upon the normally perceived beach.scapes. We can highlight this genius loci in a precise manner by allowing the stronger element of the landscape to prevail. Stronger elements in the landscape as the interesting rock-formations and not the particularly predictable use of sand. Following the routine of found-object implementation, we can discover sort-of new ways of dealing with the shoreline terrain by enlisting the alternative properties of the local material. The strength of the material. The approach of re-ordering the visual-structural hierarchy ² is an exercise yielding ontological variety. Form-finding and small-scale structural tests of Newtonian delight, light up a paradisical afternoon.
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva   
Footnotes: 
1. Genius Loci, as used by Christian Norberg-Schulz 
2. visual hierarchy, informed by the gestalt philosophy as put forth by  by Dondis, Donis A. in her book, A Primer of Visual Literacy

Accretion Theatre | Fictional Soup

(fig. A1) Accretion Theatre | A Nascent Sketch

(fig. A2) Accretion Theatre | Development Sketch

Citations for the sake of literary fictions¹ allow my design process a respite. While forms, shapes and spaces categorize and re-organize (themselves) into a cortex of visual diagrams, the outputs begin as a nascent diagram available for follow-up. 

Dizzying concoctions of non-standard architectural variables. Completely un-scripted  plump pumpkins, stems of dried-up roses - replete with thorny brigades connect hollowed-out and obviously dom.in.oed frame structures. Absence of scale, this is true, the form making has some kind of literary origin.

Without a doubt, these references allow for the open minded exchange between the literary authors and the visual erudition of architecture highest regard. A page of text within Thomas Mann's epic tome featuring a young man searching for ideas inside a Swiss restorative sanitarium in the Alps is the baseline for the medium. Eternal Soups, here redefined as Fictional Soup, is a forerunner to the Accretion Theatre. As in each room or sanitarium patient the young protagonist discovers a new set of ideas and fodder for ruminations to bring him out of the German Bourgeoise background he was born into. With a little bit of analog, these sketches are on their way, certainly in early process, but I'm trying to free my own constraints from the aesthetics of digital constructions, on the way to complete reciprocity between the two. A personal narrative for sure.

Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva @ Experimental Processes Studio.  
Footnotes: A pen and ink sketch on the page of The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann 

News | It's only a critique @ Shih Chien

I'll be stopping by Shih Chien University to sit-in on an final architectural review and critique on Friday, June 24th.   
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva @ Experimental Processes Studio

Fodder for stairing | Digital Sketching

(fig. A) Stairing, Fodder

Fodder for stairing | Towering developments. 

Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva  

Remixing DELL + FöDA

While you were absorbed, the meshes were refocusing the habitats into curves-turned nurbs. Contours refashioned, sections flexing their sculptural muscles of pattern methodology. Unlike fashionable modes, studios, that is, the method of application is purely un-parametric. Which is the utter bore of those with Architectural Associations. Rather, it's much more akin to a Victoria Secret fashion show, probably one with laptops capturing the footage. The dissatisfaction with bldg blogs spurns this forward. Reliable concoctions hardly need the faux architectural journalism in the sharing of ideas. We don't need professors, or digital manifestos. Mercury hacking and re-meshes embody readily available drawings. This print, it occurs, is refuse. The nascent remixing of intricate patternisation provided Jett Butler of Föda Studio. The model is nearly complete, these are the scraps I would otherwise feed to the digital dogs. 

Moscow, Hong Kong, and London interns beware, the safety of inert employment, within the architectural firms certainly Foster perpetual memes within the corporate core. These digital modeling activities preclude reality - yet represent the visualization of a certain reality, mannequins on a stage, which are essentially the simulcra of human form.  Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva: Patterns provided by Jett Butler of Föda Studio 

New Red-Carpets - Pushkinsky Theatre revisited

(Fig. A) Pushkinksy Revisited

(Fig. B) Pushkinsky Original

New horizontal red carpets (concept-design) I designed for the Pushkinsky Theatre in Moscow, Russia. The red pods would allow for LED integration, and would feature the latest theatre and movie/showing on the facade. 
Here, the rendering is depicted in red, to illustrate the idea of the ephemeral red-carpets, which harkens back to earlier days of this building's original luster. The cacophony of pods, (stationary, and floating) are an abrupt facade confrontation between the original problem of the building, in that it exemplified the ill-advised aesthetic choices in Russian Modernism. Subtle ques, however, were maintained, such as the difficult diagonal roof overhang. Here, obviously the roof line extends into a park-front eponymous of the writer Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. The bridge over the street is treated with new care unifying the facade aesthetic and serves as a dramatic link to the park on the lobby level. Being a concept, it still needs the re-installation of the wonderful typographical signs found on the original signage.  
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva @ Experimental Processes Studio. The above rendition constitutes a concept for the theatre. Close monitoring of the competition for the redux of this theatre is expected. Visual ques here and concepts are under copyright. The picture of the building original was taken from Flickr.

A statement.

(Fig. A) Accretion Theatre | Rationalism, thereof

The dialogues of my work oscillate between speculative forms and the craft of artifactual production. Notions the fever-dream and the bastardized phantasmagoric academic architectures mesh and collage together with the haptic-constructs of human connectivity and perception to objects both digital and real. Enigmatic capitalist-flows and bottom-lines – intellectually challenged by Marx, and Deleuze & Guattari, pose as theoretical combatants standing ground for 'do-it-themselves' construction ontologies. Furthermore, Lyotard's aesthetic-roundtable informs the self-serving and ironic obsession with the authenticity of beauty. Digital fire-proofing, and software-physics inform the manipulation of terrestrial landscapes and the obsessive, fetish pursuit of 'materiality'. Architectural drawing tricks through the 'layering of visual stimuli' in the urban fabric whilst debating the vanity (and vulgarity) in the post-paradigm Avant-Garde. When the sun goes down, bright signs defy the formalities of the 'graphic virginity of buildings'. And while there is no limit to human creativity, nature is always trumping a solitary mind.

Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva  

Out and About @ Shih Chien University

I was pleased to sit in on a architectural review at Shih Chien University in Taipei.
With special thanks to undergraduate tutor: Redd Hung. His students were charged with re-thinking the idea of the Taiwanese wedding banquet. I appreciated the students non-linear approach to wedding practices whilst using the tools of the banquet (tables) to communicate a polemical stance on the institution.

New Website

Experimental Processes Studio New Website.

Please visit my studio's new website.

Musha shugyō | むしゃしゅぎょう

Writing: Forthcoming to the web, I'll be releasing a few photo-documentaries and writings based on my travels in Europe and Asia. These travels have been a formidable educational experience in addition to a so-called formal architectural 'training'.  At the moment, I'm debating on titles to wrap up the narrative, as this kind of cohesive urban record – a pursuit in constant need for a memorable nomenclature – attempts to engender a cohesive narrative that is both accessible to the blog-reading public and the contexts of academia. 

Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva 
Footnotes: 1. Musha shugyō is a quest for young Japanese samurai "would wander the land in search of honing their craft. (according to wikipedia's stub on martial arts)

Facade Test (v.3)

(Fig. a) Facade Test. Glazing, internal view and pods

Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva @ Experimental Processes Studio

Facade Test (v.2) | Digital Sketching

(fig. a) Index facade | digital sketching v.2

(fig. b) Index facade | digital sketching v.2 screenshot
more process on my other website:: link

Facade Test | Digital Sketching

(fig. a) polymorphic modules | testing limits

Production of polymorphic module testing. 
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva | Experimental Processes Studio

pv array and nanofab skin - study model vignette

(fig. a) pv arrays and nano-fab skin

Current development:  Dual-coated nano.fabric connected to the welded-steel, irregular-web structure. The web supports a bio-mimetic multi-branch photovoltaic array of high magnification pv-pods. The nano.fabric is a proprietary system. The mesh (also flexible) anticipates double-curve geometries. fig. a, rough study model demonstrating pv array.  
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva @ Experimental Processes Studio

Private Collection

Grapes of Collapse x 2 #3. Artwork created for private collection. 
Part of a limited production series of rough-drawings/sketches featuring the (touch-and-go) bio.mimetic literalism in drawing production.
Again, the architectural drawing transforms itself into a 'fine-art' endeavor through exercises of conceptual drawing of an unbuildable, unfinanced architecture: and instead, the production, a tangible architectural artifact, becomes a viable proxy to the built. This strategy was exemplified by early portfolios of the avant-garde architects following inspirations in other the fields of artistic production ². Drawings/paintings like this effort helped promulgate coat-tailed careers operating in the vacuum-like economies of financial ruin or revolutionary upheaval. What are the architectures produced today on paper that last a next generation? 

Acrylic, graphite, ink, bio: on reused paper. Dimensions: 7"x4.75" (17.6mm x 11.5mm)
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva

Digital Sketching | Etude and fab

(fig. a) panels on tendril development

Picking up on patterning¹ techniques on amorphous tendrils. Rapid prototyping allows the piece-by-piece construction of otherwise difficult-to-build geometries. Number assignments are categorized for each tendril, and panel information is printed (etched) upon the surface. (see image) Panels are unique, but as a concession to practicality the assembly order requires drawings provided by the the fabricator. Under the circumstances of an expedited construction period (or during harsh conditions), the staging of panels is ordered and listed to provide the most logical (storage-to-assembly point). Fabrication team packages a pallet of approximately10 panels, and construction crew assembles them in reverse order. At the construction site, the crew shall follow procedural attachments from ground level- upward, completing installation with scissor-style picker, or scaffolding. Scaffolding techniques are decided by construction manager.
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva 
Footnotes: Finally, after 2 years, Rhino for mac allows the function. My work will progress accordingly. Keep up the good work McNeel.

Analog Sketching | Decontexting Typography

(fig. a)| Decontexting Typography study

Preview from the Decontexting Typography Series. A focus in the series features figure-ground diagram of speculative conceptual neighborhoods. Created for a private collection in Taiwan. Ink, Graphite, 5.2"x6.5" on re-used printer paper.
從印刷術的Decontexting預覽系列。該系列中的一個重點特徵圖地面圖投機概念的街區。油墨，石墨，5.2“x6.5“關於重新使用的打印紙。
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva 

Analog Sketching | American South Thailand

Analog Sketching | American South Thailand

This featured rough sketch is merged from two pages from my sketchbook spanning different time periods in mid to late 2010. The torn seam occurs vertically and irregularly down the center and grafted by mechanical instrumentation, flora, text, plan diagrams, and a bus ticket. Lines (mostly heretical and abstracted), approximately depict content involving :topography of Ko Samet island paradise, versus industrial wastelands ecologically destroyed by an oil spill. In this case, the priority is emphasized by the errors of engineering and construction - hence mans' parochially-charged triumph over nature eg. the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Created for a private collection in Taiwan.
Material: Pen, 4"x6" Strathmore 400 drawing paper, colored pencil.
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva 
這個功能從畫稿合併兩頁是我的速寫本跨越不同的時間段在2010年中期到晚期。縱向撕裂縫的發生和不定期中心8-0-0和嫁接的機械儀表，植物，文本，規劃圖，和公共汽車票。線路（主要是邪教和抽象），約描繪內容涉及：沙美島的地形高樂園，與工業廢棄地生態破壞，石油洩漏。在這種情況下，重點是強調了誤差的工程和建築- 因此芒'狹隘電的性質，例如戰勝。溢油的BP在墨西哥灣。創造了一個私人收藏在台灣。
材料：筆，4“x6“的斯特拉斯莫400繪圖紙，彩色鉛筆 

Winner | Richard B. Ferrier Prize

Best in Category | Richard B. Ferrier Prize, KROB2k10

I'm pleased that a work from my Line.scape Topologies series was awarded the first-ever Richard B. Ferrier Prize in the 2010 Ken Roberts Memorial Delineation Competition.
Esteemed Jurors:
Dan Wood, AIA, LEED AP | Co-Founder and Partner, WORK Architecture Company 
Gary M. Cunningham, FAIA | Founder and President, Cunningham Architects 
Namananda Henderson | Editor, Archinect.com 

// "@_@" | Digital Sketching

(fig. 1) @_@ | Digital Sketching

"@_@" Studies for open-aired spaces. Architectural elements untethered, gridded frames (Cartesian backdrops). Plentiful arrays of circulation spaces combined with interstitial spaces for the super-structure. Ground plinth, loading docks, etc.
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva @ Experimental Processes Studio | All rights reserved

Graphene Dream | Digital Sketching

(fig. a) Digital Sketching | Graphene Dream

(fig. b) Digital Sketching | Graphene Dream

(fig. c) Digital Sketching | Graphene Dream

With announcement of the 2010 Nobel Prize award to Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov for their research of Graphene(1), the pursuit of ever stronger materials becomes more enlightening to those of us practicing the application of high-end materiality. Their efforts along with other material scientists help place seeds of potentiality to imagine into form. The implementation of graphene, although severely limited to scalar-constraints as it pertains to the materials use in architecture, offer previews into ways science has and will foster the imagination to push the boundaries of the known. In current development, the nanotechnology scale shall suffice in small concerted efforts to the delay of paper-light acrobatic structuralism which we can only imagine through conceptual architectures.

 Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva @ Experimental Processes Studio | All rights reserved.
Footnotes: 
1. The word "Graphene". A.K. Geim, & K.S. Novoselov | Nature Materials | The Rise of Graphene VOL 6| March 2007 

Lecture\Discussion of Recent Works | Taipei

討論 Discuss | Recent Works

A discussion with future practitioners within the architectural profession in Taipei, Taiwan. Thanks to: Milton Chen Architects for the invitation to engage other professionals in the field.  Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva Photo: Milten Chen, Architect.

Ruminations on the iterative process, editing and digital revisionism

(fig. 1) Self-Editing & Revisionist Process

Self-editing and Revisionism. Revisionist control over digitality[¹] is one the more tedious efforts in drafting digital form and space. Here is a 'behind-the-blog' view into my process. This specimen, from 2008, is a poly-mass architectural concept. The mark-up, very crudely and expeditiously, depicts the linking of the aforementioned volumes. Inherent in the presented specimen, is an example of reciprocity occurring within the self-editing process[²] found in modern techniques of design. It can be used to communicate with other designers and technicians to refine projects within the iterative stages of design. Yet, it behooves me to claim that this is still an old-fashioned way of editing. As such, one slight difference precludes utilizing printed output (read: sustainable) to facilitate the process of editing. On the other hand, the greatest improvement is that the work can be transmitted to consultant professionals or for students traveling professors to proof or comment on via Moodle or mobile devices such as the iPhone. But while there are forthcoming developments for full 3-dimensional transfer (nothing new), augmented reality[³] (near future) the 'feedback-loop' imperative is still behind the technological curve compared to current and more sophisticated Building Information Modeling[⁴] systems used heavily in the production houses of corporatist architects and builders. Risking further tangential consternation, these very BIM systems sadly seem to streamline the production of 'superficial modernisms' and 'big-box buildings.' Hopefully, such a system of reciprocity can assist the experimental design architects to fulfill their visions more completely and accurately, without compromising the artistic merit behind their work.
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva    
Footnotes:
1. M. Colletti
2. link to: http://experimentalprocesses.blogspot.com/2009/01/study-model-2.html 
3. Augmented Reality: defined by R. Azuma, "1. combines real and virtual, 2. is interactive in real time, 3.is registered in 3D
A Survey of Augmented Reality Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, pp. 355–385, August 1997.
4. Building Information Systems or Drawing Exchange Formats, etc, etc.  

shin kong mitsukoshi shopping arena exteriors | Digital Sketching

(fig. 1) shin kong mitsukoshi shopping arena | curb appeal

(fig. 2) shin kong mitsukoshi shopping arena | curb appeal

Click here for description: link here

Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva

Conditioned Chaos and other Treacheries | Digital Sketching

(fig 1.) Conditioned Chaos | Digital Sketching

(fig 2.) Conditioned Chaos | Digital Sketching

 "La Trahison des Images"  The Treachery of Images ¹

(fig. 4) Conditioned Chaos & new sheath | Digital Sketching

(fig. 3) Conditioned Chaos | Extant Abundance |Taipei City

    A treachery precludes build-ability? But is this truly so? Future possibilities, manifested in incredibly complex arrangements of lines, volumes and Newtonian-scientific blasphemies. New discoveries, technologies, and flexible forms of capital-backed construction, help to illuminate the multi-layered design approach. We shall heap them together in a digital-pile of intersecting wire-frames in an arrangement of half-believability. The 'things' exist in reality, but newly in this extracted fashion – a context within the context. This concept responds to the references the Belgian artist Magritte, who proposed in pigmented oils (as opposed to coded-pixels), the depiction of literal objects in abnormal contextual configurations.

"Magritte's work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. The representational use of objects as other than what they seem is typified in his painting, The Treachery of Images, (La Trahison desI mages)…"²

This chaotic pile of 'things' [as Peter Cook³ might say] in these pictures exist defining the auxiliary landscape of Taipei – arrayed as functionally-positive addendums upon buildings. Air conditioners. Quite banal, really. However, simple-observation precludes ignorance of these metal boxes fastened upon the facades of buildings by practical-minded landlords and builders. The necessities of pragmatic decoration, most assuredly so! I'm fascinated enough to draw them. As a result, of my own subconscious urban impressions I begin to decode and question the dialectics of styles of beauty found in some architecturally-totalitarian designs (as practiced by some architects, developers and urban planners). Here, the reduction of elements: hoses, fans, grates, sheet-metal are collected into a treacherous nest of conditioners.
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva   
Footnotes: 
1. René François Ghislain Magritte Treachery of Images, a painting of a tobacco pipe.
2.  Spitz 1994, p.47 Museums of the Mind: Magritte's Labyrinth and Other Essays in the Arts
Yale Univerysity Press (1994)
3. Things or "stuff"Peter Cook, of Archigram, in various lectures given at the Bartlett School of Architecture.

@ SOGO, Shopping for Superlatives | Balls of Fabric | Digital Sketching

(fig.a) SOGO Festooned

SOGO¹ Versus Shin Kong Mitsukoshi shopping Arena. Hong-Kong, Tokyo, Taipei. The plot-defined battle for consumers of apparel continues in the matter of technically engineered vocations and plodding planners. Metropolitian megaplexes strut along the upper-tiered income strata like belligerent peacocks. Devices, which offer incentives to the kinetic advertising to act as anchors lures the public into the plastic architectural lobbies of spatial vagaries. 

(fig.b) Shopping Bag Extruder/Blowers

The supplanted Kinetic Shopping bag extruder machines spew forth complimentary shopping bags towards the entrances instead of credit-card applications and sweepstakes offers. Arriving from outer-space (like the runway styles of the Haute couture fashion houses adjacent to the Prada Children's Playground) the extruder is at once a device of alien intrigue.   
Image & Text source: Copyright of the Author, Brad Sliva 
Footnotes:
1. Pacific Sogo

shin kong Mitsukoshi shopping arena | Digital Sketching

(fig.a) shin kong mitsukoshi arena |Merging politically unfriendly commerce

(fig.b) shin kong mitsukoshi arena |virgin commercial real-estate

(fig.c) shin kong mitsukoshi arena | horizontal vectors escort shoppers

shin kong mitsukoshi asian shopping arena | Chapter One. Meet us at the lobby near the ice-skating rink. No, silly not the entrance by the chain fashion store, the one by the noodle shop, the Grey-zone businesses where the teenage girls offer hand-made jewelry out of suitcases. In a sense these sketches (see figures above) are failures.[0] They exclude to depict the liveliness of asian Grey-zone[¹] commerce. Then again, what happens when we combine these two seemingly opposite commercial interests (the quasi-legal street-corner operation, headed up by a tenacious entrepreneur, vs. the conglomerations of international fashion houses?) The combination is hopefully what the future holds for the mega commercial real-estates espoused by the pandering, intern-rich architectural industry. And these digital sketches? They are simply sketches over typhooned purple rice tea. In the afternoon after shopping the progenitors of the asian[²] consumer classes, along with the patrons of illegal/blackmarket street commerce can sell here in the overzealous plastic lobbies of architectural vagaries (also known as: the Open Plan[³]). Again, these sketches? Unlike the specialist firms who endlessly churn-out mega malls for the asian suburbs and mega-cities alike, at least we can begin to see where the big bigness, and the all-encompassing predilections which architects often impose upon a plot of land, simply because it the program exists – instead, we should beg to respond to politically unfriendly [but real] aspects of commerce. In effect, foreign cultures are seriously challenging the design criteria in the programming phase by virtue of the prevailing 'attitudes of commerce.'
     No longer can the air-conditioned and air-tight big box mega-malls shield the American and European fashion houses, restaurant franchises, movie houses, et al. from the realities of the super organism of asian entrepreneurs on their home turf. Moreover, as the evolution of capitalism unfolds into the so-called recession-proof domains[⁴] of resource rich 'economic rivals of the west,'[⁵] capitalism as we-know-it has entered into a realm of collision. For example, traditional phenomenon such as the night markets, and street-side food carts are all independent casualties to the ever-increasing costs of rental space. Let's merge them into the architecture from the beginning. As such these embryonic architectural vagaries might allow for an affordable provision to merge the realities of 'high' and 'low' commerce to co-exist - before the chronologically inevitable entropic forces of class driven gentrification sterilize the charm and functionality of asian Grey-zone commerce.  
 Text, Image Source: Copyright of the Author, unless otherwise noted.
0. Failures. How computer generated Graphics often fail to represent the vitality of human interferences into architecture.
1. Grey-zone: Coined by Professor Chung-hsi Lin; President, Taiwan STS Society
National Yunlin University of Science and Technology | Department of Cultural Heritage Conservation

2. asian - (purposely uncapitalized) as a general condition of the longitudinal geographies coupled with the post ww2 model of capitalist commerce.
3. the Open Plan: referential to Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris' Maison Domino concept and modernist manifestations thereof.
4.For further reading: watch David Dunkley Gyimah's small film: Chongqing Report:) http://viewmag.blogspot.com/2010/09/chinas-new-shanghai-manhattan-skyline.html)
5. For further reading: Limbago, A. L. , 2006-08-31 "Economic Rivalry in the Current Era of Globalization" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriott, Loews Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA Online . 2009-05-24 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p151732_index.html 
Additional notes concerning The meanings embedded or interpreted in architectural aesthetics: The revolutionary architect, Lebbeus Woods, illustrated/proffered the political/militaristic collision of conceptual landscapes such as Sarajevo among others. His/those landscapes took on the predominate character of splayed, hard-edged geometries to reflect the relationship he was interested in depicting. Often these geometries were coupled with newer, polymorphic iterations occurring within and around the building sections. A clear indication of a duality by contrast.  Here, what is the appropriate aesthetic? With the ever increasing technological impact of drawing/modeling, does the -hand-crafted or computationally correct photo-realism have a more appropriate portrayal – images are meant to be sold, aren't they? Perhaps, perhaps not. When there is a commentary on commerce do we use the languages of those architects who provide these landscapes, or the abstracted artistic ones. Shopping. Shopping for style. It's so transitory just like the seasonal impact on fashion. This is the true transient notion. Moreover, the tectonics of such a collision. Seemingly, this pairing of parasite+original context are found as tactics to illustrate a tectonic commentary on something. Where is that device, here? What are we contrasting?