Sunday, January 31, 2010

A Life of Luxury


Luxury is 
It is the state of great comfort and extravagant living. i can see than the word luxury is becoming so used nowadays as we hear a lot the word out side the box, and many more.

in the past luxury was considered to be there for wealthy people, and then things have changed to the middle class, and now it is available for everyone. because the definition of luxury have changed, now it more likely to be for any precious things that someone has. for example, i might have a cheap ring but that has many memories for me and i see it as a luxurious thing for me. 

nowadays having old and antique objects is considered as luxury, while other people might consider it as garbage ! it varies between generations and people's backgrounds. also, another example is by visiting a really old hotel have been there for decades, now is considered as a luxury thing. even old cars that people gained and take care of then renew it by modern elements, are becoming so expensive now and are called luxurious thing.


Beautility


as the group mentioned and talked about beautility and asked what does beautility means? 
beauty + utility = beautility.
as a person, I love to see beautiful things. i think beauty verifies between people. if everyone consider a box as a beautiful object, then there would be no varieties in the market. or people will not even think to design or have different things than others. that would be a boring life for me. even as self appearance everyone wants to look different, attract attention, looking beautiful.

so people always define beauty by seeing beautiful people! or objects.. but did they ever think what brings beauty to them? Nature makes us feel this way about others. i might see someone amazing and gorgeous while others might see them ugly. so it is a matter of taste.

but still beauty might not only considered as i  mentioned for people only. i can call a pen as beautiful! or a mobile because it helps me a lot, and i love to use it. so we do have many beautiful things in our lives. so i believe everything and object in the world has its beauty .. 

Monday, January 25, 2010

I ❤ NY



I ❤ NY is a famous logo, and slogan. it was spread all over the world. i remember since i was a child i used to see it with my younger sister, she used to have stickers of it ! i never thought about it, or understood it! but when I grew up i knew what was it. many people do not really know the concept behind it, but i am glad that i got the opportunity to know. it is always a pleasure for any person to get the information about many different things around us in the world.

i have a T-shirt that i got from Washington DC what had I ❤ DC, i loved it, just because it was related to special moments for me. my idea behind this example, when there was the discussion about why people and many countries took the I ❤ NY and made others and why people would like to buy it. me personally i think, if i travelled somewhere, and i loved the place, had a great time, i loved love to buy something that reminds me of this place. so, when u have good memories about something you love to keep it. and this would have been the same in jeddah i think! we can see many youths are wearing T-shirts that has the same concept but mayeb some in a different design.

i am against stealing or using designs because by time they lose their identity! but this is how things are going nowadays, but what is interesting is that I ❤ NY will never lose their identity, everyone knows that it is the original one.

and if jeddah gher was something similar to jeddah or people in saudi arabia, for me i think it is so bad, that some people count it to be something good for them maybe because they do enjoy being in jeddah because they have never been to other places outside, so it might be nice for them. at the same time people who waits for vacation to leave it, wont get the same feeling about it. so in the end, it is a matter of choice and feeling !i would not judge people! i just know that fingers are not the same !


Comparison between "manufactured landscapes" & "Running Fence"

after watching both documentaries, i actually liked the Manufactured landscapes more! i felt there was a great concept behind it, made us see and observe who are those behind recycling for examples, how there are people working so hard in a hard situations! i was really touched and got the benefit from that one. also the photographer, the way he saw things, they way the director made us see it from his lens taken from the photographer composition! it was a great project. and such an amazing photographs of this you would never think to photograph it. it really brought something new for my imagination and way to see and view things around me. it is true that every single thing and element around us, has something interesting about it.

and about the Running Fence, it was not as good as the manufactures landscapes for me. i just liked the last touches and photos for the completed fence, they were amazing photos, especially you can see the difference when they have taken the photos in different times a day.. it was so beautiful. but the whole process I did not find it interesting, or that it had a great concept behind it. it was a bit boring for me, but i just liked the final result of photographs.

Running Fence- by Christo and Jeanne-Claude



For this second movie we have seen in class, i was somehow having a hint about what it is going to be, it is different that the 1st one, but still so interesting..  during watching the documentary, you can see how much effort and time did they spend doing that project. by taking permissions for people living in the farms in USA, to install their installation crossing their land. i found it really hard to convince people who maybe do not understand such projects or even know what does an installation means, or why they should care about it ! even after explaining that the idea of having the "Running fence is to get the families of the land that the fence crossed together. it is 18 feet high and 25 miles long. 
extending East-West near Freeway 101, north of San Francisco, on the private properties of fifty-nine ranchers, following rolling hills and dropping down to the Pacific Ocean at Bodega Bay, was completed on September 10, 1976.

The art project consisted of: forty-two months of collaborative efforts, the ranchers' participation, eighteen public hearings, three sessions at the Superior Courts of California, the drafting of a four-hundred and fifty page Environmental Impact Report and the temporary use of hills, the sky and the Ocean.

All expenses for the temporary work of art were paid by Christo and Jeanne-Claude through the sale of studies, preparatory drawings and collages, scale models and original lithographs.

Running Fence was made of 200,000 square meters of heavy woven white nylon fabric, hung from a steel cable which was embedded 1 meter into the ground, using no concrete and braced laterally with guy wires 145 kilometers  and 14,000 earth anchors. The top and bottom edges of the 2050 fabric panels were secured to the upper and lower cables by 350,000 hooks.

All parts of Running Fence's structure were designed for complete removal and no visible evidence of Running Fence remains on the hills of Sonoma and Marin Counties.

As it had been agreed with the ranchers and with the County, State and Federal Agencies, the removal of Running Fence started fourteen days after its completion and all materials were given to the ranchers. Running Fence crossed fourteen roads and the town of Valley Ford, leaving passage for cars, cattle and wildlife, and was designed to be viewed by following 65 kilometers (forty miles) of public roads, in Sonoma and Marin Counties.


In my opinion, having such projects and such installations, at the beginning no one appreciate it, and people feel that there is no reason behind it, maybe just a waste of time and money ! but in the end, after seeing the results, me as a graphic designer, or any person who might be interested to see great photos of a great project would just love it. such an amazing photos taken after accomplishing this huge fence. it might brought some harm or people did not like it, but i am sure in the end they got something good or a great memory after it was established. 

and these are some great examples of his work: