#sick architecture

[fatehbaz]

[A] team of technicians [is] working under sub-contracts for the National Mapping Agency [of Indonesia] to draw squares and rectangles around vast swaths of building and property across the archipelago. [...] [They] draw a perimeter [...] on the island of Kalimantan, a region that has witnessed the world's fastest forest clearing rates since 2012, as the oil palm [plantation] sector has expanded across rural Indonesia. [...] Even if state agency scientists demand that every building is drawn, his supervisors are afraid that the technicians will interpret too much. [...] [Bureaucrats] shrugged [...], reasoning that maps are crucial for Indonesia’s “pembangunan” (development), an ever-shifting ideology that has haunted the nation since [...] the 1950s. [...]

---

The contract employing the technicians stemmed from an incident in December 2010, when former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono compared two conflicting maps of Papua Island. The two forest maps, one published by the Ministry of Forestry and the other by the Ministry of Environment, were presented in a cabinet meeting regarding [...] nationwide [...] plantation permits in primary forests. Each map showed primary forests of different sizes and boundaries. [...] A scandal broke out, with environmentalists claiming that these discrepancies are an example of how corrupt officials manipulate maps and issue plantation permits on protected forest land. Earlier in 1998, Indonesia’s timber and oil palm industry became increasingly decentralized and privatized. [...] Under a 2016 Presidential Decree, Indonesia’s National Mapping Agency [...] accelerate[d] the remapping of Indonesia’s 18,309 islands. [...] The base map [...] [is] conventionally understood as a “ground truth” to physical reality [...].

Yet, senior bureaucrats of the National Mapping Agency have always been aware that maps could never represent the real world. The agency’s Deputy Director recently stated to the Indonesian press that data on palm oil plantation ownership is “secret.”

Herein lies a tension between desires to conceal deforestation and the official appearance of attempts to reveal what’s happening on the ground. The accuracy of forest maps [...] [and a] map’s legibility can also be understood as part of a measured and managed public revelation and the concurrent concealment of information, narratives, and images of the trees that still stand. [...]

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[S]ocial orders are based on "public secrets": forms of knowledge that are generally known insofar as they must not be overtly acknowledged. Simply put, one has to know what not to know.

Public life, its discourse, and practice, then, depend upon the management of transgression.

In Indonesia, it was understood that forest maps contained inaccuracies. From the fixed borders that enabled industrial plantation expansion to the inconsistent mapping standards, state maps were dissimilar all the way down. [...]

The pursuit of different versions of correspondence between territory and map segregates who gets to see and who gets to know what makes a forest. [...]

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Bureaucrats have advanced data science projects to automate the delineation of forest borders, to know the forest in precise ways that crowd out what for others is actually there. [...] [Previously, technicians] had spent hours determining what pixel makes the cut. Perhaps drawing in this green pixel matches the vegetation nearby; perhaps adding a brown pixel grants more property for the house owner. The blur in the images makes for a deliberation that also implicates his wrists and fingers that grow sore from his tactful eyes. [...] Indeed, “there are no straight lines” on the edges of Kalimantan’s forest; someone feels these borders into vision. [...]

Data science initiatives, on the other hand, draw borders without explanation to remove this interpretive labor. [This process maps land by taking satellite photos, and then letting the automated model predict the extent of forest, removing the human interpretation and confirmation.] [...] Points are converted into labeled pixels and fed into models that in turn label points anew: points feed points. Unlike the field survey, with data science, ground truth is found within the image, not in the forest.

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Indonesia’s forests are seen and known by different techniques. [...] Yet in keeping with the public secret of how forests are seen and governed by the state, each of these techniques also cultivates a willful not knowing.

Against the backdrop of the decades-long expropriation of indigenous land by patronage networks between timber and palm oil firms and central and district officials, broader shifts to institute efficiency and automation in mapping enable bureaucrats to relinquish their knowledge of such inconvenient truths. These technical initiatives recast the mapping of Indonesia as a preemptive activity [...]. The task of knowing what not to know emerges not only from the discursive theater of public human affairs, but out of the contest between the design and deployment of various mapping systems [...].

Is it possible to capture the world without seeing it? Or, who’s watching when a tree falls? Perhaps it doesn’t matter who, but how that watching is designed into a system that preempts a forest [...].

---

Text by: Cindy Lin. "How to Make a Forest". e-flux Architecture (At the Border series). April 2020. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[faaun]

what draws you back to your country what draws you back to your land when i was a kid i told myself if i ever left iran i'd never go back 2 years into living in the UK i started looking at news on iran again 10 years in and i visited it for the first time again and today i heard an iranian mother talk in farsi to her child on the train to london the way my mother used to and i wanted to cry i wanted to ask her whether they're still cutting the mountaintops whether the lakes are still drying today i showed the person i was with pictures of waterfalls and palaces and forests and snow-white north something odd pulls me back with increasing force i can't ignore it ever again

[piratesexmachine420]

If you told me this was how TI-83 binaries were structured, I would have straight up thought you were lying. JIT assembled from plaintext hex opcodes?--that can't be true. Maybe TI put that in the manual as a practical joke and nobody noticed.

...

...

...

Look at this stupid-ass hexdump. Every fucking byte of this file from 0x004B to 0x13C0 is either '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', or 'F'.

This program is anti-compressed. Every byte of machine code is encoded as two bytes of plaintext characters.

Why would you ever do that. Why would you want your executable to stored as plaintext hex digits. It's certainly not for ease-of-editing--the file-initial "AsmPrgm" token (BBh 6Ch) prevents you from opening the file in the onboard editor--and it's definitely not for program integrity checking either. So why on Earth did TI think this was the move to make?

Baffling and upsetting. Thank god the execution model permits self-modifying and self-extracting compressed programs.

[lordofthesoups]

All of you are getting skinned

[skinnyhyena]

The Valley of Kings and Hatshepsut's Temple, Egypt

[x-heesy]

Feng Shui Nightmare

No wonder that there in the first world are so many mental illness, lovers

Together but alooooone

Evil buildings

Sickness

#photoart #photoartist #photoartwork #photoartistic #photoarts #blissfulphotoart #photoartistique #photoarte #photoartistry #contemporaryphotoart #photoartists #photoarty #photoartgallery #photoartmag #nyphotoart #photoartcrew #photoartspirit #photoartgram #urbanphotoart #photooftheday #photographylovers #aesthetic #photographylover #ilovephotography #photographyart #artoftheday #creative #artgallery #artdaily #artpost #Travelingwithoutmoving #architecture #architecturephotography #architecturelovers #architectureporn #architecturedesign #architecturelover #architecturephoto #architecturedaily #architecture_hunter #architecturedetail #architecturephotos #architecturedose #architectureanddesign #architecturelife #architecturegram #architecturelove #architecturephotograpy #architectures #architectureinspiration #architecture_view #architektur #architekturfotografie #architekturfotograf #architektur_erleben #architekturliebe #architekturporn #architekturelovers

Moons Out, Goons Out by Warlord Colossus 🎵

[artandthebible]

Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesda

Artist: Carl Heinrich Bloch (Dutch, 1834-1890)

Date: 1883

Genre: Religious Art

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Brigham Young University Museum of Art

John 5: 2-9, 16-17

Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity for thirty and eight years.

When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath.

And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

[angelicasdigitaldiary]

Hello! I haven’t posted in a while because life! Ive been extremely sick these past days. But im still trying my best to keep up with assignments. I might have to skip going to my classes tomorrow if I don’t feel better.

[undeadboyfriendsupportgroup]

Imo, Tim's interest in Smirke is more of a trauma thing than him actually liking his work. Even the wiki goes on to say Tim is a "fan" but like

He says this in 104 and it is essentially saying that Tim got into Smirke AFTER the event. Tim looked into a lot of things after Danny because he wanted to know as much as possible about it and, in my opinion, it clearly comes out of a place of being traumatized

What it reminds me most of, though, is a scene in "Nope". For anyone who hasn't seen it (you should it's great I love it), this guy, Ricky Park, was on a TV show that had a chimp as part of the cast. After a loud noise goes off, the chimp goes insane and ends up killing a bunch of the cast members. Park ends up hiding under a table and right before the police arrive at the scene, he and Gordy (the chimp) touch hands before Gordy is killed. (The scene. Trigger warning for blood and a bit of gore)

When we see Park years later, he has a collection of memorabilia from the show and viewers realize that his fascination with the event comes from a place of trauma.

Tim's situation is similar, I think, with Smirke only being a component of his overall interest in this event that ruined his life.

So yeah, I don't think Tim is genuinely interested in the architecture, I think he is just traumatized and trying to figure out the whole fears thing ✌️ I think the reason we see him act so light-hearted about it is because well, it's Tim, and he is huge on masking/avoiding his issues

[icewindandboringhorror]

It's always interesting to hear about people's weird/unexpected "alternate life paths". Like, something that you could have done with your life, a job you almost took, a school you almost went to, etc - that was still actually realistic enough that it could have happened, but NOW it seems to not suit your current personality.

Like for example, I currently hate advertising (how manipulative it is, brands trying to be 'relatable', social media amplifying it to an obnoxious extreme, etc.) so much that even seeing a little ad before a youtube video is grating to even witness, but there was a point in time where I was genuinely seriously considering going into marketing/making commercials as a career lol. Or like, I have a relative who was very inclined to be a pastor when they were younger, even though today they're a super strong atheist, etc. etc.

[fatehbaz]

In the March 1923 issue of National Geographic, a sketch of a tired-looking businessman invites the reader to the Tucson Sunshine-Climate Club. In the accompanying text, Benj. Lowe -- the archetype of the tired, busy, urban, white businessman -- attempts to coax all the other Benj. Lowes out there on the East Coast to recover from their unhealthy lifestyles by spending some time in Tucson, Arizona:

That night, for the first time in his hard-working, rushing life, Lowe came to himself. No vacations for ten years. Heavy responsibilities. Making money? Yes. Now on the verge of breakdown. What was it all worth, anyway? And then his eyes fell on a booklet his worried wife had sent for. It was “Man-Building in the Sunshine-Climate.” …Perhaps you, like Lowe, may find in “Man-Building in the Sunshine-Climate” the clue to robust health.

This form of health tourism began to appear in journal and newspaper advertisements not long after Tucson was originally incorporated as a city, in 1877. A promotional item published in the Arizona Daily Star in 1890 even went so far as to designate Tucson a place to cure serious pulmonary diseases. The rhetoric in these advertisements often framed the Sonoran Desert as “empty,” a place to be “discovered,” as if the Western lands of the continent had remained unoccupied and untouched all along. The process of “Man-Building” advertised by the Sunshine-Climate Club, therefore, carries a double meaning: building oneself and building one’s environment. [...]

With the proliferation of advertisements in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal and Journal of American Medical Association, a large number of [...] tourists [...] arrived to discover what the desert could offer. [...]

Throughout the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century, hospitals, sanatoria, health resorts, and other structures dedicated to medical treatment multiplied throughout the city of Tuscon [...]. These buildings were not in isolation, in the manner of nineteenth-century sanatoria in Europe or New England. Instead, they were open and integrated into the urban fabric [...]. In the late nineteenth century, upstate New York was among the most popular destinations for pulmonary health pilgrimages. With the opening of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1880, however, towns with dry climates -- whose “pure and dry air … was not subject to severe seasonal changes” -- started bringing in crowds. [...]

Tucson reached its peak as the “health capital” during the 1930s, when the city’s roughly 30,000 residents were joined by about 10,000 health tourists visiting its twenty-one sanatoria, four hospitals, and four luxury hotels during the peak season. [...]

By 1928, Tucson’s planning and zoning commission had developed a new zoning system for such developments. Spatial buffers were instituted for sanatoria to ensure proper ventilation and isolation, dramatically altering the density and porosity of the city. In a residential neighborhood, for example, sanatoria had to be “set back 200 feet from the property line” and could only occupy “20 percent of the lot.” [...]

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Sanatoria quickly became a refuge only the rich could afford [...].

Tucson’s Desert Sanatorium was a massive complex of eleven buildings built in 1926 spread out over 160 acres. [...] Telescopic devices called radiometers were housed on the roof of the main hospital building, channeling and directing sunlight through small lenses into the treatment rooms and sunbaths below. The sanatorium’s research center, hospital, and nurse’s residences were scattered across the site [...]. Each patient’s room was annexed to a small wooden balcony visible on the façade. Wet spaces were tiled and interiors white-washed, with baseboards curving away from the walls to prevent dust from settling on their surfaces. Window openings or balconies were carved out from the massive, Pueblo-style exterior walls. The Pueblo style also appears in the interior common spaces as Navajo carpets, mural reproductions, and quilts. Patient’s rooms were named after native tribes such as Pima, Papago, and Navajo. [...] The appropriation of indigenous culture and symbols persisted in the visual language of the Desert Sanatorium. One patient handbook came with a postcard featuring an image of a highly cultivated Navajo garden, and a description of the Sanatorium’s services and facilities adorned with sketches of a “teepee,” “rain cloud,” “thunderbird tracks,” “broken arrow,” “mountain range,” and “bear track.” The symbol of eagle feathers is placed alongside the welcome note by the director to denote his status as “chief” of the complex. The last page of the handbook even contains a personal message from the illustrator, in which he wishes that “each little figure brings happiness … and a very quick recovery. May the Great Spirit Bless and Protect you.”

Despite the generous application of native iconography and mythology in the sanatorium’s literature, few measures were taken to actually care for the infected people in local indigenous communities. By the early twentieth century, indigenous communities, along with other poor minority groups in Arizona had the highest rate of tuberculosis in the region. [...] Carlisle Indian School dedicated an issue of [...] [their] magazine to provide news and guidelines to counter the disease. [...] These analyses are accompanied by photographs of the architectural conditions of the buildings. [...] The issue further suggests the American Indians whose lifestyle shifted from the “more sanitary teepee to the one and two-room box house” could not keep up with hygiene. The magazine sought to enable the “medicine man” to cure the sick [...] but not, however, without yielding to an institutional form of governmentality. The narratives [...] yielded to the top-down institutional logic of controlling bodies by prescribing protocols. [...]

---

The disease, then, is not only a medical construct, but is firstly an environmental construct shaped by the climatic imaginaries which, in turn, shapes the urban context. Secondly, it is a social construct that privileges a certain lifestyle and class through its contagion and access to treatment. Lastly, it is a political construct, as it perpetuates the asymmetrical relationship between communities in the eye of the government and institutions. Amid these racial and economic imbrications, architecture is instrumentalized to facilitate institutional agendas. [...] Architecture perpetuates violence against the figure of the other.

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Text by: Gizem Sivri. “Desert Fever: Harvesting the Sun, Colonizing the Land.” e-flux (Sick Architecture series). December 2020. [Screenshots were edited by me and display only part of the advertisement, which is shown in its entirety in Sivri’s article. Caption is as it appears in Sivri’s article. Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[shallowseeker]

Ah, now I remember why I'm looking for a new job. My boss is a mirco-manager and routinely passive-aggressive.

Me: delivering useful links in an email about a subject. My boss, sending me a snide message: They already know that.

Yeah. We do asset management. Our job is literally to make it easy and set the stage for what's available? HELLO.

Also our ticket CMS sucks ass and it a rabbit-hole of inefficient project management.

Corporate woes.

[fazeebee]

20.01.2025

pencil sketches and muted sunshine

Today went well, I got my maker's stall concept approved by both professors. I do have to make iterations on them even further though, until something that all of us like has been designed.

I was tired today, especially since the 2 day staycation prior to this wasn't really a full on rest. But regardless I did spend my time quite nicely, I'm happy with it.

Taking pictures of little parts of my day like this helps me view my life more positively, I won't lie.

I've got work on autocad to do for tomorrow's ARC class, but I haven't really gotten to doing that yet. Class starts at 2pm, so the plan is to start working on it tomorrow once I reach uni at 11am and for now get a full night's rest. Just to help me stay sane and relatively alive.

I'm kinda looking forward to tomorrow even though nothing special is going on, it's kinda nice.

[penelopecruzcoded]

italians are so cool, actually

[keeps-ache]

been telling my siblings 'you would NOT make it in vulcan academy' when they do smth goofy recently and nobody's been able to refute lol

[whiskeyswifty]

.