Articles
WE’VE ALREADY TRIED IT, BUT…
03.11.08 / 2008 · Media · News · Ricardo Devesa
…0300TV have done it first.
By Ricardo Devesa *
This isn’t a beginning, it’s an ending; it’s jumping into a final conclusion. The exact opposite of what we should do as architects. Well, then where to start a house? From the roof? The most common answer to this should be “Naturally”. Isn’t it? Yes, indeed. We’ve started backwards with this brief note about 0300TV. Who have finally done it? 0300TV. And it feels like being overtaken in a closed curve: It’s forbidden, it’s dangerous -but if you pull it off, its all good. Congratulations, you made it big time.
But aren’t we supposed to start a house from its foundations? Well, first, let’s make the corresponding flashbacks.
Back in 1998 -and under the supervision of Manuel Gausa- we were discussing the content of a series of Quaderns issues, later known as “black covers”. Being more specific, the last three ones: Spirals, Loops, Flash. Do you remember?
Back then, we were already conscious –from the very beginnings of XX century, as Beatriz Colomina once stated- that diffusion is what ultimately constructs all architectural objects. The way you show them eventually determinates how buildings are understood, seen, and comprehended. Let me try to make myself clear: During his time directing Quaderns d’arquitectura i urbanisme –property of the Architects Association of Cataluña– Manuel Gausa proposed a new way to diffuse -and therefore, to practice- architecture, by following 4 principles: 1) Photography, as a mean to describe environments beyond the contexts commonly recognized by architects. 2) New project topics, using suggestive titles in order to establish new parameters to frame new kinds of architecture –who doesn’t remember Estenosis, LandArch or Re-activa? 3) Narrative structures according to the issue’s subject, in which projects, texts and pictures are imbricated, and lastly 4) Graphic Design as a tool for content display. We also have to recognize the influence of José Luis Mateo, Quaderns´ former Director -Manuel Gausa worked many years with him.
As I was saying, in Quaderns 222 –titled Spirals– we made an unsuccessful attempt to attach a CD to the magazine. It would contain an acoustic performance of composer Francisco Guerrero, based on the use of fractal mathematics as a tool to compose contemporary music. Back then, we didn’t obtain the additional capital needed to produce a CD. A few years later, every publication we knew had a CD attached to it. Nevertheless, hardly anyone I know sees or watches those CDs. But what we intended back then was nothing but a proper soundtrack for that particular issue; what would Tarantino’s films be without those disturbing -yet extremely accurate- soundtracks? That’s what we wished for, but 0300TV have been the ones who -at last- achieved that goal. You can’t watch their videos on “mute”, it’s not the same. In fact, the website was named after time itself –the average length of a song, 3 minutes or maybe 300 seconds. It’s space finally adjusting to time and, in this particular case, to musical time.
Second flashback. We left Quaderns –actually, we were fired– because they didn’t quite understand what we were doing. But immediately we started working on this new publication, Verb -thanks to an offer by Ramón Prat- , and this time without any conditions, that is, without the obligation of publishing a certain number of local buildings. Yes, the Architects Association of Cataluña once stated: “There’s a reason why Quaderns is the local architect’s publication: they pay for it, and therefore they have the right to be published”. No comments. Actually, just one. A question: Isn’t this same patronage what produced a loss of interest in Architects Associations’ “official” publications? All our ambition of bringing new open-minded influences to the local scene soon became an ambition of teaching only local stuff, the authentic, “what we are”. Anyway, there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s the typical struggle between local and global. But I have another question: what does it mean to be a local architect? Mark Wigley can give you a flawless answer on that.
In Verb, we tryied to accompany the reader by adding multiple voices. The chosen formula was to include comments that showed up in text bubbles, like in comic books. They popped out to give opinions, clarify and explain new views on the projects, articles or pictures. For this time, we didn’t wanted to focus it all on architects. We also included what the owner or user of a house had to say, even the e-mails between an editor and a columnist. Other articles were made of recomposed fragments, finally creating a more –if you’ll forgive the expression– “cubistic” vision of the architectonic object. That is to say, less objectified; revolving arround, from the inside, from below, under construction, from above, etc…that was what we wanted to make out of Verb. At that time, we missed the opportunity of making it all happen, in a website -we had neither the technology nor the bandwidth we have today.
Just today, while I was recommending 0300TV’s new website to Jaime Salazar –one of Verb founders, together with Albert Ferré, Manuel Gausa, Ramón Prat and myself- he said to me: “Architecture is like a phenomenon “frozen” in the media, but Web-TV gives it immediacy and a certain freshness, a kind of presence we were missing…”. You’re so right, Jaime. And again: it’s them, the young team behind 0300TV –and what they lack in age they make up for in maturity– who have accomplished it. 0300TV: 2, us: 0.
Third time is a charm, or so they say. But no, not even close. The thing is that -due to luck or something else- we managed to become Basa’s directive staff –Marina Romero, Fernando Guerrero and myself, once again- which is a publication led by another Architects Association, located in Canarias Islands [Spain]. The basis we proposed for Basa were the following: 1) Understanding of architecture not only as an isolated activity but also as part of a complex process. 2) Multidisciplinary thinking, by looking deep into architecture´s diversity and complexity. 3) To offer a new perspective, from a subjective, personal, biased and risky viewpoint. 4) To bring architecture nearer to society, by means of organizing and participating in cultural manifestations outside our discipline –Art Biennials, photography exhibitions, lectures, etc. 5) To involve students and architects in the research made for each issue, through public biddings, thematic dossiers, statistic work, etc., in order to propose tangible solutions and concrete approaches. In summary: complexity, multidisciplinarity, personal perspectives, approaching society and shaking the very foundations of architects´ convictions -students, graduates, postgraduates or whatever.
Isn’t it all accomplished by 0300TV’s website? Their spontaneous videos show the complexity of architecture’s “social” phenomenons; “blog” format allows free comments in a democratic way and contributions from all over the world; society can easily access to its contents. For this same reason, all the material created “in progress” can be enriched by contributions from all kinds of professionals and disciplines, neither forced nor directed. Their hand held camera footages show buildings in a carefree, direct way, without make up, in use or abandoned, in order to erase for good all prejudgments we architects have about the desired results -beauty- we expect from our “artworks”. Or as Ole Bouman once said: “architecture of absurd, designers’ arbitrary and whimsical falsifications; it all has one and only one objective: to fulfill their own ego”.
Therefore, we already tried it, yes, but they have done it first. Congratulations 0300TV team. You made it.
One last thing. From its first issues, Volume magazine –produced by Archis, AMO, C.Lab and, since their last issue, MIT– has aimed to broaden architecture’s scope beyond itself, achieving this purpose with concrete proposals. If 0300TV makes the leap proposed by Volume, they’ll finish off the task. Cheer up! You are just one step away.
* Ricardo Devesa. Architect. Writer for Quaderns d’Arquitectura i Urbanisme [of CoACatalunya, 1996-1999], and Verb [Actar, 2000]. Collaborator of many forums and seminars, 1997-2006. Assistant teacher in ESARQ-UIC, 2004-2005. In 2000, he founds MRD Arquitectura along with Marina Romero. Co-curator, along with Albert Ferré and Jaime Salazar, of “Construcciones Patentes. New architecture made in Catalonia”, Frankfurt, Germany. He’s currently part of Basa [of CoACanarias] directive staff.
