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I think my best skill as an architect is the achievement of hand-to-eye coordination; I am able to transfer a sketch into a model into the building.

-Frank Gehry from arcspace

There is a magic inside of creativity that inspires long after we get beneath the veil. Right now, in the case of Frank Gehry’s new building on 11th Avenue, we can see just enough of the cinderblocks and inefficiencies behind the candy-coating to learn some of the magic first hand. Two blocks away is the Graffiti Research Lab. There, Evan and James talk about using open source to free BORF, and the circuitry behind urban communication. Eyebeam’s OpenLab is an art lovin’ geek’s paradise, and the GRL cuts right to the heart of a guy who’s spent 15 years perfecting the letters s-t-y-l-e in notebooks and on the backs of superfluous pieces of paper. Heck, I even spent fifteen minutes with my post-it pad after yesterday’s Times piece.

Evan’s earlier Graffiti Analysis project, and the lab’s Drip Sessions use video captures of graffiti tags to preserve some of the whimsical gestures that have put guys like AVONE behind bars. Ironically, it is Gehry’s facility and freedom with whimsical gestures that is precisely the reason he is so esteemed.


© 2006 – 2024 Raafi Rivero.