LA203 Lecture

The largelecture projectMichael yu

ARTIFICIALadjective

not natural : made, produced, or done to seem like something natural

not happening or existing naturally : created or caused by people

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Artificial, or man made objects, are commonly seen as entities completely separate from what is natural on the world. They can sometimes be viewed as opposites; one is good while the other is bad. However, what I’ve experienced along the Rio Hondo channel is that they can mutually co-exist with one another.

LEXICON

Very few things in the world we know today is pristine anymore. In the diagram above, what was once an untouched moutain has been carved out to make a road. Likewise, a pathway has been added to the once pristine Redwood forest shown in the photo-graph in th upper right corner.

Pristineadjective

in its original condition; unspoiled; untouched by humans

Natural processes are part of life and are all around us. Shown in the diagram, an apple that left open to the elements developed mold over time, something that happens to most food that is left unprotected. Above in the image is the naturally occuring tar pits located around LACMA.

NAturaladjective

existing in nature and not made or caused by people : coming from nature

People often feel compelled to separate nature from the our man made cities, and that is because nature has a unique beauty to it that most feel should be left untouched. However, as a landscape architect, I feel that there are ways to mesh nature with the man-made without comprimising what is great about nature.

NATurenoun

the phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations

In the diagram, I have shown a constrast between how plants look when their growth is un-inhibited versus when they are inhibited and trimmed down to a proportion that we feel is desirable.

Wildadjective

(of an animal or plant) living or growing in the natural environment; not domesticated or cultivated

noun

a natural state or uncultivated or uninhabited region

Boundaries can be things that are tangible and intangible. Water in the channel is a tangible boundary. In the image, you can see that when we visited Whittier Narrows, we avoided stepping into the water. Direct sunlight is also a boundary along the Rio Hondo, however, it is something intangible. When in unwanted sunlight, we seek shade to alleviate that problem.

Boundarynoun

something that indicates bounds or limits

All living organisms learn to adapt to their environment, and if can’t they perish. In the process of building our cities, we humans have displaced many other organisms from their original habitats. However, some have learned to live in our artifical cities. You can see that birds like roost on power lines. On the Rio Hondo channel, they have built nests under bridges.

ECOLOGYnoun

the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms

Shown in the diagram, invasive plants can quickly take over the habitats of native plants when are they are out-competed.One such invasive plant is the Cat’s Claw, shown in image.

Invasiveadjective

invading, or tending to invade; intrusive.

Not native to and tending to spread widely in a habitat or environment. Although not always considered harmful to an environment, invasive species can become agricultural or ecological pests and can displace native species from their habitats.

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Corridors cut through space in order to bridge two areas.

Corridornoun

a passageway that connects two places

To abstract is to remove information from something in order to reveal the essence of something. By removing the lines from the rubix cube, I have revealed essential form of the cube. In the image, a bench has been abstracted to convey a bench using only 3 pieces, each the same size.

Abstractverb

to draw or take away; remove

Readings

Rambunctious Garden

Emma Marris Weeding the Jungle

In chapter 2 of Rambunctious Garden, Emma Marris talks about how the official ban in 1883 on wildlife hunting on American land was the biggest breakthrough in the history of wildlife conservation efforts. This initial ban on United States soil set a precedent for other countries and led to eventually similar bans in other countries such as in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and some countries in Africa. This ban was a reaction towards the extinction and near-extinctions of many species that have been hunted by man, such as the American bison. It made me think about why we as humans used to largely love the art of hunting. Hunting has existed since the dawn of the human species. What was first a means of sustenance over time turned into a game of wit, courage, and last but not least, conquering. The conquering aspect of hunting seems to be the most important aspect of hunting for most. Wild animals are typically more adapted to the hunt than we humans are. After all, human life revolves around built communities without the need for hunting. Our agricultur-al technology allows us to sustain ourselves without the need for animal flesh. Wild animals on the other hand hunt each on a day to day basis. That is where most humans that love hunting get their thrill from: fighting a battle against a deadly opponent and overcoming that obstacle. This is not a good reason to kill off these wild animals, though,as there is more beauty in their existence than their extinction.

When predators decrease in drastic numbers, the prey rome free and start to over-populate

Projective Ecologies

David Fletcher Flood Control Freakology: Los Angeles River Watershed

In Flood Control Freakology: Los Angeles River Watershed by David Fletcher, he explains about the current situation of the Los Angeles River. To control flooding, engineers have replaced what was once a natural body of water with concrete and a man-made network of water. This much like the condition in which the Rio Hondo is now at. Like the Los Angeles River, the Rio Hondo once was soft bottom. It was a natural body of water that extended miles from the San Gabriel Mountains. Now, it is a concrete channel. The Rio Hondo, like the Los Angeles River, has problems with algae and trash buildup. The water is putrid and unsanitary and generally not an attractive site to the locals that live along the 5 mile stretch of the channel. However, the Rio Hondo and the Los Angeles River are areas where natural and artificial mesh. As cold and lifeless as you may think the concrete of the two water systems to be, life has formed on top of them. In the cracks of the concrete, water collects and allows weeds to grow. Within these weeds, small bugs live. These bugs also have attracted birds, which now live in nests they have built under bridges.

The mesh of an artificial channel bed and natural wildlife.

Composing Landscapes

Chris Reed and Nina-Marie Lister Parallel Genealogies

In Pararallel Genealogies by Chris Reed and Nina- Marie Lister, ecosystems are described to be evolving through time. They are in constant flux. Alexander von Humboldt, a principal forefather of the science of ecology, has a saying: “Alles ist Weshselwirkung” which popularly translates to “Everything is connected” or “All is interaction.” What he means is that every-thing is affected by what is around them more or less, and in turn you also have an effect on whatever is around you. This is why he says everything is connected, and each of these connections are processes that happen to be in continuum. Every-thing you see around you is constantly interacting with one another, always helping each change and evolve. In our projects, the Rio Hondo Channel is a complex river system that is always being altered and re-defined by the additional complex sys-tems, or processes, that revolve within and around it. You can also say that the channel is constantly in flux as well. Moments on the system are merely moments; they are temporary. I believe that is why our mappings are key components to our studio projects. We are identifying the different processes along the channel that have significant power over how the chan-nel evolves over time, and these processes are always transitioning, themselves. In our 2nd studio project, we are creating theories as how these interactions between processes along the channel may ultimately affect the channel itself.

Fathoming the Unfathomable

Perry Kulper Instinctual Marks

In Instinctual Marks by Perry Kulper, a point is made that design can be spoken in many different languages. Not just cul-tural languages like Spanish, English, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, etc., but graphic languages used to convey ideas. Kulper explains that graphical language should be innovative and that versatility in languages is a key to success. To be versatile in these languages, I believe that you have to explore techniques. It is only through trial and error that someone can discover what is good and what is bad, what is innovative and what is lackluster. My belief in trial and error seems to be affirmed by the con-stant reminder by our professors to experiment in our designs. Sometimes we have to escape our comfort zones in order to discover something new. To build versatility in languages and a broader understanding of them, I think one of the best ways to do so is through traveling. When you travel to new places, you will always be exposed to new ideas. Different cultures always have different ways of viewing the world.

Thiickness and size indicate transition. Select placement indicate movement

Lectures

City Everywhere

LA watershed At the LA Watershed council meeting regarding the newly appointed San Gabriel Valley Monument, I learned a great deal about what goes into designing national park use. The most apparent thing that stuck out to me, however, is that there is a lot of politics involved. Transportation was one of the main topics of the meeting. From representatives of Metro and Foothill transit, all that was said was a summary of projects that they were working on. They was never any real discussion on what they should improve on and what they should start doing that they are not working on yet.

Liam Young

Liam Young had a wild imagination of what technology has in store for us in the future. He hypothe-sized that with ongoing sophistication of a world in the digital realm, we would no longer have a need for the physical. Communities would interact through 3d projections of what was once the physical realm, inter-connected by the internet. Someone in France would be able to live his life like he was in America. You wouldn’t need to be physically there. This is both intriguing and disturbing to me. For one, having people interact through 3d projections would decrease physical interactions. I question whether that is still truly living, because life is all about the physical interaction we have with the world. However, imag-ine if you could live life like a video game. This is one of many opportunities afforded to us by living in a digital world. Also, design would be limitless. There would be no natural processes like gravity to inhibit your design.