Michael Mayes is trained as an architect, working as a product manager for a New York firm focused on building a Web 2.0 marketplace for the world's expertise.
He occasionally blogs at Circaviso.com, a design and idea collaborative he founded in 2002.
Michael lives and works in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and recently started Mental Kitchen.com with his wife Caroline.
Badassery of the Day: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sneaks an expletive into letter vetoing random infrastructure financing bill proposed by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano.
SFist thinks Schwarzenegger’s word play “could be in response to Ammiano’s recent outburst at the Governor during the Democratic County Central Committee gala. If you recall, the Assemblymember shouted to Schwarzenegger, among other things, to ‘kiss my gay ass.’”
Wow. Times have changed since I graduated from UVA in 1999. Check out what’s going on in Grad School at Harvard:
Projective Representation in Architecture
GSD 2102, Workshop, Fall, with Cameron Wu
Historically, certain kinds of reciprocity between geometry and architecture have been used to bring about rational causes and practical means of formal innovation. Today, the digital medium is having unanticipated effects on this reciprocity. The results are profound innovations not only in the realm of form as such, but also in the process of translating abstract geometric concepts into building construction principles.
Between the excesses of curved geometries and the economic constraints of building construction lies a seemingly incommensurable disparity. On the one hand, the digital medium affords the architect a means to model three dimensional forms that are entirely free of planarity. On the other hand, it aids the ongoing industrial production of materials according to the geometric extrusion of linear and flat components and surfaces. To operate in this breach, it is necessary to acquire a geometric vocabulary that operates between oblique and curved forms and the economically determined mechanical constraints of building assembly. This vocabulary, derived from projective and topological geometry, constitutes an auxiliary system of order, one which can ultimately serve to discretize curved surfaces into flat units, and thus translate complex surfaces into forms constructible at an architectural scale. Such an application of geometry produces a continually expanding repertoire of three-dimensional architectural form. Among the most far reaching effects is the recalibration of the long standing relationship between the part and the whole in architecture.
Lectures tracing the lineage and technical bases of orthographic and perspective projection, projective geometry and topology will provide the foundations for the development of a vocabulary. Workshop exercises will apply these principles to particular problems of surface redefinition. The rendition of curvatures according to the logic of different patterns will demand critical assessment. The overall course objective is to provide the tools and critical instruments to imagine and represent with precision, dexterity, and virtuosity a continually expanding repertoire of three-dimensional architectural form.
MIT courses are entirely open to the public; they post the entire curriculum online for free. You won’t be able to get an official degree, but you will be able to select from 1900 courses, all from the comfort of your computer. No applications. No cramped dorms. No school loans. You can be an MIT educated brainiac without breaking the bank.
A lot of you have probably heard me put down going to college or graduate school. Well, this is the exception. In fact, it’s so exceptional that you really have no excuse not for taking MIT’s courses regardless of whether you are in high school right now or already in the workforce.
Also, I explain how to overcome common objections like (a) lack of a peer group and (b) lack of an alumni network.
Finally, degrees are way overrated. You don’t need one now, and in the future they will be even more worthless.
I’ll add one other thought: your real alumni network is formed after college, from friends you meet at bars and parties, and folks you meet at work. In my experience, at least, these are the most valuable people to your career.
The future of your professional resume
Coachella 09 in 4min time lapse
Just watch this. You’ll like it.
Free Turbine show @ bklyn bowl!
