Tadao Ando 1
The book Poetics of Architecture has an apt statement, "... fantasy with imagination and association can improve reality; it can upgrade reality...".
My camera designs dedicated to Tadao Ando are simple machines.
They shed light upon and debunk our common views of the structure as well as the function of the camera. But more importantly, at least to myself on a personal level, these cameras attempt to bring their user closer to a spiritual awareness by functioning similarly to a poem. In this way they perform a social function which is one of my main design goals.
When one looks at Tadao Ando's buildings and museums, one can't help but feel his near religious devotion to materials and natural light as well as shadow. Perhaps like Louis Kahn, he brings you to an awareness of the beauty of everything around his structures: the sky, the sea, nature and also emptiness. He is not the first architect to do this but he is one of the first to focus on the minute gradations and infinite shades of this sort of reality.
Although I would prefer my cameras to be the size of a typical Ando wall (of monumental proportions), my task is to recreate this vast scale in miniature and to re-create the important experience of a poetic moment for the camera's user.
When I made my very first notes for the Ando cameras, I thought that the lion's share of my time would be spent measuring, laying out and drawing these simple forms. I saw it as but a chore and a done deal. But I could never finish these layouts. As it turned out I constantly gave up and had to move on to other camera designs rather than spend even more time on these deceptively simple machines. Conceptualizing these camera homages to Ando was much harder than all the other designs I had done. Even writing this tiny essay has caused me to rethink, reconsider, throw up my hands in puzzlement, and look to diversions.
The above photo is some of my beginning notes.
I'm so happy to present the beginning page of a design that attempts to go in the direction of Ando's world, by way of the camera world.
I seem to have too much that I want to say regarding the ramifications of these designs. I think that these few ideas discovered from my work on the Ando homages will show up in future design drawings of mine.
Design and photo contents copyright 2013 by David Lo
Tadao Ando 1
The book Poetics of Architecture has an apt statement, "... fantasy with imagination and association can improve reality; it can upgrade reality...".
My camera designs dedicated to Tadao Ando are simple machines.
They shed light upon and debunk our common views of the structure as well as the function of the camera. But more importantly, at least to myself on a personal level, these cameras attempt to bring their user closer to a spiritual awareness by functioning similarly to a poem. In this way they perform a social function which is one of my main design goals.
When one looks at Tadao Ando's buildings and museums, one can't help but feel his near religious devotion to materials and natural light as well as shadow. Perhaps like Louis Kahn, he brings you to an awareness of the beauty of everything around his structures: the sky, the sea, nature and also emptiness. He is not the first architect to do this but he is one of the first to focus on the minute gradations and infinite shades of this sort of reality.
Although I would prefer my cameras to be the size of a typical Ando wall (of monumental proportions), my task is to recreate this vast scale in miniature and to re-create the important experience of a poetic moment for the camera's user.
When I made my very first notes for the Ando cameras, I thought that the lion's share of my time would be spent measuring, laying out and drawing these simple forms. I saw it as but a chore and a done deal. But I could never finish these layouts. As it turned out I constantly gave up and had to move on to other camera designs rather than spend even more time on these deceptively simple machines. Conceptualizing these camera homages to Ando was much harder than all the other designs I had done. Even writing this tiny essay has caused me to rethink, reconsider, throw up my hands in puzzlement, and look to diversions.
The above photo is some of my beginning notes.
I'm so happy to present the beginning page of a design that attempts to go in the direction of Ando's world, by way of the camera world.
I seem to have too much that I want to say regarding the ramifications of these designs. I think that these few ideas discovered from my work on the Ando homages will show up in future design drawings of mine.
Design and photo contents copyright 2013 by David Lo