The Brooklyn Rail

In the middle of shooting photos of a fashion shop near Porta Venezia, we sat on the floor eating vegetarian Ethiopian food while the Richard Prince’s First House (1993) video played over the store’s speaker system. This was then followed by a demonstration of nope robotics.

According to Armature Global (AG), they are “a secretive cell working for the general upgrade of built structure outside of mainstream discourse around environments, ‘for the good’ living systems and welded normalcy.” AG partakes in a voluntary seclusion with a particular set of contacts. Forceful reformatting to be invisible. Dropping out of public concern for the sake of ideologic-form finding. An agency gained through hollowing deterministic contexts. Shell environments, ready to perform beyond widespread demands.

Leaving the airport, we settle into some traffic with a screamo playlist called “19.” A video is taken of some aerospace buildings, followed by a discussion of the tactics of local architects. Besides meeting a friend that is a filmmaker, there are no other set plans for the time in Los Angeles.

Projects are constantly absorbing their circumstances. Client conversations, inside jokes, and digital distractions are all fair game in the process. Modified readymades of architectural commissions. Services as content. A documentary method with an attitude instead of a narrative. Picking up debris of present architectural practice. Staging our current state of affairs while still flirting with the ghosts of modernism. Compressing the practice while also being compressed by it. Productive contempt. Allowing limitations to become the generator of the work. A celebration of underperformance. An open call for nervousness.

We checked out a show on Washington Boulevard and left after ten minutes. The sculptures didn’t stand a chance against what’s left out on the sidewalk. Afterwards we stopped by a couple stores trying to find t-shirts for some friends. An orange shirt with the face of a jack-o’-lantern was picked out.

Cropping brings energy by adding uncertainties to possible readings. Embedded potential through redaction. Unfamiliar wholes, twenty-first–century Man Ray Dust Breeding (1920). Protection from interpretation through self-interpretation. Constant integration of a veil that helps build another world to remind us of the one we have. Highlighting unanswered questions. A constantly thickening grammar. High speed precision. Contents sharpening form. Making while being on edge. Irritability as an asset. Bringing “feeling something” back to the forefront. Fears of symbolism. Setting up cages on view.

It’s 10:30 on a Friday night. We are watching a Jean Nouvel documentary off a phone leaning against the window of a diner booth. More importantly we are here for blueberry pie.