fun in the studies

发表于2010/03/30由GloriaYuYANG
Reading about Jakuchu, who was said to be a person who didnot like women, pleasure, lived his whole life without marriage, only closed to a priest, and sometimes just run to somewhere in the mountain for two years.
every thread made me wonder: if he is gay. unlucky for him, born in a period that he couldn’t claim and unlucky for art historians who have to struggle for other reasons to explain his oddness.
crazy as me, saw the close dates of both Jakuchu and Daiten’s dates of birth and death, en…a Shakespear bittersweet tragedy.
ps. Jakuchu’s works are fabulous. I mean, fabulous, wonderful imagination. He sees things differently and conceives this world differently.

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春寒料峭的周末

发表于2010/03/29由GloriaYuYANG
"Oh yangyu certainly had a crush on XX…."
那一瞬间我的师姐下巴都忘了掉，对着我眼睛一下不眨。我嘴里还含着东西，也侧过脸去不眨眼睛地看着我身边这张小巧精致的亚洲娃娃脸，眯着的弯月眼睛和抿着的微笑透着律师的笃定。
两个人都在等着我手忙脚乱，否认，辩解，脸红。
我没有。我的时钟自那瞬间就卡在困惑里面：是我自己没有意识到？还是她们过度诠释？什么算crush，crush和suki有多远？
不记得这个话题是怎么过去的，只记得我从一脸困惑到最后的放松。神没有放弃我：我对人还尚有好恶之感。so far everything is under control, and everyone is
fine, cool with it, more importantly, there is no consequence, or possibility after this crush, just let it be.
去了费城三天。恐龙们的panels其实不尽人意。但是见到了pitt的旧友，和从前的professor，又一次感叹pitt永远是我来的地方。与同行女孩子们一起吃好吃的，讲八卦，窝在沙发里聊天大笑是件非常开心的事情。

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Talking about Art and Architecture- Introduction and 1st Question – Gloria Yu YANG

发表于2010/03/25由GloriaYuYANG
Thinking about tradition is interesting. For example, when walking down a stair, how many people have paid attention to the small decorations on the stringers and how many people bother to think about where does the decorative shape come from. We take the shape, decoration, form and materials for granted as if they are natural beings coming along with another natural being, the building. Architecture not only serves as the cultural setting for the society,
but they fundamentally cultivate people’s perception of space, light and
the outer world.  Most importantly, people who inhabit within the
architecture inherit the limitations of the architecture form. In other
words, buildings, with their treatment of materials and space, frame
people’s perceptions of the world and themselves in an unconscious way.

Therefore, only when we are placed into another geographical territory, usually far from our own, we suddenly feel the differences between things, environments, and realize the distinctiveness of each culture and tradition. For example, almost every single American who comes to Japan has been overwhelmed by the cultural maze that embodied in the wooden structure, the tatami mats, lower ceilings and so on, and most of the time they would uncritically attribute their feelings of this difference to the so-called Oriental tradition, and worst of all, to that ubiquitous Zen, or Shinto spirit. Another example can be seen in the Japanese tourists’ passion for Italian culture, crystallized in the Renaissance architecture in Rome and Florence.  One of the explanations for this passion is that the Renaissance architecture propose the most different architecture form from their own tradition.  There are many modernist building in Japan, and even Neoclassical architecture still bear some resemblance with the modern box-concrete buildings.  The Renaissance architecture, especially with the decoration and sculptures provoked a most exotic setting standing for the Japanese understanding of the "Westernness."

Then how to articulate and understand the differences embodied in the architectural forms and how to articulate the relationship between tradition, culture and architecture? The series of thoughts and observations on art and architecture that I begin to write from today aims to find the questions and answers within this large inquiry.  The first question I am asking is How are different cultural traditions revealed in the same architectural form? In another word, if we all build concrete, box-shape office buildings, would they be exactly the same all over the world? My answer is absolutely not. If they are exactly the same, they are watermarks of failure of the architects (No, you cannot blame the phenomena on globalization, there is always a choice, even an alternative one).  Moreover, even the buildings are same, the receptions of these buildings in different local contexts are different.  Today I realized that the answer to this first question is the reason why I chose to write my Ph.D thesis and why I shifted my direction in architecture two years ago. I was not born to be fond of architecture, especially back to the 1980s and 1990s in most of the Chinese cities buildings are gray, rectangular, concrete boxes, punctuated with square, rectangular windows in deep green, or gray color. The interior of the buildings are as boring, dull as the exteriors, characterized by the fluorescent tubes in the ceiling, grid windows, concrete floors, and every piece of furniture, if there are any, reminds you of models of geometry class. Usually the only visual pleasure comes from the plants near the window. In the late 1990s Chinese city people witnessed another trend of dullness, namely, skyscrapers with shinning window-curtains, concrete-skeleton.  They are tall and weird. The interior of the building is filled with very poorly-designed space, elevator with metallic doors, and again, pale, fluorescent tubes. These buildings illustrate how uncomfortable and awkward situation the urbanization in China undergoes.  Having these two uncomfortable spatial experiences labeled "modernism," I was certainly not fond of "modern" architecture at all. Also I did not find those Beijing courtyard houses lack of tap water or flush toilet fascinating, no matter how they soaked with cultural tradition.  When I came to the U.S.A, I saw those concrete boxes or towers and I thought they were as dull as those buildings in China because they are all labeled "modern." Of course I was wrong. Having lived, studied and worked in those buildings, I became to realize how comfortable and practical the interior is, how the architectural forms of the buildings serve for their function and eventually, why thousands of buildings are considered as trash, cheesy and bad copies in critics’ eyes. 

And then I understood why I always felt something different when I walked into the buildings built by Japanese in my hometown.  At the first sight, they are not much different with the buildings built in the 1930s in Japan. They shared a Neo-classical facade and a Chinese/East Asian gable roof. However, even now I still can not make out what exactly is different about the spatial experiences those buildings formed, as embodied in detailed decorations, the height of the ceilings, and the corner design, etc.  I believe that the differences came from not only the differences between architects’ cultural backgrounds, but also comes from their reactions to the local culture and materials, to their contemporary political and cultural atmosphere, and to their own intentions for the buildings.  Long story short, it is complicated. That is why I decided to take on the research on the Japanese colonial architecture in Manchuria, Korea and Taiwan from 1905-1945.

The best architectural experience is Unphotographable. Photographs of buildings not only flatten the building, reducing the depth to a facade, but they also dismiss the atmosphere, which is made of changes of lighting, combination of panels (corner design) and the texture of materials.  More importantly, the appreciation of architecture involves a temporality that does not exist in any representations of architecture.  As time passes, the sunlight pouring into the Lorenzo chapel dramatically affects the experiences of the spatial organization and decoration.  As viewers move through the space, the relationships between ceiling and wall, between the column and the vault and between the decoration and structure, are constantly changing. For example, walking through the dark passage and catching up the reflective light of the gold on the sliding panels of a Japanese house is dramatically differently from the sliding panel that are remounted and displayed under the broad daylight in museums.

Therefore, interpretations of the Japanese colonial architecture have to overcome the obstacle of time in order to reconstruct what would the buildings be conceived in almost a century ago, which was totally different from what we saw today.  I will stop here today. My writings in this series are not academic research writings: the logic is inconsistent, the knowledge contains mistakes and the point of views bears prejudice.  They are not results of thorough-meditations but improvised thoughts that I jotted down to keep a track of my loose mind. The only effort I will put is to use precise and clear language, avoiding those vague, big words. However, these thoughts, as loose, scattered they are, do allude to the theoretical framework of my academic research. Another motivation of my writings is to resume my passion of a writer, to share my thoughts, passions in letters and to communicate with people through words.

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决定之后是计划。

发表于2010/03/25由GloriaYuYANG
you must be on cloud nine right now? 于是两年来我第一次对着GP茫然了，然后逼着他不得不换种english，于是所谓的风趣就荡然无存了。虽然是cliches, 大家还是挺高兴的，让我觉得大家对我挺好的。
春假里一天兴起自己剪了齐刘海，参差不齐的，结果开学人见人说it suits you! 春假后换上那副老款的大黑框眼镜，结果人人都说很新潮。
昨天去教授家里上课，被刺激到了。personal taste can be disturbing。
星期二逃了德语，星期三逃了日语。

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2010 Summer: Imagination

发表于2010/03/24由GloriaYuYANG
Plan Perfect: there is no plan perfect…..
Plan Great: June 7 – June19 & July 5 – July 31, place G
                   Aug.4 – Aug. 17, place K                  
Plan OK:  June 7 to June 19 & July 5 – July 31, place G
                 Aug. Beijing, Shenzhen
Plan OK2: May 31 – June 26, place G
                  July.8 leave E
                  July.10- Beijing, Shenzhen
                  Aug.4 – Aug.17, place K

旅行计划：
敦煌。或者京杭运河。或者长江。
上海。

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Random Thoughts, inspried by the Readings for the Intellectual History of Edo Japan

发表于2010/03/23由GloriaYuYANG
What if the Modern period in Japan started not as an inevitable stage, but as a moment containing random decision and accidental events that function more as a break/departure from the historical evolutionism?  Therefore, instead of looking for a cohesive link that had emerged from the pre-modern stages and grown into maturity in the modern era, can we consider the current mainstream thoughts in the modern era (Meiji & Taisho mainly) survived from contingency?
maybe that is what Foucault said about the history; a deconstructive view of history not as a link but as fragments, i don’t know.

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A Formal Decision

发表于2010/03/22由GloriaYuYANG
可以这样说，我决定从2010年秋季起，我将休学一整学年，离开纽约。
不堪重负。导师也同意了。即日起将办理手续。

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cliches

发表于2010/03/22由GloriaYuYANG
twilight的续集电影看过，我不得不把这个明显智商不够的原著系列研究了一下。怎么就那么火呢？
研究了半天，翻到第三本第一章时突然明白了。这作家大嫂太实在了：她把她看过的所有言情小说童话故事肥皂剧少女情怀中年妄想都一股脑赤裸裸地全塞进来了。主角比琼瑶笔下女将还烈，人家是山崩海裂才与君绝，她是没有困难制造困难才让君绝不了我。然后就是完美男主角，说着莎士比亚的情话一点都不脸红：人家是吸血鬼，脸永远苍白，文武双全，打架人狼鬼三界前三，然后怀里一堆以H代表的长青藤的offers还把人家都拒了，当然是为了爱情。然后再三角恋，江湖大战，最后相夫教子，一个萝卜一个坑世界重归和平。都第三本第一章了，女主角还毫不掩饰，形容词漫天飞地赞扬男主角的长相呢：大理石般的肌肤，高挺的鼻梁，饱满的嘴唇。。。完了我都不敢翻译下去了，这与我这假知识小资的品位太不符了，可我内心深处的大嫂在喊oh yeah。
赤裸裸地太强大了。大家一直都看遮着掩着讲哲理论清高文艺作品，一看这朴实无华，就是世界为我而战而灭而王子救我我吻王子。。。。读者内心太感动了。我敢打赌，读者一半都是中年妇女或是近中年单身女。
可见当今世道cliches不要紧，只要做人强悍，要做就做到底，当风尘女就舍牌坊而立志红楼头牌，照样风光。

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my weakpoints.

发表于2010/03/22由GloriaYuYANG
Recently I have been having nightmares.

I always think/feel that people hate or dislike me. and that has scared me since I was very young.
It is not about lack of confidence, I don’t have any confidence, due to the influences from my biological mother. Recently some people said to me that how you deal with your parents reflect your social skills.  If that is the case, then mine is below zero.

The story is all about constant self-hurting and unnecessary self-tortures.

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Dictionary of Japanese Names

发表于2010/03/19由GloriaYuYANG
Maruyama Masao　丸山眞男
Andou Shoueki    安藤昌益
Ogyu Sorai　荻生徂徠
Kimura Ihei 木村伊兵衛
Takano Chouei 高野長英　1802-1850, doctor and Rangaku-scholar, student of Philipp von Siebold (German first medicine expert in Nagasaki), prison, suicide.
Akasegawa Genpei 赤瀬川 原平

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