Eudaemonistic
October 22nd, 2007eu路dae路mon路ism also eu路dai路mon路ism or eu路de路mon路ism (y艒艒-d膿’m蓹-n沫z’蓹m)
n.聽聽 A system of ethics that evaluates actions in terms of their capacity to produce happiness.
Notes
//////////////////////////////Aphasia
October 17th, 2007鈥搉oun聽
the loss of a previously held ability to speak or understand spoken or written language, due to disease or injury of the brain.
Stochastic
October 16th, 2007sto路chas路tic聽 (st艒-k膩s’t沫k)
adj.聽聽
- Of, relating to, or characterized by conjecture; conjectural.
- Statistics
- Involving or containing a random variable or variables: stochastic calculus.
- Involving chance or probability: a stochastic stimulation.
Somatic
October 8th, 2007| somatic | |
| adjective | |
| affecting or characteristic of the body as opposed to the mind or spirit; “bodily needs”; “a corporal defect”; “corporeal suffering”; “a somatic symptom or somatic illness”聽[syn: bodily] |
Recondite
October 7th, 2007rec路on路dite [rek-uh
n-dahyt, ri-kon-dahyt]聽
鈥揳djective
| 1. | dealing with very profound, difficult, or abstruse subject matter: a recondite treatise. |
| 2. | beyond ordinary knowledge or understanding; esoteric: recondite principles. |
| 3. | little known; obscure: a recondite fact. |
[Origin: 1640鈥50; earlier recondit < L reconditus recondite, hidden (orig. ptp. of recondere to hide), equiv. to re- + cond(ere) to bring together (con- + -dere to put) + -itus2]
鈥擱elated forms
rec路on路dite路ly, adverb
rec路on路dite路ness, noun
鈥擲ynonyms 2. deep. 3. mysterious, occult, secret.
鈥擜ntonyms 2. exoteric. 3. well-known.
Fall Courses
October 6th, 2007My courses this fall are in the GSD, History Department, Visual and Environmental Studies, Slavic Languages and Literatures Department, and Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. In addition to the faculty below, I am also working with Svetlana Boym and Margaret Crawford.
GSD 4501. Proseminar in History, Theory and Urban Studies
Professors: Antoine Picon and Eve Blau
This research seminar addresses subjects of history, theory and human sciences related to architecture and the city exclusively for students enrolled in the PhD program at the GSD.
Readings:
- Kenneth Frampton, Studies in Tectonic Culture (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1995) Amazon
- Robert Bruegmann, Sprawl: A Compact History (Chicago University ress, 2005) Amazon
- Alex Wall, Victor Gruen: from urban shop to new city (Barcelona: Actar, 2005) Amazon
- Daniel Abramson, Building the Bank of England: Money, Architecture, Society, 1694-1942 (Yale University Press, 2005) Amazon
- Jennifer Light, From Warfare to Welfare: Defense Intellectuals and Urban Problems in Cold War America (Johns Hopkins Press, 2005) Amazon
- Eric Mumford, The CIAM Discourses on Urbanism, 1928-1960 (MIT, 2002) Amazon
- Robin Evans, The Projective Cast: Architecture and Its Three Geometries (MIT, 2000) Amazon
- Rosalind Krauss, Passages in Modern Sculpture (New York: Viking Press, 1977) Amazon
- Timothy J. Colton, Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis (Harvard, 1995) Amazon
Visual and Environmental Studies 271. Proseminar in Film and Visual Studies: Theory
Professor: Giuliana Bruno
An advanced survey of current debates on the place of the moving image in contemporary visual culture and art practice with respect to concepts of space, time, movement, and affect. Some of the books read include:
- Bruno, Giuliana. Atlas of emotion: journeys in art, architecture, and film. xi, 484 p., xvi p. of plates (2002) Amazon
- Friedberg, Anne. The virtual window: from Alberti to Microsoft. xii, 357 p. (2006) Amazon
- Krauss, Rosalind E.. “A voyage on the North Sea”: art in the age of the post-medium condition. 64 p. (2000) Amazon
- Rodowick, David Norman. The virtual life of film. (2007) Amazon
History 1485. Weimar Intellectuals: Research Seminar
Professor: Peter Gordon
Explores major intellectual currents of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) to assess how German intellectuals negotiated the stresses of modernity. Thematic units: urbanism and anxiety; technophilia and technophobia; Marxism and utopia; and the crisis of the political. Authors include Simmel, Weber, Mann, Benjamin, Bloch, Kracauer, Spengler, Junger, Heidegger, and Schmitt.
Full syllabus as Word document here.
11.329: Social Theory and the City Workshop
Professors: Richard Sennett with Susan Fainstein and Gerald Frug
This is an international workshop, run in conjunction with the Cities Programme at the London School of Economics (LSE), intended primarily for Ph.D. students, but some advance Masters-degree students will also be admitted. The workshop aims to help young urbanists with work-in-progress, focusing on research design and writing.
Once every two weeks in the autumn two members of the workshop gives a paper on his or her own work, and the paper is discussed in class. In the spring, the workshop will meet in March and April to prepare for a 鈥榳orking-in-progress鈥 conference that will be held in London with LSE students.
Slavic A. Beginning Russian
Professor:聽 Nataliya Kun
Introduction to the essentials of the Russian language, designed for students without previous knowledge of Russian. Intensive speaking practice in essential grammar and vocabulary using naturally occurring conversational patterns. Introduction to the speech etiquette of social exchanges. Reading and discussion of stories, biography, and poetry.
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I am also auditing some classes, including:
Visual and Environmental Studies 176n : Facing Reality: A History of Documentary Cinema
Professor: Scott Macdonald
The history of cinema as representation and interpretation of “reality,” focusing on masterworks of nonfiction film and video from a variety of periods and geographic locales. Emphasis on the ways in which nonfiction films can subvert viewers’ conventional expectations and their personal security. Forms to be discussed include the city symphony, ethnographic documentary, propaganda, the nature film, direct cinema, cinema verite, the compilation film and personal documentary.
Visual and Environmental Studies 177e : Critical Cinema: A History of Experimental and Avant-Garde Cinema
Professor: Scott Macdonald
A history of alternatives to commercial movies, focusing on surrealist and Dadaist film, visual music, psychodrama, direct cinema, the film society movement, personal cinema, the New American Cinema, structuralism, Queer cinema, feminist cinema, minor cinema, recycled cinema and devotional cinema. While conventional entertainment films use the novel, the short story and the stage drama as their primary instigations, experimental and avant-garde films are analogous to music, poetry, painting, sculpture and collage.
Visual and Environmental Studies 107 : Studies of the Built North American Environment since 1580
Professor: John Stilgoe
North America as an evolving visual environment is analyzed as a systems concatenation involving such constituent elements as farms, small towns, shopping malls, highways, suburbs, and as depicted in fiction, poetry, cartography, television, cinema, and advertising and cybernetic simulation.
Economics 2800b : Urban and Social Economics
Professor: Edward Glaeser
Why do cities exist? What makes economic agglomerations more productive?This class will focus on recent research in urban and social economics. It will also discuss the essentials of real estate economics and housing.
Proleptic
October 2nd, 2007鈥搉oun, plural -ses聽
| 1. | Rhetoric. the anticipation of possible objections in order to answer them in advance. |
| 2. | the assigning of a person, event, etc., to a period earlier than the actual one; the representation of something in the future as if it already existed or had occurred; prochronism. |
| 3. | the use of a descriptive word in anticipation of its becoming applicable. |
| 4. | a fundamental conception or assumption in Epicureanism or Stoicism arising spontaneously in the mind without conscious reflection; thought provoked by sense perception. |
| 5. | Pathology. the return of an attack of a periodic disease or of a paroxysm before the expected time or at progressively shorter intervals. |
鈥擱elated forms
pro路lep路tic聽 [proh-lep-tik], pro路lep路ti路cal, adjective
pro路lep路ti路cal路ly, adverb
Hagiographic
October 2nd, 2007hag路i路og路ra路phy (h膩g’膿-艔g’r蓹-f膿, h膩’j膿-)
n.聽聽 pl. hag路i路og路ra路phies
- Biography of saints.
- A worshipful or idealizing biography.
Suture
October 2nd, 2007su路ture [soo-cher] noun, verb, -tured, -tur路ing. 鈥搉oun
| 1. | Surgery.
|
| 2. | Anatomy.
|
| 3. | Zoology, Botany. the junction or line of junction of contiguous parts, as the line of closure between the valves of a bivalve shell, a seam where carpels of a pericarp join, etc. |
| 4. | a seam as formed in sewing; a line of junction between two parts. |
| 5. | a sewing together or a joining as by sewing. |
鈥搗erb (used with object)
| 6. | to unite by or as by a suture. |
The Colors of New York :: Part I
September 28th, 2007Here is an initial experiment in extending 鈥淭he Colors of Berlin鈥 into a sound/video piece. Presented September 15 at the 2007 Conflux Festival.
Video editing: Jesse Shapins
Design: Celia Di Pauli, Pedro Recarey, Philipp Schwarz and Jesse Shapins
Sound design and recording: Kara Oehler
Photography: Pedro Recarey and Jesse Shapins