Las Vegas vs Dubai

Really this post is more about Dave Hickey's "A home in the neon" vs "Fear, sand and money in Dubai" by Mike Davies. Let me just say that this was like comparing a wonderful hot toddy made with the best Irish whiskey and sweet honey - warming, comforting and enjoyable, to - well, to a shot of whatever Russian knock-off vodka your local has stocked up on. Yes "Fear, sand and money in Dubai" is the bargain booze I speak of: alcoholic - TICK, consumable - TICK (at times), Guaranteed to get you pissed - TICK. It is cold, boring and uninterestingly informative.

Dave Hickey's writing is unapologetic. He gives himself over to the reader, telling us his emotions, his opinions, his doubts without fear of judgement. Honestly after reading this piece I feel like I know him as an old friend you might bump into in the pub. Someone you can have a chat to with no hidden agendas, no underlining meanings. He is telling a story, his story, unlike Mike Davies who is simply giving us facts. In fact he doesn't tell us much about himself at all. We learn nothing of the man, he is nothing other than facts and figures. Indeed if I were to try and imagine him as a person I find myself picturing something between an accountant and Simon Cowell and then I think to myself, why bother? I imagine I would either kill myself or IT (I've always been more homicidal than suicidal) long before I would have to listen to it speak ....... then again I was forced to read his "Fear, sand and money in Dubai", perhaps I have more self-control than previously stated!

Anyway, back to the task at hand, Davies' piece at least gets slightly interesting when he lists the problems, particularly in inhumane treatment of the workers in the construction industry, but really we already knew that! Or at least had a rough idea about it, not to mention that I still don't really care. Don't get me wrong, it’s shocking. We should care and it should stop. But it reminds me of a news report which aims to shock and shake you into action but fails to do so. Facts and figures never do. I wonder if Davies even bothered to interview or meet any of these workers he has wrote about, because quite frankly he writes about them as if they are non-human objects. To him they are faceless and so they are faceless to us. Hickey's writing is so enjoyable simple for me because he describes his characters, including himself, as people and that is exactly what they are.... they are people to us.

Alain Badiou - This Crisis Is the Spectacle: Where Is the Real?

Honestly this piece was hard for me to read, other than Badiou’s wonderful use of a good simile - which my secondary school English teacher would have loved him for, I just wasn't that interested! I had to read it several times just to understand it. How many times do we need to hear about our "crisis" and the (here comes it first metaphor of the night) masked villains who drove us to destruction? Honestly right now I find myself numb to the whole thing, at one time I was furious, sad and even distraught, but come on!! Can you blame me, as "FINANCIAL CRISIS", "GLOBAL WARMING" and simply "WE'RE FUCKED" is repeatedly shouted at us like a never-ending, relentless broken record?

When did I stop caring? Honestly I don't even care about not caring. I like to think of myself as being informed, capable of taught and action, as not being one of "those who are watching the show" as Badiou puts it. And I hope I can reignite my (for lack of a better word) interest in well…. us, as a species, in our world and in our future. But right now please just shut up, pour a pint, put on a catchy tune and dance.

P.S. - Please don’t associate me mentioning alcohol in my second blog with the fact that I am Irish. Irish people drinking alcohol is a stereotype and an unfair one to many Irish people, as such I don’t want to be labelled as one ……. Even though I am lol.

Jonathan Meades - Zaha Hadid Interview

Okay here I go with my first blog, hopefully at least 50% of this will make sense, if it doesn't ....oh well!! First of all, let me clear up the title of this post because this interview was less about what Zaha Hadid said and was more about Meades’ interpretation about who she is. Meades isn't exactly sugar coating his responses to Hadid's more vague answers. His tone through the piece is constantly critical and at times almost insulting. However there is also an admiration if not for her, for her creativeness and her knowledge. He mocks her by saying that "I rather suspect that Zaha has the ancient, habitual, superstitious fear that to discover how her processes work would be to jeopardise them". Her fear has no real merits, no scientific basics but his tone suggests to me that he believes that her "processes" are real, her creativity and talent is tangible, her works are not mere flukes.

Some people have even questioned: what qualifies him (or any other person for that matter) to comment on an architect’s work? I believe that the answer is that anyone has that qualification. Sure we are artists, we create, sculpt and shape spaces and skylines, but our work affects others. We design not for ourselves but for the client and end user, and perhaps we should also add to that list, the passer-by. Architecture is art with rules, our creativity must always co-exist with functionality. While Zaha may pride herself on creating wonderfully chaotic and disturbing forms, the truth is if she had not added function, she would still be sitting behind her desk, sketching away and spending daddy’s money without any of her buildings being constructed.