Past/Present/Future

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Here's some drafts I found just now, and I decided to post it here..

It's about things that I have posted here, including the post about a dream I had (about future computers), my Tea House presentation project, and of course Leonardo Da Vinci..

Well, I remember when I was having a presentation for the Tea Walk project last semester. One of the panelist for my presentation, told me about my plan geometry, that I can only made plan that’s exactly like the star of betlehem.

(since my plan is based on the star of betlehem , but I used rectangles rather than square and I move it so it doesn’t looks symmetrical from the plan).

I asked why can’t I?

She said, it’s because there are some orders that I couldn’t change.

(but this is plan, ma’am, and I didn’t think that my planning doesn’t have anything to do with the ‘orders’ she mentioned)

and she continues, she mentioned Leonardo Da Vinci, maybe because I put the inverted writing (that’s made famous by Da Vinci), which I put intentionally, not because I wanted to imitate Da Vinci.

She said that, “you are not Da Vinci. God has given Da Vinci such gift that his brain is so brilliant that he could create his own or new orders.”

This is actually a public statement and it’s not offensive at all..

But I'm unpleased by hearing her statement.

Which means, I cannot surpass Da Vinci? I cannot create new orders just because I’m not Da Vinci?

I don’t believe in such thing, I do believe that everyone could do anything. Everyone get the same chance!

If it’s about gift-from-God-thing, (I’m sorry if I think too highly of myself) I believed that I’ve got the gift from God as well, I’ve got the potential..! I wouldn’t afford losing just because of that potential thing..

If it’s about hardwork, or maybe environments, etc. that boost his capabilities and made him succeed with all those achievements.. I could accept that..

And after having this dream, about this technology..

Something bothered me, we all know that’s Da Vinci products aren’t only arts.

He’s also a genius philosopher and scientist.

He had this vision of flying machine just like the modern helicopters. But the technology in his era wouldn’t allow him to create such flying machine..

Now I’m asking, isn’t it possible that he had the same vision just like me?

The idea’s just drilled to his brain (of course also after he put some thought on it)..

And he tried to sketch it, to realize it, but unfortunately.. The technology wouldn’t allow me to.. Just like this ring-sized computer I just dreamt of..

Or maybe famous writers of sci-fi books and films like James Bond, with this vision of modern gadgets. And George Lucas, with his vision of a laser blade called lightsaber, weapon of the Jedi.

He imagined that the source of the laser would be a crystal powered by self-charging power cell which is strong enough and small enough to be placed inside the hilt.

But our technology isn’t that advanced yet, and I don’t think that we can limit a light movement (where the lightsaber blade would span up to about 1.2m).

Actually I’ve had my own theory of possible lightsaber construction. It would not light or laser based blade, but rather heat based blade.

The ultilization of the heat isn't like vibroblade, where the blade is heated up with a very high frequency generator (that's why it's called vibroblade), but rather a fireblade.

Because I remember that fire were made of three aspects, oxygen, fuel, and heat (or the fire itself).

Oxygen exist everywhere, all we need is this ‘fuel’ that could easily distributed to 1.2m span requirements that’s fit into the hilt for a very long period of time (and if possible, self-charging like the lightsaber power cell). And all we need is just an ignition button to fire up..!

Well, just to track back to possibilities of a more advanced ancient technology, George Lucas put this line in every Star Wars opening “a long time ago, in the galaxy far far away”.

See the line? ‘a long time ago’.. Maybe he also realized that there are possibilities that super advanced technology does exist in the past..!

Then, what's so special about Da Vinci? He's just an ordinary human, and a dreamer like us..

Orders, Da Vinci, and Myself

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

I admired Da Vinci and his works, everybody does.. But honestly, beside my admiration to his works, I hate him as well.

Most people will ask, why? The reason is, envy, jealousy, yes it is..

We all know how great Da Vinci is, how he think far off to the future than the people from this era. But it's just unfair, all these inventions, ideas, and works he did, most of them are brilliants. And it all came from one man, Leonardo Da Vinci.

And people today always think Da Vinci as a gifted person. Maybe he is, but now, just listen..

I was working on an architectural assignment few months ago, I was tasked to design a teahouse on a hilltop in a place where most of the people, works on the tea plantations around.

Considering that most people there works on tea plantations, which the tea might have considered as treasure for them. Based on the idea of tea as treasure cued me into the idea of sinking-cantilevered teahouse on the edge of the hilltop.

I did planning based from the form of two rotated rectangles, not squares (the shape of Star of Bethlehem, like the plan idea for Petronas Twin Tower in Kuala Lumpur), and these rectangles are not actually fit into each other, I modified the geometric shape in order to solve the problem of limited space given while I'm trying to solve other problems as well.

Then I added the entrance of which inspired from the Apple Store in Madison Square, NY. The glass box structure and a staircase that leads people into the store, or my teahouse in this case.

The studio master approved this idea, but he insisted me on having symmetrical two squares planning like the Petronas Twin Tower than two rectangles planning that I did. Because the entry stairs I planned to made were spiral stairs, he said it would be much nicer if it's located in the middle of such symmetrical planning.

I believed that he is right, but he forgot the maximum space he gave for this particular building. I'm not that's stupid enough to do this kind of planning if he space weren't this limited and the terrains are fit enough for the idea he insisted me on.

Well that's not the problem.. The real problems came on the presentation day.

Okay, I wrote all the descriptions and titles not using architectural fonts, not even standard fonts, I created my own fonts that looks a bit like symbols and I inverted the title like the Da Vinci writings. I did this on purpose, because this tea house I designed came up from the idea of 'treasure'.

I remembered my studio master said that he wanted a unique presentation, not a formal one, or technical one. He even commented on other student who did the presentation board quite technically.

I was a kind of content, knowing that my presentation board is quite unique. BUT, the studio master didn't like it, he asked me on what purpose I did these writings, I told him the reasons but he didn't buy it and he even commented on the inverted title of which he cannot read. Okay, the title is my mistake then.. Lets continue first.

Then he said, it's okay for this time, but he won't see any of these fonts and writings.

There is a female part-time lecturer who also commented on my work. Okay, she did understand the idea of these writings.

She asked my why did the plan were based on these two rotated rectangles, not rotated squares (again!?).

I explained to her that it was derived from the idea of a treasure vault, the initial idea were two squares, but based on many considerations, I turned them into rectangles and..bla..bla.. (like I explained before..).

Well, she didn't buy it, simply because she didn't like the plan, not because my reason is unreasonable. I told her all considerations possible that turned the plan into these two rotated rectangles.

Then she gave such a nonsense answer. She said that I have to follow orders (not orders from a lecturer), she said that the plan should have been two rotated squares, and I cannot made it into rotated rectangles because square is the correct order, like our body made in certain order and scales, or math 1+1 is 2.

Then she said, "don't try to make something out of the orders just because you wanted to look different, like these inverted writings (Da Vinci). God has made Da Vinci's brain with such gifts that he could create his own orders".

Okay, and it's insulting me actually, does she simply means that I desperately trying to look different? And I will never be able to surpass Da Vinci? Is Da Vinci that special?? I believed, that I AM special, I can create my own orders, like Da Vinci did.

I did these inverted writings while fully knowing that Da Vinci did this kind of writings before, but I have my own reason and it has nothing to do with Da Vinci.

And orders that she said, body scale? maths? Yes, we cannot changed them, but this is just a geometric shape, we can freely changed the shape, it has nothing to do with these 'orders' she said. Even Le Corbusier, father of modern architecture ever designed an inverted roof, of which the lowest part is in the middle while roofs should have it's lowest part on their edges.

Humankind can never achieved technology like today if we never tried to create our own order!

In the end of the day, the marks for my design is C+, I asked the studio master why I only got C+?

He said, it's my writings. What the hell!? But he previously said that it was okay, but only for that particular project. And now he gave me C+ because of these writings and fonts I made? He didn't even comment anything about the building, whether the building quality is bad, I didn't follow some requirements, etc. What an unreasonable judgement!

I tried to protest, and I said "Frank Lloyd Wright (an architect) also ever did his own fonts on his presentation board"

And another word comes up of which a lecturer should never say, he said "you are not Frank Lloyd Wright". A lecturer said that to a student? Which means that if you are famous then you will be able to create things by your own. It's the same thing as Da Vinci issue that I was talking about.

Then I replied back, "so if I'm famous I can do anything sir? (even if the quality is poor, people would always said that it's great).

But he turned away from the topic by quickly talking to other lecturer nearby..

Disappointing it is, I hate the idea of 'you are famous, you are wealthy, and you can do anything'.

Let's return to Da Vinci. Maybe yes, he is gifted and his works are amazing. But why doesn't anyone ever think that these praises were made for his fame, not because that his works are really brilliant? He might have few brilliant works, where he gained his fame from, but then people would think that all of his works are brilliant. He is not all original, even he himself borrows the idea of Vitruvian Man from Vitruvius. And most people who know nothing just keep on praising him and his works.

See, the book (and film) The Da Vinci Code, why it's not The 'someone else's' Code?

Well that's how most people fascinated by fame.. Trying not to be a hypocrite, maybe even me, myself also fascinated by his fame as well..

notes: if it's possible, I would scanned my presentation board and upload it here. But it's not possible for the moment because of few problems and issues.. haha..