Paris, France

With poor weather this morning, I was able to begin another essay, this one focused on the multitude of contemporary projects across Paris and the issue of self-censorship, which ocurred alot while I was still working on the initial research subject. The essay then transits to comtemporary architecture and its obsession with technology, both as a design strategy and technical design driver. I think the essays are getting better with each one, but are getting harder to write, as I get more and more burnt out on a subject. One can only look at the Bibliotheque Nationale Francois Mitterand so many times before shuddering. Be it as it may, the complex plays a critical role in no less than three of my essays, thus far.

I guess the building plays a critical role in my research, at the crux of Parisien culture and technology, contemporary architecture, literature, historic architecture, Corbusian urbanism, and a national history condensed into a series of Grands Projets. Unfortunately I was not able to draw it, as the weather was bad and I struck out without my drawing supplies. But I have a few photos of it though. This photo, taken from the avant>>apres exhibit, casts two of the towers in a snowy fog that captures the isolation of the site. Despite this, the deck remains a farily populated place, and despite the best of my intentions to show it as an isolated uninhabited landscape, I couldn't manage to keep the people out of my photographs. I suppose my personal biases toward the project show through after all. Take that,
self-censorship.