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Who LET<br />
My fish<br />
Loose?<br />
MAY 2017<br />
issue #1<br />
JapaNese House P.22<br />
Exhibition about life and Archtecture in Japan<br />
and why it those are ideas are still relevant today<br />
Use of theory by art and<br />
use of art by theory P.14<br />
Professor Boris Groys compares advertisment<br />
principles to critical theory.<br />
OOHo Warter and how to<br />
make your own P.18<br />
Work in progress solution to reduction of plastic<br />
bottle waste
Who Let My Fish Loose?<br />
about<br />
It is important to stay aware<br />
With this magazine I wanted<br />
to make a fun way to be engaged<br />
with critical thought<br />
and critical theory. It is not a<br />
call for actions, but a hopefully<br />
entertaining way to<br />
read something that does<br />
not point fingers.<br />
In this edition, I have looked<br />
at great minds such as Slavoj<br />
Zizek and Boris Groys, to<br />
share their thoughts and<br />
ideas.<br />
There is also a section on<br />
current events, such as the<br />
Japanese House exhibition,<br />
that is up at the Barbican<br />
center, and the Ooho bottle<br />
recipe.<br />
This magazine will try not<br />
to be political, but there is<br />
a section on psychology of<br />
a narcissist, with now president<br />
Trump in mind, as well<br />
as a section addressing the<br />
refugee crisis.<br />
I hope you enjoy.<br />
Dea<br />
Khalvashi
in this issue<br />
Who are liberal<br />
communists<br />
T r u m p a n d<br />
Narcissism<br />
Refugees &the<br />
power of image<br />
p. 4<br />
p. 04<br />
p. 8<br />
USE OF THEORY BY<br />
ART<br />
P l a s t i c<br />
waste<br />
Japanese House:<br />
life after 1945<br />
p. 12<br />
p.16<br />
p. 20
Issue 1<br />
May 2017<br />
LIBERAL<br />
COMMUNIST<br />
AS EXPLAINED BY SLAVOJ ZIZEK<br />
AN EXCERT FROM HIS BOOK "VIOLENCE".<br />
The exemplary figures of evil today are not ordinary<br />
consumers who pollute the environment and live in<br />
a eating organic food, taking holidays in wildlife<br />
4<br />
10 commandments of the<br />
Liberal Communists<br />
Accoring to: Olivier Malnuit<br />
1. Give everything away for free<br />
(free access, no copyright …); just<br />
charge for the additional services,<br />
which will make you even richer.<br />
2. Change the world, don't just sell<br />
things: global revolution, a change<br />
of society will make things better.<br />
3. Be caring, sharing, and<br />
aware of social responsibility.<br />
4. Be creative: focus on design,<br />
new technologies, and sciences.<br />
5. Tell it all: there should be no secrets.<br />
Endorse and practise the<br />
cult of transparency, the free<br />
flow of information, all humanity<br />
should collaborate and interact.<br />
6. Don't work and take on a<br />
fixed nine-to-five job. Just engage<br />
in improvised smart, dynamic,<br />
flexible communications.<br />
7. Go back to school and engage<br />
in permanent education.<br />
8. Act as an enzyme: work not only<br />
for the market, but trigger new<br />
forms of social collaborations.<br />
9. Die poor: return your wealth to<br />
those who need it, since you have<br />
more than you can ever spend.<br />
10. Stand in for the state:<br />
practise the partnership of<br />
companies with the state
Issue #1<br />
Who let my fish loose?<br />
which breed fundamentalist terror.<br />
So their goal is not to earn money,<br />
but to change the world, though if<br />
this makes them more money as<br />
a by-product, who's to complain!<br />
The exemplary figures of evil today<br />
are not ordinary consumers who pollute<br />
the environment and live in a<br />
violent world of disintegrating social<br />
links, but those who, while fully<br />
engaged in creating conditions for<br />
such universal devastation and pollution,<br />
buy their way out of their own<br />
activity, living in gated communities,<br />
eating organic food, taking holidays<br />
in wildlife preserves, and so on.<br />
Liberal communists are pragmatic. They hate<br />
a doctrinaire approach. For them there is no<br />
single exploited working class today. There are<br />
only concrete problems to be solved: starvation<br />
in Africa, the plight of Muslim women, religious<br />
fundamentalist violence. When there<br />
is a humanitarian crisis in Africa - and liberal<br />
communists really love humanitarian crises,<br />
which bring out the best in them!-there is no<br />
point in engaging in old-style anti-imperialist<br />
rhetoric. Instead, all of us should just concentrate<br />
on what really does the work of solving<br />
the problem: engage people, governments, and<br />
business in a common enterprise; start moving<br />
things, instead of relying on centralised state<br />
help; approach the crisis in a creative and unconventional<br />
way, without fretting over labels.<br />
5<br />
Above all, liberal communists are true citizens<br />
of the world. They are good people who worry.<br />
They worry about populist fundamentalists<br />
and irresponsible, greedy capitalist corporations.<br />
They see the "deeper causes" of today's<br />
problems: it is mass poverty and hopelessness
Issue 1<br />
May 2017<br />
Rise in Narcissism and<br />
Trump<br />
Text by Michail Theodosiadis Illustration by Dea Khalvashi<br />
publicity. Donald Trump<br />
is one of the saddest reflections<br />
of this corrosive<br />
culture.<br />
6<br />
Christopher Lasch and<br />
Narcissism<br />
Almost three decades ago,<br />
in his book The Culture<br />
of Narcissism, the iconoclastic<br />
American thinker<br />
Christopher Lasch wrote<br />
that in postwar America<br />
emerged a certain type<br />
of being, which in clinical<br />
terms falls under the<br />
category of “narcissistic<br />
personality disorder”, a<br />
pathology characterised<br />
by carelessness and an<br />
excessive need for admiration<br />
and attention.<br />
Lasch identified manifestations<br />
of this disorder in<br />
various aspects of social<br />
life, and especially in the<br />
world of celebrity. Now<br />
celebrities have invaded<br />
the political sphere, the<br />
entire political world is<br />
becoming dominated by<br />
people who lack “common<br />
decency”, who resort to<br />
a faux populism in order<br />
to serve their thirst for<br />
From the day he joined<br />
the race for the Republican<br />
nomination, Trump<br />
used the same modus<br />
operandi: attracting<br />
public attention. Just as<br />
Lasch wrote, the narcissistic<br />
logic Trump applies<br />
to politics is embedded<br />
in the same “enterprise<br />
culture” with which he is<br />
so closely identified. As a<br />
successful entrepreneur,<br />
Trump not only acquired<br />
the skill of promoting his<br />
brand but turned himself<br />
into a commodity, using<br />
all available techniques<br />
to put himself at the
Issue #1<br />
Who let my fish loose?<br />
centre of as many endless discussions<br />
as possible.<br />
Ignorance is a bliss<br />
The sight of people amassing at<br />
airports to protest the executive<br />
order, many waving placards<br />
bearing Trump’s name, is paradoxically<br />
exactly what a narcissist<br />
craves. Worse still, the dissent<br />
emanating from leading Democrats<br />
and celebrities robs these<br />
protests of some of their grassroots<br />
edge, turning them into<br />
what Lasch presciently called the<br />
“revolt of the elites”.<br />
It all flatters Trump’s message<br />
that the protesters care not a<br />
bit for the hardships of ordinary<br />
Americans. It also makes him a<br />
model for thousands of his fans;<br />
as he himself chases the spotlight,<br />
they compete with each<br />
other for public attention. His extreme<br />
egocentricity poisons the<br />
public sphere; norms of common<br />
decency and sense are replaced<br />
by a mob mentality of mutual<br />
recriminations and insults. This<br />
atmosphere not only safeguards<br />
Trump’s power, but more importantly,<br />
may contribute to the<br />
emergence of a similarly toxic<br />
demagogue in the future.<br />
So the narcissist’s trap is set, and<br />
those campaigning against Trump<br />
need to get out of it. So long as<br />
they make their ultimate goal the<br />
downfall of Trump’s presidency,<br />
they will never break his hold<br />
on the public imagination. What the US and the<br />
rest of the world need is an open public dialogue<br />
aimed at solving any number of critical problems,<br />
such as migration, unemployment, and mass<br />
“uprootedness” – the sense of disconnection that<br />
writer Simone Weil identified as an incubator of<br />
authoritarianism and demagoguery.<br />
Without facing these problems head on for what<br />
they are, critics will end up trapped in a close orbit<br />
around Trump himself – mired in toxic discussions<br />
that feed political phobias and cultural antipathies.<br />
The narcissist’s trap is set, and those<br />
campaigning against Trump need to<br />
get out of it. So long as they make their<br />
ultimate goal the downfall of Trump’s<br />
presidency, they will never break his hold<br />
on the public imagination.<br />
dr. Michail Theodosiadis<br />
7
Issue 1<br />
May 2017<br />
8<br />
REFUGEES and the power of<br />
image<br />
with the help of JuliaN Stallabrass<br />
There has been a lot of<br />
critisism emerging from<br />
the public regarding the<br />
photographers that take<br />
horrifying photographs<br />
of what is happening in<br />
the ISIS run terrirories.<br />
The argument ususally<br />
boils down to the fact<br />
that the photographers<br />
could have been out<br />
there helping the injured<br />
child rather than taking<br />
a photograph of them,<br />
but there is something<br />
that public is not taking<br />
into consideration. The<br />
powe of image in the<br />
contamporaty world is<br />
significantly higher, and<br />
has the power to have a much<br />
larger impact on the problem,<br />
thus, a photograph of an injured<br />
child has a pontential to<br />
save more children. In order<br />
to understand this concept,<br />
it is important to look at the<br />
Vietnam War.<br />
The Images of Vietnam<br />
War<br />
"Not in our name" is an article<br />
written by professor<br />
Julian Stallabrass. It discusses<br />
the role that photographs<br />
that emerged from the Vietnam<br />
War played in rallys<br />
against the war in Iraq, and<br />
argues, that these anti-war<br />
rallys would not have happaned<br />
if the photographs<br />
did not exist. In Julian Stallabrass'<br />
opinion, people<br />
would not have marched<br />
against the war in Iraq if the<br />
chilling images of Vietnam<br />
War were not spread. Seeing<br />
something like a photograph<br />
seems to really speak one<br />
thousand word.<br />
Temporary refugee camp set up in the center of Munich, Germany
Issue #1<br />
Who let my fish loose?<br />
""Today's liberal tolerance<br />
towards others,<br />
the respect of otherness<br />
and openness towards<br />
it, is counterpointed by<br />
an obsessive fear of<br />
harassment. In short,<br />
the other is just fine,<br />
but in so far his precedes<br />
is not intrusive,<br />
insofar the other is not<br />
really other... "<br />
Slavoj Zizek<br />
Ifecrisum vit? Ficata deo,<br />
consulin tus inum pratimu<br />
suleste ricit, contidem am,<br />
Cupio egilis o conerfeci<br />
interbi etil vis pro, nique ia<br />
rei perbem nos et L.<br />
United Nations<br />
hires photographers<br />
dedicated to depicting<br />
the refugee crisis<br />
The news that thousands<br />
of refugees and economic<br />
migrants are arriving<br />
on the continent can be<br />
unsettling for a European<br />
public that is still dealing<br />
with the after-effects of<br />
a devastating economic<br />
crisis. “There’s a lot of talk<br />
and fear about refugees<br />
and so it’s critical that<br />
people can see for themselves<br />
what’s happening,”<br />
says Susan Hopper, UN-<br />
HCR's photo editor. “We<br />
choose photographers<br />
who can show that this<br />
refugee is a regular person<br />
who has run out of options<br />
Refugees arriving in Munich central train station<br />
and is being forced to do<br />
something desperate to<br />
protect his or her family.<br />
And when you see photos<br />
of these people’s faces<br />
when they arrive on the<br />
beach in Greece, it clicks.<br />
Seeing how traumatized<br />
and scared these people<br />
are generates empathy<br />
and understanding and<br />
changes attitudes and behaviors.<br />
That’s the connection<br />
we want to make.”<br />
So, going back to the original<br />
ideas by Julian Stallabrass,<br />
what exactly is the<br />
role of an image, and can<br />
these UN-hired photographers<br />
be considered to be<br />
"embaded" journalists of<br />
some sort.<br />
9
Issue 1<br />
May 2017<br />
10
Issue #1<br />
Who let my fish loose?<br />
11
Issue 1<br />
May 2017<br />
Boris Groys<br />
USe of theory<br />
by art<br />
12<br />
Use of art<br />
by<br />
theory<br />
A transcribed except from the talk by an<br />
art critic and a theoretician Boris Groys<br />
as a part of the Age of Global Transition<br />
conference at the Rietveld Academie in<br />
Amsterdam.
Issue #1<br />
Who let my fish loose?<br />
“Call Now”<br />
In the recent years, this notion of<br />
“life” has become more and more<br />
prominent. The whole philosophy<br />
and theory of discourse in the last<br />
century was about life, not about<br />
thinking like it was before, its quite<br />
a change, and I will be talking<br />
about this change. Why Philosophy<br />
for so long, from Plato up to the<br />
end of 19th century had actually<br />
thinking, logos and reason, for<br />
its main topic, and then suddenly<br />
the theme changed to life as the<br />
main notion. We are always speaking<br />
about reality TV, and all these<br />
things, we speak about life and<br />
we speak about the possibility of<br />
changing lives and exchanging<br />
lives, about imitating life. And all<br />
of this has presuppositions and I<br />
will try to discuss them.<br />
In our time, we are attacked<br />
form all sides by different calls<br />
to change our life. To change our<br />
body, by diet and fitness, to change<br />
our mental abilities by education<br />
and meditation. You know,<br />
now I’m living in New York, as it<br />
was already said, and I always get<br />
accustomed to a certain way that<br />
American TV presents this call. You<br />
know, when you see an advertisement<br />
for new medicine, new practise<br />
or new fitness program, at the<br />
end they always say, with a very<br />
insistent voice<br />
“Call Now!”<br />
“Please call now!”<br />
“Do not wait!”<br />
“Call now!”<br />
"Change your life! Now!"<br />
The society that is only based on<br />
differences is no longer a society, it is a<br />
market economy.<br />
This is what I want to talk about.<br />
What does this feeling of urgency<br />
mean? That we cannot delay it,<br />
that we have to do it now, we have<br />
to respond now. Every such a call<br />
proposes a sort of model that is a<br />
call to imitate socially recognised<br />
beauties, etc. And every such call<br />
for change is a call for imitation and<br />
a call to become somebody that<br />
somebody else already is. But is it<br />
possible to become another person,<br />
to follow a model to radically<br />
change our own identity to imitate<br />
another identity and if it is possible<br />
to follow this, should we follow this,<br />
so is our desire of imitation really<br />
good?<br />
First off, I would suggest that the<br />
desire to become similar to the<br />
others - the “mimetic” desire that<br />
is so criticised by many authors is<br />
actually in a certain way a positive<br />
desire. It is a desire to be social, to<br />
produce sociality. We tend to think<br />
about our society as a society of<br />
differences. We tend to think about<br />
our society as the society of differences.<br />
We have different culture<br />
identity, different professions,<br />
skills, sexual orientations etc. However,<br />
a society that is only defined<br />
by differences seizes to be a society<br />
the space of difference is not a<br />
society but an economy, and specifically<br />
market economy - that means<br />
economy of exchange. Difference<br />
13
Call NOW!<br />
CHANGE YOUR LIFe<br />
NOW!<br />
Professor Boris Groys lecture<br />
On the Use of Theory by Art<br />
and Use of Art by Theory
Issue #1<br />
Who let my fish loose?<br />
opens a possibility of exchange<br />
and makes it unavoidable. I give<br />
to the others what I have, and do<br />
not have, and the others give me<br />
what they have and I do not have.<br />
A society of difference, is a society<br />
of commodity exchange, but<br />
also, exchange of communication.<br />
Communication as exchange of<br />
information and also a market<br />
of opinions. We exchange discourses<br />
and information items<br />
as we exchange all other commodities.<br />
This operation leaves<br />
our identities unchanged. So an<br />
act of exchange itself, be it in<br />
the market or within the framework<br />
of communication leaves<br />
our own identity unchanged. We<br />
require freedom of information<br />
and communication and these<br />
are very important goals. But an<br />
actual, initial goal of theoretical<br />
discourse (and i speak now today<br />
as a theoretician) is not merely<br />
to inform the others about what<br />
opinions I personally have. The<br />
scene of theoretical discourse<br />
does not coincide with the scene<br />
of communication. Rather one<br />
stars a theoretical discourse<br />
with a hope that it will change<br />
the attitude of an audience. The<br />
The Critical theory calls for action.<br />
To change the world instead of<br />
trying to understand it. (a very<br />
famous Marxist slogan) To actively<br />
change life instead of wasting time<br />
for contemplation and passively to<br />
live fully and actively instead of<br />
merely surviving. How is theory<br />
formulated? it is not formulated as a<br />
theory, but as a call.<br />
theoretical discourse wants to be not informative,<br />
but transformative discourse. Thus, every<br />
theoretician is necessarily interested in the<br />
transformative power of discourse as such. In<br />
fact, every theoretical discourse can be read<br />
as the description of the conditions of its own<br />
persuasiveness, and of transformative power of<br />
word in general.<br />
So, an explanation of why a discourse can be<br />
transformative and not only informative. Every<br />
discourse offers a scenario, a set of conditions<br />
under which one can expect that a discourse<br />
becomes transformative. Here, a philosopher,<br />
theoretician, a thinker, discovers an uncanny<br />
similarity between his or her own discourse<br />
and the advertisement that calls its listeners to<br />
change and transform themselves. The theoretician<br />
shares, with the advertisement and fashion<br />
a common possibility of a transformative<br />
call. Transformative word. At the same time,<br />
the traditional philosophy attempts to accuse<br />
all the non-philosophical transformative discourses<br />
of being based not on reason and logic,<br />
but exclusively on seduction and manipulation.<br />
So if you look at the history of religion if you<br />
look at the history of philosophy and theoretical<br />
thought it always operates by this kind of<br />
command:<br />
Come now<br />
Change your attitude<br />
Change your life.<br />
If you go back to Christianity to the period of<br />
enlightenment and you read philosophers like<br />
Deleuze of Derrida, even they suggest similar<br />
things; Don’t think in this direction, begin to<br />
think in another direction and so on. It is not so<br />
much an argumentation to call the change of<br />
your direction of attention and your mind.<br />
There is a common ground between all these<br />
beauty contests and reality shows or what ever,<br />
that we experience in our meditated culture<br />
in a very fundamental attitude of any speaker<br />
including the speaker attempting a critique on<br />
this very subject; Let us not believe them, let<br />
us believe to criticise them, Criticise them now.<br />
Do not delay your critique.<br />
The artists answer this call in its ambiguity.<br />
Why would I say that this call is ambiguous?<br />
15
Issue 1<br />
May 2017<br />
OHOO<br />
The Edible<br />
Water Bottle<br />
16<br />
Modular gastronomy and plastic<br />
The fact that plastic waste is an issue is a point that no longer<br />
needs arguing. Of course, recycling is a solution but it<br />
only seems to work half of the time. On top of that, plastic in<br />
general can be toxic and dangerous for the surroundings of<br />
the production area, as well as the ridiculously large Carbon<br />
footprint that comes with shipping variety of bottled drinks.<br />
While juice can be called a luxury, and the society can live<br />
without, the same cannot be said for water. Water is absolutely<br />
necessary, and since humans need to consume at least<br />
2L of water everyday, it is not something that can be avoided<br />
out of simple good will and the love of environment.
Issue #1<br />
Who let my fish loose?<br />
Of course, we can use reusable water<br />
bottles and invest in a filter, but just<br />
taking the demand and need on drinking<br />
water into consideration, all of the<br />
efforts become relatively small when<br />
one looks at a post-marathon site that is<br />
filled with single-use plastic cups.<br />
Ooho has taken the world by storm after<br />
their campaign launched with the aim<br />
to raise 400,000GBP, (They ended up<br />
raising twice the ammount). It is an edible,<br />
raindrop shaped sack that contains<br />
the water inside of its thin membrane.<br />
This "method" has been used for years<br />
and it is called Modular gastronomy. It<br />
is often used to spherify certain deserts<br />
that are too liquidy to take on solid<br />
shape. Ooho is a great idea that can<br />
really help reduce the use of plastic.<br />
The best part about Ooho is, that it has<br />
the potential to be homemade. While<br />
the creators are working and developing<br />
the recipe in such way that it can be<br />
more durable and hygenic, the current<br />
Ohoo recipe can be used at home. The<br />
reason why this is great is because Ooho<br />
edible bottles will have the potential to<br />
be produced locally - with ease of ingridients<br />
that cant be found anywhere.<br />
This, if nothing else will at least reduce<br />
rising carbon footpring that transporting<br />
plastic waterbottle is eifnitly one of the<br />
top contrbutors to.<br />
Nearly half of plastic<br />
bottles used by British<br />
households are never<br />
recycled<br />
17
Issue 1<br />
May 2017<br />
How to make your<br />
own Ohoo at home.<br />
Modular Gastronomy<br />
18
Issue #1<br />
Who let my fish loose?<br />
Directions:<br />
You will need:<br />
1. Add 1g of Sodium Algenate to a bowl with<br />
one cup of drinking water.<br />
2. Using the hand-blender, make sure you<br />
blend the solution well.<br />
3. Set the Sodium Algenate mixture aside until<br />
all of the bubbles that formed during the<br />
blending proccess dissapear<br />
4. In a larger bowl, mix 4g of Calcium Lactate<br />
and 4 cups of water.<br />
5. Gently stir the Calcium Lactate solution<br />
with a spoon until no more Calcium Lactate<br />
can be seen.<br />
6. Once all of the bubbles in the Sodium<br />
alginate solution are gone, take a spoonfull<br />
out and very gently plop it into the Calcium<br />
Lactate bath<br />
7. Repeat this step while gently stirring the<br />
Calcium lacitate soltion.<br />
8. Stir the soltion for aproximatley five minutes,<br />
and let it sit for two more .<br />
9. With a pasta spoon, or using hands, gently<br />
remove the Ooho from the bath and place it<br />
in a rinsing bowl full of normal water.<br />
10. Let the Ooho edible water bottles rinse in<br />
the water bath for a few minutes, then take<br />
them out<br />
11. Enjoy the 0 impact healthy edible water<br />
bottles.<br />
P.S. Eating the outside of the bottle is entirely<br />
optional, however, it does contribute to<br />
the hydration of the body.<br />
1. Sodium Alginate<br />
2. Calcium Lactate<br />
3. A hand-blender<br />
4. Three medium sized<br />
bowls<br />
5. A deep, round spoon<br />
19
Japanese House:<br />
Architecture<br />
and life after<br />
1945<br />
March 23rd - June 25th 2017<br />
at the barbican center
Issue #1<br />
Who let my fish loose?<br />
Personal<br />
belongings of an<br />
urban hermit<br />
inside the 1-in-1<br />
recreation of his<br />
home<br />
This exhibition is everything<br />
you would never expect to<br />
see. It is an experience an immaterial<br />
portrait of society.<br />
It is more of a performance<br />
than a simple architectural<br />
exhibit. The centre of this<br />
exhibition is the Moriyama<br />
House. A spacial portrait<br />
of a man who has never<br />
caught a plane, or left Tokyo<br />
- a city where he was born.<br />
The one in one recreation<br />
of the Moriyama House by<br />
an award winning Japanese<br />
architect, Ryue Nishizawa is<br />
a successful, personal and<br />
unique fruit of the relationship<br />
between the architect<br />
and his client, and a story of<br />
how this fruit can grow into<br />
something much greater than<br />
just a building. The Moriyama<br />
House is as much a feeling as<br />
it is a house.<br />
Most of the progressive<br />
reconstruction in Japans<br />
started precisely because of<br />
destruction of everything<br />
and the housing crisis that<br />
arose from their defeat in<br />
WWII. They had to think<br />
practically, but also wanted<br />
to integrate their tradition<br />
and national identity to the<br />
demoralised public, to raise<br />
their spirit. Here, architects<br />
were not only faced with<br />
a constructional issue but<br />
also a social one, and so,<br />
rapid Japanese architectural<br />
growth began. The exhibition<br />
explores precisely this. How<br />
construction and character<br />
can intertwine. The curators<br />
of this exhibition achieve<br />
this by intelligently guiding<br />
the viewers, though time and<br />
space. Both, the metaphorical<br />
and physical centre of the<br />
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Issue 1<br />
May 2017<br />
22<br />
exhibit is the Moriyama house,<br />
however, the viewers are directed<br />
to start the exhibition on the top<br />
level of the space. There, the visitors<br />
are introduced to the important<br />
role that architecture played<br />
in both social and economical<br />
development of Japan after the<br />
total destruction in suffered during<br />
the World War II. The most<br />
interesting being a movie reel<br />
exploring the idea of a home, as<br />
a structure, and how this home,<br />
as a structure can be a reflection<br />
social values in regard to the<br />
family life in Japan. There is the<br />
first ever aired commercial of the<br />
so-called “capsule” apartment by<br />
Kisho Kurokawa, an architect who<br />
was also a part of the prominent<br />
“Metabolism” movement. The<br />
capsule acted as a symbol and<br />
a prediction to the future of the<br />
society in Japan, and the world,<br />
really. It was created on the presumption<br />
that the modern man<br />
will be solitary and focused on<br />
the importance of an individual<br />
rather than the relationship with<br />
others. Around the same time, an<br />
important American historian and<br />
moralist was coming to similar<br />
conclusions as Kurokawa, and he<br />
predicted that there will be a rise of Narcissism<br />
in the public(for further details look at The<br />
Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch).<br />
What is interesting, is that the architects have<br />
managed to come to a similar conclusion as cultural<br />
theorists, and that this was not just a local<br />
issue in Japan, but to an extent, a global one.<br />
The Crazy Family by Soho Ishii, is a literal interpretation<br />
of the idea of destruction of family<br />
relations, as well as the need for a family home,<br />
where the family members, paranoid about the<br />
upcoming termite attack physically demolish<br />
their family home, yelling and screaming in<br />
agony as they do this.<br />
“ The ideal is to create something<br />
that, through its presence, makes<br />
the overall environment look<br />
better, and at the same time<br />
makes your own building look<br />
good by virtue of its relationship<br />
with the surrounding buildings.”<br />
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa,<br />
Architects at SANAA
Issue #1<br />
Who let my fish loose?<br />
in contemporary architecture, and their<br />
focus is the cinematic exploration of contemporary<br />
architecture. Through the film<br />
Moryama-San, we follow the touching story<br />
behind Ryue Nishizawa’s masterpiece.<br />
The story went something like this: After<br />
his mother has died, our protagonist, Mr.<br />
Moriyama wanted to tear down their family<br />
house and build a new one, so he wrote<br />
a letter to the architect. “You don’t need a<br />
house, you need your own village”- said the<br />
architect.<br />
A small village inside a forest<br />
The Moriyama house itself is an archipelago<br />
of ten units. These can be used<br />
by the resident himself, or, rented out.<br />
Ryue Nishizawa focuses on creating the<br />
environment that fits within the existing<br />
landscape. In the suburbs where<br />
Mr. Moriyama resides, everybody has<br />
known each other for dedicates, and<br />
the street is often used as a shared<br />
communal area. Nishizawa wanted to<br />
create an unrestricted part of this landscape<br />
that is still unique. He does not<br />
use fences, and uses large transparent<br />
windows and even a glass corridor in<br />
one of the blocks, in order to not create<br />
isolation from the natural landscape,<br />
as well as the communal feeling of this<br />
Tokyo neighbourhood. He also highlights<br />
the importance of soil in a concrete<br />
city like Tokyo. Having soil in his<br />
garden, allowed Moriyama to keep one<br />
of his mothers trees after her passing,<br />
and also use the trees for the utilities<br />
they provide, often using them for drying<br />
his clothes.<br />
We see the intimate, organic relationship<br />
between the house and it’s<br />
inhibitor unfold in a dainty, spontaneous<br />
film by the iconic duo Ila Bêka<br />
and Louise Lemonie, also known as<br />
“Bêka&Lemonie”. Bêka and Lemonie<br />
are considered to be the cult figures<br />
Moriyama-san is a man of exquisite taste<br />
and character. Bêka stumbled into him<br />
spontaneously, and they started talking<br />
about music, which resulted in mr. Moriyama<br />
inviting him to the basement of his house<br />
where he kept his extensive record collection<br />
(parts of which can be found scattered<br />
around the exhibition units) and they<br />
bonded over their liking of Otomo Yoshihide,<br />
one of the pioneers of “noise music”<br />
which Moriyama is very fond of. There is a<br />
line in the film that explains that Moriyama<br />
likes music and film, but he loves reading.<br />
Much of the film is spontaneous, but it is an<br />
interesting, unique portrait of a man and<br />
his house, which seem to have become one.<br />
They cannot exist without each-other. The<br />
visitors feel the closeness and seem to be<br />
very touched by Moriyama’s character. It is<br />
interesting to be able to get to know a man’s<br />
character based on his home. The film features<br />
shots of small collectable sculptures,<br />
that are also displayed in the exhibition<br />
which only intensifies the feeling of familiarity.<br />
This is why, it can be said that Moriyama<br />
House is not a building. It is an immaterial<br />
and material portrait of the man and his<br />
spirit coming together in perfect balance<br />
with the surroundings that make this building<br />
Moriyama’s home, and an absolute architectural<br />
masterpiece.<br />
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Issue 1<br />
May 2017<br />
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Issue #1<br />
Who let my fish loose?<br />
25
#1<br />
Who let my Fish Loose<br />
23/ 05/2017<br />
In this edition, you can find a range of topics including popular<br />
and current:<br />
Trump and rise of Narcissism and newly created edible water<br />
bottles,<br />
Cultural theory looking at the sense of urgency of life by Boris<br />
Groys<br />
Current exhibitions in London: Japanese House and why everyone<br />
should see it.<br />
for digital access and more visit<br />
www.wholetmyfishloose.com