Form follows finance

 

1. 
   

   If "form follows function" whatever the function is,  it is the most dynamic point of any design departure, as all design,  it seems, hinges on this single premise.  So  to get to an incredible end product, one has to , it seems from the purist corner,  start with the function. this is absolute according to design moguls the world over. however - and here is the HUGE rub.  if the design ideal is that " form follows function" which makes sense - however hard one tries to change the dynamic. today's design reality is "form follows finance" (not a new school of thought - but definitely one i have experienced many times) we see militant accountants unashamedly butcher artistry, minimizing dramatic design ideas that are the very essence of the end product. leaving a husk of skeletal thought remaining which is not really worth getting excited about. then everyone blames the designer - whilst the real design hackers slink away into the shadows. if you look at the original sketches for most any concept - you will see the very thread of thought that caught the investors imaginations. then on approval of said concept - suddenly profit margins and savings take precedent, finance not function - and viola - another watered down synaptic architectural thought skeleton to blight the skyline for a 150 years. that is why one plays in a design world where accountants have no comment. where the analytical's don't hold sway - because once the concept goes across the threshold of "lets build this" and the rest of the team saunter in. the end product is always going to be dictated by finance not function. the function of this building is HQ additions for Nado Storm  or the function could be  "aesthetics uber alas" no budget constraints - no accountants to be seen for a month of sundays. sometimes for me, the very rules governing any  premise need to be shifted and explored and turned upside down.  i hear horrified gasps and shock horror noises from mostly the architecturally minded folk finding their way to this small post. fortunately its not many of you - so my rhetoric is completely contained and the architectural world is very safe from this type of radicalized architectural design thinking.  well for now anyway - mwahahaha -

2. 
   

A.I. vs individual human thought

So i decided to reread some old classics, something about reading that realigns the thought processes of ones own tiny little mind. The musty mist passage ways of long ago thought, as one imaginatively synaptically recreates worlds through an old school writers well placed words and letters. That process of eye aligned reading defragmentation led me all the way here.

To AI, artificial intelligence in the modern age of creative artistic expression. The line im typing into the AI machine, Chat GTP is please write me a Tolkeinest type story with shark nados and Mel Gibson as Frodo, a little William Walacy with avatar eyes. Oh and Musty misty passages in Mordor. 

I am now tap finger waiting for chat GTP to write on my behalf the full story, my new creative tool is whir whir creatively writing while i stare glazed one eye into the brushing teeth plughole. Thinking deeply of other much much more important stuff. 

Not that ive ever been anti AI, ive always just been anti phoney fake people more really. You know the type, the type that one feels you have to hide your hard thought creative work from, lest they grab it and fob it unashamedly as their own. Well as you get older you start to care less for these lifters of others work types. Lifes actually to short to sit on artistic ideas lest they be stolen by the creative artistic idea grabber types. So one must simply let ideas free, let them grow, let them become greater than the some of their working parts. Who cares if a candyflos "spook assem" thief steals your artistic creative thunder. 

We not around long enough to make much of a dent in anything anyway some say. Is that the inevitability of eventual cynical thinking in this stew we all find ourselves marinating in? i hear cynics say. 

Well we are all a collective thinking instrument anyway. In otherwords more powerfully united than as individuals. So the solitary creative artist dancing on the fringes is generally absorbed back into the thinking morass of the whole. Hive mind collective creative thought processes. 

So AI other than being a tool for greater imagination, has now opened up a plethora of additional interesting conversation points And narratives. some might say challenges, which to my mind boils down to simple human nature really. 

So you have an artistic creative who has for many, many years quietly honed an artistic skill. This now well practiced over a very long time expertise becomes them. Not only their signature but their every aligned personality trait. Then you have the aforementioned phoney characters with no such artistic raw creative skill, simply using AI to bash out within seconds what has been done behind the scenes by an artistic human driven brain for many years. And obviously there is now the brash nature of the now new profession AI technician. Who now seems to mockingly throw their incredible AI creation infront of the person who has the actual raw artistic creative skill. The AI specialist with much mirth and an incredible look of, "look what I, wonderful me, incredible mo-whA can do," An aire of its so much better than your hard slog 30 years of difficult artist skill toil in the stillness of your silly little creative mind, sucker! attitude!! These now brash AI technician types do that, ive seen it, experienced it, its extraordinary really. Ive been part of many raw creative, AI specialist discussions. The merits the demerits, those with actual artistic creative skill, those with AI sentence structure proficiency. 

One such discussion had the AI technician telling a rather funny story, except i didnt find it funny at all. Because it was my story, my funny story i once wrote and here this candyflos stealer of my story was telling it as their own. Even down to the eye watering nose hair detail. I went to get another drink because what else was there to do really, was a funny story.

So thats my irk i have of the AI technician specialists, and its all to my simple little mind as such. Its a powerful tool that elevates Mediocre Operatives to composing opera pianists. M.O. who have never ever really sat infront of a real piano, or ever read music or who dont even have a pleasant voice for singing. 

A little AI machine thats not even attached to the MO's fingers and another little AI machine not even attached to the not so pleasant voice and another AI machine not even attached to the thinking brain stem. Now seemlessly giving over creative building block data to the M.O. AI specialists. Much end product, composed solely by AI creative material. The AI machine is now playing and singing absolutely beautiful words, through an AI app. The AI person with all the machines not even attached to themselves, as the program is on their phone or computer can now outlay this beautiful music As if it has come from the very depths of themselves. The AI specialist operator is now smugly sitting next to the piano also completely unaware of whats going to happen next. We are all now Listening to incredible composed music no one has ever  heard before coming straight out the darkness of the AI machine. The AI specialists operative, this is what gets me, then stares at the audience while everything is done for them like a Monet Mozart Murcury. All the while one can hear the whir whir of the AI machines as they hiss, spew and groink groink prop up this now super fantastic AI creative person, sitting doing nothing but be a mannequin cyborg in the middle of the room now taking in, no lapping up, all the creative attention for themselves, nogal. 

Flip, creative attention and lime light old school artists have striven illusively for, for centuries. Lime light that every human artist could really use to generate more immediate human driven creativity. Imagine when Musks AI invention of advanced implanted intelligence is fused straight into the human brain stem. Perhaps we will have more puffed up lime lighter blow fish people expounding encyclopedias, only hopefully all on Mars by then. Thats an exciting prospect for a Sunday afternoon second breakfasts Interlude on the red planet. Meta data AI specialists competing with each other on whos AI platform is more intelligent. While the old school purist artist creatives serve them all drinks and garner tips. from these AI doyens of this new immediate lime light creative artist industry. 

Certain now jaundiced eye people in the room might want to pull the plug on these whir whir AI machines doing all the real creative artistic work, just to see what happens when the machines stop churning and the AI technicians lime light gets turned off. I personally would never ever do that, because i hate awkward, embarrasing moments, i have an anxiety phobia when i see people implode in a setting. However much more cruel "others" who dont have my type of phobia would love to pull the plug im sure. In that meeting when raw creativity vs AI technicality suddenly is laid bare For the paying client to see who has what hard wired value when the electricity gets turned off. 

So i have nothing at all against AI, its actually a fantastic tool, its really the human AI driv8ng technician i might look at disrespectful like.

I suppose in any human driven creative endeavor you have those artists who work tirelessly behind the scenes. And you have those that look to get all the accolades as a matter of principle. AI in some ways has magnified that lime light process for some. Those who want creative stroking accolades have an incredible vehicle to get the cocaine sensation of being the genius alot quicker. Perhaps the old school artists are going, but you never did that. What you presenting is generated by algorythmic collective computer process. Its not exactly your work that your presenting. Some would cry fake, phoney, some would just cry. But that would all be far to mean to make such a statement really. Especially to this new generation of creative artists AI specialists. 

What most practiced old school creative artists have learned over many years,  is to try and be humble, i say try because artist and humble can be on opposite ends of human emotion. when one has the my artwork creative output reveal. Its normally done with humble dignity, the praise heaped on an old school artist at exhibition time is done due to the obvious time and effort on display. Most artists smile and bow with dignity as they accept praise for the hard artistic creative work they have done. 

However the AI "new money" technician mostly today hasnt learnt this important part of the artistic creative process Yet. Firstly its the disrespect towards others who have spent years acquiring an artistic skill the hard way. Then its the look how very easy it is and how quick it is to be a fantastic creative artist like you hard yard workers mindset. Followed by the i am actually rather a wonderful AI artist creative. All the while the 30 year not so wealthy but hugely talented over time real old school artistic genius sits there with an incredulous bemused look. Thinking i thought i left these types behind when i worked hard to perfect my artistic skills. Only to have the AI machines thats not even attached to the athletes arm AI javelin thrower, beat them at the olympics. 

I was having a sunday lunch with a few folk the other day. And one of the participants to this relaxed afternoons proceedings At the Brassbell. Through a pizza, white wine mouthful said. Look at how very easy it is to compile a poem in AI. He then spoke into his phone, mentioning names of people we knew, their professions, what they liked, what they eat, how often they wear black. And within seconds, no whiring he read this incredible poem aligning with each input thought. That would have taken me 10 years im sure and i still would have left out the sardines in the curtains. Why did i feel so defeated? I felt why blimmen bother with my less than that incredible output AI endeavor. I felt it mocked my in the dark limited abilities.

So i got to thinking deeply, this is definetly me thinking, not the AI, i can tell its me because it lacks a certain polished refinement. 

I reckon im going to use AI to write my comic book. I got hold of wildetect 2. Who is an absolute guru with AI speaking into the darkness stuff. In minutes he sent me back graphic stuff. I got very excited. I reckon i can turn my half baked mind and use the AI machine not attached to my brain stem. And churn out Barbara Cartland type comics with a small thread of my complete madness coupled with the algorythms of this new day. 

Cant beat em, join them, i aint no purist. I want to sit in the room with no actual AI machines attached to me. Getting all that candyflos attention lime light. Im now going full AI continental cyborg. 

Oh, AI just spat out my William Frodo story, "in the beginning there was a hole in the ground, in the hole lived you can take my life, but not my FREEDOM.!!!........" oh am i in for an AI reading treat.

Well just as soon as i can get out of bed, i will start my comic, all this super highway creative AI writing and reading stuff makes me SO very tired. 

My Nado Storm character vs AI rendition below. 

 

 

Storms within a storm.

The absolute pure solice of finding a part of the Cape peninsula devoid of most humans is complete bliss. 

Sitting around a fire, having ones on your own braai, a simple thin sausage boerie roll. No utensils just the raw moment of basic needs met. When storms rage across the Cape its the surfers that are meeting the storms head on. When i surfed like a frothing grom i was all over the winter raging weather. Ready to drop like a cork into the heart of the maelstrom cauldron. Very comfortable in my abilities and equipment.

Now on the big days to observe is sufficient. Oh how times change.

The moment of age we dont always realise stalks up on us quickly. Suddenly we are gripped, vice like, in a pythons stranglehold of age & our own weaknesses, disintegrations rough grasp. It is the realisation that our abilities not carefully performed & practiced, leave us vulnerable to our passions. our passions not carefully executed leave us vulnerable within this advancing heuristic storm fronts path. 

As a surfer drops like a cork into the maelstrom of a wild raging sea. Any passion involving raw nature & honed ability needs continued practice to stay alive. 

We must simply keep practicing our raw art. This Winter wild storm that rages within a storm. We also drop like a cork into the maelstrom of this frenetic life. We keep honing our skills & rather than getting overwhelmed by the currents. We must become skilled at harnessing the energy of the ocean currents around us - a heuristic advance.

Sitting alone watching a huge heaving ocean, ostriches to the left of me, baboons to the right. Stuck in the middle with my own thoughts and challenges. Thrown like a cork into the maelstrom of life, a micro clear moment of a storm within storms, wild and free. 

Dont confuse raw creativity.

We must never ever confuse brilliant technical ability & learned craft technique, With Raw Poetically Aligned, Artistic Expression.

Its this Raw Poetically Aligned Artistic Expression that A.I. to my mind will never ever really be able to emulate. Why? i hear many saying incredulously.

Well its because the difference between a human driven thought process and AI mathematical algorithmic outcome. Its called Soul, a human has creative soul output which makes a huge difference in artistic outcome. Its the infusion of lived through life emotion that only a flesh and blood imperfect creature can express. Its the raw identifying with the artists stuggle or emotion that pulls one to the art work. I aint getting all soppy over a machines struggle.

Yes, Ai is a brilliant technical learned craft technique machine. Ai will only ever be able to copy & paste existing artistic styles & artistic ideas from the existing matrix. However Raw Poetically Aligned Artistic Expression is still only in the minds & hands of the very few raw synaptic creative thinkers. The human mind is still only where dynamic raw artistic expressive human thought really happens.

As the entire world now becomes artistic Leonardos copy craft technicians. Putting brilliant work directly from the AI machine infront of clients and the masses.

Clients now days dont know where AI copy con begins and the human creative presenting the incredible looking artistic work stops.

We must never ever confuse brilliant technical ability & learned craft technique, With Raw Poetically Aligned. Artistic Expression. We must not sell out human soul expressions for mechanically driven AI.

Manifesto of a wildetect

Wildetecture design ideals fits into the typical African artists wild ideas category,  The architectural designs  and furniture wildetecture is exploring is a style of wild African fauvistic design. A conceptual of the intensity of living on such a vibrant, energetic, at times wild continent. 

The wildetect furniture range is really immediacy towards an end product  - like drinking Oros without any water added, or biting hard sweets to get the intense flavor immediately. - architectural design is such a long creative process - with huge money constraints, client nonsense, QS piles, interior designer angst, landscape architect biliary and builders and contractors constant whining. This all endeavoring to water down ones initial design ideas to absolute dust and nothing. The end product is sadly always a chipped away collective design creative process. With many, many gritted teeth smiles whilst you calf eye the interior designer whose just axed a very important window for the blooming TV. And who endeavors to challenge the architectural style with current weekly trends from any number of glossy and web design photographic platforms. The mood boards presented never ever seem to really align with the mood of the as built end product. One of those times when real life is the dull grey bird partner to its flamboyant brightly feathered moodboard counterpart. 

So wildetecture design is a complete knee jerk reaction to this type of creative collective towards the drab dull control really. The idea with these wild furniture pieces and the bright gaudy colours is the stuffed bright red crocodile in the room approach - as wildetects we love functional art and colourful form, the idea of not taking yourself too design seriously. - yes I am aware my work can be very childlike in execution and form at times. However the concept is to create one off pieces that are not at all serious but can be very playful. 

The Charlie and Charlize chit chat chairs are a moment to sit and relax and giggle and childishly implode as we juxtapose our very serious adult lives. a childish zone if you like, discussing the bizarre merits or demerits of a crazy wildly colorful furniture piece, a type of adult den, to chill ax - because if the designers this off the wall nuts, bat-shing crazy, maybe it’s OK for me to be a little childish whilst I sit in it. Bringing in the child like mindset within the adult environment through color, form and playfulness. Well thats the idea, i know adulting is far, far more complicated than all that diatribe, that i just spewed out in a frenzied minute.  

Designers can prattle on about Africa being such an influence for them- however most just tack on a few well known paint techniques from an in the interior land and a few colorful beads. To my mind they haven't really understood the deep African age old highways and byways, the back roads and the far off living spaces deep off the beaten track. I have experienced this hospitality personally, and the kindness is incredible. You just go knock on a suburban New York homes door. 85% of the time, kindness or Tea is definetly not what they will give you. But when you rock up 20 miles from the road at a humble little abode in an african landscape, nobody speaking english even, hospitality you will receive 85% of the time. Thats a fact. So whats wild and whats not i ask you?

Most try to compare and dare i say, try to westernise Africa,  Picasso is one of the rare artists who tapped into the very heartbeat and drum beat of an African continent.  In my limited experience, having grown up in Cape Town, for me Africa is big, bold, loud in your face taxi music - BOOM BOOM BOOM. the sound comes up out the ground the beat and base is so loud. when a taxi pulls  in front and parks,  whilst you wait, its obvious to your little classical music interlude.  That type of experience for me, is a type of wild punk. (did i just make a comparison, oh tut tut)  Just visit any African city from Cape to Cairo and tell me if its all quiet classical music and afternoon tea and second breakfasts? Well second and third breakfasts definetly. 

To my limited mind Its more wild edge of your seat markets with buy anything you can imagine. A sheep head on the braai,  millions of dollars being exchanged in the open with a few AK 47 dudes holding court, it is a wild edge of your seat experience. its really exciting - not subdued and definitely not apologetic. that's why so many folk leave its shores, to head for the social quietness of a islands one bird tweet a minute suburb. 

But most do come back, oh boy, do they come back. However Not after moaning about africa to everyone in every foreign land. I feel so sorry for foreigners, the whiney moaning ex african continent dwellers can be hugely taxing. 

They come back, because the Africa pulse is in their blood. The adventure of life is even in the soil. You can only watch the grass grow for so long in quiet solitude, i think. If you wait long enough in some African suburbs, a dude with a spade turns your grass into sods, and then sells them on your own street corner, back to you, for a buck. A sort of Run away grass con, if you like, now thats a concept "watch the grass growers", might just struggle to believe. 

As wildetects we are endeavouring to tap into this very wild energy drum beat with our wildetect style of furniture design. which is not a carbon copy of  Scandinavian design ideas or an IKEA store mock room template. which i do love - however its not our interpretation of design.  Our designs are not completly Africa either. we look to Africa for our inspiration, however we interpret our own end product from the many influences around yhe world. A global village design approach really. I didnt say i was a purist, i have aluded to the fact i am completely barking mad. 

The furniture is more an experiment towards a wildetect African fauvistic design concept. I know its appeal is very limited - and that is what I enjoy the most. Once you’ve seen it however - you can’t really go back. Like leaving the African continent, one moans a lot, but they all come back eventually. It’s that in your face. But maybe you will definetly chose to just stay watching the grass grow in your own peaceful expensive lane, while listening to classical mood music. And thats ok as well. 

Tweet, pfffft ( btw pfffft is the universal way the sound of grass growing is written) but you already knew that, right. 

Wildetecture Locodonta city.

 

Wildetecture pachyderm city. 

Wildetecture Locodonta metropolis, the elephants graveyard is a vibrant livable entity concept. Time we as the custodians of all animals on earth, that we recognise our role and celebrate through architectural design our responsibility. This is a wildetects architectural vision. A huge straight line in the desert is great, however a huge architectural habitable living space pachyderm sculpture in the Kalahari , Karoo, Namib is something completely Africa inspired.

Wildetect

 

Wildetecture design

Wildetecture started as a whispered idea in 2009 and grew into a full blown inferno conversation until now. 

Now its an architectural studio that hand picks projects based on no real criteria. From houses in informal settlements to homes amongst those who dont mind the wild. Weve done alterations, libraries, aquatic centers, schools, restuarants and even redesigned sports equipment. 

The age old adage of lets see your portfolio of creative work, as it will speak volumes about your abilities, is what weve endeavored to leave behind as skeletal evidence of creative thought. The flesh as always is the current , right this second " creative thought",  the conversation, the energy behind simply trying to think outloud. The flesh is the conversation lost as always to the air. Like dinasuar bones that current scientists imagine the flesh around. Who really knows what was in that moment. 

Here is a few wildetect style African fauvistic design sketches. We are working towards another art exhibition of our work. Weve had a few exhibitions over the years. An almost embarrassed foray into the harsh world of artistic critical expression. The work being bold it wasnt about the individual. So we would set up our work and mill around incognito as the informed masses came in and ripped and tore shreds off the pieces through the critical eye process. We hoped people would understand the artistic energy. However it doesnt really work like that. People want an exact written , spoken tour synopsis aligned with every artistic piece and the exact idea. Nobody has the time or energy to work out your rubbish. The mystery distilled into a paperback moment of immediate tell me everything interpretation. I prefer the incognito, the slow growth of a portfolio. 

if our future art exhibition happens great, if not, it's an exciting imaginative synapse for an artist to continue conceptualizing. Remember, design is as design does. Creativity is linked to a portfolio of evidence, So ypu know what to do, go and create.

The incognito approach of concentrating on leaving creative work behind is better than trying to figure out the artist for me. The work is the conversation. Me, im just incognito, behind the scene watching the artistic sensitive flesh fly,  as its ripped asunder.