Sunday 10 February 2008

A Busy Weekend

C and I had a particularly busy weekend, trying to squeeze in all of the regular weekend stuff in between dog-sitting, attending our first caucus, and checking out the SANAA lecture...
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The caucus was actually pretty exciting. The news was saying that we'd need to get to the caucus locations several hours early, as they were expecting some serious lines. However, when C and I got there about 2 hours early, there was no way to get in. We checked back about an hour early and were recruited to do some volunteer work. Because we live near the University, the expectation was that there would be a great deal of students trying to newly register or change their address. And boy were they right. We must have helped 500 people register for only 5 precincts. After everyone was registered, we proceeded inside to make our selections. Due to the college demographic, the caucus ended up being more of an Obama rally than a caucus. Still, it was interesting to hear debaters on both sides make their points. And surprisingly, some people actually did change their selections after the discussions.
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After the caucus, I was able to attend the lecture by Kazuyo Sejima where she presented some of the projects that are currently being shown at the Henry. I haven't yet visited the show, but will report back once I do. The lecture itself was moderately interesting. I had heard Sejima speak before and I was prepared for her struggles with English. Indeed, she did struggle a bit, but not nearly as much as I remembered. Mostly, she provided some simple yet clear explanations of several built and unbuilt designs. Personally, I've always thought of SANAA's work as program driven, so it was quite interesting to hear about some of the environmental and structural solutions that they worked out. I'll wait to pass further judgement on the projects until I check out the exhibition...
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