I had the privilege of seeing Anish Kapoor's work again today at the Gladstone Gallery in Chelsea.

I was swept away by "Here for Alba," a convex shape a little reminiscent of a Richard Serra except in fiberglass. Entering into the shape, you are surrounded by a curved, reflective fiberglass surface (see above). The result, as at some of the best works I saw at Haus der Kunst in January, confounds your ability to focus, undoing your sense of vision completely. Again, as in my previous post on the his work, Kapoor intrigues me because of his ability to directly effect bodily reality. I highly recommend the show, now at both the 24th and 21st street Gladstone Galleries (I have not seen the latter).   

I'm rereading Bruno Latour's We Have Never been Modern. It's time to reload my ammunition and this is part of that job, apologies to everything else that isn't getting done. What's striking me right now about this seventeen-year-old book is that it's predicated on an argument against the modern sense of distinction between spheres. In the intervening period, it seems to me (please feel free to shoot me down …better now than later), the postmodern process of "blurring boundaries" has been made obsolete by a thorough loss of distinction in society and culture. The Enlightenment project of modernity, it seems to me, is increasingly something that our generation cannot even conceive of. 

From Reporters Without Borders, a map of the Internet's Black Holes, the states that block or censor the Web.

From Eric Kahn of COA comes a photograph of an old car I used to own, a 1983 Saab 900 with a hood that had spiderwebbed under the California sun. After five years, I sold the car to James Lowder, who was then a SCI_Arc student and is now teaching in the architecture program at the University of Buffalo. 

Hot off the presses, my new article "The Architecture of Hertzian Space" has just appeared in issue 2008:5 of A+U. It's my first time in A+U and I am absolutely delighted that it's the lead article. 

Above, Osman and Omar Khan's fantastic project "Fruits of Our Labor," which I discuss in the article.

The New York Times reports on a McKinsey & Co report that the greenhouse gases emitted to power data centers are becoming a major source of global warming. By 2020, McKinsey suggests, data centers will surpass the airline industry in that respect. 

Meanwhile, scientist James Lovelock, the inventor of the Gaia hypothesis, suggests that ethical consumerism and current green industry practices will do nothing to delay the inevitable world-changing climate and that this will occur by 2020 if we're lucky. 

And so, the real may yet be surpassed by the virtual, only not in the way that we always thought...

Over at Underworldlive.com, a beautiful photographic essay by Rick Smith on on the Neumann VMS 80 cutting lathe used to master their recent studio album Oblivion with Bells. How can they blow my mind as musicians and as designers?  

A higher resolution version is available for anyone who joins as a member (free).

It's a rainy day in the city, washing the streets. 

I am thinking of two statements, familiar to many of you and both important for me in the last week.

Archigram, from Living Arts Magazine,

"When it is raining in Oxford Street the architecture is no more important than the rain…" 

and 

Hegel, from the Philosophy of Right.

"One more word about giving instruction as to what the world ought to be. Philosophy in any case always comes on the scene too late to give it... When philosophy paints its gray in gray, then has a shape of life grown old. By philosophy's gray in gray it cannot be rejuvenated but only understood. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk."

Climbed out of the sky today after two days of seeing old friends up to great things. Completely excited and looking forward to new projects.

More as this develops.

In a great post over at a456, Enrique Ramirez extends the conversation that we began here. I have a comment in the queue, so you may want to check back at that URL later. Note also the comment from Enrique in the thread in that conversation as well as David Barrie's response to yesterday's question.

I feel bad that sometimes stuff gets stuck in the comments queue. There's no excuse for it. I really really appreciate all the comments. It's lonely here and they're a big part of why I do this.