4/2/2021 0 Comments Eglise-ism:As we grow up, it is natural that we occasionally recall the things that have had a profound impact on our development as a human. These impacts can take the shape of a multiplicity of things, from the behaviours and temperaments of our parents and peers, to singular occurrences or experiences that we have had, to even the way our environment takes shape around us. In fact, there is one thing that I specifically remember among many memories from my childhood, and that is the chime that rings every hour in a British home. Peculiar as it may sound. It is something that instilled a sense of “passage of time” within my household. It was not until many years later, when I went to Britain that I understood that this is a Christian European cultural phenomenon. Similarly, The Church of England and its foreign counterparts have had tremendous effects on the structure of land use in their respective nations. In fact, according to the Parliament of the United Kingdom: “Historically, cities were settlements with a cathedral… A cathedral is not a requirement for city status to be conferred, though Birmingham was the first town without a cathedral to become a city, in 1889.” The influence that the Church had on its nation and the distribution her population is undoubtedly very strong. There is no location within the London Postal Area from which one cannot hear the distant sound of church bells (although contemporarily there has been some resistance due to the constant noise). Church Bell ringing is not just important from a historical perspective. In an article published by Murray Parker and Dirk H.R. Spennemann in 2020, evidence of the exact spiritual impacts can be found. In the article, 557 Christians of varying denominations were surveyed on their opinions about bell ringing, and the following table shows the “Changes in attitude towards church bell-ringing activity (in%)”: This is an excellent illustration of architectural phenomenology at work. When people first clustered into communities it was undoubtedly for pragmatic reasons such as protection and food distribution, but as those communities began to grow the impact of the built environment grew with it. The built environment including its soundscape. If I describe a scene with the honking horns of cars, and sirens echoing from blocks away, you may picture the alluring cities of New York or Chicago. In many other cities, however, such as London, Paris, or even my current stomping grounds, Montreal, most people live within close vicinity to a place of worship. In fact, Montreal holds the name "la ville aux cent clochier" which translates to "The town of one hundred bell-towers"- and honestly sometimes this doesn't even seem hyperbolic. Alright, enough talking about bell ringing. I would like to conclude this blog by leaving you with a couple images of the beautiful churches that can be found around Montreal. Hopefully from this we can all recognize the role that churches (and quite frankly all places of worship) play within a community. Next time you are in the Montreal area I would recommend seeing them in person. P.S. The following images are all taken by me. CATHÉDRALE MARIE-REINE-DU-MONDE ET SAINT-JACQUES (1894) Third largest church in Quebec. http://microsites.diocesemontreal.org/microsites/cathedralecatholiquedemontreal/ BASILIQUE NOTRE-DAME DE MONTREAL (1830) First Gothic Revival style church in Canada. https://www.basiliquenotredame.ca/en/ CHAPELLE NOTRE-DAME-DE-BON-SECOURS (1773) The building construction actually began in the 1650s, but due to fires and really slow hammering, the building first opened its doors to worshippers in the 1770s. http://www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiches/fiche_bat.php?sec=e&num=2 NOTRE-DAME-DE-LOURDES (1930) There does not seem to be much historically noteworthy information available about this church, but from the street it looks like a goliath. It towers magnificently above surrounding buildings. https://diocesemontreal.org/fr/vie-communautaire/eglises-paroisses/dame-lourdes Thank you for reading.
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3/14/2021 0 Comments 5 Tips for Young CreativesI hope you are well during these unprecedented times, dear reader. I must say, this past year or so has been a very interesting journey for me. At the end of February last year, I decided to go backpacking in Western Europe. Unfortunately for I and my friend David, who decided to accompany me for the second leg of the trip, the massively unprecedented worldwide pandemic, COVID-19, was spreading rapidly across Europe. Narrowly avoiding the risk of catching the virus in Europe, we arrived back in Canada in March, and from there, I find myself starting a new job in Montreal less than 30 days later. Furthermore, less than 90 days from that point I would become a citizen of Montreal. 600km from my hometown. All this to say, if anybody understands the implications of having a turbulent lifestyle due to COVID-19, it’s me. So, my fellow creatives here are 5 tips that I have come to understand to be very poignant in maintaining a healthy creative flow: 1. Keep a dedicated sketchbook A sketchbook of any size can be beneficial to individuals who like to share ideas through drawing or even writing. I guess in a formalist sense it sort of feels liberating to use big, blank, beige sheets to write my poems, allowing the text to dance on the page with the images I’ve conjured up. When you do this you immediately start to feel inspired by your work, "maybe this could be my next piece" you wonder. 2. Deliberate planning Do not be conservative with your usage of an agenda. Schedule everything from research, to brainstorming. This will allow you to visualize your commitments and understand how, sequentially, each task is linked and interdependent. The key word here is deliberate- Be sure that what you're scheduling will be productive time during which you can give your full attention. 3. Take risks Mistakes are blessings. They are the primary way we learn, so if you care at all about becoming a master of your craft, you must cherish mistakes and maintain a solution-oriented mindset. Mistakes are an indication that you are progressing. For instance, all throughout my time in Architecture School, I would try think outside the box. Any assignment in which we explored design concepts were another avenue for me to push my limits creatively. It is easy to doubt yourself when you hold this mindset- when you allow your creativity to blossom like so while the majority of your peers seem to be aiming to make the most polished box with a door. So my advice here is hold fast to your dreams and do not allow your curiosity and creativity to falter based on peer pressure. Take risks because mistakes are progress. 4. Make starting work convenient Often, we can get into a cycle of ignoring what needs to be done. It is easy to say: “well I’m going to need an hour to complete task A, and that requires X Y Z” These excuses are all too common and allow us to create a false perception of what needs to be done. Subsequently, all the time feels like the wrong time to get started. I saw an amazing quotation once, it read something like: “Although it may take 30 minutes to finish a given task, it takes 30 seconds to start it”. This is true, and often the hardest part of the entire process is that 30 seconds. So make it one task on your new to-do list from tip #2 to organize your tasks and make it intuitive to start. 5. Trust the Process As a creative it is extremely important to take things in stride. It is imperative that we understand that accolades and successes manifest themselves in very interesting ways. Your path through this journey we call life is less of a straight line, rather it is full of curves, dips, straightaways, as well as plenty of back-tracking. So be sure to enjoy the journey because life can be tough sometimes, but the toughness is what facilitates the good times- they both exist in equilibrium, so value them as such. As young creatives it is an absolute imperative that we begin to understand how our brain works. Once we understand this, we can begin to tailor our workspace and workflow to allow our creativity to blossom. Whether you are a visual artist, a poet, or a break dancer, understanding the way you think and learn can allow you to reach new limits. This is especially so during these times in which many of us have a surplus of time to develop our craft. Building a creative routine is all about deliberation, being deliberate in your mentality, how you schedule your time, and what tools you use will help you become the best you can be. The goal is to make the easiest possible route the one through which you challenge yourself- and the only way to get to this place is just to get started.
~Leave a comment below, I would love to know what other things you guys do to achieve success!~ Montreal is the largest French-speaking city in North America and the 4th largest in the world. It was established as the result of Anglo-Franco- colonization of the mountainous islands found at the mouth of the Canadian St. Lawrence River. The Nouvelle-Francesque architecture present in the city of Montreal, as a result of its heritage, makes it perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing Canadian city during all four seasons of the year. So Montrealers live amongst some of the most impressive historical architecture present in Canada, and tens of millions of dollars are spent every year within the city to upgrade and maintain buildings, and infrastructure; however, we still allow the mysterious night misfits to transform our city with their terrible wall tagging and illegal street art. This may come across as an oversimplification, but isn’t vandalism just so 20th century? It is such a crude way to deface a space, and often it does not even say anything profound. In fact, more times than not, vandalism does not even take the shape of shitty, amateur street art- it is often literally just large letters or symbols written on a wall, meant to stick it to the man. Meanwhile, the only people they’re really sticking it to are the owners of those private properties. To make things worse, this is a somewhat silent crime. This is the type of crime that is carried out during the night when the streets are quiet and the neighbourhood watch is asleep. Furthermore, this isn't something can simply be solved with CCTV in every corner of the city- that would be far too big and far to costly of a project for a small amount of ne'er-do-wells.
At this point you may be asking: "well what do we do? How do we stop vandalizers from vandalizing?" The solution is fairly complex in practice; however, conceptually it is very simple: take their attention from destructive, illegal habits, and redirect it into community building efforts. Similar to how computer hackers are influenced to change their ways from exploiting CS architecture, into working with network security organizations, vandalizers can undergo the same process. As for those that vandalize because they truly wish to explore their artistry, they can be retrained into professional graffiti artists. For those just looking for acceptance, they can be accepted into volunteer groups of some sort, feel comradery while building up the community rather than taking part in something that can potentially lead them down a path of crime. To summarize what has been illustrated, in a city as beautiful and historical as Montreal, we should take more pride in our built environment. Petty crimes such as vandalism are essentially indicative of a large number of bored misfits: not necessarily people who should be sent to jail; rather individuals who should ideally be reintegrated into the mindset of building societies, rather than tearing them down. |
This site is updated as my Poetic Collection grows.Since that's not the most common occurrence. I figure I should populate this page with interesting thoughts I've been having recently in a sort of blog / journal. ArchivesCategories |