lylaa di wu \ southern caalifornia instittute of archhitecturee \ thessis

lylaa di wu \ southern caalifornia instittute of arch
hitecturee \ thessis reseaarch 200
09
lyla di wu \ southern california institute of architecture \ thesis research 2009
.....LOSING YOURSELF
Thesis Advisor
Content
Greg Lynn / Florencia Pita
• Thesis Statement
1
• Defining Cuteness and Grotesque
2-5
• History of Cuteness
5-10
Thesis Prep Advisor
Hernan Diaz Alonso / Benjamin Bratton / Coy Howard
Elena Manferdini/ Ilaria Mazzoleni / Ed Keller
- Literature
- Toys
- Art
- Products/media
• Friends and Enemies
-Japanese Kawaii vs Disney cuteness
-Kawaii Noir
• Technique
11-15
- Scale
- Openings / eyes
- Color
- Juxtaposition
- Quantity/Density
• Thesis Program Study and Proposal
16-17
• Thesis Site Study
18
Generic City Study
• Reference
19
Lucy is a teenage Diclonius (two-horned human) girl from the controversial manga Elfen Lied who was rejected by humans and subsequently wreaks a murderous vengeance upon them.
Lucy represents innocence, danger and love.
LUCY
Lucy lives in everybody’s desire.Lucy is cute, sexy and dangerous.
Lucy is a supermarket that sells girls, a vending machine that supplies sex toys, a weapon store in the video
arcade, a love hotel, a super bank.
Lucy is sin city with a room of love at her heart.
The Thesis deals with the invasion of pop culture in the architectural world.It is about the physical
environment that absorbs the essence of the virtual world such as manga, cartoon and video games.
Aesthetically, cuteness and grotesque are played as the opposing and synchronizing elements.
when something becomes intensely cute, it passes over that threshold and inverts itself into grotesque.
when something becomes so overly grotesque, it passes over and inverts itself into the cute.
(Hernan Diaz Alonso & Benjamin Bratton)
Since it’s about human desire and the global influence of pop culture, the site is in a generic city
where everyone could imagine living in such as an everyville.
After all, Lucy is about losing yourself.
1
On Cuteness and Grotesque
Cuteness
artificial, attractive, available, bland, boring, bowdlerized, callow,
cartoon, charming, childish, childlike, cloying, comfy, comic, consumable, cuddly, dainty, darling, dear, delicate, desirable,
adorable, amiable, animated, appealing, artless,
diminutive, dippy, easy, effeminate, embarrassed, engaging, flirtatious, foolish, free, friendly, frilly, frivolous, frolicking,
furry, fuzzy, gentle, genuine, girlish, guileless, happy, happy-go-lucky, helpless, honest, idiotic, immature, inexperienced,
infantile, ingenuous, ingratiating, innocent, innocuous, inoffensive, itsy-bitsy, juvenile, lovable, naive, non-threatening,
maudlin, miniature, mindless, mushy, natural, nostalgic, passive, pastel, pathetic, pert, petite, pink, popular,
precocious, pretty, pure, quaint, quiet, round, rotund, saccharine, sappy, saucy, sexy, shallow, shy, silly, simpatico, simple,
smiley, soft, squashable, sugary, sweet, sympathetic, syrupy, tasteless, teeny, timeless, tiny,
touching, unconscious, unironic, unsophisticated, unstructured, vapid, vulnerable, weak, winning, winsome,
sincere, small, smarmy,
waiflike, wee
Grotesque
deformed, distorted, eerie, extravagant, extreme,
fanciful, fantastic, flamboyant, freakish, grody, gross, incongruous, ludicrous, malformed, monstrous, odd,
outlandish, perverted, preposterous, queer, ridiculous, strange, surrealistic, uncanny, unnatural, weird, whimsical
ugly, misshapen, aberrant, abnormal, absurd, antic, bizarre,
2
some thoughts on cuteness
What is cute? Cute by the book derives etymologically from ‘acute,’ and its establishing usage dates to circa 1731. From this root comes cute’s first meaning, as
clever or underhandedly shrewd, and its second, as impudent or smart-alecky ”Don’t get cute.” The standard connotation of dainty or delicate prettiness then
leads to what might be termed mannerist cute,the cutsey, which (like the folksy) is defined by its excessive or self-conscious appeal to the unembarrassed core
quality.
Cute might be thought of as a watered-down version of pretty; which is a watered-down version of beautiful; which is a watered-down version of sublime; which
is a watered-down version of terrifying. In this regard, the cute is akin to the ridiculous, which is a watered-down version of the absurd, which is again a watered-down version of that which terrifies. By extension, this suggests that all representation, what-ever its stylistic bent, is tinged with an expe-rience of terror:
the terror of the convincingly ersatz, the killing disjuncture of the other-ized, the pseudo-real.
--- Fifteen Theses on The Cute , Frances Richard
when something becomes intensely cute, it passes over that threshold and inverts itself into grotesque.
when something becomes so overly grotesque, it passes over and inverts itself into the cute.
--- Hernan Diaz Alonso & Benjamin Bratton
In Fifteen Theses on the Cute, cuteness and terror are not just two opposing extreme of aesthetics but almost two co-existing elements. In another word, Cute
does have certain terrifying and surreal quality while cuteness is becoming an artistic vehicle for dark and complex emotion. Here i would call it evil-cute.
When cuteness lies between the childhood memory and adult life.....
Cuteness inevitablly is associated with children or baby therefore childhood memory is an important
element for this discussion. As children , we are so small that the world seems infinitely large and full
of unknown. That’s a world of fairytaile, fantasy, toys,superheroes, cartoon and manga. Launched by
artists Yoshitomo Nara and Takashi Murakami, an international movement of evil-cute has been influencing the art world.
In Yoshitomo Nara’s works, viewing a little girl smoking evokes a twisted vision of cute. This is the combination of the childhood memory and adult behavior. This brings us back to the very first definition of
cuteness which is shrewd, misbehave.
3
Yoshitomo Nara, too young to die
when it comes to human desire...
The sexy- or porn-cute obviously constitutes a whole genre sui generis, characterized by the Playboy bunny, the chick, the arm-candy, the hey-baby. Boy-cute geared toward both females and males
tends to cutesify adult or macho animal imagery ªTiger Beat, beefcake rather than indulging ostentatiously infantile girl-cute models. As a term for “sexually desirable,” cute marks a middle path: where
“hot” and “innocent” might both be overwhelming (for different reasons), cute is available, plausible,
manageable. One respondent queried about the meaning of cute insisted that males of her acquaintance identified sexually appealing women as cute only when they were also intelligent a reversion,
conscious or not, to the word’s eighteenth-century origin in mental acumen, if not subterfuge.
--- Fifteen Theses on The Cute , Frances Richard
In Takashi Murakami’s work, sexual fetishism is one important motif that goes side by side with
cuteness. In fact, in a lot of Japanese or western culture, cute is associated with sex and “sinful”
activities. Cuteness is used as a tool for bringing internal psychic machinations out into the open.
Hello Kitty room is the most popular room in some Japanese love hotels.
Hello Kitty room, Japanese Love Hotel
what’s the ultimate human desire? I directed this question to everyone I know.
The answer varies. We desire all the forbidden, unknown, and exciting things, sex, violence, money, power, indulgence and love. While the world of hardcore moralisation collapses, we want to be entertained.
We already have Disney land and Las Vegas but Lucy is a different gene. It’s like manga, it’s fantasy in
real world and our daily life.
Lucy is the celebration of human desire.
Takashi Murakami, My lonesome Cowboy
4
History of Cuteness
History of cuteness
Konrad Lorenz
Konrad Lorenz argued in 1949 that infantile features
triggered nurturing responses in adults and that this was
an evolutionary adaptation which helped ensure that
adults cared for their children, ultimately securing the
survival of the species.
a
b
As evidence, Lorenz noted that humans react more
positively to animals that resemble infants
-with big eyes, big heads, shortened noses etc, than to
animals that do not.
Cuteness is usually characterized by (though not limited
c
to) some combination of infant-like physical traits,
especially small body size with a disproportionately large
head, large eyes, a pleasantly fair, though not necessarily
small nose, dimples, and round and softer body features.
Infantile personality traits, such as playfulness, fragility,
helplessness, curiosity, innocence, affectionate behavior
and a need to be nurtured are also generally considered
cute.
a. Knut, a young polar bear at the Berlin Zoo, has
been referred to in news media as “cute”.
b. Panda, the global simbol of cuteness.
c. Change of head proportions (especially the
relative size of the maxilla and mandible) as a function
of age.
d
d.
Cuteness = Baby-like
5
Literature
Fairytales
A fairy tale is a fictional story that
may feature folkloric characters such
as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, talking animals,
and usually enchantments, often involving a far-fetched
sequence of events.
-Happy ending
-Lack of sexual reference, violence
a
-Simple plot
b
-Lack of historical /religious references
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural
forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting.
Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction
and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of
technological and macabre themes.
c
Science Fiction
Sci-fi is a broad genre of fiction that often involves
speculations based on current or future science or
technology.
a. John Bauer’s illustration of trolls and a princess
from a collection of Swedish fairy tales.
b. Mermaid Syndrom (2006).
c. E.T , the first cute alien in the Sci-fi movie history
d. Typical Hollywood Alien from Sci-fi Movies
6
d
a. Dunny is an action figure made of soft, smooth vinyl. Dunny was created to be customized
in a broad variety of styles by diverse artists working in different mediums.
b. Ugly doll
c. Book cover “Plastic culture”
d. Furby
g. The Precious time
e. Elmo
h. Shirley Temple
f. Hello Kitty
A toy is an object used in play. Toys are usually
associated with children and pets, but it is not
unusual for adult humans and some non-domesticated
animals to play with toys. Naturally toys are designed
to be cute.
Cuteness as Marketing Strategy
a
b
c
d
f
Stephen Jay Gould remarked on this phenomenon in
an article for the journal Natural History, in which
he pointed out that over time Mickey Mouse had
been drawn more and more to resemble an infant—
with a bigger head, bigger eyes, and so forth. Gould
suggested that this change in Mickey’s image was
intended to increase his popularity by making him
appear cuter.
e
g
Cuteness is a major marketing tool in many cultures,
such as that of Japan, with phenomena such as
Pokémon or Hello Kitty. It is also an important selling
point in the English-speaking world, where Elmo,
Furby, Precious Moments, and many other cultural
icons and products trade on their cuteness. It can
be a factor in live action productions such as movies
starring Shirley Temple, the Honey, I Shrunk The
Kids trilogy, the Three Men and a Baby duology, and
elements of One Good Cop, as well the successful
documentary film March of the Penguins, where the
noteworthy cuteness of the penguins was cited as a
major reason for the film’s outstanding appeal.
h
7
Japanese Toys
• Before WWII: Toys produced in Japan were
simple and poor quality (recycled tin materials).
Germany was the biggest toy producer.
• War period: US leading toy producer
• After War: Japan quickly began to perfect their
designs to compete against others. They added
unique actions, tin lithography and battery power
to their creations.
• 1950´s: Japan won the toy war and emerged as
the worlds number one manufacturer, eclipsing
the US and Germany.
For Japanese, toys are not not really for children but
more for adults. A lot of artists make sinister toys or
designer toys that mixes cute element with dash of
darkness.
a
b
kawaii usually refers to things adorably diminutive,
it can be used more broadly to define anything that
draws out an empathetic response. It is a taste for
elements of childhood incorporated into adult life.
---Ivan Vartanian “intoduction for Drop Dead Cute”
a. Hideshi Hino
b. Junko Mizuno
c. Kazuo Umezu
d. Nara
8
c
d
Art - Surrealism
By breaking free of the desire to replicate the real
world as an exact artform, surrealism stretched the
boundaries of our imagination.
Surrealist works feature the element of surprise,
unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur.
Collage is a very important technique in surrealist art.
a
a. Salvador Dalí ,Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the
New Man
b. Autumn, 1573 by Giuseppe Arcimboldo
c. Mark Ryden, the birth
b
c
9
Art - Pop Art
Pop art is a visual art movement that emerged in the
mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United
States.[1] Pop art challenged tradition by asserting
that an artist’s use of the mass-produced visual
commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the
perspective of Fine Art. Pop removes the material from
its context and isolates the object, or combines it with
other objects, for contemplation. The concept of pop art
refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes
that led to it.
Pop art, aimed to employ images of popular as opposed
to elitist culture in art, emphasizing the banal or kitschy
elements of any given culture, most often through the
use of irony.
a
b
c
a. Roy Lichtenstein, Girl With Ribbon in Her Hair
b. Richard Hamilton. Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So
Appealing? (1956) is one of the earliest works to be considered “pop art”
c. Yayoi Kusama “Pumpkin” at Naoshima, Kagawa prefecture, Japan
d. Andy Warhol’s Mickey Mouse
10
d
Friends and Enemies
Friend: Japan Kawaii
Cute, Pretty, Charming, Delightful, Lovely
Kawaii culture celebrates sweet, adorable, innocent,
pure, simple, genuine, gentle, vulnerable, weak, and
inexperienced physical appearances.
Kawaii Noir is a variation that describes things that
are cute but have a slightly sinister quality to them. In
other words, it is Japanese influence in the mixture of
creepy and cute. We can find this wierd but charming
trend in many art works and products, which often
portray females as pouting and helpless creatures.
Modern society embraces an increasing number of
people who have no sense of belonging to any party
or organization but instead are oriented towards non
affiliation, escape from controlled society, and youth
culture. Kwaii Noir represents theses people and
their fear to grow up. They deliberately affect a pitiful
cuteness. Instead of growth, maturity and becoming an
adult, Kwaii Noir often acts childlike while having dark
inside of being an adult.
a
a. Elfen Lied.
b. Winny the Pooh
Enemy: Disney Cute
Disney cute was based more on a sentimental journey
back into an idealised rural society populated with
happy little animals and rural characters taken from
folk stories.
11
b
Friend
Hello Kitty with Claws and Blood:
Gloomy Bear by Mori Chack
People may regard Gloomy Bear as Hello Kitty with
claws. Gloomy Bear is the creation of a young Japanese
illustrator named Mori Chack, who was born in Osaka.
Gloomy, a cute little abandoned bear, is rescued and
taken home by a little boy called Pitty. Even though his
mother doesn’t let his son have a pet bear, Pitty decides
to raise Gloomy and loves him so much. At first, he is
cute and cuddly, but becomes more wild as he grows up.
Pitty soon comes to realize the hard way that Gloomy,
although cute and innocent as a cub, is in fact a wild
and dangerous animal with a built in instinctive that
Pity cannot control. Since bears do not become attached
to people like dogs by nature, Gloomy attacks Pitty even
though he is the owner.
a
Friend
The French artist Miss Van started wall-painting in the
streets at the age of 18, in the early 1990’s. With her
frescos and paintings, she established an innovative
concept, creating a variant to the mainly male street art
universe. As Miss Van herself - girl and not yet women,
full of ambiguity - the characters evolve in an imaginary
universe full of colors, erotism and voluptuousness.
b
a. gloomy bear
b. miss van
12
Friend: Junko Mizuno
Junko Mizuno cites legendary manga artists Osamu
Tezuka and Leiji Masumoto as influences, as well as
Japanese horror artists like Hideshi Hino and Kazuo
Umezu.. Her ‘fairytale horror’ trilogy (Cinderella,
Hansel & Gretel, Princess Mermaid) really broke new
ground. The combination of childhood story and
Mizuno’s killer designs was perfectly matched. There’s
a strong British connection with Junko’s work. She
was greatly influenced by the British artist, Aubrey
Beardsley [4] who is also known for ‘dark,’ ‘grotesque’
a. Junko Mizuno , my
sweet octopus
b. Takashi Murakami,
Oval Buddha, 2007
c. Murakami’s Tan Tan
Bo Puking, a.k.a. Gero
Tan (2002)
and ‘perverse’ illustrations.
Friend: Takashi Murakami
Inspired primarily by anime and manga, Murakami’s
paintings and sculptures feature bright, candy-colored
images of cartoon-like characters, with large eyes and
exaggerated body parts. His works are often decorated
with smiling flowers, round, blinking eyes, and colorful
mushrooms. Murakami’s creations defy traditional
classifications, breaking down numerous barriers. He
blurs the line between so-called high art (the kinds of
works normally seen in museums and galleries) and
low art (like that seen in cartoons or advertisements).
Some of his works are extremely high-priced creations
intended for a gallery or art collectors, but he also
mass-produces merchandise, such as mugs, keychains,
and T-shirts, featuring the characters he has created.
Murakami is often classified as a pop artist. Pop artists
are inspired by popular culture, choosing subjects from
such sources as cartoons, billboard advertisements,
and consumer goods. Many people have applauded
Murakami’s adventurous approach, particularly his
ability to bridge the worlds of high and low art and to
create works that appeal to a broader audience than
most fine art.
13
a
b
c
Enemy
Future Systems
a
b
Friend
a. Future Systems, NATIONAL
LIBRARY PRAGUE 2007
b. Future Systems, Blob 1985
c. Thermal power plant by
Hundertwasser, Vienna,
d. Friedensteich Hundertwasser
e. Will Alsop ’s master plan for the
city center of Bradford, England.
f. Will alsop, Institute of Cell and
Molecular Science at Barts and The
London, Queen Mary’s School of
Medicine and Dentistry
c
Friedensteich Hundertwasser
d
Friend / Enemy
Will Alsop
e
f
14
Enemy
FAT
a
Friend
Peter Cook
b
a. FAT, the villa
b. Peter Cook, Graz Art Museum
c. Greg Lynn, Toy Furniture
d. Greg Lynn, Blob Wall
Friend
d
Greg Lynn
15
c
Technique
Opening/eyes
Eyes are often used to convey emotions. By twisting
the effects of this element, cute can begin to become
grotesque and vice versa
b
a
c
d
a. Friedensteich Hundertwasser
b. rose window
c. John Hedjud, wall house
d. Mark Ryden
e. Manga eyes
f. Yoshitomo Nara
16
e
f
Scale
Objects can sometimes be cute or grotesque
depending on the manipulation of scale, in relation to
the observer.
a
Children like dolls because they see them as their
baby. When a barbie doll is 2 meters tall, it’s no longer
considered cute but rather grotesque.
It’s also related to the detail level of the object. if it’s
a giant bunny, it’s still kind of cute because the detail
level doesn’t change when it’s scaled up. However,
some objects reveals a lot more details when its scale
increases, just like “ the girl from Paris”.
Cuteness is minimal, grotesque is maximum.
b
a. Mark Ryden
b. Damien Hurst, Diamond Skull
c. The girl from Paris
d. Damien Hurst, Butterfly.
collage of thousands of butterflies
to form a rosewindow
c
d
17
Color/Blood
Blood and innocence are sometimes portrayed in
the same image, arousing a sense of discomfort and
tension
a
b
a. Takashi Murakami
b. Mark Ryden
c. Hideshi Hino
d. HR Giger
18
c
c
d
d
a. Takashi Murakami
b. Takashi Murakami
c. lyla, xlab studio project
d. lyla, xlab studio project
Quantity / Density
When there is an excess in quantity of certain
elements, feelings of grotesque can be experienced.
Density is sometimes used as a tool to mask either
cute or grotesque elements as the opposite
a
b
c
d
19
a
Cute elements used to terrify
Using elements from one end of the spectrum of
cuteness to create emotions associated with the other
extreme end creates intriguing energies within.
a. unknown online image
b. Hideshi HIno, designer toy
c. Hideshi Hino
20
b
c
Program
LUCY Is a Sin city with daily normality:
Supermarket/Brothel
Bank/love hotel
Vending machine arcade/ Sex shops
Gun shops/Video game arcade
X-rated movie theatre/parking garage
21
ROOM OF LOVE
Love is the eternal theme for all art form. Lucy
is the A contrasting space that attempt to
provide the ultimate desire of human - love.
After feeding the human desires with excessive
color and ornament and sensual activities, a
pure/minimal space is place to symbolize the
notion of love.
a
In terms of program, the room of love can be
just waiting area or transitional spaces.
a. Ernesto Neto
b. SAANA
b
22
Site
Downtown Los Angeles
Generic Urban Site
a
Lucy belongs to the modern and globle
lifestyle.Theoretically, it can fit into any
megacity, Tokyo or New York, Fritz Lang’s
Matropolis or Batman’s Gotham City, fictional
or real. Because Lucy lives in everyone’s desire.
b
To amplify the globle influence of Pop culture
,a generic city is chosen.
Surrounded by a mix of historial ruin, a public
park and modern high-rise buildings, the site is
located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles.
a. Matropolis, Friz Lang
b. Batman Returns
23
Reference
Konrad Lorenz. Part and Parcel in Animal and Human
Societies, in Studies in animal and human behavior,
vol. 2. pp. 115-195. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1971
(originally pub. 1950).
Miss Van http://www.missvan.com/
Natalie Angier. The Cute Factor. The New York Times,
2006-01-03
Murakami Takash http://english.kaikaikiki.co.jp/
Ilya Garger. Hello Kitty: One Nation Under Cute. Psychology Today, Mar/Apr 2007.
Love Hotels photography by Misty Keasler
Fifteen Theses on The Cute by Frances Richard
Belson and Bremner. Hello Kitty : the remarkable story
of Sanrio and the billion dollar feline phenomenon. Singapore ; Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley & Sons (Asia), 2004
Cuteness in Japanese culture http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Kawaii
Glenn Barr http://www.glbarr.com/
Mizuno Junko http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~mjdotcom/
Glenn Barr http://www.glbarr.com/
Ivan Vartanian, Drop Dead Cute/ the new generation of
women artists in Japan, Chronicle books
My Reality: Contemporary Art and Culture of Japanese
Animation. Des Moines, Iowa : Des Moines Art Center
; New York New York Independent Curators International, c2001
Yoshimoto Nara http://www.artnet.com/artist/12394/
yoshitomo-nara.html