Future by Design

Documentary filmmaker, Emmy Award winning, and Academy Award nominated director William Gazecki has made this homage to Jacque Fresco, self taught architect, engineer, inventor and futurist.

About six months ago I ordered my DVD of the independent film, Future by Design. This weekend I finally got around to watching it.

The film is made from a montage of footage- a contemporary interview with Jacque, Jacque in a 1974 interview with then local Miami talk show host Larry King, a geriatric tour group walking the compound of Jacque’s Venus Project, and a combination of computer rendered and stop action modeled footage of his urban planning proposals, and other architectural concepts.

The renders, drawings and especially the models are of greatest interest. Through these one can see the incredible investment in time and thought Jacque has put into his grand design. The heartfelt craftsmanship of the true believer.

The future is not what it use to be.

The problem with most visions of the future is that they usually tell us more about the era that they came from, than they do about what will follow.

More so than any real or likely future, this story tells us of a future that exists only in the mind of Jacque Fresco. Jacque is a Utopianist. Though he doesn’t see it, his vision of the future is a uniquely mid-century Western future. A utopian vision of a centrally planned, state run society. Though I’m glad not to live in Jacque’s vision for the future, I do find it just as fascinating as it is improbable.

My grumble with most who drink from this futurist fountain is the shortsightedness of envisioning a future that has no past. Let’s discount for a moment that there would be no jobs for architects or designers in Jacque’s future, because he’s already designed it all, there are also no designers or architects in Jacque’s past, because his future vision exists within a metaphorical bubble (and sometimes within a literal one).

Any real future exists as a layer on top of both the recent and distant past, and they must coexist. On a trip to modern day Rome you will find contemporary modern architecture built near post war monuments, beside Rococo structures adjacent to their Baroque forebears, surrounded by Renaissance masterpieces, built among the ruins of Roman temples. The evolution of human civilization is embodied in the architectural edifices that we live among, and build upon, both literally and figuratively. In fact, here in New York and elsewhere in high density urban areas, developers and conservationist have recently found common ground— rather than demolition before new construction, new buildings are being built above and around existing older structures. The trend has become so fashionable in New York, that this new form of reuse is sometime employed as an aesthetic unto itself, even when conservation doesn’t call for it.

Jacque Fresco, eccentric enough to be endearing, has made a living out of doing his own thing and pursuing his passions. Anyone who has so uncompromisingly followed their own vision should be respected, admired and even celebrated. The movie might not convince you of Jacque’s vision of the future, and to Gazecki’s credit I don’t think that was the movie’s intention, but it does let you step inside the mind of Fresco, and see one possible world through his mind’s eye. Until somebody builds a Venus Project based metaverse, this film will be the closest we’ll ever get to seeing the world of Jacque’s vision. It is a film worth watching, and William Gazecki should be thanked for documenting the life and ideas of this unique individual.

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR:

Hi Chris-

I just wanted to compliment and thank you for your thoughtful commentary on “Future by Design”.

You’re one of the very few people who “got it right” as to how and why the film was made, and what value it is meant to impart.

We’re having a pretty good time getting it out there- kids seem to appreciate it the most. I had one schoolteacher tell me it was “the first positive outlook on the future some of these kids have ever had”, which was nice to hear. No, Jacque’s vision of the world as he would like it to be is not likely to occur- but at least he tried, and in the process came up with some useful ideas. He’s learned a lot, too- mostly about human behavior, and how much it can change.

Thanks again,
William Gazecki

Sergio Prego Exhibit

I’ve been meaning to make it over to Lehmann Maupin to see the current Sergio Prego exhibit for weeks. In fact, it’s been running for so long, that I didn’t bother posting it, because I thought it was too late to bother. Now I will promote it in it’s closing week! Go figure.

The exhibit includes both kinetic sculpture, and two video pieces, one said to be inspired by the car ride sequence from Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 cult classic Solyaris.

The Lehmann Maupin Gallery is located at 540 West 26th Street. They are open to the public Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm. The Sergio Prego exhibit runs through February 10th.

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REVIEW: On Feb. 3rd, my friend James and I caught several exhibits in the West Chelsea gallery district, including this Sergio Prego exhibit. Tragically, the kinetic sculpture, “Sunoise,” had technical difficulties that left it unable to… perform (eh-hem). In its stationary position, it looked like, well, a cross between an outrageously oversized sleek designer tasklap, and some sort of factory assembly robot. What a shame. We were told that it had performed fabulously for many continuous weeks, but about two weeks before our visit it broke down due to a technical malfunction. We asked if we’d be able to see it in full form at a later date, but were informed by museum staff that it would remain out of commission for the duration of the exhibit. There was a second piece in the front room— a large stainless steel wall errected on a sort of stylized scaffolding. Like a badly keyed DeLorean, it had a major gash running the length of the wall, that finally pierced the metal sheet, just a few inches from the edge. While somewhat visually intriguing, this piece stood up less on it’s own merits (actually it was assisted by sand bags), and performed more as a set-piece or backdrop for “Sunoise,” the mechanical arm.

This left the second room with the two videos. The Tarkovsky inspired “10 to 0 Degrees,” though interesting, did not live up to its antecessor. However, shown on the adjacent wall, it played a good wing-man to the more inspired “Black Monday”. By staging an explosion in a large open studio within a ring of synchronized cameras, Prego achieved an effect similar in its essence to digital photogrammetry, though accomplished by more mechanical methods. Various stages of the blast and subsequent plume were captured at fixed moments in time, through a full 360° rotation. Unlike a movie special effect where we’re invited to suspend disbelief, Prego left the methodology naked for the viewer to see— At any point in the film one can observe the cameras on their tripods on the opposite side of the ring. Furthermore, a zoom in and zoom out occurs through each rotation that appears incorporated to compensate for some obtrusively located structural columns in the studio space, yet has the consequence of amplifying the visual impact of the rotation. The film is fantastic and beautifully fixating. What I found, both by my own actions and observing others, was that to overcome the dizzying sensation, people were inclined to move their gaze for a moment over to “10 to 0 Degrees,” just to get their bearing. To think, a driver’s POV film traveling japanese tunnels and highways was the stabilizing vantage point. Leaving the room brought on a moment of vertigo, and you wish to balance yourself against the wall.

Both literally and figuratively, “Black Monday” was the bomb! With the parallax effect from the multiple adjacent camera views, I would suggest that the film could even have been heightened by viewing it in duplicate, one frame out of sequence, in stereoscopic projection… but now I’m noodling.

In short, the show was comprised of four works, of which two were main attractions, and two were support pieces. Of those, one of the main attractions was disabled, which put the front exhibit space out of commission. The presence of “Sunoise” in the room and the video clip from the exhibit’s promotional on the website teased at what it could have been, which only added to the disappointment. Fortunately, in the movie room, things were running on all cylinders, and it was a great success. If you’re in the neighborhood during the show’s final run, you should make the effort to see it. If you’re not, don’t make a special trip. The star of the show is not performing. Should “Sunoise” be repaired, and live to dance another day, I’d make the special trip, maybe even twice.

Lehmann Maupin is among my favorite galleries in the city. Regularly supporting artists of merit in the realm of contemporary installation work, with a penchant for the high-tech. I regret that they had a technical malfunction cripple this otherwise exceptional exhibit.

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IN ADDITION: If you do find yourself in the Chelsea gallery district before this show closes on February 10th, you should also take the time to cross the street to 511 West 25th, and visit the Margaret Thatcher gallery on the fourth floor, and the final days of the Joie Rosen, Heidi Van Wieren two artist show.

Helvetica, the Movie

According to the website:

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. Helvetica will begin screening at film festivals worldwide starting in March, followed by cinema screenings across the US and Europe, and the DVD release.

Screening dates will be announced on the official Helvetica Film website, on February 6th.

NOTE: Many thanks to Allan L. for turning me on to this documentary.

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Other type in film

YouTube has spawned interest in a design world sub-genre of independant short films on typography, such as Typography School, on the disappearing art of handset type vs. computer aided design, the Behind the Typeface series pieces, Behind the Typeface: Cooper Black and Behind The Typeface: Rosewood. There is also the animated piece, New Typography is the Future, based on the 1928 work of Jan Tschichold.