Yellow light

In my last post, I was writing about how my two weeks in China felt like so long. But the two-ish months between then and now seem like an eternity. So much has happened.

Firstly, I went through my last day at my old workplace. It was very difficult, and things started feeling real. I started packing and saying my goodbyes to friends. I left my family (this was difficult and very stressful/nerve-wracking for many reasons). I'm in Melbourne now, I've been living in a nice room in a lovely apartment for about one and a half months now. I've felt pretty good about everything during that time, and very recently, things have started looking up a bit more.

1. I had a preliminary group interview at an Apple Store which I very much enjoyed. They got back to me a bit later to invite me to the next stage of interviews.

2. I also had an interview for a telefundraising company. They got back to me today and offered me the position. I'm not sure how to feel about this one because it's not a great deal, but at least it's something and I get two weeks off around Christmas/ New Year.

3. I also got an invitation to go to an interview as a part of my RMIT application. I am trying not to be worried about this one. I have no idea what kind of things I will talk about. I'm definitely anticipating it, but also very nervous about it.

I was up in Sydney for a few days last week and I was talking to A about how I should prepare for the interview. She recommended that I take some drawings with me, take my zines (as it shows that I can collate and present my work), and read up on architects I admire. I told her I'm not that familiar with architects, and she told me to refer to the Pritzker Prize book that she gave me for my birthday...

This afternoon, I've been reading up a bit, trying to navigate where I currently stand in relation towards urban and architectural ideas. I read an issue of Assemble Papers that I picked up at a discussion panel at the MPavilion for more conceptual articles about urbanism and architecture, and I also read and skimmed through The Pritzker Architecture Prize: The First Twenty Years to familiarise myself with profilic architects and their works of the late 20th century.

I don't really want to discuss all the architects featured in the book, just one, Tadao Ando. The manipulation of light in interior spaces, the exposed concrete, and calmness and subtlety of the spaces that he creates; these all resonate with me, perhaps because that is what I'm like as a person and/or because I'm aesthetically drawn to the photos. It was mentioned in the foreword that the Pritzker jurors are very critical about photographs of nominated architects' works. I guess I am also very critical to my partiality to Ando's works - the photographs of his works seem very Tumblr-esque, white-cube-cliché; I am very keen to experience them in their physicality, to feel the coolness of the concrete, for my eyes to see through the immaculately filtered light.

Antje Verena, Buou, C. Zeballos / ArchDaily