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Anything.
edited by Cynthia C. Davidson.
Anything marks the end
of ten years of multi-disciplinary conferences and books
on architecture and theory sponsored by Anyone
Corporation, who recently resurfaced with Log.
Spanning three days at the Guggenheim Museum in New York
City in June 2000, I was fortunate enough to attend day
two of the conference and symposium, featuring Jeffrey Kipnis,
Steven Holl, Ben van Berkel, Jacques Herzog, Rafael Moneo,
Elizabeth Diller, Zaha Hadid, and others. The book afforded
me the opportunity to see what I missed the other two days,
particularly the discussions that followed each half day's
prepared lectures. Its these transcribed discussions that
make the book worthwhile, more argumentative, opinionated,
and off-the-cuff than the lectures.
At the conference, the highlight
for me was Gary Hill and Paulina Wallenberg-Olsson's day-ending
"Anything Intervention", a live and pre-recorded,
mixed-media work made specifically for the conference, my
sentiment shared by most of the panel members. Surprisingly
the highlight of the book (without diminishing the accomplishments
of the presenters) is the graphic design, carried out by
2x4, the
popular New York-based firm also responsible for the 2d
elements of Rem Koolhaas and OMA's student
center at IIT. 2x4 creates both macro and micro designs
that create cohesion while also setting apart each piece
as a unique part of the whole. This happens by subtly changing
page colors throughout the book like a catalog of paints
(blue-orange-green-pink-brown-purple-gray) and by laying
out text and images differently for each contributor, in
subtle ways as well.
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