Jack Self is an architect and writer based in London. He is director of the REAL foundation and editor-in-chief of the Real Review. His architectural design focuses on alternative models of ownership, contemporary forms of labor, and the formation of socioeconomic power relationships in space. His work has been shown widely, including at the Maxxi, Tate Britain, ICA, and the Design Museum. Self’s writing has appeared in The Guardian, e-flux, 032c, the BBC, Frieze, CNN, and elsewhere. Previously, he has been a contributing editor for Architectural Review and editor-at-large for 032c. In 2016, he curated the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. But what do we know of these times, or any times, anyway? We rely on images for communication more than ever before, but in increasingly abstract ways. The images do not depict something, they circulate as their own currency: as a visual shorthand able to convey attitudes, emotions, and cultural nuance. The rise of the image has created a universal unspoken language, and spawned a new model of popular eloquence.
I live through images.
1.
The “Throbber” buffer icon
January 9. I developed a theory of the “throbber,” or buffer icon. These are the last barriers to a perfectly smooth and seamless virtual experience.
2.
J. W. Anderson
February 17. The JWA Spring 2019 Ready-to-Wear collection in London was my wife’s final show as design director for the brand after almost five years. I never tire of seeing the personality of someone I love expressed through a medium that is so foreign to my own creative energy.
3.
Review of the century
March 26. I reviewed the century so far, with one image per year. 9/11, Euro introduced, Iraq War, Boxing Day Tsunami, 7/7 Bombings, Saddam is hung, iPhone is launched, Global Financial Crisis, Yes We Can, Eyjafallajökull, August Riots, Olympics, Snowden, MH17, Paris attacks, Brexit, Grenfell, Cambridge Analytica.
4.
Licensed architect
May 16. I got a call while sitting in the director’s office of the Bauhaus. After 14 years of study and work, I had passed my exams to become a registered architect.
5.
choreography of resistance
June 26. Skateboarding is the choreography of resistance. The skateboarder is a radical subject, precisely because of their power to reframe the world as nothing more than a series of unfolding pathways punctuated by potential tricks.
6.
get away
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Lux Aeterna, 2018, artists’ summer retreat in Southern England, designed by Jack Self
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Lux Aeterna, 2018, artists’ summer retreat in Southern England, designed by Jack Self
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Lux Aeterna, 2018, artists’ summer retreat in Southern England, designed by Jack Self
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Lux Aeterna, 2018, artists’ summer retreat in Southern England, designed by Jack Self
July 22. I became seized by a deep desire to get away from it all, to escape and never come back. I designed an artists’ retreat. But then I remembered it is always more noble to struggle in the knowledge of certain failure than to strike a solitary retreat.
7.
home
September 24. The home is the atomic unit of society. Within it, power relations are formed and perpetuated: gender discrimination, institutional racism, class structure, and wealth inequality all begin at home. Social conditioning is embedded in every facet, from how the home is financed to how it is furnished.
8.
Chelsea Manning
October 1. Chelsea Manning spoke at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. It was humbling, but also weird to be so close to a person who has had such intense influence on recent history.
9.
Holidays
November 3. I miss holidays.
10.
2019
December 6. I have a feeling 2019 is going to be a good year. I’m ready already.
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