Bob Schaefer
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bobszilla.bsky.social
Bob Schaefer
@bobszilla.bsky.social
170 followers 410 following 690 posts
A hot cuppa tea on a cold winter's day. Chicagoan, architect, listener, reader, traveler, time waster
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bobszilla.bsky.social
The chorus is appropriately cheery enough for the holiday while the verses are very much British folk rock gloom and doom from the tomb.
November 27, 2025 at 3:36 PM
bobszilla.bsky.social
Thanks for this! It's a great read on an album and band that should get far more attention than they do.
November 23, 2025 at 4:40 PM
bobszilla.bsky.social
Human imagination >>>>>> artificial intelligence. Never give up on self-expression from experience or dreams or drugs or hallucinations or lust or broken hearts or dead mothers.
November 17, 2025 at 3:19 AM
bobszilla.bsky.social
Finally (for my Friday anyway), ‘Music of the Mind,’ the Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibition of Yoko Ono as artist succeeded in allowing me to dispel all pre-conceived notions of her work thru the Lennon lens. Also, I love exhibitions where it’s not just looking but participating.
Pages from Yoko Ono’s book, ‘Grapefruit’ Blue marker drawings and words on white walls and floor as inscribed by patrons of Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind The Wish Tree with wishes written by patrons of Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind placed as white paper tags attached to a tree with brown twine “Many rooms, many dreams, many countries In the same space...’ Black marker on a white wall at Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind
November 17, 2025 at 3:16 AM
bobszilla.bsky.social
The sixth Chicago Architecture Biennial has expanded to five floors of lost 840 North Michigan Avenue retail. By turns whimsical, provocative and head-scratching, riding the escalator to five floors of the exploration of the CAB theme of “Shift” was 75 minutes well spent.
living with explores the capacity of architecture to address the challenges of our world-a world of polycrisis, where conflicts are intensifying and climate becomes unpredictable; where millions are displaced while others live in increasingly risk-prone areas. This is a world of permanent instability. As this awareness is gaining ground, what impact does it have on our fundamental concepts of architecture? How can it contribute to ensuring the continuity of life between the latest storm and the one to follow? How can we involve not just the experts, but everyone, everyday? Because these challenges are global, we sought input from architects around the world, gathering different solutions tailored to different places that face common issues. The outcome is a shared source of intelligence, accessible to all and intended to evolve past the limits of a single biennale, continuously enriched by new ideas. To demonstrate how architecture facilitates adaptation and resilience, we launched an international call for projects, addressing six major aspects of living with: Living with... the existing, the immediate, the broken, vulnerabilities, nature, and combined intelligences. Living With was first created for the French Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale. We decided not to abandon the French Pavition, which will be closed for renovation throughout 2025. Instead, in the spirit of living with what already exists, we set up right next to the construction site, continuing its scaffolding with a temporary structure that barely touches the ground. A number of transversal themes emerge from the projects on display, reconsidering our connection to land, resources, and communities. They explore regeneration, local adaptation, and the integration of nature, technology, and architecture. Rather than offering generic solutions, they provide responses uniquely adapted to their contexts. They raise questions about the role of architectural research and the use of data in d… Detail of ‘The Common Beam’ at the Chicago architecture Biennial Future Climate Souvenirs Parsons & Charlesworth This mobile kiosk and performance space shares playful, speculative souvenirs for future nature reserves and eco-tourist sites in Chicago. Using humor and creativity, the project raises awareness about climate change by imagining how the city might adapt to rising temperatures and shifting ecosystems. The stand displays patches, hats, and other items with designs inspired by scientific research and local culture. Rather than focusing on disaster, the project encourages hope and curiosity. By making complex climate data visual and tangible, it invites people to think about resilience, adaptation, and how design can shape positive futures in the face of environmental change. Este quiosco móvil y espacio de performance comparte recuerdos lúdicos y especulativos de futuras reservas naturales y destinos de ecoturismo en Chicago. A través del humor y la creatividad, el proyecto busca generar conciencia sobre el cambio climático imaginando cómo la ciudad podría adaptarse al aumento de las temperaturas y a la transformación de los ecosistemas. El puesto exhibe parches, gorras y otros objetos con diseños inspirados en la investigación científica y la cultura local. En lugar de centrarse en el desastre, el proyecto promueve la esperanza y la curiosidad. Al hacer que los datos climáticos complejos se vuelvan visuales y tangibles, invita al público a reflexionar sobre la resiliencia, la adaptación y sobre cómo el diseño puede dar forma a futuros positivos frente al cambio ambiental. Parsons & Charlesworth is an art and design studio based in Chicago, Illinois, led by Tim Parsons and Jessica Charlesworth. Discotecture: Altered States Ivan L. Munuera and TAKK (Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño) The project shows how the architecture of nightclubs actively shapes cultural, social, and environmental practices. By combining elements such as modular sound systems, flexible dance floors, media archives, and a living garden of nocturnal plants, the project traces the histories and futures of "discotecture" as a form of spatial and political experimentation. It invites the public to experience the nightclub not just as a site of nightlife, but as an evolving infrastructure for community, care, and ecological thinking. Ivan L. Munuera is a scholar, critic, and curator based in New York, New York. TAKK is a research-driven architectural office based in New York, New York, and Barcelona, Spain, led by Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño. Project team Ivan L. Munuera + TAKK (Mireia Luzárraga + Alejandro Muiño) Collaborators: Berta Ribaudi, Lucas Vierkötter Light Consultants: Julia Bauer, Guillem Bonfill Support Bard College; GSAPP Columbia University; Institut Ramon Lull; AC/E (Accion Cultural Española)
November 17, 2025 at 3:08 AM
bobszilla.bsky.social
Moving to the Chicago Architecture Center, Ellen Harvey’s ‘The Disappointed Tourist’ is lost places, large and small, natural and human-built, as painted postcards. Endlessly fascinating, and also sadly just endless as more and more places disappear.
The Disappointed Tourist Is there some place that you would like to visit or revisit that no longer exists? This question is at the heart of The Disappointed Tourist, an ongoing project where artist Ellen Harvey paints lost sites submitted by the public The Disappointed Tourist at the Chicago Architecture Center invites people to consider the role of memory and nostalgia in preserving meaningful spaces and places. Since 2019, Harvey has selected over 300 lost places from over 40 countries to be painted. While the largest category of submissions is of happy childhood memories, people have also used the project to call attention to the physical scars of urban renewal, technological change, conflict, racism, inequality, colonialism and climate change as well as to memorialize significant events or beloved places. Harvey notes, "It is inspired both by old postcards and by the tradition of tourist painting... It tries to create a level playing field in which personal losses and larger cultural losses can meet and be recognized and create a new conversation about our love for our physical environment, harnessing nostalgia to create empathy rather than division." Each painting contains both the name of the lost site and the date on which it ceased to exist. The Chicago Architecture Center has commissioned eight new works from Harvey for this exhibition, all commemorating lost places in Chicago. The unfinished panels document Harvey's painting process, illustrating that this project will never be complete. This is the first exhibition of Harvey's work in Chicago. About the Artist Ellen Harvey is a British-born Brooklyn-based conceptual artist whose work has ranged from guerrilla street interventions like her iconic New York Beautification Project to immersive institutional installations and large-scale public artworks. Her work is painting-based but utilizes a wide variety of media and participatory strategies to explore several reoccurring themes such as the social and… A selection of paintings of lost places rendered in grayscale. There are paintings of two lost record stores, Tower and Other Music, included. A selection of paintings of lost places rendered in grayscale. A selection of paintings of lost places rendered in grayscale. The works at the end are in progress pencil sketches yet to be painted.
November 17, 2025 at 2:54 AM
bobszilla.bsky.social
Strange Realities: The Symbolist Imagination. The Art Institute’s rotating exhibitions in their print and drawing gallery have been batting 1.000 for awhile now. Works by Munch, Redon and Ensor and more curated and gathered as an evocation or a mindfuck.
‘Anxiety’ a 1896 woodcut by Edvard Munch. Did this ever become an album cover by a goth band? Two paintings by French surrealist Odilon Redon, ‘The Beacon’ and ‘Sita’. A chalk drawing ‘Scandalized Masks’ by Belgian artist James Ensor (1883) Odilon Redon French, 1840-1916 Strange Flower (Little Sister of the Poor) 1880 Various charcoals, with couches of black chalk and black Conte cravon. stumping. incising and crasing, on yellowish-cream wove paper altered to a golden tone Danion Kedon's Strange Newer exemplities the artists fascination with religion and hond creatures -in this case, part-plant and part-human. The artist referred to his imagined fowerwoman as a Little Sister of the Poor, che name of a Cathol order of nuns devoted to chanty tos Dand AcCollection 19ys.141
November 17, 2025 at 2:45 AM
bobszilla.bsky.social
At the Art Institute, Elizabeth Catlett: “A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That Implies” One of those “where has this been all of my life” introductions to an artist where the quote in the exhibition title says a lot. Courageous and creative storytelling in print and sculpture.
‘War Workers’ a 1943 painting by Elizabeth Catlett. Mother and Child’ a 1944-45 lithograph by Elizabeth Catlett. Two linocuts by Elizabeth Catlett 1946-47 Two wood sculptures of female heads by Elizabeth Catlett
November 17, 2025 at 2:33 AM
bobszilla.bsky.social
Okay his “pop” things like ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’ and ‘Taking Tiger Mountain’ aren’t there. The ambient albums? Sure. But ‘Another Green World’ is a stretch.
November 13, 2025 at 1:33 PM
bobszilla.bsky.social
Sent from my sister’s house in the Colorado Rockies. Alright, you win.
Crazy deep red aurora borealis as a backdrop to silhouetted trees and a mountain in Estes Park Colorado
November 12, 2025 at 3:33 AM
bobszilla.bsky.social
UIC Homecoming. The West Loop Facebook dog owners are asking for the manager.
November 12, 2025 at 1:05 AM