Journal articles on the topic 'Interior lightning'

AbstractA 30-yr climatology of lightning days and associated synoptic meteorological patterns are characterized across the interior western United States (WUS). Locally centered composite analyses show preferred synoptic meteorological patterns with positive 500-hPa geopotential height anomalies located to the northeast and negative sea level pressure anomalies to the northwest and collocated with local lightning days. Variations in preferred patterns for local lightning days are seen across the interior WUS. Areas not commonly affected by the North American monsoon system including the western Great Basin and northern Rocky Mountains show higher-amplitude anomalies of geopotential height, moisture, and midtropospheric instability patterns suggesting the importance of episodic midlatitude dynamics to lightning days in such locations. By contrast, locations closer to the core of the North American monsoon show weaker anomalies, likely reflecting the prevalence of favorable mesoscale dynamics key to lightning production during warm-season months in locations in the interior Southwest. Meteorological patterns for select locations are explored in more detail and two case studies of notably active lightning events are presented. Results from this observational analysis provide a foundation for evaluating meteorological conditions on lightning days in climate model simulations for the interior WUS.

The relationship between lightning strike density, vegetation, and elevation was investigated at three different spatial scales: (i) interior Alaska (~630 000 km2), (ii) six longitudinal transects (~100 000 km2), and (iii) 17 individual physiographic subregions (~50 000 km2) within Alaska. The data consisted of 14 years (1986–1999) of observations by the Alaska Fire Service lightning strike detection network. The best explanation for the variation in lightning strike density was provided by a combination of the areal coverage of boreal forest and elevation. Each of these factors has the potential to influence the convective activity. Our study suggests that in a region that is climatically favorable for air-mass thunderstorms, surface properties may enhance local lightning storm development in the boreal forest. Lightning strikes were found to occur frequently both in mountainous areas and at river flats, which is contrary to results from previous Alaskan studies.

Abstract Lightning occurring with less than 2.5 mm of rainfall—typically referred to as ‘dry lightning’—is a major source of wildfire ignition in central and northern California. Despite being rare, dry lightning outbreaks have resulted in destructive fires in this region due to the intersection of dense, dry vegetation and a large population living adjacent to fire-prone lands. Since thunderstorms are much less common in this region relative to the interior West, the climatology and drivers of dry lightning have not been widely investigated in central and northern California. Using daily gridded lightning and precipitation observations (1987–2020) in combination with atmospheric reanalyses, we characterize the climatology of dry lightning and the associated meteorological conditions during the warm season (May–October) when wildfire risk is highest. Across the domain, nearly half (∼46%) of all cloud-to-ground lightning flashes occurred as dry lightning during the study period. We find that higher elevations (>2000 m) receive more dry lightning compared to lower elevations (<1000 m) with activity concentrated in July-August. Although local meteorological conditions show substantial spatial variation, we find regionwide enhancements in mid-tropospheric moisture and instability on dry lightning days relative to background climatology. Additionally, surface temperatures, lower-tropospheric dryness, and mid-tropospheric instability are increased across the region on dry versus wet lightning days. We also identify widespread dry lightning outbreaks in the historical record, quantify their seasonality and spatial extent, and analyze associated large-scale atmospheric patterns. Three of these four atmospheric patterns are characterized by different configurations of ridging over the continental interior and offshore troughing. Understanding the meteorology of dry lightning across this region can inform forecasting of possible wildfire ignitions and is relevant for assessing changes in dry lightning and wildfire risk in climate projections.

Abstract Summertime cloud-to-ground lightning strikes are responsible for the majority of wildfire ignitions across vast sections of the seasonally dry western United States. In this study, a strong connection between active phases of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) and regional summertime lightning activity was found across the interior western United States. This intraseasonal mode of lightning activity emanates northward from the desert Southwest across the Great Basin and into the northern Rocky Mountains. The MJO is shown to provide favorable conditions for the northward propagation of widespread lightning activity through the amplification of the upper-level ridge over the western United States and the development of midtropospheric instability. Given the relative predictability of the MJO with long lead times, results allude to the potential for intraseasonal predictability of lightning activity and proactive fire management planning.

Abstract Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning data are used in this study to trace the daily patterns of thunderstorms in time and space across the topographically diverse southeastern United States. Four reoccurring patterns of thunderstorms (i.e., local, multilocal, regional, and widespread) are identified on the basis of the size of the region of CG lightning as well as the spatial pattern of the flashes within this region. To identify these patterns, hourly maps of CG flashes are produced over five summer seasons (June–August) and used to identify thunderstorm events on all days in which at least one CG lightning is observed. Thunderstorm events are defined by a temporally and spatially clustered hourly pattern of lightning flashes. The spatial pattern of lightning associated with each event is examined during the hour in which the flash density is the highest and is used to classify the event. The geographical and temporal patterns of each thunderstorm type are described. Also, flash densities are calculated at spatial scales ranging from 1- to 100-km radial distance. Over half of the identified thunderstorm events in the study were confined to the local scale and contained relatively few flashes. They were most common early in the morning and in the mountainous portions of the study area. Widespread events, on the other hand, showed a dense coverage of flashes within a given hour over a majority of the area. Although they occurred much less frequently (i.e., once every 8 days across most locales), they were responsible for the highest number of CG lightning flashes in the study region; furthermore, they produced the highest flash densities, both at the local and regional scale. A radar echo classification revealed that these events were not tied to mesoscale convective systems, but rather to the early afternoon development of numerous convective cell clusters and lines across the study area.

Because of the fast development of high buildings and large mansions and the increasing applications of electronic information technology, all kinds of advanced electronic equipments are installed in buildings. These equipments have qualities of low insulation, weak endurance of overvoltage and overcurrent and sensitivity for EMC disturb. Then more and more serious hazards and indirect economic losses are arising from lightning disturbance. Therefore, in order to cut down such big losses it is really necessary to conduct the research of stroke-incidence rules and take effective measures to protect buildings against lightning. Theories and practice show that the lightning protection is a systematic engineering. The exterior protection and interior protection should be constituted as an integer. This paper mainly studies the telecommunication equipments in the building disturbed and harmed by the lightning electromagnetic field. To protect this injure effectively we must find out the distributions of the lightning electromagnetic field in the building. Three cases of the lightning electromagnetic field distributions in the building have been discussed in the paper.

AbstractLightning is a key driver of wildfire activity in Alaska. Quantifying its historical variability and trends has been challenging because of changes in the observational network, but understanding historical and possible future changes in lightning activity is important for fire management planning. Dynamically downscaled reanalysis and global climate model (GCM) data were used to statistically assess lightning data in geographic zones used operationally by fire managers across Alaska. Convective precipitation was found to be a key predictor of weekly lightning activity through multiple regression analysis, along with additional atmospheric stability, moisture, and temperature predictor variables. Model-derived estimates of historical June–July lightning since 1979 showed increasing but lower-magnitude trends than the observed record, derived from the highly heterogeneous lightning sensor network, over the same period throughout interior Alaska. Two downscaled GCM projections estimate a doubling of lightning activity over the same June–July season and geographic region by the end of the twenty-first century. Such a substantial increase in lightning activity may have significant impacts on future wildfire activity in Alaska because of increased opportunities for ignitions, although the final outcome also depends on fire weather conditions and fuels.

Examining the relationship of El Ni&ntilde;o to weather patterns in Alaska shows wide climate variances that depend on the teleconnection between the tropics and the northern latitudes. However, the weather patterns exhibited in Alaska during and just after moderate to strong El Ni&ntilde;o episodes are generally consistent: above normal temperature and precipitation along the Alaskan coast, and above normal temperature and below normal precipitation in the interior, especially through the winter. The warm, dry conditions in the Alaskan interior increase summer wildfire potential. Statistics on the area burned since 1940 show that 15 out of 17 of the biggest fire years occurred during a moderate to strong El Ni&ntilde;o episode. These 15 years account for nearly 63% of the total area burned over the last 58 years. Evidence points to increased dry thunderstorms and associated lightning activity during an El Ni&ntilde;o episode; the percentage of total area burned by lightning caused fires during five episodes increased from a normal of less than 40% to a high of about 96%.

Neste estudo foi realizada uma análise comparativa da ocorrência de raios do tipo nuvem-solo (NS), medidos por sensores em superfície e o total de raios (NS e intra-nuvem - IN), derivados de sensoriamento remoto por satélite, objetivando estabelecer uma proporção dos raios NS entre ambos os Lightning Location System (LLS) para o leste da Amazônia. Foram utilizados dados da STARNET e do banco de dados LRTMS (OTD/LIS). A metodologia de análise consistiu no cálculo da Razão Z, da Proporção de Incidência de Raios NS e da Correlação de Pearson. Adicionalmente também foi realizada uma investigação sobre a relação da quantidade de raios NS em função da altitude do relevo. Os resultados apontaram que a incidência de raios NS tem uma oscilação média mensal de 7,5% a 20,4% do total de raios medidos por sensoriamento remoto e a quantidade varia de acordo com o tipo de superfície, sendo que na região oceânica observou-se baixa incidência de raios NS, nas regiões mais próximas ao litoral observou-se no primeiro semestre os maiores valores da proporção de incidência de raios NS, enquanto que no interior do continente, o máximo de atividade elétrica do tipo nuvem-solo apresenta maiores percentuais durante o segundo semestre. Também foi constatado que o relevo não altera a proporção de incidência dos raios NS, uma vez que não foi encontrada uma relação direta somente com a altura do relevo. Relationship Between Total Lightning and Cloud-To-Ground Lightning in Eastern AmazoniaA B S T R A C TAn analysis of the occurrence of cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning, measured by ground-based sensors, and total lightning (CG and intra-cloud (IC) lightning), detected by satellite remote sensing, was performed in this study to compare the proportion of CG lightning between the two lightning location systems (LLS) in Eastern Amazonia. STARNET and LRTMS (OTD/LIS) data were used. The method of analysis consisted of calculating the Z ratio, the proportion of incidence of CG lightning and the Pearson correlation coefficient. Furthermore, the variation in the number of CG lightning flashes as a function of terrain altitude was also investigated. The results indicated that the mean monthly CG lightning incidence ranges from 7.5% to 20.4% of the total lightning measured by remote sensing and that the number of CG lightning flashes varies according to surface type. More specifically, the oceanic region showed low CG lightning incidence, with the regions closest to the coast having the highest proportion of CG lightning incidence in the first semester; in contrast, the CG electrical activity peaked inland during the second semester. The results also showed that the terrain had no effect on the proportion of CG lightning incidence because no direct relationship with terrain height alone was found.Keywords: Proportion, Z Ratio, Terrain Altitude.

Abstract Dry thunderstorms (those that occur without significant rainfall at the ground) are common in the interior western United States. Moisture drawn into the area from the Gulfs of Mexico and California is sufficient to form high-based thunderstorms. Rain often evaporates before reaching the ground, and cloud-to-ground lightning generated by these storms strikes dry fuels. Fire weather forecasters at the National Weather Service and the National Interagency Coordination Center try to anticipate days with widespread dry thunderstorms because they result in multiple fire ignitions, often in remote areas. The probability of the occurrence of dry thunderstorms that produce fire-igniting lightning strikes was found to be greater on days with high instability and a deficit of moisture at low levels of the atmosphere. Based on these upper-air variables, an algorithm was developed to estimate the potential of dry lightning (lightning that strikes the ground with little or no rainfall at the surface) when convective storms are expected. In the current study, this algorithm has been applied throughout the western United States, with modeled meteorological variables rather than the observed soundings that have previously been used, to develop a predictive scheme for estimating the risk of dry thunderstorms. Predictions of the risk of dry thunderstorms were generated from real-time forecasts using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5) for the summers of 2004 and 2005. During that period, 240 large lightning-caused fires were ignited in the model domain. Of those fires, 40% occurred where the probability of dry lightning was predicted to be equal to or greater than 90% and 58% occurred where the probability was 75% or greater.

Abstract As a key component of wildfire activities, ignition is regulated by complex interactions among climate, fuel, topography, and humans. Considerable studies have advanced our knowledge on patterns and drivers of total areas burned and fire frequency, but much is less known about wildfire ignition. To better design effective fire prevention and management strategies, it is critical to understand contemporary ignition patterns and predict the probability of wildfire ignitions from different sources. We here modeled and analyzed human- and lightning-caused ignition probability across the whole state and sub-ecoregions of California, USA. We developed maximum entropy models to estimate wildfire ignition probability and understand the complex impacts of anthropogenic and biophysical drivers, based on a historical ignition database. The models captured well the spatial patterns of human and lightning started wildfire ignitions in California. The human-caused ignitions dominated the areas closer to populated regions and along the traffic corridors. Model diagnosis showed that precipitation, slope, human settlement, and road network shaped the statewide spatial distribution of human-started ignitions. In contrast, the lightning-caused ignitions were distributed more remotely in Sierra Nevada and North Interior, with snow water equivalent, lightning strike density, and fuel amount as primary drivers. Separate region-specific model results further revealed the difference in the relative importance of the key drivers among different sub-ecoregions. Model predictions suggested spatially heterogeneous decadal changes and an overall slight decrease in ignition probability between circa 2000 and 2010. Our findings reinforced the importance of varying humans vs biophysical controls in different fire regimes, highlighting the need for locally optimized land management to reduce ignition probability.

Abstract. Climate-driven changes in the fire regime within boreal forest ecosystems are likely to have important effects on carbon cycling and species composition. In the context of improving fire management options and developing more realistic scenarios of future change, it is important to understand how meteorology regulates different aspects of fire dynamics, including ignition, daily fire spread, and cumulative annual burned area. Here we combined Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) active fires (MCD14ML), MODIS imagery (MOD13A1) and ancillary historic fire perimeter information to produce a data set of daily fire spread maps for Alaska during 2002–2011. This approach provided a spatial and temporally continuous representation of fire progression and a precise identification of ignition and extinction locations and dates for each wildfire. The fire-spread maps were analyzed with daily vapor pressure deficit (VPD) observations from the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) and lightning strikes from the Alaska Lightning Detection Network (ALDN). We found a significant relationship between daily VPD and likelihood that a lightning strike would develop into a fire ignition. In the first week after ignition, above average VPD increased the probability that fires would grow to large or very large sizes. Strong relationships also were identified between VPD and burned area at several levels of temporal and spatial aggregation. As a consequence of regional coherence in meteorology, ignition, daily fire spread, and fire extinction events were often synchronized across different fires in interior Alaska. At a regional scale, the sum of positive VPD anomalies during the fire season was positively correlated with annual burned area during the NARR era (1979–2011; R2 = 0.45). Some of the largest fires we mapped had slow initial growth, indicating opportunities may exist for suppression efforts to adaptively manage these forests for climate change. The results of our spatiotemporal analysis provide new information about temporal and spatial dynamics of wildfires and have implications for modeling the terrestrial carbon cycle.

Abstract. Climate-driven changes in the fire regime within boreal forest ecosystems are likely to have important effects on carbon cycling and species composition. In the context of improving fire management options and developing more realistic scenarios of future change, it is important to understand how meteorology regulates different fire processes, including ignition, daily fire spread rates, and cumulative annual burned area. Here we combined MODIS active fires (MCD14ML), MODIS imagery (MOD13A1) and ancillary historic fire perimeter information to produce a dataset of daily fire spread maps of Alaska for the period 2002–2011. This approach provided a spatial and temporally continuous representation of fire progression and a precise identification of ignition and extinction locations and dates for each wildfire. The fire-spread maps were analyzed together with daily vapor pressure deficit (VPD) observations from the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) and lightning strikes from the Alaska Lightning Detection Network (ALDN). We found a significant relationship between daily VPD and probability that a lightning strike would develop into a fire ignition. In the first 5 days after ignition, above average VPD increased the probability that fires would grow to large or very large sizes. Strong relationships also were identified between VPD and burned area at several levels of temporal and spatial aggregation. As a consequence of regional coherence in meteorology, ignition, daily fire spread rates, and fire extinction events were often synchronized across different fires in interior Alaska. At a regional scale, the sum of positive VPD anomalies during the fire season was positively correlated with annual burned area during the NARR era (1979–2011; R2 = 0.45). Some of the largest fires we mapped had slow initial growth, indicating opportunities may exist for suppression efforts to adaptively manage these forests for climate change. The results of our spatiotemporal analysis provide new information about temporal and spatial dynamics of wildfires and have implications for modeling the terrestrial carbon cycle.

Abstract Boreal ecosystems in Alaska are responding to climate change in many ways, including changes in the fire regime. While large-scale wildfires are an essential part of the boreal forest ecosystem, humans are changing fire regimes through ignition and suppression. The authors analyzed the impact humans have on fire ignitions and relative area burned with distance into the forest from human access points such as settlements, highways, and major rivers in Alaska from 1988 to 2005. Additionally, a fire prediction model was created to identify drivers for lightning fires in the boreal forest. Human presence increases the number of ignitions near settlements, roads, and rivers and appears to reduce the area burned within 30–40 km of villages and rivers. In contrast to fires near roads and rivers, human presence may somewhat increase the area burned within 30–40 km of highways. The fire prediction model indicated that the probability of fire increases as distance from human settlements increases. In contrast, the model indicated that the probability of fire decreases as distance from roads increases and that the probability of fire in relation to distance from rivers depends on the year of analysis. While the ecological consequences of these human impacts are still unclear, this research shows that human influences on fire regime clearly affect the pattern of fire within 40 km of settlements, which is an area that represents 31% of interior Alaska. Future research should focus on more completely understanding the role of human presence in the suppression of wildfires in interior Alaska.

Indonesian people considered the house as a basic necessity such as a house with a building area of 54 m2. The placement of the various layout to the sun’s orientation is related to the lightning. This led to the phenomenon of affordable housing development. The issue of this research is the layout of type 54 affordable house considered by the lighting. The focus of this research is the type 54 affordable house in Kedung Badak Baru in Bogor. The purpose of this research is to get layout design guidelines of type 54 affordable house which consider the lighting and give input to the next architect and government in Bogor. The research method is quantitative descriptive analytic. Tropical architecture design theory and lighting theory are used as a reference in making an analysis. The result is the interior less bright. It because the layout design was surrounded by another room and incorrect placement and size of openings. The conclusion is to design new layout based each orientation of type 54 affordable house. And it also to place the suitable openings properly which will able to utilize the light.

AbstractJupiter’s atmosphere is one of the most turbulent places in the solar system. Whereas observations of lightning and thunderstorms point to moist convection as a small-scale energy source for Jupiter’s large-scale vortices and zonal jets, this has never been demonstrated due to the coarse resolution of pre-Juno measurements. The Juno spacecraft discovered that Jovian high latitudes host a cluster of large cyclones with diameter of around 5,000 km, each associated with intermediate- (roughly between 500 and 1,600 km) and smaller-scale vortices and filaments of around 100 km. Here, we analyse infrared images from Juno with a high resolution of 10 km. We unveil a dynamical regime associated with a significant energy source of convective origin that peaks at 100 km scales and in which energy gets subsequently transferred upscale to the large circumpolar and polar cyclones. Although this energy route has never been observed on another planet, it is surprisingly consistent with idealized studies of rapidly rotating Rayleigh–Bénard convection, lending theoretical support to our analyses. This energy route is expected to enhance the heat transfer from Jupiter’s hot interior to its troposphere and may also be relevant to the Earth’s atmosphere, helping us better understand the dynamics of our own planet.

Abstract. This study places HALO research aircraft observations in the upper-tropospheric Asian summer monsoon anticyclone (ASMA) into the context of regional, intra-annual variability by hindcasts with the ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model. The observations were obtained during the Earth System Model Validation (ESMVal) campaign in September 2012. Observed and simulated tracer–tracer relations reflect photochemical O3 production as well as in-mixing from the lower troposphere and the tropopause layer. The simulations demonstrate that tropospheric trace gas profiles in the monsoon season are distinct from those in the rest of the year, and the measurements reflect the main processes acting throughout the monsoon season. Net photochemical O3 production is significantly enhanced in the ASMA, where uplifted precursors meet increased NOx, mainly produced by lightning. An analysis of multiple monsoon seasons in the simulation shows that stratospherically influenced tropopause layer air is regularly entrained at the eastern ASMA flank and then transported in the southern fringe around the interior region. Radial transport barriers of the circulation are effectively overcome by subseasonal dynamical instabilities of the anticyclone, which occur quite frequently and are of paramount importance for the trace gas composition of the ASMA. Both the isentropic entrainment of O3-rich air and the photochemical conversion of uplifted O3-poor air tend to increase O3 in the ASMA outflow.

This paper was presented at the conference ‘Integrating spatial technologies and ecological principles for a new age in fire management’, Boise, Idaho, USA, June 1999 ‘The earth, born in fire, baptized by lightning since before life&quot;s beginning, has been and is a fire planet.’ E.V. Komarek Attitudes and policies concerning wildland fire, fire use, and fire management have changed greatly since early European settlers arrived in North America. Active suppression of wildfires accelerated early in the 20th Century, and areas burned dropped dramatically. In recent years, burned areas and cost of fires have begun to increase, in part due to fuel buildups resulting from fire suppression. The importance of fire as an ecosystem process is also being increasingly recognized. These factors are leading to changes in Federal agency fire and fuels management policies, including increased emphasis on use of prescribed fire and other treatments to reduce fuel loads and fire hazard. Changing fire management strategies have highlighted the need for better information and improved risk analysis techniques for setting regional and national priorities, and for monitoring and evaluating the ecological, economic, and social effects and tradeoffs of fuel management treatments and wildfires. The US Department of Interior and USDA Forest Service began the Joint Fire Science Program in 1998 to provide a sound scientific basis for implementing and evaluating fuel management activities. Development of remote sensing and GIS tools will play a key role in enabling land managers to evaluate hazards, monitor changes, and reduce risks to the environment and the public from wildland fires.

Abstract. Within the project SPURT (trace gas measurements in the tropopause region) a variety of trace gases have been measured in situ in order to investigate the role of dynamical and chemical processes in the extra-tropical tropopause region. In this paper we report on a flight on 10 November 2001 leading from Hohn, Germany (52° N) to Faro, Portugal (37° N) through a strongly developed deep stratospheric intrusion. This streamer was associated with a large convective system over the western Mediterranean with potentially significant troposphere-to-stratosphere transport. Along major parts of the flight we measured unexpectedly high NOy mixing ratios. Also H2O mixing ratios were significantly higher than stratospheric background levels confirming the extraordinary chemical signature of the probed air masses in the interior of the streamer. Backward trajectories encompassing the streamer enable to analyze the origin and physical characteristics of the air masses and to trace troposphere-to-stratosphere transport. Near the western flank of the intrusion features caused by long range transport, such as tropospheric filaments characterized by sudden drops in the O3 and NOy mixing ratios and enhanced CO and H2O can be reconstructed in great detail using the reverse domain filling technique. These filaments indicate a high potential for subsequent mixing with the stratospheric air. At the south-western edge of the streamer a strong gradient in the NOy and the O3 mixing ratios coincides very well with a sharp gradient in potential vorticity in the ECMWF fields. In contrast, in the interior of the streamer the observed highly elevated NOy and H2O mixing ratios up to a potential temperature level of 365 K and potential vorticity values of maximum 10 PVU cannot be explained in terms of resolved troposphere-to-stratosphere transport along the backward trajectories. Also mesoscale simulations with a High Resolution Model reveal no direct evidence for convective H2O injection up to this level. Elevated H2O mixing ratios in the ECMWF and HRM model are seen only up to about tropopause height at 340 hPa and 270hPa, respectively, well below flight altitude of about 200 hPa. However, forward tracing of the convective influence as identified by satellite brightness temperature measurements and counts of lightning strokes shows that during this part of the flight the aircraft was closely following the border of an air mass which was heavily impacted by convective activity over Spain and Algeria. This is evidence that deep convection at mid-latitudes may have a large impact on the tracer distribution of the lowermost stratosphere reaching well above the thunderstorms anvils as claimed by recent studies using cloud-resolving models.

Abstract. Within the project SPURT (trace gas measurements in the tropopause region) a variety of trace gases have been measured in situ in order to investigate the role of dynamical and chemical processes in the extra-tropical tropopause region. In this paper we report on a flight on 10 November 2001 leading from Hohn, Germany (52ºN) to Faro, Portugal (37ºN) through a strongly developed deep stratospheric intrusion. This streamer was associated with a large convective system over the western Mediterranean with potentially significant troposphere-to-stratosphere transport. Along major parts of the flight we measured unexpectedly high NOy mixing ratios. Also H2O mixing ratios were significantly higher than stratospheric background levels confirming the extraordinary chemical signature of the probed air masses in the interior of the streamer. Backward trajectories encompassing the streamer enable to analyze the origin and physical characteristics of the air masses and to trace troposphere-to-stratosphere transport. Near the western flank of the intrusion features caused by long range transport, such as tropospheric filaments characterized by sudden drops in the O3 and NOy mixing ratios and enhanced CO and H2O can be reconstructed in great detail using the reverse domain filling technique. These filaments indicate a high potential for subsequent mixing with the stratospheric air. At the south-western edge of the streamer a strong gradient in the NOy and the O3 mixing ratios coincides very well with a sharp gradient in potential vorticity in the ECMWF fields. In contrast, in the interior of the streamer the observed highly elevated NOy and H2O mixing ratios up to a potential temperature level of 365 K and potential vorticity values of maximum 10 PVU cannot be explained in terms of resolved troposphere-to-stratosphere transport along the backward trajectories. Also mesoscale simulations with a High Resolution Model reveal no direct evidence for convective H2O injection up to this level. Elevated H2O mixing ratios in the ECMWF and HRM model are seen only up to about tropopause height at 340 hPa and 270hPa, respectively, well below flight altitude of about 200 hPa. However, forward tracing of the convective influence as identified by satellite brightness temperature measurements and counts of lightning strokes shows that during this part of the flight the aircraft was closely following the border of an air mass which was heavily impacted by convective activity over Spain and Algeria. This is evidence that deep convection at mid-latitudes may have a large impact on the tracer distribution of the lowermost stratosphere reaching well above the thunderstorms anvils as claimed by recent studies using cloud-resolving models.

Populasi masyarakat Indonesia menuntut akan rumah tinggal seperti halnya pada rumah dengan tipe luas bangunan 54 m2. Penempatan bangunan tersebut beragam tata letaknya terhadap orientasi matahari yang terpengaruh pula terhadap pencahayaan. Hal ini memunculkan fenomena program pembangunan rumah sederhana. Isu dari penelitian ini adalah tata ruang dalam rumah sederhana tipe 54 yang ditinjau dari pencahayaan. Fokus penelitian ini adalah bangunan rumah tinggal sederhana tipe 54 di Komplek Perumahan Kedung Badak Baru Kota Bogor. Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mendapatkan pedoman perancangan tata ruang dalam bangunan rumah tinggal sederhana tipe 54 yang mempertimbangkan pencahayaan dan diharapkan dapat memberi masukan bagi perencana dan pemerintah di Kota Bogor. Metode yang digunakan adalah metode penelitian kuantitatif deskriptif analitik. Teori perancangan arsitektur tropis dan teori pencahayaan digunakan sebagai acuan dasar dalam membuat analisis. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah ruang dalam yang gelap karena adanya ruangan yang terkurung dan penempatan tipe bukaan yang tidak tepat. Simpulan yang didapat adalah perubahan tata ruang dalam berdasarkan orientasi bangunan dan tipe bukaan yang ditempatkan secara tepat akan dapat memanfaatkan cahaya.Kata kunci: rumah sederhana tipe 54, tata ruang dalam, pencahayaan Title: Layout of Type 54 Affordable House in Kedung Badak Bogor City based on Lighting Indonesian people considered the house as a basic necessity such as a house with a building area of 54 m2. The placement of the various layout to the sun’s orientation is related to the lightning. This lead to the phenomenon of affordable housing development. The issue of this research is the layout of type 54 affordable house considered by the lighting. The focus of this research is the type 54 affordable house in Kedung Badak Baru in Bogor. The purpose of this research is to get layout design guidelines of type 54 affordable house which consider the lighting and give input to the next architect and government in Bogor. The research method is quantitative descriptive analytic. Tropical architecture design theory and lighting theory are used as a reference in making an analysis. The result is the interior less bright. It because the layout design was surrounded by another room and incorrect placement and size of openings. The conclusion is to design new layout based each orientation of type 54 affordable house. And it also to place the suitable openings properly which will able to utilize the light. Keywords: affordable house type 54, layout, lighting

AbstractTwo regional hospitals were struck by lightning during a one-month period. The first hospital, which had 236 beds, suffered a direct strike to the building. This resulted in a direct spread of the power peak and temporary failure of the standard power supply.The principle problems, after restoring standard power supply, were with the fire alarm system and peripheral network connections in the digital radiology systems. No direct impact on the hardware could be found. Restarting the servers resolved all problems. The second hospital, which had 436 beds, had a lightning strike on the premises and mainly experienced problems due to induction. All affected installations had a cable connection from outside in one way or another. The power supplies never were endangered. The main problem was the failure of different communication systems (telephone, radio, intercom, fire alarm system). Also, the electronic entrance control went out. During the days after the lightening strike, multiple software problems became apparent, as well as failures of the network connections controlling the technical support systems. There are very few ways to prepare for induction problems. The use of fiberoptic networks can limit damage. To the knowledge of the authors, these are the first cases of lightning striking hospitals in medical literature.

AbstractThe giant planets are fluid objects; their solid cores occupy much less than half of their volumes. The largest planet, Jupiter, is over ten times the size of Earth. The giant planet atmospheres are powered in roughly equal parts by sunlight and by internal heat, which is left over from planetary formation. In most cases, the winds are measured by tracking clouds relative to the internal magnetic fields. Saturn is the exception, since the internal field is axisymmetric and therefore provides no evidence of rotation. In all four giant planets, the winds blow mainly in the east-west (zonal) direction, and the coloured cloud bands are aligned with the winds. The patterns are organized by rotation and not by the energy sources, since the sun at zenith moves from one pole to the other during the course of a year on Uranus, and yet the winds do not change. Although the power per unit area - the sum of absorbed sunlight and internal heat - is 20 times greater at Jupiter than at Neptune, the winds at Neptune are stronger. In fact Jupiter has the weakest winds of all the giant planets, although it is closest to the sun. Besides the zonal winds, the giant planets have long-lived vortices that have the same sign of vorticity as the latitude bands in which they sit. These large vortices exhibit a variety of behaviours, including oscillation in shape, position, and orientation, merging and splitting, and filament ejection. The anticyclones have a compact, oval shape; the cyclones are more elongated and diffuse. The cyclones contain lightning, which is a sign of moist convection. The cyclones therefore have a more disturbed appearance, since the convective storms are vigorous and chaotic. The convective storms are more frequent on Jupiter, but they are apparently more energetic on Saturn. The convective storms maintain a Reynolds stress that pumps momentum into the zonal jets in what is known as an inverse energy cascade. The depth to which the zonal winds extend is largely unknown. The winds could be confined to the outer 1 percent of the planets radii, or they could extend down into the fluid interiors, where the electrical conductivity and magnetic field become important.

AbstractBefore Cassini, scientists viewed Saturn’s unique features only from Earth and from three spacecraft flying by. During more than a decade orbiting the gas giant, Cassini studied the planet from its interior to the top of the atmosphere. It observed the changing seasons, provided up-close observations of Saturn’s exotic storms and jet streams, and heard Saturn’s lightning, which cannot be detected from Earth. During the Grand Finale orbits, it dove through the gap between the planet and its rings and gathered valuable data on Saturn’s interior structure and rotation. Key discoveries and events include: watching the eruption of a planet-encircling storm, which is a 20- or 30-year event, detection of gravity perturbations from winds 9000 km below the tops of the clouds, demonstration that eddies are supplying energy to the zonal jets, which are remarkably steady over the 25-year interval since the Voyager encounters, re-discovery of the north polar hexagon after 25 years, determination of elemental abundance ratios He/H, C/H, N/H, P/H, and As/H, which are clues to planet formation and evolution, characterization of the semiannual oscillation of the equatorial stratosphere, documentation of the mysteriously high temperatures of the thermosphere outside the auroral zone, and seeing the strange intermittency of lightning, which typically ceases to exist on the planet between outbursts every 1–2 years. These results and results from the Jupiter flyby are all discussed in this review.

The spam, the spam…like a meteor shower it comes, unceasing like the tides, unrelenting in its desire to save me, to lift me from my slumber, misfit that I am, sitting in the darkness waiting to be delivered from my faltering biology, my feeble credit rating, my meagre education. It comes every day, unbidden, from the Outside, from the Interior, from some networked techno-Badland where the righteous fear to tread. I don’t know who it comes from, they have never met me, they will never meet me. Their addresses are botched, their names are fake, Orientalized, Africanized, garbled beyond decryption. Their websites are down, their phones are off the hook, they route their missals through hapless foreign email servers whose gatekeepers have foolishly left their relays open. As soon as I set up filters to innoculate myself, their algorithms mutate and new strains develop, more wily and Protean than the last. And now, the hybrids are everywhere. Hungry free-ranging email-bots blithely pillaging the websites of the world for valuable identity-capital. Virtual Nigerian millionaires, who despite their legitimate business practices have become trapped in hostile economic ghettos. HGH addicts, greedily sucking back, mugwump-like, the life-juices of virtual human nervous-systems produced in suburban hormone-banks across the United States and Eastern Europe. A revitalized Third-Age, the golf courses of the world reeling under the onslaught of this new breed of energized, radiant octogenarians. A vast and growing horde of new entrants to the ranks of the stupendously well-endowed. How many others are there like me, out there, weltering under the unceasing weight of this crazed cyborgian storm, this cornucopia of inventiveness and perversion? We number in our millions, we unwitting receivers of the raw and bleeding edge of quackery; we are an Us, and they are a Them. We span the globe, worlds virtual and real, from the towering heights of corporate monoliths to the crumbling edges of the Hotmail slums. It doesn’t matter who we are! We are all equal here, we are all equal under Spam. Spam is the Great Leveller. Together, we are end-points, we are destinations, we are enormous potential-capital, we are a great numbers-game, we are fantastic odds. Here we all sit, crammed together in identical folders on $49 CD-ROMs. We toil together at the coal-face of the Trash bin, fingertips worn bare, Delete buttons sticky with the blood of the unwanted. And you know what? We outnumber them millions to one! These blond beasts of prey, these feeders on the bandwidth of the oppressed, these wanton exploiters of Microsoft’s Achilles heels, these teenage manipulators of the inviolable principles of global finance. Their margins so low, their reach so vast, their frequency irrelevant; they hardly even need to exist to do their job, their numbers are so small. They could so easily just be a glitch in the system, a forgotten semicolon here, a missing bracket there, and suddenly WHAM, zinging across the datasphere; Increase Your Bust Size! Prevent Employment Stagnation! All Natural Pheromones, Attract Sex! But isn’t it about time I gave in? Surely I could do with a larger penis. 23-67% larger in 6 months. An extra ¾” of girth in 10 months. Shoot 16 feet! Impress your friends! Surely now is a good time to start imbibing daily doses of Human Growth Hormone, in some weirdly cannibalistic ritual of geno-pharmacology. Surely now is the time to deal with my incipient baldness. Surely now is the time to develop a taste for teen barnyard frolics. I want to meet them, these machine-writers , these Home Based Workers. I want to meet a spammer, I want to check their palms. I want to look into their eyes and guage the soul of this particular brand of Internet Entrepreneur. I want to meet them for their blatant idiocy. I want to meet them because their business model is perfect. I want to meet them because they want to rip me off and they’ve never even seen my face. I want to meet them because they seem to know my name. I want to meet them to see if anything they say is true: “I was approached many times before but each time I passed on it. I am so glad I finally joined just to see what one could expect in return for the minimal effort and money required. To my astonishment, I received total $610,470.00 in 21 weeks, with money still coming in.” “We have been on the spray for just 3 weeks now, and besides the tremendous energy we both feel, my husband’s allergies and spells of depression have lifted. I am healing extremely fast after an accident and have lost 7 lbs. without trying!” “Got to tell ya I really was impressed with the results after a month - I didn’t have any problems to speak of but was interested in improving my control and size. I went from a 6.5/7.0” length to a full 8.0” - the big deal was not the size increase but the improved circulation I received - the head increased a full inch in diameter and along with this more enjoyment with every stroke as it is hyper sensitive when erect due to the increased surface area. The program was worth every penny - feel sorry for those that don’t know about this information.” But who are these people? It’s getting very personal. They call me by name, they tell me stories about their lives, inspiring stories of amazing success, of against-all-odds, of business miracles, of youth regained, balding abated, penises sprouting anew like fresh corn from good soil. What kind of subjectivity can we assign to these chimeras, these fictions of a hopeful science? They materialize only on-screen, they inhabit a realm yet-to-come. Their hawking cries hail me from beyond the abyss of faith; they have already leapt, already broken through. Doppelgängers of the net.art avant-garde, these over-people, these reachers-forth, their lives played out on a lightning stage between the soaring peaks and the Trash bin. Are they authors? Are they artists? Are they…real? Pah! What was I thinking?! Reality is a tool of the bureaucrats, of the biologically homeostatic, of the devious puppetmasters of offline media. No reality for them, these dare-devils of the multi-level marketing scheme, re-programmers of genetic destiny, they who write the future of the Human in bold red 18-point font. And no reality for us either, the potential consumers, demographically profound, fundamentally troubled; aging, lonely, single, furiously masturbating, high cholestorol, high blood pressure, overweight, in debt, badly mortgaged, un-insured, uneducated, exercise hating, impotent, suspicious, broke, balding, poorly endowed, small breasted and dog, dog tired. So perhaps we are all a little fictional, all a little speculative. But so what! A full inch in diameter! $620,000 in 6 months! Who would not sacrifice a little verifiability for such riches? This magnificent spray that decelerates Time and accelerates Body and Mind. This mystical information that increases Control and Size. How could my current state not be found wanting? How can I ignore the call? And with such a mainline into the future, what need have I of the machinations of the mainstream dot-economy? What difference does it make to me whether the nano-agents busily connecting synapses in the Amazon.com brain-in-a-tank can predict my favourite books and music? What difference do any of these massively-funded personalisation programs make, when daily I receive exhortations to feed fetishes I never even dreamed I had? I am interpellated anew, I have received messages from the Enlightened, the joyful consumers of the Word; once cynical, once suspicious, now laughing. Take me, I’m yours, de-subject me, re-subject me, I’m bubbling over, I’m full to the brim, I’m ready to suck the juice out of life and stay on to get the marrow. I’m right around the corner from just handing over my credit card details to the first one who asks nicely: “Fill out all requested information. You need to enter your credit card number for age verification - this protects under 18's from accessing explicit hardcore pornography. We have only listed the largest, most publicly operated porn sites that we KNOW can be trusted with this information. YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED FOR THE FREE PASSWORD. If you don't believe me, just read their terms and conditions.” Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Cooke, Grayson. "A Spam Scam Slam" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/08-spamscam.php>. APA Style Cooke, G. (2003, Aug 26). A Spam Scam Slam. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/08-spamscam.php>

Everyone thinks I named my cat Mango because of his orange eyes but that’s not the case. I named him Mango because the sounds of his purrs and his wheezes and his meows are all various shades of yellow-orange. (Mass 3) Synaesthesia, a condition where stimulus in one sense is perceived in that sense as well as in another, is thought to be a neurological fluke, marked by cross-sensory reactions. Mia, a character in the children’s book A Mango-Shaped Space, has audition colorée or coloured hearing, the most common form of synaesthesia where sounds create dynamic coloured photisms in the visual field. Others with the condition may taste shapes (Cytowic 5), feel colours (Duffy 52), taste sounds (Cytowic 118) or experience a myriad of other sensory combinations. Most non-synaesthetes have never heard of synaesthesia and many treat the condition with disbelief upon learning of it, while synaesthetes are often surprised to hear that others don’t have it. Although there has been a resurgence of interest in synaesthesia recently in psychology, neuroscience and philosophy (Ward and Mattingley 129), there is no widely accepted explanation for how or why synaesthetic perception occurs. However, if we investigate what meaning this particular condition may offer for rethinking not only what constitutes sensory normalcy, but also the ocular-centric bias in cultural studies, especially media studies, synaesthesia may present us with very productive coalitions indeed.Some theorists posit the ultimate role of media of all forms “to transfer sense experiences from one person to another” (Bolter and Grusin 3). Alongside this claim, many “have also maintained that the ultimate function of literature and the arts is to manifest this fusion of the senses” found in synaesthesia (Dann ix). If the most primary of media aims are to fuse and transfer sensory experiences, manifesting these goals would be akin to transferring synaesthetic experience to non-synaesthetes. In some cases, this synaesthetic transfer has been the explicit goal of media forms, from the invention of kaleidoscopes as colour symphonies in 1818 (Dann 66) to the 2002 launch of the video game Rez, the packaging for which reads “Discover a new world. A world of sound, visuals and vibrations. Release your instincts, open your senses and experience synaesthesia” (Rez). Recent innovations such as touch screen devices, advances in 3D film and television technologies and a range of motion-sensing video gaming consoles extend media experience far beyond the audio-visual and as such, present both serious challenges and important opportunities for media and culture scholars to reinvigorate ways of thinking about media experience, sensory embodiment and what might be learned from engaging with synaesthesia. Fleshing out the Field While acknowledging synaesthesia as a specific condition that enhances and complicates the lives of many individuals, I also suggest that synaesthesia is a useful mode of interference into our current ocular-centric notions of culture. Vision and visual phenomena hold a particularly powerful role in producing and negotiating meanings, values and relationships in the contemporary cultural arena and as a result, the eye has become privileged as the “master sense of the modern era” (Jay Scopic 3). Proponents of visual culture claim that the majority of modern life takes place through sight and that “human experience is now more visual and visualized than ever before ... in this swirl of imagery, seeing is much more than believing. It is not just a part of everyday life, it is everyday life” (Mirzoeff 1). In order to enjoy this privilege as the master sense, vision has been disentangled from the muscles and nerves of the eyeball and relocated to the “mind’s eye”, a metaphor that equates a kind of disembodied vision with knowledge. Vision becomes the most non-sensual of the senses, and made to appear “as a negative reference point for the other senses...on the side of detachment, separation” (Connor) or even “as the absence of sensuality” (Haraway). This creates a paradoxical “visual culture” in which the embodied eye is, along with the ear, skin, tongue and nose, strangely absent. If visual culture has been based on the separation of the senses, and in fact, a refutation of embodied senses altogether, what about that which we might encounter and know in the world that is not encompassed by the mind’s eye? By silencing the larger sensory context, what are we missing? What ocular-centric assumptions have we been making? What responsibilities have we ignored?This critique does not wish to do away with the eye, but instead to re-embrace and extend the field of vision to include an understanding of the eye and what it sees within the context of its embodied abilities and limitations. Although the mechanics of the eye make it an important and powerful sensory organ, able to perceive at a distance and provide a wealth of information about our surroundings, it is also prone to failures. Equipped as it is with eyelids and blind spots, reliant upon light and gullible to optical illusions (Jay, Downcast 4), the eye has its weaknesses and these must be addressed along with its abilities. Moreover, by focusing only on what is visual in culture, we are missing plenty of import. The study of visual culture is not unlike studying an electrical storm from afar. The visually impressive jagged flash seems the principal aspect of the storm and quite separate from the rumbling sound that rolls after it. We perceive them and name them as two distinct phenomena; thunder and lightning. However, this separation is a feature only of the distance between where we stand and the storm. Those who have found themselves in the eye of an electrical storm know that the sight of the bolt, the sound of the crash, the static tingling and vibration of the crack and the smell of ozone are mingled. At a remove, the bolt appears separate from the noise only artificially because of the safe distance. The closer we are to the phenomenon, the more completely it envelops us. Although getting up close and personal with an electrical storm may not be as comfortable as viewing it from afar, it does offer the opportunity to better understand the total experience and the thrill of intensities it can engage across the sensory palette. Similarly, the false separation of the visual from the rest of embodied experience may be convenient, but in order to flesh out this field, other embodied senses and sensory coalitions must be reclaimed for theorising practices. The senses as they are traditionally separated are simply put, false categories. Towards SynaestheoryAny inquiry inspired by synaesthesia must hold at its core the idea that the senses cannot be responsibly separated. This notion applies firstly to the separation of senses from one another. Synaesthetic experience and experiment both insist that there is rich cross-fertility between senses in synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes alike. The French verb sentir is instructive here, as it can mean “to smell”, “to taste” or “to feel”, depending on the context it is used in. It can also mean simply “to sense” or “to be aware of”. In fact, the origin of the phrase “common sense” meant exactly that, the point at which the senses meet. There also must be recognition that the senses cannot be separated from cognition or, in the Cartesian sense, that body and mind cannot be divided. An extensive and well-respected study of synaesthesia conducted in the 1920s by Raymond Wheeler and Thomas Cutsforth, non-synaesthetic and synaesthetic researchers respectively, revealed that the condition was not only a quirk of perception, but of conception. Synaesthetic activity, the team deduced “is an essential mechanism in the construction of meaning that functions in the same way as certain unattended processes in non-synaesthetes” (Dann 82). With their synaesthetic imagery impaired, synaesthetes are unable to do even a basic level of thinking or recalling (Dann, Cytowic). In fact, synaesthesia may be a universal process, but in synaesthetes, “a brain process that is normally unconscious becomes bared to consciousness so that synaesthetes know they are synaesthetic while the rest of us do not” (166). Maurice Merleau-Ponty agrees, claiming:Synaesthetic perception is the rule, and we are unaware of it only because scientific knowledge shifts the centre of gravity of experience, so that we unlearn how to see, hear, and generally speaking, feel in order to deduce, from our bodily organisation and the world as the physicist conceives it, what we are to see, hear and feel. (229) With this in mind, neither the mind’s role nor the body’s role in synaesthesia can be isolated, since the condition itself maintains unequivocally that the two are one.The rich and rewarding correlations between senses in synaesthesia prompt us to consider sensory coalitions in other experiences and contexts as well. We are urged to consider flows of sensation seriously as experiences in and of themselves, with or without interpretation and explanation. As well, the debates around synaesthetic experience remind us that in order to speak to phenomena perceived and conceived it is necessary to recognise the specificities, ironies and responsibilities of any embodied experience. Ultimately, synaesthesia helps to highlight the importance of relationships and the complexity of concepts necessary in order to practice a more embodied and articulate theorising. We might call this more inclusive approach “synaestheory”.Synaestheorising MediaDystopia, a series of photographs by artists Anthony Aziz and Sammy Cucher suggests a contemporary take on Decartes’s declaration that “I will now close my eyes, I will stop my ears, I will turn away my senses from their objects” (86). These photographs consist of digitally altered faces where the subject’s skin has been stretched over the openings of eyes, nose, mouth and ears, creating an interesting image both in process and in product. The product of a media mix that incorporates photography and computer modification, this image suggests the effects of the separation from our senses that these media may imply. The popular notion that media allow us to surpass our bodies and meet without our “meat” tagging along is a trope that Aziz and Cucher expose here with their computer-generated cover-up. By sealing off the senses, they show us how little we now seem to value them in a seemingly virtual, post-embodied world. If “hybrid media require hybrid analyses” (Lunenfeld in Graham 158), in our multimedia, mixed media, “mongrel media” (Dovey 114) environment, we need mongrel theory, synaestheory, to begin to discuss the complexities at hand. The goal here is producing an understanding of both media and sensory intelligences as hybrid. Symptomatic of our simple sense of media is our tendency to refer to media experiences as “audio-visual”: stimuli for the ear, eye or both. However, even if media are engineered to be predominately audio and/or visual, we are not. Synaestheory examines embodied media use, including the sensory information that the media does not claim to concentrate on, but that is still engaged and present in every mediated experience. It also examines embodied media use by paying attention to the pops and clicks of the material human-media interface. It does not assume simple sensory engagement or smooth engagement with media. These bumps, blisters, misfirings and errors are just as crucial a part of embodied media practice as smooth and successful interactions. Most significantly, synaesthesia insists simply that sensation matters. Sensory experiences are material, rich, emotional, memorable and important to the one sensing them, synaesthete or not. This declaration contradicts a legacy of distrust of the sensory in academic discourse that privileges the more intellectual and abstract, usually in the form of the detached text. However, academic texts are sensory too, of course. Sound, feeling, movement and sight are all inseparable from reading and writing, speaking and listening. We might do well to remember these as root sensory situations and by extension, recognise the importance of other sensual forms.Indeed, we have witnessed a rise of media genres that appeal to our senses first with brilliant and detailed visual and audio information, and story or narrative second, if at all. These media are “direct and one-dimensional, about little, other than their ability to commandeer the sight and the senses” (Darley 76). Whereas any attention to the construction of the media product is a disastrous distraction in narrative-centred forms, spectacular media reveals and revels in artifice and encourages the spectator to enjoy the simulation as part of the work’s allure. It is “a pleasure of control, but also of being controlled” (MacTavish 46). Like viewing abstract art, the impact of the piece will be missed if we are obsessed with what the artwork “is about”. Instead, we can reflect on spectacular media’s ability, like that of an abstract artwork, to impact our senses and as such, “renew the present” (Cubitt 32).In this framework, participation in any medium can be enjoyed not only as an interpretative opportunity, but also as an experience of sensory dexterity and relevance with its own pleasures and intelligences; a “being-present”. By focusing our attention on sensory flows, we may be able to perceive aspects of the world or ourselves that we had previously missed. Every one of us–synaesthete or nonsynaesthete–has a unique blueprint of reality, a unique way of coding knowledge that is different from any other on earth [...] By quieting down the habitually louder parts of our mind and turning the dial of our attention to its darker, quieter places, we may hear our personal code’s unique and usually unheard “song”, needing the touch of our attention to turn up its volume. (Duffy 123)This type of presence to oneself has been termed a kind of “perfect immediacy” and is believed to be cultivated through meditation or other sensory-focused experiences such as sex (Bolter and Grusin 260), art (Cubitt 32), drugs (Dann 184) or even physical pain (Gromala 233). Immersive media could also be added to this list, if as Bolter and Grusin suggest, we now “define immediacy as being in the presence of media” (236). In this case, immediacy has become effectively “media-cy.”A related point is the recognition of sensation’s transitory nature. Synaesthetic experiences and sensory experiences are vivid and dynamic. They do not persist. Instead, they flow through us and disappear, despite any attempts to capture them. You cannot stop or relive pure sound, for example (Gross). If you stop it, you silence it. If you relive it, you are experiencing another rendition, different even if almost imperceptibly from the last time you heard it. Media themselves are increasingly transitory and shifting phenomena. As media forms emerge and fall into obsolescence, spawning hybrid forms and spinoffs, the stories and memories safely fixed into any given media become outmoded and ultimately inaccessible very quickly. This trend towards flow over fixation is also informed by an embodied understanding of our own existence. Our sensations flow through us as we flow through the world. Synaesthesia reminds us that all sensation and indeed all sensory beings are dynamic. Despite our rampant lust for statis (Haraway), it is important to theorise with the recognition that bodies, media and sensations all flow through time and space, emerging and disintegrating. Finally, synaesthesia also encourages an always-embodied understanding of ourselves and our interactions with our environment. In media experiences that traditionally rely on vision the body is generally not only denied, but repressed (Balsamo 126). Claims to disembodiment flood the rhetoric around new media as an emancipatory element of mediated experience and somehow, seeing is superimposed on embodied being to negate it. However phenomena such as migraines, sensory release hallucinations, photo-memory, after-images, optical illusions and most importantly here, the “crosstalk” of synaesthesia (Cohen Kadosh et al. 489) all attest to the co-involvement of the body and brain in visual experience. Perhaps useful here for understanding media involvement in light of synaestheory is a philosophy of “mingled bodies” (Connor), where the world and its embodied agents intermingle. There are no discrete divisions, but plenty of translation and transfer. As Sean Cubitt puts it, “the world, after all, touches us at the same moment that we touch it” (37). We need to employ non-particulate metaphors that do away with the dichotomies of mind/body, interior/exterior and real/virtual. A complex embodied entity is not an object or even a series of objects, but embodiment work. “Each sense is in fact a nodal cluster, a clump, confection or bouquet of all the other senses, a mingling of the modalities of mingling [...] the skin encompasses, implies, pockets up all the other sense organs: but in doing so, it stands as a model for the way in which all the senses in their turn also invaginate all the others” (Connor). The danger here is of delving into a nostalgic discussion of a sort of “sensory unity before the fall” (Dann 94). The theory that we are all synaesthetes in some ways can lead to wistfulness for a perfect fusion of our senses, a kind of synaesthetic sublime that we had at one point, but lost. This loss occurs in childhood in some theories, (Maurer and Mondloch) and in our aboriginal histories in others (Dann 101). This longing for “original syn” is often done within a narrative that equates perfect sensory union with a kind of transcendence from the physical world. Dann explains that “during the modern upsurge in interest that has spanned the decades from McLuhan to McKenna, synaesthesia has continued to fulfil a popular longing for metaphors of transcendence” (180). This is problematic, since elevating the sensory to the sublime does no more service to understanding our engagements with the world than ignoring or degrading the sensory. Synaestheory does not tolerate a simplification of synaesthesia or any condition as a ticket to transcendence beyond the body and world that it is necessarily grounded in and responsible to. At the same time, it operates with a scheme of senses that are not a collection of separate parts, but blended; a field of intensities, a corporeal coalition of senses. It likewise refuses to participate in the false separation of body and mind, perception and cognition. More useful and interesting is to begin with metaphors that assume complexity without breaking phenomena into discrete pieces. This is the essence of a new anti-separatist synaestheory, a way of thinking through embodied humans in relationships with media and culture that promises to yield more creative, relevant and ethical theorising than the false isolation of one sense or the irresponsible disregard of the sensorium altogether.ReferencesAziz, Anthony, and Sammy Cucher. Dystopia. 1994. 15 Sep. 2010 ‹http://www.azizcucher.net/1994.php>. Balsamo, Anne. “The Virtual Body in Cyberspace.” Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women. Durham: Duke UP, 1997. 116-32.Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999.Cohen Kadosh, Roi, Avishai Henik, and Vincent Walsh. “Synaesthesia: Learned or Lost?” Developmental Science 12.3 (2009): 484-491.Connor, Steven. “Michel Serres’ Five Senses.” Michel Serres Conference. Birkbeck College, London. May 1999. 5 Oct. 2010 ‹http://www.bbk.ac.uk/eh/skc/5senses.htm>. Cubitt, Sean. “It’s Life, Jim, But Not as We Know It: Rolling Backwards into the Future.” Fractal Dreams: New Media in Social Context. Ed. Jon Dovey. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1996. 31-58.Cytowic, Richard E. The Man Who Tasted Shapes: A Bizarre Medical Mystery Offers Revolutionary Insights into Emotions, Reasoning and Consciousness. New York: Putnam Books, 1993.Dann, Kevin T. Bright Colors Falsely Seen: Synaesthesia and the Search for Transcendental Knowledge. New Haven: Yale UP, 1998.Darley, Andrew. Visual Digital Culture: Surface Play and Spectacle in New Media Genres. London: Routledge, 2000.Descartes, Rene. Discourse on Method and the Meditations. Trans. Johnn Veitch. New York: Prometheus Books, 1989.Dovey, Jon. “The Revelation of Unguessed Worlds.” Fractal Dreams: New Media in Social Context. Ed. Jon Dovey. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1996. 109-35. Duffy, Patricia Lynne. Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color Their Worlds. New York: Times Books, 2001.Graham, Beryl. “Playing with Yourself: Pleasure and Interactive Art.” Fractal Dreams: New Media in Social Context. Ed. Jon Dovey. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1996. 154-81.Gromala, Diana. "Pain and Subjectivity in Virtual Reality." Clicking In: Hot Links to a Digital Culture. Ed. Lynn Hershman Leeson. Seattle: Bay Press, 1996. 222-37.Haraway, Donna. “At the Interface of Nature and Culture.” Seminar. European Graduate School. Saas-Fee, Switzerland, 17-19 Jun. 2003.Jay, Martin. Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth Century French Thought. Berkeley: University of California P, 1993.Jay, Martin. "Scopic Regimes of Modernity." Hal Foster, Ed. Vision and Visuality. New York: Dia Art Foundation, 1988. 2-23.MacTavish. Andrew. “Technological Pleasure: The Performance and Narrative of Technology in Half-Life and other High-Tech Computer Games.” ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces. Eds. Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska. London: Wallflower P, 2002. Mass, Wendy. A Mango-Shaped Space. Little, Brown and Co., 2003.Maurer, Daphne, and Catherine J. Mondloch. “Neonatal Synaesthesia: A Re-Evaluation.” Eds. Lynn C. Robertson and Noam Sagiv. Synaesthesia: Perspectives from Cognitive Neuroscience. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005.Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Trans. Colin Smith. London: Routledge, 1989.Mirzoeff, Nicholas. “What Is Visual Culture?” The Visual Culture Reader. Ed. Nicholas Mirzoeff. London: Routledge, 1998. 3-13.Rez. United Game Artists. Playstation 2. 2002.Stafford, Barbara Maria. Good Looking: Essays on the Virtue of Images. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996.Ward, Jamie, and Jason B. Mattingley. “Synaesthesia: An Overview of Contemporary Findings and Controversies.” Cortex 42.2 (2006): 129-136.

Introduction «I have never worked in the technocratic exaltation, solving a constructive problem and that’s it. I’ve always tried to interpret the space of human life» (Vittorio Garatti). Vittorio Garatti (Milan, April 6, 1927) is certainly one of the last witnesses of one “heroic” season of Italian architecture. In 1957 he graduated in architecture from the Polytechnic of Milan with a thesis proposing the redesign of a portion of the historic centre of Milan: the area between “piazza della Scala”, “via Broletto”, “via Filodrammatici” and the gardens of the former Olivetti building in via Clerici. These are the years in which Ernesto Nathan Rogers established himself as one of the main personalities of Milanese culture. Garatti endorses the criticism expressed by Rogers to the approval of the Rationalist “language” in favour of an architecture that recovers the implications of the place and of material culture. The social responsibility of architecture and connections between architecture and other forms of artistic expression are the invariants of all the activity of the architect, artist and graphic designer of Garatti. It will be Ernesto Nathan Rogers who will offer him the possibility of experiencing these “contaminations” early: in 1954, together with Giuliano Cesari, Raffaella Crespi, Giampiero Pallavicini and Ferruccio Rezzonico, he designs the preparation of the exhibition on musical instruments at the 10th Milan Triennale. The temporary installations will be a privileged area in which Garatti will continue to experiment and integrate the qualities of artist, graphic designer and architect with each other. Significant examples of this approach are the Art Schools in Cuba 1961-63, the residential complex of Cusano Milanino in 1973, the Attico Cosimo del Fante in 1980, the fittings for the Bubasty shops in 1984, the Camogli residence in 1986, his house atelier in Brera in 1988 and the interiors of the Hotel Gallia in 1989. True architecture generates itself1: an approach that was consolidated over the years of collaboration with Raúl Villanueva in Venezuela and is fulfilled in Cuba in the project of the Art Schools, where Garatti makes use of a plurality of tools that cannot be rigidly confined to the world of architecture. In 1957, in Caracas, he came into contact with Ricardo Porro and Roberto Gottardi. Ricardo Porro, who returned to Cuba in 1960, will be the one to involve Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi in the Escuelas Nacional de Arte project. The three young architects will be the protagonists of a happy season of the architecture of the Revolution, they will be crossed by that “revolutionary” energy that Ricardo Porro has defined as “magical realism”. As Garatti recalls: it was a special moment. We designed the Schools using a method developed in Venezuela. We started from an analysis of the context, understood not only as physical reality. We studied Cuban poets and painters. Wifredo Lam was a great reference. For example, Lezama Lima’s work is clearly recalled in the plan of the School of Ballet. We were pervaded by the spirit of the revolution. The contamination between knowledge and disciplines, the belief that architecture is a “parasitic” discipline are some of the themes at the centre of the conversation that follows, from which a working method that recognizes architecture as a “social transformation” task emerges, more precisely an art with a social purpose. Garatti often cites Porro’s definition of architecture: architecture is the poetic frame within which human life takes place. To Garatti architecture is a self-generating process, and as such it cannot find fulfilment within its disciplinary specificity: the disciplinary autonomy is a contradiction in terms. Architecture cannot be self-referencing, it generates itself precisely because it finds the sense of its social responsibility outside of itself. No concession to trends, to self-referencing, to the “objectification of architecture”, to its spectacularization. Garatti as Eupalino Valery shuns “mute architectures” and instead prefers singing architectures. A Dialogue of Luigi Alini with Vittorio Garatti Luigi Alini. Let’s start with some personal data. Vittorio Garatti. I was born in Milan on April 6, 1927. My friend Emilio Vedova told me that life could be considered as a sequence of encounters with people, places and facts. My sculptor grandfather played an important role in my life. I inherited the ability to perceive the dimensional quality of space, its plasticity, spatial vision from him. L.A. Your youth training took place in a dramatic phase of history of our country. Living in Milan during the war years must not have been easy. V.G. In October 1942 in Milan there was one of the most tragic bombings that the city has suffered. A bomb exploded in front of the Brera Academy, where the Dalmine offices were located. With a group of boys we went to the rooftops. We saw the city from above, with the roofs partially destroyed. I still carry this image inside me, it is part of that museum of memory that Luciano Semerani often talks about. This image probably resurfaced when I designed the ballet school. The idea of a promenade on the roofs to observe the landscape came from this. L.A. You joined the Faculty of Architecture at the Milan Polytechnic in May 1946-47. V.G. Milan and Italy were like in those years. The impact with the University was not positive, I was disappointed with the quality of the studies. L.A. You have had an intense relationship with the artists who gravitate around Brera, which you have always considered very important for your training. V.G. In 1948 I met Ilio Negri, a graphic designer. Also at Brera there was a group of artists (Morlotti, Chighine, Dova, Crippa) who frequented the Caffè Brera, known as “Bar della Titta”. Thanks to these visits I had the opportunity to broaden my knowledge. As you know, I maintain that there are life’s appointments and lightning strikes. The release of Dada magazine provided real enlightenment for me: I discovered the work of Kurt Schwitters, Theo Van Doesburg, the value of the image and three-dimensionality. L.A. You collaborated on several projects with Ilio Negri. V.G. In 1955 we created the graphics of the Lagostina brand, which was then also used for the preparation of the exhibition at the “Fiera Campionaria” in Milan. We also worked together for the Lerici steel industry. There was an extraordinary interaction with Ilio. L.A. The cultural influence of Ernesto Nathan Rogers was strong in the years you studied at the Milan Polytechnic. He influenced the cultural debate by establishing himself as one of the main personalities of the Milanese architectural scene through the activity of the BBPR studio but even more so through the direction of Domus (from ‘46 to ‘47) and Casabella Continuità (from ‘53 to ‘65). V.G. When I enrolled at the university he was not yet a full professor and he was very opposed. As you know, he coined the phrase: God created the architect, the devil created the colleague. In some ways it is a phrase that makes me rethink the words of Ernesto Che Guevara: beware of bureaucrats, because they can delay a revolution for 50 years. Rogers was the man of culture and the old “bureaucratic” apparatus feared that his entry into the University would sanction the end of their “domain”. L.A. In 1954, together with Giuliano Cesari, Raffella Crespi, Giampiero Pallavicini and Ferruccio Rezzonico, all graduating students of the Milan Polytechnic, you designed the staging of the exhibition on musical instruments at the 10th Milan Triennale. V.G. The project for the Exhibition of Musical Instruments at the Milan Triennale was commissioned by Rogers, with whom I subsequently collaborated for the preparation of the graphic part of the Castello Sforzesco Museum, together with Ilio Negri. We were given a very small budget for this project. We decided to prepare a sequence of horizontal planes hanging in a void. These tops also acted as spacers, preventing people from touching the tools. Among those exhibited there were some very valuable ones. We designed slender structures to be covered with rice paper. The solution pleased Rogers very much, who underlined the dialogue that was generated between the exhibited object and the display system. L.A. You graduated on March 14, 1957. V.G. The project theme that I developed for the thesis was the reconstruction of Piazza della Scala. While all the other classmates were doing “lecorbusierani” projects without paying much attention to the context, for my part I worked trying to have a vision of the city. I tried to bring out the specificities of that place with a vision that Ernesto Nathan Rogers had brought me to. I then found this vision of the city in the work of Giuseppe De Finetti. I tried to re-propose a vision of space and its “atmospheres”, a theme that Alberto Savinio also refers to in Listen to your heart city, from 1944. L.A. How was your work received by the thesis commission? V.G. It was judged too “formal” by Emiliano Gandolfi, but Piero Portaluppi did not express himself positively either. The project did not please. Also consider the cultural climate of the University of those years, everyone followed the international style of the CIAM. I was not very satisfied with the evaluation expressed by the commissioners, they said that the project was “Piranesian”, too baroque. The critique of culture rationalist was not appreciated. Only at IUAV was there any great cultural ferment thanks to Bruno Zevi. L.A. After graduation, you left for Venezuela. V.G. With my wife Wanda, in 1957 I joined my parents in Caracas. In Venezuela I got in touch with Paolo Gasparini, an extraordinary Italian photographer, Ricardo Porro and Roberto Gottardi, who came from Venice and had worked in Ernesto Nathan Rogers’ studio in Milan. Ricardo Porro worked in the office of Carlos Raúl Villanueva. The Cuban writer and literary critic Alejo Carpentier also lived in Caracas at that time. L.A. Carlos Raul Villanueva was one of the protagonists of Venezuelan architecture. His critical position in relation to the Modern Movement and the belief that it was necessary to find an “adaptation” to the specificities of local traditions, the characteristics of the places and the Venezuelan environment, I believe, marked your subsequent Cuban experience with the creative recovery of some elements of traditional architecture such as the portico, the patio, but also the use of traditional materials and technologies that you have masterfully reinterpreted. I think we can also add to these “themes” the connections between architecture and plastic arts. You also become a professor of Architectural Design at the Escuela de Arquitectura of the Central University of Caracas. V.G. On this academic experience I will tell you a statement by Porro that struck me very much: The important thing was not what I knew, I did not have sufficient knowledge and experience. What I could pass on to the students was above all a passion. In two years of teaching I was able to deepen, understand things better and understand how to pass them on to students. The Faculty of Architecture had recently been established and this I believe contributed to fuel the great enthusiasm that emerges from the words by Porro. Porro favoured mine and Gottardi’s entry as teachers. Keep in mind that in those years Villanueva was one of the most influential Venezuelan intellectuals and had played a leading role in the transformation of the University. Villanueva was very attentive to the involvement of art in architecture, just think of the magnificent project for the Universidad Central in Caracas, where he worked together with artists such as the sculptor Calder. I had recently graduated and found myself catapulted into academic activity. It was a strange feeling for a young architect who graduated with a minimum grade. At the University I was entrusted with the Architectural Design course. The relationships with the context, the recovery of some elements of tradition were at the centre of the interests developed with the students. Among these students I got to know the one who in the future became my chosen “brother”: Sergio Baroni. Together we designed all the services for the 23rd district that Carlos Raúl Villanueva had planned to solve the favelas problem. In these years of Venezuelan frequentation, Porro also opened the doors of Cuba to me. Through Porro I got to know the work of Josè Martì, who claimed: cult para eser libre. I also approached the work of Josè Lezama Lima, in my opinion one of the most interesting Cuban intellectuals, and the painting of Wilfredo Lam. L.A. In December 1959 the Revolution triumphed in Cuba. Ricardo Porro returned to Cuba in August 1960. You and Gottardi would join him in December and begin teaching at the Facultad de Arcuitectura. Your contribution to the training of young students took place in a moment of radical cultural change within which the task of designing the Schools was also inserted: the “new” architecture had to give concrete answers but also give “shape” to a new model of society. V.G. After the triumph of the Revolution, acts of terrorism began. At that time in the morning, I checked that they hadn’t placed a bomb under my car. Eisenhower was preparing the invasion. Life published an article on preparing for the invasion of the counterrevolutionary brigades. With Eisenhower dead, Kennedy activated the programme by imposing one condition: in conjunction with the invasion, the Cuban people would have to rise up. Shortly before the attempted invasion, the emigration, deemed temporary, of doctors, architects, university teachers etc. began. They were all convinced they would return to “liberated Cuba” a few weeks later. Their motto was: it is impossible for Americans to accept the triumph of the rebel army. As is well known, the Cuban people did not rise up. The revolutionary process continued and had no more obstacles. The fact that the bourgeois class and almost all the professionals had left Cuba put the country in a state of extreme weakness. The sensation was of great transformation taking place, it was evident. In that “revolutionary” push there was nothing celebratory. All available energies were invested in the culture. There were extraordinary initiatives, from the literacy campaign to the founding of international schools of medicine and of cinema. In Cuba it was decided to close schools for a year and to entrust elementary school children with the task of travelling around the country and teaching illiterate adults. In the morning they worked in the fields and in the evening they taught the peasants to read and write. In order to try to block this project, the counter-revolutionaries killed two children in an attempt to scare the population and the families of the literate children. There was a wave of popular indignation and the programme continued. L.A. Ricardo Porro was commissioned to design the Art Schools. Roberto Gottardi recalls that: «the wife of the Minister of Public Works, Selma Diaz, asked Porro to build the national art schools. The architecture had to be completely new and the schools, in Fidel’s words, the most beautiful in the world. All accomplished in six months. Take it or leave it! [...] it was days of rage and enthusiasm in which all areas of public life was run by an agile and imaginative spirit of warfare»2. You too remembered several times that: that architecture was born from a life experience, it incorporated enthusiasm for life and optimism for the future. V.G. The idea that generated them was to foster the cultural encounter between Africa, Asia and Latin America. A “place” for meeting and exchanging. A place where artists from all over the third world could interact freely. The realisation of the Schools was like receiving a “war assignment”. Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara selected the Country Club as the place to build a large training centre for all of Latin America. They understood that it was important to foster the Latin American union, a theme that Simón Bolivar had previously wanted to pursue. Il Ché and Fidel, returning from the Country Club, along the road leading to the centre of Havana, met Selma Diaz, architect and wife of Osmany Cienfuegos, the Cuban Construction Minister. Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara entrusted Selma Diaz with the task of designing this centre. She replied: I had just graduated, how could I deal with it? Then she adds: Riccardo Porro returned to Cuba with two Italian architects. Just think, three young architects without much experience catapulted into an assignment of this size. The choice of the place where to build the schools was a happy intuition of Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara. L.A. How did the confrontation develop? V.G. We had total freedom, but we had to respond to a functional programme defined with the heads of the schools. Five directors were appointed, one for each school. We initially thought of a citadel. A proposal that did not find acceptance among the Directors, who suggest thinking of five autonomous schools. We therefore decide to place the schools on the edge of the large park and to reuse all the pre-existing buildings. We imagined schools as “stations” to cross. The aim was to promote integration with the environment in which they were “immersed”. Schools are not closed spaces. We established, for example, that there would be no doors: when “everything was ours” there could not be a public and a private space, only the living space existed. L.A. Ricardo Porro recalled: I organised our study in the chapel of the former residence of the Serrà family in Vadado. It was a wonderful place [...]. A series of young people from the school of architecture came to help us […]. Working in that atmosphere, all night and all day was a poetic experience (Loomis , 1999). V.G. We felt like Renaissance architects. We walked around the park and discussed where to locate the schools. Imagine three young people discussing with total, unthinkable freedom. We decided that each of us would deal with one or more schools, within a global vision that was born from the comparison. I chose the Ballet School. Ivan Espin had to design the music school but in the end I did it because Ivan had health problems. Porro decided to take care of the School of Plastic Arts to support his nature as a sculptor. Gottardi had problems with the actors and directors, who could not produce a shared functional programme, which with the dancers was quite simple to produce. The reasons that led us to choose the different project themes were very simple and uncomplicated, as were those for identifying the areas. I liked hidden lands, I was interested in developing a building “embedded” in the ground. Ricardo, on the other hand, chose a hill on which arrange the school of Modern Art. Each of us chose the site almost instinctively. For the Classical Dance School, the functional programme that was provided to me was very meagre: a library, a deanery, an infirmary, three ballet classrooms, theoretical classrooms and one of choreography. We went to see the dancers while they were training and dancing with Porro. The perception was immediate that we had to think of concave and convex spaces that would welcome their movements in space. For a more organic integration with the landscape and to accommodate the orography of the area, we also decided to place the buildings in a “peripheral” position with respect to the park, a choice that allowed us not to alter the nature of the park too much but also to limit the distances to be covered from schools to homes. Selma Diaz added others to the first indications: remember that we have no iron, we have little of everything, but we have many bricks. These were the indications that came to us from the Ministry of Construction. We were also asked to design some large spaces, such as gyms. Consequently, we found ourselves faced with the need to cover large spans without being able to resort to an extensive use of reinforced concrete or wood. L.A. How was the comparison between you designers? V.G. The exchange of ideas was constant, the experiences flowed naturally from one work group to another, but each operated in total autonomy. Each design group had 5-6 students in it. In my case I was lucky enough to have Josè Mosquera among my collaborators, a brilliant modest student, a true revolutionary. The offices where we worked on the project were organised in the Club, which became our “headquarters”. We worked all night and in the morning we went to the construction site. For the solution of logistical problems and the management of the building site of the Ballet School, I was entrusted with an extraordinary bricklayer, a Maestro de Obra named Bacallao. During one of the meetings that took place daily at the construction site, Bacallao told me that in Batista’s time the architects arrived in the morning at the workplace all dressed in white and, keeping away from the construction site to avoid getting dusty, they transferred orders on what to do. In this description by we marvelled at the fact that we were in the construction site together with him to face and discuss how to solve the different problems. In this construction site the carpenters did an extraordinary job, they had considerable experience. Bacallao was fantastic, he could read the drawings and he managed the construction site in an impeccable way. We faced and solved problems and needs that the yard inevitably posed on a daily basis. One morning, for example, arriving at the construction site, I realised the impact that the building would have as a result of its total mono-materiality. I was “scared” by this effect. My eye fell on an old bathtub, inside which there were pieces of 10x10 tiles, then I said to Bacallao: we will cover the wedges between the ribs of the bovedas covering the Ballet and Choreography Theatre classrooms with the tiles. The yard also lived on decisions made directly on site. Also keep in mind that the mason teams assigned to each construction site were independent. However the experience between the groups of masons engaged in the different activities circulated, flowed. There was a constant confrontation. For the workers the involvement was total, they were building for their children. A worker who told me: I’m building the school where my son will come to study. Ricardo Porro was responsible for the whole project, he was a very cultured man. In the start-up phase of the project he took us to Trinidad, the old Spanish capital. He wanted to show us the roots of Cuban architectural culture. On this journey I was struck by the solution of fan windows, by the use of verandas, all passive devices which were entrusted with the control and optimisation of the comfort of the rooms. Porro accompanied us to those places precisely because he wanted to put the value of tradition at the centre of the discussion, he immersed us in colonial culture. L.A. It is to that “mechanism” of self-generation of the project that you have referred to on several occasions? V.G. Yes, just that. When I design, I certainly draw from that stratified “grammar of memory”, to quote Luciano Semerani, which lives within me. The project generates itself, is born and then begins to live a life of its own. A writer traces the profile and character of his characters, who gradually come to life with a life of their own. In the same way the creative process in architecture is self-generated. L.A. Some problems were solved directly on site, dialoguing with the workers. V.G. He went just like that. Many decisions were made on site as construction progressed. Design and construction proceeded contextually. The dialogue with the workers was fundamental. The creative act was self-generated and lived a life of its own, we did nothing but “accompany” a process. The construction site had a speed of execution that required the same planning speed. In the evening we worked to solve problems that the construction site posed. The drawings “aged” rapidly with respect to the speed of decisions and the progress of the work. The incredible thing about this experience is that three architects with different backgrounds come to a “unitary” project. All this was possible because we used the same materials, the same construction technique, but even more so because there was a similar interpretation of the place and its possibilities. L.A. The project of the Music School also included the construction of 96 cubicles, individual study rooms, a theatre for symphonic music and one for chamber music and Italian opera. You “articulated” the 96 cubicles along a 360-metre-long path that unfolds in the landscape providing a “dynamic” view to those who cross it. A choice consistent with the vision of the School as an open place integrated with the environment. V.G. The “Gusano” is a volume that follows the orography of the terrain. It was a common sense choice. By following the level lines I avoided digging and of course I quickly realized what was needed by distributing the volumes horizontally. Disarticulation allows the changing vision of the landscape, which changes continuously according to the movement of the user. The movements do not take place along an axis, they follow a sinuous route, a connecting path between trees and nature. The cubicles lined up along the Gusano are individual study rooms above which there are the collective test rooms. On the back of the Gusano, in the highest part of the land, I placed the theatre for symphonic music, the one for chamber music, the library, the conference rooms, the choir and administration. L.A. In 1962 the construction site stopped. V.G. In 1962 Cuba fell into a serious political and economic crisis, which is what caused the slowdown and then the abandonment of the school site. Cuba was at “war” and the country’s resources were directed towards other needs. In this affair, the architect Quintana, one of the most powerful officials in Cuba, who had always expressed his opposition to the project, contributed to the decision to suspend the construction of the schools. Here is an extract from a writing by Sergio Baroni, which I consider clarifying: «The denial of the Art Schools represented the consolidation of the new Cuban technocratic regime. The designers were accused of aristocracy and individualism and the rest of the technicians who collaborated on the project were transferred to other positions by the Ministry of Construction [...]. It was a serious mistake which one realises now, when it became evident that, with the Schools, a process of renewal of Cuban architecture was interrupted, which, with difficulty, had advanced from the years preceding the revolution and which they had extraordinarily accelerated and anchored to the new social project. On the other hand, and understandably, the adoption of easy pseudo-rationalist procedures prevailed to deal with the enormous demand for projects and constructions with the minimum of resources» (Baroni 1992). L.A. You also experienced dramatic moments in Cuba. I’m referring in particular to the insane accusation of being a CIA spy and your arrest. V.G. I wasn’t the only one arrested. The first was Jean Pierre Garnier, who remained in prison for seven days on charges of espionage. This was not a crazy accusation but one of the CIA’s plans to scare foreign technicians into leaving Cuba. Six months after Garnier, it was Heberto Padilla’s turn, an intellectual, who remained in prison for 15 days. After 6 months, it was my turn. I was arrested while leaving the Ministry of Construction, inside the bag I had the plans of the port. I told Corrieri, Baroni and Wanda not to notify the Italian Embassy, everything would be cleared up. L.A. Dear Vittorio, I thank you for the willingness and generosity with which you shared your human and professional experience. I am sure that many young students will find your “story” of great interest. V.G. At the end of our dialogue, I would like to remember my teacher: Ernesto Nathan Rogers. I’ll tell you an anecdote: in 1956 I was working on the graphics for the Castello Sforzesco Museum set up by the BBPR. Leaving the museum with Rogers, in the Rocchetta courtyard the master stopped and gives me a questioning look. Looking at the Filarete tower, he told me: we have the task of designing a skyscraper in the centre. Usually skyscrapers going up they shrink. Instead this tower has a protruding crown, maybe we too could finish our skyscraper so what do you think? I replied: beautiful! Later I thought that what Rogers evoked was a distinctive feature of our city. The characters of the cities and the masters who have consolidated them are to be respected. If there is no awareness of dialectical continuity, the city loses and gets lost. It is necessary to reconstruct the figure of the architect artist who has full awareness of his role in society. The work of architecture cannot be the result of a pure stylistic and functional choice, it must be the result of a method that takes various and multiple factors into analysis. In Cuba, for example, the musical tradition, the painting of Wilfredo Lam, whose pictorial lines are recognisable in the floor plan of the Ballet School, the literature of Lezama Lima and Alejo Carpentier and above all the Cuban Revolution were fundamental. We theorised this “total” method together with Ricardo Porro, remembering the lecture by Ernesto Nathan Rogers.