What with the holidays and my work schedule, it's been crazy busy lately, so no consistent posting. While I've been working, I've been watching/listening to various lectures and documentary series, mostly on google video, and mostly on favored topics like art and architecture. To me they are kind of like audio books, only with pictures. Nice for when I'm doing the really boring benchwork.
One of the series recently seen is How Buildings Learn, by Stewart Brand. Brand has posted the entire six-part, three-hour BBC TV series, which first aired in 1997, and is based on Brand's book of the same name.
The series as a whole is kind of slow going, but I like Brand's viewpoint. Simply put, that buildings are constantly changing things, and it's a good thing. The trick is how to go with the flow.
Stewart Brand is an unlikely architectural critic, seeing that he's best known as the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, and is more recently best known for addressing issues regarding new media.
There is no specific mention of stained glass in the whole 6 parts, but there is one mention of glass in architecture in the first episode, where he refers to the poorly thought out use of glass in modern architecture.
Embedded here is that first episode, called 'Flow'.
If you want to only see the part about glass it's from 6:15 to 9:15.