It is clear that in our modern world a global culture is emerging. The barriers that once divided cultures are slowly breaking down, allowing people to merge and adopt new philosophies. As an example, Buddhism has clearly grown in popularity within the United States.
It is obvious that over time, the western world has made it their goal to exploit nature in an attempt to dominate it. Through the industrial revolution we have distanced ourselves from the natural order of nature. We have learned to hybridize crops, turn iron ore into automobiles and coal into electricity. This has permitted us to structure our lives that further distances ourselves from nature. The lights of the city blot our starry nights, airplanes travel the world without even feeling the landscapes presence and chemicals grow food like it’s a mechanical operation. The western world so frequently sees itself in competition with the natural. On the other hand we have the eastern world. The Japanese aesthetic is to merge with nature rather than dominate it. This philosophy is clear when one examines traditional gardens, paintings, shoji screens, floral arrangements and the tea ceremony. These art forms only gain their full meaning when addressing the space around them.
By no means am I condemning the great achievements of our culture, it some ways they have become necessary for us to be able to function in the 21st century, but I do feel that there is a disconnect. Therefore I am proposing to re-create that connection.
The sketch problem was the first attempt; my inner desires were to connect with the landscape. The detail is in effect an architectural moment that indirectly connects the hand with the earth. In addition, a theme running through the research was the fluidity of materials; Asphalt connecting with the earth, the earth breaking through the walls of a woodshed, paint drying on a canvas and water flowing through the landscape.
As a strategy into the next stage of research, I am proposing to draw a detail or moment that involves a connection between eastern and western philosophy. I haven’t quite decided what exactly aspect of the cultures I’m going to draw, which is where I could use some help, but possibly a structural detail, a screen or a garden.
For the future of this project…One possibility I have in mind, is to take a western building that epitomizes the philosophy of dominance over nature and introduce a new program/building to it. In essence there would be a western building that is woven, surrounded, intertwined, circulated and made structurally sound by a new building that is rooted in eastern philosophy. Two different programs, two different culture, and two different philosophies joined as one. It would be my attempt to create a new architecture that resembles our new global culture.
3 comments:
I think you need to be careful about how you establish your proposal. By the end of your post, you seem to be proposing unity yet at the beginning it seems that you are dangerously close to stigmatizing western culture in favor of eastern culture. Also, I think you need to ask yourself what nature really is. Personally, I prefer to take the stance that humans are part of the ecosystem and are thus "natural." For example, if it is natural for ants to make anthills, is it not natural for humans to build buildings? (Though, I am not saying that humans are not out of balance in the ecosystem.) Also, I think you need to research more about japanese gardens. I once read somewhere that in some japanese gardens, during the fall, the monks that tend them will chose the most perfect leaves that have fallen to the ground, aesthetically rearrange them, and then discard the rest of the leaves. Could it be considered dominant to deny a natural process to achieve a human aesthetic ideal? Also, look at "Taking measure acrosss the American landscape," by James Corner and particularly read the essay about aerial photography of the landscape. Last year there was an exhibition at the Queens museum, "Down the Garden Path: The Artist's Garden After Modernism," which was meant to address the current cultural significance of the garden and it might be good if you can track down a copy of the exhibition catalog (also titled Down the Garden Path: The Artist's Garden After Modernism). I don't mean to be sound harsh, but i think there is a danger to become entranced with the romance of the wilderness and I think your project will be better if you can step back and critically consider those sentiments.
I REMEMBER IN YOUR PRESENTATION BY SHOWING CASTEL VECCHIO, YOU REALLY SHOWED US A FACADE IN A FACADE, FOR ME THERE, THE CONNECTION IS THE GAP..EVEN THE FUCNTION OF THIS BUILDING HAS CHANGED ALOT, FIRST A FORTIFICATION THEN NOW A MUSEUM..
MORE LIKE THE DETAILS ARE MASKED SOMEWHAT IN THIS OLD FACADE OF HISTORY..
AND ALSO THE EASTERN CULTURE IS MAYBE MORE: SYMBOLIC-MOSQUES, RITUALS, COLORS,GEOMETRY, FORTIFICATIONS. SO MANY THINGS SO MANY WORLDS IN ONE.. I THINK.
AND THE WESTERN IS ABOUT MAYBE MORE MAKING,
THE SAME WITH THE SLIDES OF SCULPTURES YOU SHOWED OF SMITHSON'S WORK LIKE THE INVENTION BEING THE SCULPTURE , WAS ALMOST EATING THE DIRT ....THE NATURE WAS DIRT, THE INVENTION WAS THE SCULPTURE MAYBE..AND THEIR CONNECTION..IN THE CONNECTION THE IDEA OF SCALE, SYMBOLS, MIGHT PLAY A ROLE, OR STILL WE KNOW BY DISCONNECTING THINGS WE STILL CONNECT..
IF YOU THINK THAT THE WESTERN WORLD IS ABOUT INVENTIONS, PUSHING THE LIMITS OF A CERTAIN MATERIAL, AND EXPANDING, AND SORT OF INVADING.. AND THE EASTERN WORLD IS THAN MAYBE JUST DIRT/NATURE?
I AM SORRY I WROTE THESE IN AN INCOHERENT WAY..
japanese gardens are in fact not natural at all. i have a picture at home that i will post of a single tree being tied down in about 5 different places to force it to grow in a certain way. I think that the idea of the japanese garden (from my limited knowledge of it) can be easily seen and defined by the bonzai tree. People devote their lives to making these small trees grow in what may be called extremely unnatural postions (except in an extremely harsh climate like stunted trees at the top of a mountain). this is similar to what alex was talking about with the leaves. all of this being said, i think maybe it would be helpful to look at eastern religious architecture. i'm pretty sure that it is extremely rare for wood to be used within any public spaces in japan other than religious architecture. even the way they build with it. i know that if a carpenter cuts himself in the process of building the ishi shrine and spills his blood on the wood, the entire log is thrown out. it desecrates the "holiness" of the wood. anyways, i'm totally rambling, but maybe these are a few things to think about...
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