If we don't seek ourselves in our masters, then how can we expect to become great?
Be careful, it is not that we should mimic, but rather place ourselves as an individual among tradition. For we are removed from the dead by our own knowing, but it is them which we know.
8 comments:
So take a cue a from our masters...I heard someone recently describe Carlo Scarpa's work as "profound minimalism." For the sake of intellectual discourse, I will argue in favor of that statement. We put Scarpa on a pedestal and praise Brion as a masterpiece of architecture. Scarpa did over a thousand drawings to achieve his "profound minimalism." But this minimalism was found only in pure extravagence. The narrative you gave us does not yet convince me of an architectural setting. If you write a thousand narratives to find the three sentences that will truly achieve what you are trying to do, those will be an amazing three sentences, like Hemingway's work. It is not enough to place ourselves in a tradition, we must also work and sometimes toil within the tradition. Our studio is in an Institution where we all grow by seeing and discussing the development of each other's work. It would be of great benefit for you and for the rest of us to see you write a thousand sentences to describe a space before you give us three.
Im not saying you shouldn't try to do what you are doing, but you need to work more and be more thoughtful about it. Your narrative about your room is inherently about a space designed by someone else. If you want to talk about writing narratives about your architecture, why are you not talking about spaces that you created, or at least enhanced in some way. Tell us more about your desk and how it relates to the room around it. When I look at your work, I want to see your proposal for a desk in a room, and as it stands now, I can only envision my own proposal for a desk in a room. Its fine to embody mystery in your work, but give us an enigma that can open an engaging dialog, not one that is so closed up in itself that we cannot access it.
you're completely correct alex, but i'm not giving anybody my thousand sentances.
why not, why are in an institution that exists so that we can learn from each other...
so maybe you don't give us your thousand sentences. Maybe you go through your one thousand sentences and pick 100 that you are comfortable with sharing with the class. We go to school so that we don't have to create in a vacuum. It makes our work better.
Here is an important quote for everybody I think. It is in Pratt's "On Making" book. There is an essay called "The Hand: Organ of Knowledge". The author Alvaro Malo quotes Jose Ortega...
"Thinking is too easy. The mind in its flight rarely meets with resistance. Hence the vital importance for the intellectual of touching concrete objects and of learning discipline in his intercourse with them. Bodies are the mentors of the spirit, as Chiron, the centaur, was the mentor of Greek heroes".
I think thesis is doing what you believe in. I also think thesis is showing yourself what you believe in. The word "show" implies the making of something. Even if you only present (show) to yourself it is the making that is important (and the making of mistakes as well). John, I think if this is the path you're taking, you should at least give yourself your (ten) thousand sentences...
i think this is a good use of the blog by the way...
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