I'm keeping this sweet and simple, as I had explained it to a five year old.
There is a story that is a dream. The dream is a fantasy, a love story woven in the unconscious.
This is a place in the mind where all the intimate experiences accumulate and re-cumulate.
To disect the fantasy is to uncover the tectonic of the unconscious. Undoubtedly it is the structure of language which allows us this power; as is it the means by which we structure our thoughts.One may choose any of number a given languages in order to share one's ideas. As architects our language is space.
What cannot be said must drawn, and what cannot be drawn must be written.
My project is the intersection of five 'fields' of ideas. Jakobson gives the structure for speech and
language which Lacan uses to expound the theories of Freud, intersecting liguistics and two
generations of phsycoanalysis.
To these fields I add mine: the structure of the romance narrative genre in terms of Lacan's conceptions of fantasy its production through language, and a study a specific instance of this which I find in 'Gone with the Wind'
There are five parts of the story, episodes perhaps, each with a significance in their own right
as a miniture production, embodying the elliptical nature of desire as described by Lacan,
but also relating to each other by means of this same structure, as a chain of castrations
and resolutions.
There are three sites defined by the episodes. The first and the last take place in the home outside the city, and the fourth and fifth in the urban context, the third episode: the invasion or rape takes place somehow between these two; a march.
My first task is draw up the matrix of these geneaological intersections, and the matrix of the episodes and the details of their program and site, using the structure of Lacan as a performative technique this matrix will become five drawings. One drawing for each episode.
The matrices will also be a outline for the thesis book, in terms of the section titles intersecting with the five episodes producing twenty five square. Genealogies might repeat for example.
I hope to have the major work on the book done by the class on sunday.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
In preparation for the final...
The Fluidity of Water and the Body:
Laundromat, Water Treatment Facility, Garden
1. The Operation of WaterLaundromat, Water Treatment Facility, Garden
I have begun, but need to continue to measure and diagram the operation of water. Recently I have run a few experiments on the rate at which a specific volume of water drains through a variety of size openings. I have documented the draining of this water and its change in sound from a strong flow to a hesitant drip. I plan on doing more tests on the volume, rates of flow, sounds, speeds, splashes, drips, temperature, and the draining of water as this is necessary to facilitate the synaesthetic experience.
2. Research and Document the Site
I have done some research into the history of the site but additional documentation is needed. I plan on visiting the site again and specifically look at the performance of water on the site. A few questions I would like to answer for myself;
Where does water collect?
Where does it drain off the buildings?
Is there existing protection from the rain?
What does the site sound like when it rains?
Where are the Laundromats in the lower east side?
Are the buildings immediately surrounding the site residential or commercial?
Could their water be recycled and/or influence the design of the project?
The answers to these questions will be important to the siting of the Laundromat itself and the flow of the water and the user through the various programs.
3. Laundromats
I need to go to a Laundromat and document the organization of it and my experience. (Maybe even do a load of laundry while I’m at it.) In addition to examining the experience of the Laundromat itself, I will also document the actual wash and dry cycle.
4. Continue to write more and add to the book.
Blind Museum: the Sensory Institution
No one can deny the usefulness of sight in collection of spatial information. Any impairment of vision has an adverse impact on the reception of information from environment and prevent individual from learning about that environment, making his/her connection with the surrounding space defective. So, how can a blind person experience space? How can one understand architecture without seeing?
Self Assignments:
1. I have made an appointment to visit the American Foundation for the Blind around Penn Station area in Manhattan. On the phone they have told me briefly about the studies they have done on various topics in helping people who are blind to live independently and productively. I do not want to underestimate their capability and therefore I feel the need to really understand how blind people live their everyday lives. Hopefully I can set up some sort of an interview with them. So far, I know that people who are blind often create a cognitive map in order to feel connected to a particular space. They certainly make more use of sound and touch cues than do those of sighted people. The auditory and tactile information are important to the blind in producing those internal maps as well as wind direction, change in air pressure and temperature gradients. Recollecting information/data and reworking on my mapping notations are necessary.
2. Can architecture be heard?
Architecture does produce sound. We can definitely hear the sounds it reflects and they, too, give us an impression of form and material. I would like to investigate further in the relationship between space and sound; how the differently shaped rooms and different materials reverberate differently.
3. A mini project
I am thinking of creating a museum within a museum. I have this idea of reorganizing a path particularly for blind people based on the existing art work (selective only few pieces?) in either the MoMA or the MET (I have not yet decided on the location). I want to rethink the activities of “viewing” within the museum, hopefully I can suggest a new way of seeing and knowing to all viewers, to perceive via other senses. I will probably have to make some kind of model to further explain my idea.
4. Reformat my booklet and definitely write more.
No one can deny the usefulness of sight in collection of spatial information. Any impairment of vision has an adverse impact on the reception of information from environment and prevent individual from learning about that environment, making his/her connection with the surrounding space defective. So, how can a blind person experience space? How can one understand architecture without seeing?
Self Assignments:
1. I have made an appointment to visit the American Foundation for the Blind around Penn Station area in Manhattan. On the phone they have told me briefly about the studies they have done on various topics in helping people who are blind to live independently and productively. I do not want to underestimate their capability and therefore I feel the need to really understand how blind people live their everyday lives. Hopefully I can set up some sort of an interview with them. So far, I know that people who are blind often create a cognitive map in order to feel connected to a particular space. They certainly make more use of sound and touch cues than do those of sighted people. The auditory and tactile information are important to the blind in producing those internal maps as well as wind direction, change in air pressure and temperature gradients. Recollecting information/data and reworking on my mapping notations are necessary.
2. Can architecture be heard?
Architecture does produce sound. We can definitely hear the sounds it reflects and they, too, give us an impression of form and material. I would like to investigate further in the relationship between space and sound; how the differently shaped rooms and different materials reverberate differently.
3. A mini project
I am thinking of creating a museum within a museum. I have this idea of reorganizing a path particularly for blind people based on the existing art work (selective only few pieces?) in either the MoMA or the MET (I have not yet decided on the location). I want to rethink the activities of “viewing” within the museum, hopefully I can suggest a new way of seeing and knowing to all viewers, to perceive via other senses. I will probably have to make some kind of model to further explain my idea.
4. Reformat my booklet and definitely write more.
Architectural Synaesthesia - Prof. M. Schaut and Prof. D. Bucsescu
Architectural Synaesthesia - Prof. M. Schaut and Prof. D. Bucsescu
I am interested in the cross between sound and study.
My two areas of research has been the yeshiva and the library.
In these drawing I am looking at the different the organizations of study that are found in the yeshiva and the library and how they differ from one another.
The first drawing is of the types and how they relate to one another.
The second drawing is of the types and how thy are found in context (plan view).
(I'm having issues uploading the drwaings)
The organization of the Talmud is such that the center is the oldest and most fixed, there is a hierarchy that one can only argue with one on his level. As one moves from the center there is a layering of time and restrictiveness. This being the case, the perimeter allows for mores discussion than the center.
I want to look at this condition of center/periphery, fixed/flexible, closed/open, rigid/loose as way to organize space, program and structure.
Architectural Synaesthesia - Prof. M. Schaut and Prof. D. Bucsescu
We have to move up the Sunday meeting time to 11AM
Architectural Synaesthesia - Prof. M. Schaut and Prof. D. Bucsescu
I have discussed “associative synesthesia” in regards as a cognitive tool for structuring the arrangement and reception of sensory information. In my recent example of the “musical chair” detail that I am working on, I explained how the experience of a sound is the point of departure upon a trajectory of cross modal connectivity, even though only a sound has been perceived. The announcement of a presence has been made in the reception of a sound, and upon that reception, cross-sensory connections are divulged from the memory as familiarities are attempted to be juxtaposed around the instance of the sound. The attributes of heaviness and lightness are associated with lower and higher pitches, respectively. Due to this, the solidarity of a sound as only a sound is intact only in the instance of immediate experience, for afterwards, it is internalized and networked within memory. This of course occurs with the other senses as well. My interest in primarily aligning myself with sound comes from the connection to music, and how in music there is an oscillation between focusing on what is being perceived in the moment, and comprehending and apprehending what has been perceived. I am interested in the figure/ground relationship of sound, and how the figure in the space interacts with it. The recent chair idea exemplifies some of my architectural interests in sound by producing different pitches and intensities, determined by string tension, varying by the weight of the occupant. Here, with the reception of sound, there is a notion of weight (tactility) as well as occupation (sight). This is similar to the cross modal connections that Richard Wagner and Olivier Messiaen tried to convey in many of their compositions through the dimensionality of sound (pitch, duration, intensity, color [qualitative feel of instrument]).
Instrument Factory
Wind, Water, People, Birds
November 30, 2006
On Moving Ahead
"House. Subway. Nightclub. Synaesthetic Memory Mapping and Spatial Joining."
Is the above too long for a title? Maybe I will continue to think about that.
Things I will work on from now until the final.
1. Further develop the Memory Map that I have already begun.
2. Beyond analysis inherent in the Memory Map, I will work on developing an analysis of my site and its relation to the city. Whereas the Synaesthetic Memory Map is largely about recording sensory experience along an itinerary, this site analysis will start to look at the existing conditions that will undeniably influence the way the program is intervened into the site.
3. Taking the program of the House, The Subway, and the Nightclub, I expect the design to be driven by spatial connection, or joining. With the anticipation that a more complete Memory Map will begin to yield new combinations of senses and spatial conditions (in the map, memory is the bridging of similar sensory experiences and the spaces where they occur, which are found when a past, present, and future itinerary are overlaid upon each other), I will begin to diagram, likely through models, how these new combinations could possibly join.
4. Generally edit my book and update it as new work is created.
On Moving Ahead
"House. Subway. Nightclub. Synaesthetic Memory Mapping and Spatial Joining."
Is the above too long for a title? Maybe I will continue to think about that.
Things I will work on from now until the final.
1. Further develop the Memory Map that I have already begun.
2. Beyond analysis inherent in the Memory Map, I will work on developing an analysis of my site and its relation to the city. Whereas the Synaesthetic Memory Map is largely about recording sensory experience along an itinerary, this site analysis will start to look at the existing conditions that will undeniably influence the way the program is intervened into the site.
3. Taking the program of the House, The Subway, and the Nightclub, I expect the design to be driven by spatial connection, or joining. With the anticipation that a more complete Memory Map will begin to yield new combinations of senses and spatial conditions (in the map, memory is the bridging of similar sensory experiences and the spaces where they occur, which are found when a past, present, and future itinerary are overlaid upon each other), I will begin to diagram, likely through models, how these new combinations could possibly join.
4. Generally edit my book and update it as new work is created.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Degree Project Class notes November 29,2006
To All:
This is a follow up communication from both Marc and Dan. It is intended as a alarm bell memo expanding on the verbal statements we gave in our last class meeting regarding what we feel is the complete lack of acceptable performance on part of many students. We are developing a list of those students who, we think, are in major trouble and will issue appropriate letters to each by Friday. We will not allow anyone to pin up at the final review that has not developed their projects as requested by us both in writing and in class crits. We will make the decision, of who will present or not by Sunday December 10th. On that day you will be asked to submit your work for our evaluation. Those students who are not allowed by us to present will be either failed immediately or put on probation and reviewed by a school committee (us plus others) at the end of Winter break.
In an updated class schedule on October 5, 2006 you were informed regarding the work required for the Midterm Review. You were told the following:
“The student must prepare a degree Project Proposal that contains the following items:
-A well formed ‘theoretical framework” (based on synaestesia research)
-"material practice” (or performance technique) how research becomesoperational in your project-how the design activates cross modal associations.
-Degree Project definition: documentation of site and program (researched)
-Draft booklet containing all of the above.
At midterm fewer that five students had anything resembling these requirements. Through class meetings since we tried to get these items out of you without success in spite of numerous suggestions and requests that you develop your projects. While it is already too late, nevertheless we decided to give you one more chance to go into high gear and produce what is required. This is the last call before we either fail you or put you on probation as described above.
Anyone without these items well developed will not be allowed to present on December 12
On a more personal note we, Marc and Dan, fail to understand your lack of focus and lack of passion for what should be the most important project in your work at Pratt. Obviously the school is wrong to entrust you with independent thinking in the fifth year. Many of you appear confused, inarticulate and obsessively preoccupied with your own head and being (identity) and unable to look also at an exterior reality, out there in the world. In other words some of you seem trapped in an introspective private world of “false poetics” unable to connect with others, both people and things outside of yourselves. This is manifested both in your writing and drawings as well as in your inability to develop a factual and analytical base for your projects in addition to the theoretical content. Another demonstration of this is the fact that in spite of all the rich synaestesia research, readings and class presentations that all of you did, almost nothing came through in your work to date. It is as if you went there and came away with nothing, unable to make use of it. To some extent this also reflects negatively on your education at Pratt. It is very depressing!All this is not to say that you are not all talented and intelligent students and that the class discussions were not at times quite wonderful. This is the mystery of it all: Why such a good group is so muddled and not performing. I hope you take this in the constructive manner as it is intended.
Architectural Synaesthesia - Prof. M. Schaut and Prof. D. Bucsescu
notes to Brian P
great connection...do it...by first writting a complete conceptual (abstract) program for your workshop...all you have to do is to
1. establish a list of instruments that will be manufactured at this place.
2. research and document the functional requirements (size of workshops,storage, delivery of raw material and finished products, truck access and docking (etc.) for each of the instruments (all of this you should research and at the end establish the approximate sixe and functional layout diagram
for the whole workshop facility (site plan, plans and sections diagramatically)
3. The remainder of the aditional functions, like, lobby, work shop visitors, retail sales, waiting area, coffe shop etc. will be the subject of your "sound/music producing building as instrument.
4. like your example of the chair,
you have to develop immidiatelly (in addition to the above program)
conceptual ideas for how various parts of the architecture become
instruments (chairs, walls, windows, roof. You must draw to scale in plans and sections abstract diagrams (not rendered)
indicating how your building might produce sounds. The list must be
complete:( 1 wind, 2. strings and 3 percussion) You must identify for each a list of sources of sound, such as natural winds on the site through the building, local birds reverberated by the building envelope, human voices and foot steps on stone,airoplane noise fro LaGuardia, or vibrating steel wire (variable lenght and thickness on your chair etc. Your list amd sketches indicating how the building will act as an instrument must be complete and clearly stated and shown. Anything short of that will not do!!!!!!!
This is the last time I am asking you to perform in this class!!!!
great connection...do it...by first writting a complete conceptual (abstract) program for your workshop...all you have to do is to
1. establish a list of instruments that will be manufactured at this place.
2. research and document the functional requirements (size of workshops,storage, delivery of raw material and finished products, truck access and docking (etc.) for each of the instruments (all of this you should research and at the end establish the approximate sixe and functional layout diagram
for the whole workshop facility (site plan, plans and sections diagramatically)
3. The remainder of the aditional functions, like, lobby, work shop visitors, retail sales, waiting area, coffe shop etc. will be the subject of your "sound/music producing building as instrument.
4. like your example of the chair,
you have to develop immidiatelly (in addition to the above program)
conceptual ideas for how various parts of the architecture become
instruments (chairs, walls, windows, roof. You must draw to scale in plans and sections abstract diagrams (not rendered)
indicating how your building might produce sounds. The list must be
complete:( 1 wind, 2. strings and 3 percussion) You must identify for each a list of sources of sound, such as natural winds on the site through the building, local birds reverberated by the building envelope, human voices and foot steps on stone,airoplane noise fro LaGuardia, or vibrating steel wire (variable lenght and thickness on your chair etc. Your list amd sketches indicating how the building will act as an instrument must be complete and clearly stated and shown. Anything short of that will not do!!!!!!!
This is the last time I am asking you to perform in this class!!!!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
For Namtip
I was thinking today about what Alex said about not underestimating the blind. Well if you think about it people who have been denied vision there entire life have other senses still, and those senses are usually amplified. Dan said how would a blind person see a wall in front of them, well they can, there ears are very sensitive to the way sound bounces off surfaces around them and in front of them. It may be helpful to think about the sounds different spaces can make, not just at Higgins Hall, but in general, like small compressed spaces have a different sound when you speak in than do great halls.
For Brian Plust
when you talked today about the chair instrument thing, it reminded me of something. I dont't know if you remember an exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt about 1.5 years ago or so, Extreme Textiles. There was this thing made of high tensile steel cables that were attached from top and bottom at different lengths and angles, you could pull on the cable somewhere around the middle of it as hard as you can and it would produce a sound, a digital synthesizer was hooked up to it I think. It made some beautiful sounds, and when multiple people at a time were pulling on the cables it actually created music... just a something to think about.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
notes for Jon
Jon:
Here are some suggestions for your work.
You must consider the spatial and visual data of experience above the narrative ………this is not an either or towards the word or the image. As an architect your artistic orientation must be towards the eye (plus othes senses as our topic requires) as a mode of knowledge. Again not instead of the story, but as a primary vehicle of expression in support of the narrative.
In your presentation so far you have privileged the story line, the plot, the human drama. That is great but, as an architect YOU MUST GIVE PRIORITY TO THE VISUAL not the INVISIBLE. So, as your degree project critic I feel compelled to push you towards a faster translation of your “story line” into it’s material/spatial/physical/visual support base.
First you must quickly identify the series of events taking place in the story, locate and describe them and their factual need to take place in space and time. Describe the stage set as if you were a stage set designer the concrete physical/visual attributes of each scene/event and diagram showing the placement of characters and their surroundings:. DESCRIBE IN WORDS AND DIAGRAMS EACH SCENE.
OK: If you want architecture as theater than go all the way!!! Choose as your program the design of a theater space, lets say for the famous 60’s group “the Living Theater” (research it….), You might also find links to Camillo’s “theater mundi” concept of place in Donald Kunze’s description of Vico and in Francis Yates “The Art of Memory”. I will give you these on Tuesday.
This should help you in locating the role of the narrative in the work of architecture
The hermeneutic question ! (look up the word if you need too)
Two different strategies for interpretation-hermaneutic and phenomenological
1. hermaneutic strategy-the use of story devices and (metaphorical naming)
in order to create an immidiate noetic(thought) context. The story creates a condition that immidiately sediments the perceptual possibility. Perception takes shape within and from the power of suggestion of a language-game.
2. phenomenological strategy-centering on the subject , the way in which perception functions is made thematic -the instructions of how to look, rely on certain knowledge of the mechanisms of perception and on a turn to the subject as active percievers.
Operational rules in a phenomenological approach to architecture/visual arts
1. attend to phenomena as they appear. A parralel rule, which makes attention more riorous, may be stated in the Wittgensteinian form:
describe, don't explain.
2.carfully delimit the field of experience to avoid a confusion of immidiacy with non-experienced elements presumed or posited in explanation
3.horizontalize or equalize all immidiate phenomena. -do not assume an initial hierarchy of 'realities' -This procedure prevents one from deciding too quickly that some things are more real or fundamental than others
In the meantime I realize that I have not answered your last question.. I still strongly feel that for your specific degree project approach the “performative technique” can be based on the Goodman categories of architectural means of representation. I don’t feel you understand yet the usefulness of his examples. Try again and to apply those to your work on developing a stage set for your story. Those terms should be your tools !!!!! Lets talk about that.
Goodman (How Buidings Mean)Jacobson (Six functions of language)
(1)Denotation Denotative Function
(2)Exemplification Poetic Function
(3)Expression, Mediated reference Connotative Function
Again, lets talk about how, operationally these types of references work in atchitecture and how you might be using them in your project. Again, they are your performative techniques…….
Here is a quick reference to Donald Kunze”s description of Camillo’s “theater mundi” :
Ch. 5. Theater of the world
page 148
Camillo: Fearing death, Camillo hastily dictated an outline of the idea of a theater, which was published in 1550. in this work, he described the inverted architecture that placed the solitary observer on a small stage overlooking an auditorium filled with a mock audience of images drawn , in part from the Myths of Homer……..
page 153
“The most significant feature for the interpretation of Vico and Camillo is that this inversion of ordinary relations portrayed a gradual process of embodiment, a decent of the soul through the succession of planetary spheres. At each level, the soul forgot more of its eternal nature and acquired the qualities of the ruling planet. Macrobious describes this passage of the soul in terms that strikingly anticipate Vico’s symmetry of the “true” and the “made”, connected by an “ideal eternal history”:…..
page 156…Camillo’s conception, though elaborate in the extreme, may seem to some more than artful arrangement of the ready-made materials of classical literature. In an age where “theater” was used to describe any comprehensive treatment of a subject, Camillo’s real theater may even be a literalistic attempt to find a spatial structure to all humanistic loci. But, the deceptive ease with which the vast array of gods, planetary attributes, myths, images, other commonplaces found their place in the seats of the Camillo’s auditorium belies the fact that he had found , in the form of a traditional building type, an uncanny congruence between architectural form and thought….Camillo’s theater is, as theater, forcefully present as an ordinary place turned liminal. The locus of theater is an active presence. We are forced to consider the classical universe it contains from the point of view of the traditional “ironic” disconnection of the viewer and the viewed , as well as in light of the Camillian irony whereby the viewer and the viewed are reversed.”
page 159…….
Up to now, no particular significance has been attributed this story other than its service as an illustration of an artificial memory’s method of places……Elsewhere, Serres has shown the connection the idea of noise as interruption with such liminal places as crossroads, wells,bridges, and boundaries…………….. The middle term for Serres’ spatialized philosophy is the chi (Chimera, or a monster in three parts in the Bellerophon myth)..The Chi is a special form of monster or sign. Two motions are crossed, and their intersection is defined in terms of a catastrophe. The logic of myth is crossed with the logic of men, who cannot decipher the metaphorical riddles of things arranged paratactically, that is
side by sidewithout logical mediation. Hypotaxis , or the subordinative ordering, signals the destruction , or “interpretation,” of the monster as sign: the riddle answered…….
In Vichian terms, one may “make” the myth for oneself by finding a necessary order in the apparently casual details of the anecdote. For us as students of the humanistic theatrum mundi , this making involves themes of division, , interruption, and opposition found in both the story’s narrative and its spatial ordering. ………
Here are some suggestions for your work.
You must consider the spatial and visual data of experience above the narrative ………this is not an either or towards the word or the image. As an architect your artistic orientation must be towards the eye (plus othes senses as our topic requires) as a mode of knowledge. Again not instead of the story, but as a primary vehicle of expression in support of the narrative.
In your presentation so far you have privileged the story line, the plot, the human drama. That is great but, as an architect YOU MUST GIVE PRIORITY TO THE VISUAL not the INVISIBLE. So, as your degree project critic I feel compelled to push you towards a faster translation of your “story line” into it’s material/spatial/physical/visual support base.
First you must quickly identify the series of events taking place in the story, locate and describe them and their factual need to take place in space and time. Describe the stage set as if you were a stage set designer the concrete physical/visual attributes of each scene/event and diagram showing the placement of characters and their surroundings:. DESCRIBE IN WORDS AND DIAGRAMS EACH SCENE.
OK: If you want architecture as theater than go all the way!!! Choose as your program the design of a theater space, lets say for the famous 60’s group “the Living Theater” (research it….), You might also find links to Camillo’s “theater mundi” concept of place in Donald Kunze’s description of Vico and in Francis Yates “The Art of Memory”. I will give you these on Tuesday.
This should help you in locating the role of the narrative in the work of architecture
The hermeneutic question ! (look up the word if you need too)
Two different strategies for interpretation-hermaneutic and phenomenological
1. hermaneutic strategy-the use of story devices and (metaphorical naming)
in order to create an immidiate noetic(thought) context. The story creates a condition that immidiately sediments the perceptual possibility. Perception takes shape within and from the power of suggestion of a language-game.
2. phenomenological strategy-centering on the subject , the way in which perception functions is made thematic -the instructions of how to look, rely on certain knowledge of the mechanisms of perception and on a turn to the subject as active percievers.
Operational rules in a phenomenological approach to architecture/visual arts
1. attend to phenomena as they appear. A parralel rule, which makes attention more riorous, may be stated in the Wittgensteinian form:
describe, don't explain.
2.carfully delimit the field of experience to avoid a confusion of immidiacy with non-experienced elements presumed or posited in explanation
3.horizontalize or equalize all immidiate phenomena. -do not assume an initial hierarchy of 'realities' -This procedure prevents one from deciding too quickly that some things are more real or fundamental than others
In the meantime I realize that I have not answered your last question.. I still strongly feel that for your specific degree project approach the “performative technique” can be based on the Goodman categories of architectural means of representation. I don’t feel you understand yet the usefulness of his examples. Try again and to apply those to your work on developing a stage set for your story. Those terms should be your tools !!!!! Lets talk about that.
Goodman (How Buidings Mean)Jacobson (Six functions of language)
(1)Denotation Denotative Function
(2)Exemplification Poetic Function
(3)Expression, Mediated reference Connotative Function
Again, lets talk about how, operationally these types of references work in atchitecture and how you might be using them in your project. Again, they are your performative techniques…….
Here is a quick reference to Donald Kunze”s description of Camillo’s “theater mundi” :
Ch. 5. Theater of the world
page 148
Camillo: Fearing death, Camillo hastily dictated an outline of the idea of a theater, which was published in 1550. in this work, he described the inverted architecture that placed the solitary observer on a small stage overlooking an auditorium filled with a mock audience of images drawn , in part from the Myths of Homer……..
page 153
“The most significant feature for the interpretation of Vico and Camillo is that this inversion of ordinary relations portrayed a gradual process of embodiment, a decent of the soul through the succession of planetary spheres. At each level, the soul forgot more of its eternal nature and acquired the qualities of the ruling planet. Macrobious describes this passage of the soul in terms that strikingly anticipate Vico’s symmetry of the “true” and the “made”, connected by an “ideal eternal history”:…..
page 156…Camillo’s conception, though elaborate in the extreme, may seem to some more than artful arrangement of the ready-made materials of classical literature. In an age where “theater” was used to describe any comprehensive treatment of a subject, Camillo’s real theater may even be a literalistic attempt to find a spatial structure to all humanistic loci. But, the deceptive ease with which the vast array of gods, planetary attributes, myths, images, other commonplaces found their place in the seats of the Camillo’s auditorium belies the fact that he had found , in the form of a traditional building type, an uncanny congruence between architectural form and thought….Camillo’s theater is, as theater, forcefully present as an ordinary place turned liminal. The locus of theater is an active presence. We are forced to consider the classical universe it contains from the point of view of the traditional “ironic” disconnection of the viewer and the viewed , as well as in light of the Camillian irony whereby the viewer and the viewed are reversed.”
page 159…….
Up to now, no particular significance has been attributed this story other than its service as an illustration of an artificial memory’s method of places……Elsewhere, Serres has shown the connection the idea of noise as interruption with such liminal places as crossroads, wells,bridges, and boundaries…………….. The middle term for Serres’ spatialized philosophy is the chi (Chimera, or a monster in three parts in the Bellerophon myth)..The Chi is a special form of monster or sign. Two motions are crossed, and their intersection is defined in terms of a catastrophe. The logic of myth is crossed with the logic of men, who cannot decipher the metaphorical riddles of things arranged paratactically, that is
side by sidewithout logical mediation. Hypotaxis , or the subordinative ordering, signals the destruction , or “interpretation,” of the monster as sign: the riddle answered…….
In Vichian terms, one may “make” the myth for oneself by finding a necessary order in the apparently casual details of the anecdote. For us as students of the humanistic theatrum mundi , this making involves themes of division, , interruption, and opposition found in both the story’s narrative and its spatial ordering. ………
Notes for Alex
Alex:
Your proposal to map three distinct places/domains/territories is very promising.
I have a few methodological suggestions for you. To map and compare anything one has first to establish a set categories - each map must be internally homogeneous as to the aspect of reality it proposes to map-capture, describe, locate etc……..
So the first question is : What aspects, attributes, properties of the three places you are capturing at any one time. You are in search for categories of experience that the thre places share or not, relationships, similarities and differences.
It might be useful to organize your work in the three Worlds of Popper:
Karl Popper’s 3 Worlds
World 1(the world of physical objects)
(0) Hydrogen and Helium
(1) the Heavier elements: Liquids and Crystals
(2) Living Organisms
Mapping this world would mean to capture the material reality: density/quantity of people over time, temperature, humidity, smells, light levels, dimensions of 3D space, color, sound levels, or any other physical attributes, objective, quantitative descriptions of the three places you have chosen.
World 2 (the world of subjective experiences)
(3) Sentience (animal consciousness)
(4) Consciousness of Self and Death
Mapping this world would mean to capture your own impressions (as you have already have done in your memoirs) of the three places. But you also might want to collect impressions from others- recorded interviews etc. Your sketches from these places would also fit here as your drawn impressions. All these are anecdotal, qualitative mapping
World 3 (the recorded products of the human mind)
(5) Human Language. Theories of self and Death
(6) Works of Art and of Science(including technology)
Mapping this world would mean would mean a review of the literature, theories about the three places : home,subway and night clubs. This means anything written about them anywhere, architectural theory, sociology , psychology, geography etc.
Once you have lets say, the raw data, it will be helpful to
Your proposal to map three distinct places/domains/territories is very promising.
I have a few methodological suggestions for you. To map and compare anything one has first to establish a set categories - each map must be internally homogeneous as to the aspect of reality it proposes to map-capture, describe, locate etc……..
So the first question is : What aspects, attributes, properties of the three places you are capturing at any one time. You are in search for categories of experience that the thre places share or not, relationships, similarities and differences.
It might be useful to organize your work in the three Worlds of Popper:
Karl Popper’s 3 Worlds
World 1(the world of physical objects)
(0) Hydrogen and Helium
(1) the Heavier elements: Liquids and Crystals
(2) Living Organisms
Mapping this world would mean to capture the material reality: density/quantity of people over time, temperature, humidity, smells, light levels, dimensions of 3D space, color, sound levels, or any other physical attributes, objective, quantitative descriptions of the three places you have chosen.
World 2 (the world of subjective experiences)
(3) Sentience (animal consciousness)
(4) Consciousness of Self and Death
Mapping this world would mean to capture your own impressions (as you have already have done in your memoirs) of the three places. But you also might want to collect impressions from others- recorded interviews etc. Your sketches from these places would also fit here as your drawn impressions. All these are anecdotal, qualitative mapping
World 3 (the recorded products of the human mind)
(5) Human Language. Theories of self and Death
(6) Works of Art and of Science(including technology)
Mapping this world would mean would mean a review of the literature, theories about the three places : home,subway and night clubs. This means anything written about them anywhere, architectural theory, sociology , psychology, geography etc.
Once you have lets say, the raw data, it will be helpful to
Friday, November 24, 2006
tonight
a couple of us are meeting at 6:30 tonight in our usual classroom...if you are available and interested please stop by for discussion...sorry again for the short notice
Tonight
Its a little short notice, but I just spoke with Brian who is proposing that we could meet tonight at 6:30 for discussion. Please respond if anyone is interested.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Delal, Carrie, and myself have been talking about getting people together to meet up another day of the week other than class. If other people are interested, please leave a comment about when would be a good time to meet. We think that it would help to clarify alot of our thesis statements and raise the level of production quite a bit.
like I said, if anybody else wants to meet up or has any other ideas of how we can raise the bar a bit please comment...
like I said, if anybody else wants to meet up or has any other ideas of how we can raise the bar a bit please comment...
thesis books
the office will only accept 2 books...
please put my copy in my mailbox...
have it there by tomorrow morning 9am...
when i plan on picking them up...
marc
please put my copy in my mailbox...
have it there by tomorrow morning 9am...
when i plan on picking them up...
marc
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