Visions Unfolding: Architecture in the Age of Electronic Media: Peter Eisenmen

Peter Eisenmen discusses the paradigm that took place during the Second World War that should have profoundly affected architecture this being the shift from the mechanical paradigm to the electronic one.

He explains that a photograph can be developed with more or less contrast or clarity. The photograph may be said to remain in control of the human vision, while the human subject just remains a mere interpreter. He futher explains that architecture assumes sight to be natural to its own processes, but this traditional concept of sight is precisely what the electronic paradigm questions (pg 557).

Eisenman defines sight traditionally in terms of vision and says “the molecular vision of a subject in architecture allows for all projections to be resolved on a single plain meter surface.” Vision to Eisenman is an organization tool for basic elements.
“The interiority of architecture more than any other discourse defined a hierarchy of vision articulated by inside and outside”. Eisenman looks at the work of Deluze ,to break away from this tradition,. He suggests that the use of an immobius curve, or folding disrupts the subject’s understanding of inside and outside.

Eisenman closes his article saying that the four walls that make-up architecture “could deal with the other affective senses of sound, touch, and of the light laying within the darkness”.

The synthesis of one’s own body

The article analysis the bodily of space and explains how the result of the same may be generalized with regards to our own body, which stands true of all perceived things. This may be explained better when by saying “to be a body, is to be tied in a certain world, as we have seen our body is not primary in space it is of it “.(pg148)

Merleau-Ponty creates a sense of mind-body dualism by examining both of perspective and sense. He explains that the body comprises visual, tactile, and many other forms of information that we can obtain. This occurs as a result of the body, and becomes a sum, or as he quotes Leibnitz, the ‘effective law’ of its changes. “Translating the data of touch into the language of seeing or vice versa”; rather, the translation and unification are performed within a person, “they are the body itself” (pg 150).

He goes on to equate the body not to a physical object but to a work of art. He further explains this by saying “In a picture or a piece of music the idea is in communicable by means other than the display of colour and sound.” Similar to a novel, poem, picture or musical work, that is beings in which the expression is indistinguishable from the object expressed; meaning, accessible only through direct contact.

He closes the article by analyzing the motor habits as an extension of existence and leads on to analysis the perceptual habits as the coming into the possession into the world. He explains that a new meaning is formed, former movements are integrated into a fresh motor entity, the first visual data into a fresh sensory entity, natural power suddenly come together in a richer meaning. This process reshuffles elements of that equilibrium and fulfills our blind expectations.

1. Can the creator every be separated from his creation, in this case is an architect’s perception always the only way of experiencing his architectural creation?

THE FREUD READER- “THE EGO, ID AND SUPER EGO” AND “LEONARDO DA VINCI AND A MEMORY OF HIS CHILDHOOD”: EDITED BY PETER GAY

This was one of the most distinctive works of Freud; he himself pitched the theory of THE EGO AND THE ID as a continuation or completion of “beyond the pleasure principle”. The article draws from a lot of clinical experience. The ego and the id explore the segments of mental organization and super-ego.
Peter Gay translates the analytical observations and attempts to arrive at a new conclusion, however there are no fresh borrowings from biology, and expresses how Freud’s work is closer to psycho-analysis than his previous work .
In the introductory chapter “Consciousness and what is unconscious”: a basic breakdown is made of what is conscious and what is unconscious. And explains how the psychology of consciousness is incapable of solving the problems of dreams and hypnosis.
Gay goes on to discuss how pathological research has directed our interest to the repressed and ego too in the true scene of the word may be considered unconscious. He explains how all our knowledge is now bound up with consciousness. His translation explains how on another place (the unconscious) the real difference an “ ues” and a “pes” .
Peter Gay in the translation of the article discusses the perception of ego, id and super ego and what it meant to Freud. He defines the three states of mental being as:
• Conscious
• Unconscious
• Preconscious

1 How may this theory of ego, id and super-ego be applied in architecture and built form?

Medical Anomaly Library – Rheumatoid Arthritis

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EMBRYOLOGICAL HOUSE

EMBRYOLOGICAL HOUSE

POST FUNCTIONLISIM:

The article by Eisenman states the very beginning of the “post-modernism” era. He talks about the two main architectural institutions that caused the beginning of this era: the “Architettura Razionale” exhibition at the Milan Triennale and the “Ecole des Beaux Arts” exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art. Through the above Eisenman realized, that architecture continued as function and form.

The Milan exhibition referred to postmodernism as an old fashion architecture that had reached purity in its true form, while the latter understood post modernism as a return to its roots.

Through the article Eisenman describes post-modernism as the return to humanism while tracing the origin of the post modern era. The theory of modernism, to Foucault however, suggested a displacement of man away from the center of his world, no longer get to be an originating agent among the complex.

As a conclusion to the article, Eisenman maintains that port-functionalism does not supply a label of new awareness in architecture but provides only certain positive conjectural alternatives.

ON THE THEORY OF TRANSFORMATIONS OR THE COMPARISON OF RELATED FORMS:

D’Arcy Thompson explains in the article the inter-relationship between mathematics and form. The study of form may be descriptive or analytical but lacks precision. But when form is defined with respect to mathematics the quality of precision is imbibed.

D’Arcy Thompson goes on to explain the various methods of incorporating mathematical precision into form. The method of study for this article is plotting of the form on co-ordinates of the Cartesian system to generate proportional diagrams. Thompson’s initial intentions were no more than trying to translate the form of a curve into numbers and words. However, the next step he took intrigued most morphologists, as he went on to analyze the deformation of the form on the co-ordinates, as well as, study the transformation the form inscribed in the co-ordinate network. His analyses makes it likely to discover hidden identities by using mathematical synthesis. This method provides the necessary computations and abstractions and moves from static form to the analysis of dynamic forces underlining this form.

This method of co-ordinates became the foundation for D’Arcy Thompson’s theory of morphological transformations. Using this theory he was able to create related forms. He found that if he referred to the same mathematical function in transformed systems of co-ordinates, these identities are of the same ‘genus’ and variation that occurred in the form due to the “law of growth”.

He concluded the article by stating that if an organic form is studied mathematically it offers a better understating of the relationship between species, their deformation and evaluation cycle.

1. What is the scope of error in this method from collection of data, analyzing the data, plotting the data and then creating deformations?
2. Does the data plotting method vary depending in the size and scale of the species?

THE ORDER OF THINGS: MICHEL FOUCAULT

This article talks about the theory of natural history and its association with language. Foucault defines both natural history and language as a framework of thoughts as both are spontaneous and always in a state of evolution. He goes on to state natural history in the classical age is not merely the discovery of new objects of curiosity, but it covers a set of complex operations that introduce the possibility of constant order. Classification and speech have their place of origin in the same space thus can be scaled on the basis of time, memory and reflection, while natural history may be defined as a non-scalar quantity.

Foucault explains why natural history in the classical period could not be established as biology, however by the end of the 18th century this changed, nature had now become the universal distribution of beings. For example:
 Minerals: capable of growth, but not of feelings and movement
 Vegetables: capable of growth and susceptible to sensation
 Animals: capable of spontaneous movement

Foucault concludes by explaining how natural history can be scaled when it is spanned by language, and stressed that in order to understand nature the “true language” has to be established based on the root language.

1. Does the definition of nature change in respect to the language that we apply to it?
2. How important is the role of “blind resemblance of imagination” in Foucault’s definition of natural history?

ON THE TYPOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURE:

This article discusses the importance of typology and notion of type. Quincy defines type as the “idea of an element which should itself serve as a rule for the model”. While Argan explains type as a legitimate process of design in general.

Argan begins by explaining how most modern critics deny the validity of an architectural typology altogether. He then contemplates the similarities between typology and iconography. He maintains that typology may not be a determining factor of the creative process, but is always evident much as iconography is in figurative art.

Argan claims that type may just serve as an outline that aids in stimulating the design process. Architectural typologies are an abstraction of particular characteristics of an individual building, thus type may be defined as the reducing of a complex formal variant to a common root form. Type can be explained as a principle which contains the possibility of infinite formal variations. The influence of architectural typology is seen in three areas:
• The complete configuration of the building,
• major structure,
• decorative elements.

Thus typology may be understood as a guideline for the architect to follow in the process of conceiving a building. Every architectural project has an architectural typology whether the architect consciously follows the “type” or wants to depart from it; or even the sense that every building is an attempt to produce a new type.

Argan concludes the article by stating that “type must be treated as a scheme of spatial articulation which has been formed in response to a totality of practical and ideological demands”. Hence following a typology does not lead to duplication of the build form.

1. Does architectural typology of built form differ depending on the function of the built form?
2. How can we really know if a new typology is ideal in an existing urban setup?

Paul Rudolph: The Six Determinants of Architectural Form

Paul Rudolph introduces the Theory of The Six Determinants of Architectural Form. He claims that all six determinants vary in relative importance with respect to individual problems.

• Relationship to other buildings and the site:  for a building to be acknowledged it must truly blend in and relate to its neighbouring surroundings in terms of scale proportions and space between the buildings.
• Functional aspect: the principle that a building should be designed keeping the function and purpose of the building in mind. Form must follow function.
• The environmental conditions: while planning a building the climate, landscape and natural lighting conditions of the region must be examined and incorporated into the design solution as much as possible.
• Materials: each material has its own inherent properties and should be used for buildings that need to integrate the same properties based on the function of the building.
• Psychological demand of space: such requirements are met through the manipulation of space and the use of symbols.
• Spirit of the time: this is the last and the most important determinant as this shall lead us towards richer architectural expression.

Having stated the six determinants, Rudolph goes on to state that most architects need guidelines to follow so as to maintain a discipline in the built form that is being produced. He concludes the article by leaving an open ended question, “Modern architects fought hard against the restraints of the outworn styles; the day is won; but the visual disorder of our cities still abounds. Can we enlarge our vision sufficiently to meet the challenge? “

1)      Rudolph states: “when architects depend on their sensibility and imagination architecture has always gone downhill” would that hold true for the Modern Movement?