Thursday, May 30, 2013

Epiphenomenon


Ultimately architecture -aside from its many growing implications in the sciences- and as the practice, is responsible for the physical definition of space, a definition that has invoked the notion of ‘performance’ and the tired utilitarian debate on the correlation of form and function. To move this debate on entirely, we should possibly "redefine ‘form’ not as the shape of a material object alone, but as the multitude of effects, the milieu of conditions, modulations and microclimates that emanate from the exchange of an object with its specific environment - a dynamic relationship that is both perceived and interacted with by a subject. Performance evolves from the synthesis of this dynamic(Hensel and Achim 6-11), the same way it evolves from the dramatic definition of the word in its theatrical realm. Once the perspective is shifted form the 20th century world view of dissecting the physical world into individual atoms to an understanding of interrelations, connections and ultimately to the architectures of ‘interface’ we can deduce that in a network society the interfaces between things matter as much as things themselves. With this perspective, theatrical performance, and screen acting in particular pose an interesting commonality with the performance of architecture in the digital age not only through an understanding of matter and form, but rather the emergence of substance through the study of complex behavior and those boundaries between systems that govern the condition of exchange between them.



Hensel, Michael, and Mendez Achim. Versatility and Vicissitude: An Introduction to Performance in Morpho-Ecological Design. 78. London: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2008. 6-11. Print.   

Noumenon



 
 
A Noumenon (in Kantian philosophy) is a thing as it is in itself, as distinct from a thing as it is knowable by the senses through phenomenal attributes.
 
 
image: Hiroshima, photographer unknown

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Free Body Diagram


 

One can argue that the composition of forces that contribute to a climber’s ability to hang from four fingers or a karate master’s power to smash a brick wall, surpass conventional structural analytics (whether dynamic or static). This is an altogether different convergence of forces than a strongman competitor or a boxer where the forces are equal on both sides of the equation. This is quite possibly an example of a structural equation where the sum is greater than its parts, one aligned with "the principle of least effort" in evolutionary biology.  If one can truly map the forces that are accumulated through these intensities, new paradigms for structural stability can disentangle our built environment from buildings to cars and our relationships with them.

Photo: Mustang Wanted - Ukraine

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Plasma

“Stores have the product displayed to follow the logic of marketing,”  At a warehouse, on the other hand, “there’s no psychology involved. It’s pure efficiency.”1

1. Wired interview with John Bartholdi, professor of warehouse science at Georgia Tech.
Photo:  Mark Bramley

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Hæc


Hæcceity denotes the discrete qualities, properties or characteristics of a thing which make it a particular thing. It is a person or object's "thisness" or in other terms, a non-descriptive reference to an individual.

Source: Wikipedia
Image: Robert DeNiro, Raging Bull, 1980