Chemical Brothers Star Guitar- Representing Movement

Stan Allen Essays - Practice Architecture, Technique and Representation

My thoughts & general response- We are a product of our own environments, our knowladge base and background, we experience architecture on some level through our 'baggage' what we come with into the space, what we know.  How we percive a notation is somehow also dependent on this.  Architects have the ability to somehow control the space but total control will never be possible....

We are influenced by our unconcious mind what we have seen, been educated upon or experienced, with out being aware of it. Similar to how we learn to climb, the first step always a conscious movement, you think about it translating it from the brain to your body learning the way it should be performed, as you climb higher it becomes second nature an unconscious movement a physical memory.

Parts I found interesting.......

The Autographic vs Allographic

'Notations are 'abstract machines'

'Many aspects of the experience of architecture can never be effectively simulated or predicted through representational drawing' 

'The limits to architectural drawing map out a paradox... but buildings are much less subject to control than drawings.. unpredictable and intangible effects are produced'

'To elaborate the consequences of architectures mixed status requires looking more closely at the interaction of the built and the drawn.'

'Representation is not something added onto a building but that which makes it possible in the first place.'

'If architecture has lost its historic capacity to fix and determine the limits of urban space and territory, are architects left to work exclusively with images? Or is it possible to accept the reality of this new condition.....?'

'In order to describe or intervene in this new field architects need representational techniques that engage time and change, shifting scales, mobile points of view and multiple programs. '

'Notations- Go beyond the visible to engage the invisible aspects of architecture'

'Even if already performed the work it describes is open to interpretation and change in the course of human performance'

Practice: architecture, technique and representation / essays by Stan Allen; with commentary by Diana Agrest Amsterdam: G+B Arts International, 2000
ISBN 9057010720
AA SHELFMARK: 72.01.036:7.04 ALL

Early thoughts 29.09.12

I struggle with the representation of my interests and ideas which mainly fall around the sensory, phenomenological experiences. Architectural experience as being multidimensional & unpredictable, how is the experience of architecture brought out in its representation? 

I have struggled with the  translation of abstracted theoretical ideas into an architectural language. 

My particular interest which begins to set off this blog for this year is the conscious experience of architecture, being present in a moment at any place &  time, capturing it and just feeling, sensing,being.

How do we begin to represent consciousness in an architectural space?
 

Definitions(taken from other sources);

Consciousness- awareness of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings

It has also been defined as: 'subjectivity, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind. Stated in the Companion to Consciousness As being: "Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness, making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives."

Presence- could be described as the 'the part of space within one's immediate vicinity', the spacious relationship to this moment in time, the completeness of being, a 'being which is activated'.

How can we be in two places at once mind in one, body in the other?

How do we  represent architecture in a way that allows individuals to fully experience the architecture through a conscious mind?

The possibilitys of film
Film has the ability to take the viewer to a particular place and moment in time. It has the ability to connect the viewer with the character or the place in an emotional  way without any prior knowledge of the place or person involved. It has the ability to tell a story, represent movement & atmosphere, capture moments with out stripping those moments down to pure still images or altered realistic end realities.

Before Unit 15 Diploma PT Yr 2

Awakening the Psoas- Research Institute dedicated to the PSOAS

Derived from ideas of the architectural experience as one that is facilitated by the body.  We experience architecture and the city through our bodies and therefore  our biology, mental state and awareness of self influences how we experience the world around us. As we move through space we respond to our environment through what the body senses, taste,touch,smell,sight and sound but in order to  experience all aspects of the senses we need to physically move through space/the city. The  Project therefore  aims to experiment with the  body and architecture, the merging of body movement and architecture.

Taking particular interest towards the psoas muscle, our core & centre what gives us the ability to stand upright as vertical beings. The muscle allows for movement, stance, balance and sensory experience, our matter & biology is that what gives us awareness, mental & physical stability & translation. Movement -the way in which we measure, experience and translate space through the body & mind.

Through movement we stimulate the unconscious mind and awaken the Psoas, stimulating fluid flow in the body connecting the skeleton emotional &  muscular core. Through motion the body polarises external realities and becomes an instrument of meaning, Beyond the bodys and the minds spatiality constitutes the thrust of architectural design, the creation of an order not dissimilar from the bodys own.

My proprio receptors help me be aware of my body in space, give me balance sensory perception and transform information into action through my muscles.
I am Stepping back in time to find the rope maker of Deptford, the rope maker who crafted and fabricated the rope to supply the royal navy, the first royal dockyards as it was known. In Deptford he thrived until the v2 rocket hit, suffering in decline through the economic downfall, robbed traumatized feeling empty inside. The Psoas muscle, the core, the centre of his instincts & survival provided him with stability and strength to stand and kick off the enemies, to remain grounded. Emotionally empty with the desire to craft and fabricate, suffering from loss of identity. Falling deeper into fear, the psoas pulls all the extremities together creating an enclosure, safety and protection for the soft vulnerable parts of the body

A system for researching the Psoas, our core, our centre what keeps us stable  & centered, gives us the ability to move, rotate and experience the world around us.

‘I am caught between a peculiar state of consciousness and delusion. My disorientation is exacerbated by the immaculate cleanliness of the pavement and ceiling, totally free of organic matter.’ Polyphilo, The Dark Forest Revisited

 

Before Unit 15 Diploma PT Yr 1

Diploma PT Yr 1 Project

‘A Viewing Facility That Maps and Plots Celestial Events’

Everyone’s Journey commences with the passage of time
measured by the sky. The Myans Once believed the movement of
objects across the sky represented a connection between celestial
events and human affairs, spatial attributes of the universe, such as
animals & plants & temporal movements of astronomical objects,
astronomy in the form of astrology, space and time intertwined.
Travelers,discoverers,local farmers & fishermen all base their lives
around our sky. We as humans are ultimately encompassed by
nature, a product of our environs, deeply connected to our universe,
sun, earth, moon. On 23.09.2090 the next total eclipse will occur
between the 16h:32:34:7 & 18h:25:19:7 the moon will fall directly
over the sun and the next total eclipse will occur, west Thurrock will
see totality at 17:30 during which the structure of the suns corona is
exposed to the eye of mankind. As we look over the gateway we
await the arrival of the eclipse, a moment that will mark history in
this locality on the gateway as has been done before by other
events in time. Located on the shoulder of the Thames orientated
west,due east of the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, the official
starting point for each new day, year and millennium, the origins of
navigation. A mapping, plotting and viewing facility of celestial
events, a place in which airships are launched to bring us closer to
the quality of light that celestial affairs bring, the quality of light that
touch our senses, an opportunity for plotting, mapping and future
transportation into the city.

Pure presence, clarity , just being, I become empty, nothing, I am
just there sensing feeling being. Tunnels & spaces experiment with
the splitting & focusing of light exposing its qualities, allowing the
body to relate to space as it moves. Finally we reach stillness in a
space where the moment is captured, in a prime orientation,
elevated over the water with a clear vision of the horizon, open to
the gate way yet enclosed. 2090- all is still to capture the moment,
through a pinhole, reflected on a white liquid pool, responsive to the
natural atmospheric conditions. Silent & still inside not out.
Biological connections facilitate phenomological experience,
celestial events brought into the enclosed, sheltered and protected
space contrasting the open engaging experience. The beings make
the experience, space responsive to events. Before reaching the
space our experience and emotion through the journey makes our
body temperatures rise, until we reach the cold, damp & moist
space, the icy breeze is felt as the moon covers the sun and the
gateway experiences totality .