I have new ideas concerning the “triumphal way.” I now see that it starts at the temple and altar of Janus [sic], and this is significant because of Janus’ connection with Rome and war. Furthermore, the notion of Janus as beginning/ending is also significant, and the “way” beginning (and conversely ending) at Janus is complimented by the “way” ending (and conversely beginning) a the altar/temple of Mars.
As the route proceeds from the Janus sector, it makes its way through the Campo Marzio’s “theater district”--in every way a “downtown,” commercial/entertainment zone complete with shops, small baths, and brothels. I am reminded here of New York City’s Time’s Square and Broadway in its mix of accommodation and “entertainment.” The fact that the Triumphal Way weaves through this type of urban area makes Piranesi’s plan/program of the Campo Marzio not at all unlike a metropolis today.
As the “way” proceeds further, it crosses the Tiber and moves into an area that is almost the antithesis of the “theater district,” i.e., the Bustum Hadriani--one huge cemetery. Going from one extreme to another gives the “way” a potent symbolic nature, and I can elaborate on this in how even though the plan of the Campo Marzio is all drawn in the same manner, the actual character of the various sectors of the Campo Marzio are varied and distinct, and the “way” symbolically calls out (calls distinct attention to) the extreme cases. QBVS3 180
Oct 1, 08 9:56 am
1997.01.20
The plan, section, and elevation data displayed at the same scale and in strict chronological order, as opposed to displayed by country, type, style, or architect.
...the idea of a museum of architecture displayed in strict chronological order. 180
Oct 2, 08 8:58 am ·
·
KUNSTTHEORIE. Imitation und Mimesis, Readymade, Reenactment lecture
2008.10.27
"Contrary to common perceptions, it is the female that is hard and the male that is soft. In simple undeniable terms it is woman that enables embryonic development within her own body -- woman's bodies themselves are a hard protective shells (only women corporeally possess and facilitates the human egg that in turn allows fetal development). Men, on the other hand, very much do not have that "built-in" protectiveness, hence men make great displays about forever being on the defensive, and indeed it is almost exclusively men that have continually created our planet's foremost industry, if only to create that protective shell that their sex was not born with -- the age old military apparatus (shields, armor, war ships, submarines, tanks, stealth bomber, etc. are all "man"-made protective shells).
So what then is architecture? Is it a hard, 'simple', 'natural' protective shell that engenders the continuation of life? Or is it a soft formlessness forever (re-)designing an applied shell it doesn't naturally have?"
--ironically, I never mentioned skin
on par, an exoskeletal or an endoskeletal architecture? this would also re-endow the shell with its structural properties in addition to its intermediary properties.
there is yet another, genderless, way of looking at this exo/endo structuring of the soft and the hard. we are seen to be endoskeletal creatures; however, the core of our consciousness and the activator of our body, the brain, is enclosed in its own exoskeletal hard shell. our bodies' soft nudity is turned inside out once it traverses the end of the neck. this makes us into two parallel twisted loops, a two-banded figure of eight, one soft and one hard. the loops interchange position where the extrovert intimacy of the body loops into the introvert intimacy of the brain; the impressions and memory of the nude body enters into the alchemical chamber of the skull and subsequently releases
this, in turn, culturally engenders the cartesian divide between mind and body, an analogical division between the endoskeletal and the exoskeletal. so is the psychoanalytical looping of the unconscious into the conscious.
Nov 2, 08 7:22 am ·
·
Strickly speaking, however, the human skull is not an exoskeleton. While encasing/protecting the brain, the skull also provides support and structure for the head, which contains most of the body's orifices. And it is indeed these capital orifices that channel the senses of sight, smell, taste and hearing--all refinements of the sense of touch.
[There is a reason why helmets are still a vital part of military garb.]
Consider too how the rib cage provides protection for the body's most vital organs. And how the hiatus between the pelvis and the rib cage is where the body (both male and female) most expands.
The human body's true vestige of an exoskeleton are the nails, which are at the tips of the extremities, the outer reaches, the points of primal physical contact--touch--with other matter. I have in the past wondered if the genes associated with our nails are among the very oldest of our genome.
Reenactionary Architecturism
1997.01.15
I have new ideas concerning the “triumphal way.” I now see that it starts at the temple and altar of Janus [sic], and this is significant because of Janus’ connection with Rome and war. Furthermore, the notion of Janus as beginning/ending is also significant, and the “way” beginning (and conversely ending) at Janus is complimented by the “way” ending (and conversely beginning) a the altar/temple of Mars.
As the route proceeds from the Janus sector, it makes its way through the Campo Marzio’s “theater district”--in every way a “downtown,” commercial/entertainment zone complete with shops, small baths, and brothels. I am reminded here of New York City’s Time’s Square and Broadway in its mix of accommodation and “entertainment.” The fact that the Triumphal Way weaves through this type of urban area makes Piranesi’s plan/program of the Campo Marzio not at all unlike a metropolis today.
As the “way” proceeds further, it crosses the Tiber and moves into an area that is almost the antithesis of the “theater district,” i.e., the Bustum Hadriani--one huge cemetery. Going from one extreme to another gives the “way” a potent symbolic nature, and I can elaborate on this in how even though the plan of the Campo Marzio is all drawn in the same manner, the actual character of the various sectors of the Campo Marzio are varied and distinct, and the “way” symbolically calls out (calls distinct attention to) the extreme cases.
QBVS3 180
The plan, section, and elevation data displayed at the same scale and in strict chronological order, as opposed to displayed by country, type, style, or architect.
...the idea of a museum of architecture displayed in strict chronological order.
180
KUNSTTHEORIE. Imitation und Mimesis, Readymade, Reenactment
lecture 2008.10.27
imitation und mimesis
Readymade Reenactment
do you remember?
"Contrary to common perceptions, it is the female that is hard and the male that is soft. In simple undeniable terms it is woman that enables embryonic development within her own body -- woman's bodies themselves are a hard protective shells (only women corporeally possess and facilitates the human egg that in turn allows fetal development). Men, on the other hand, very much do not have that "built-in" protectiveness, hence men make great displays about forever being on the defensive, and indeed it is almost exclusively men that have continually created our planet's foremost industry, if only to create that protective shell that their sex was not born with -- the age old military apparatus (shields, armor, war ships, submarines, tanks, stealth bomber, etc. are all "man"-made protective shells).
So what then is architecture? Is it a hard, 'simple', 'natural' protective shell that engenders the continuation of life? Or is it a soft formlessness forever (re-)designing an applied shell it doesn't naturally have?"
--ironically, I never mentioned skin
on par, an exoskeletal or an endoskeletal architecture? this would also re-endow the shell with its structural properties in addition to its intermediary properties.
there is yet another, genderless, way of looking at this exo/endo structuring of the soft and the hard. we are seen to be endoskeletal creatures; however, the core of our consciousness and the activator of our body, the brain, is enclosed in its own exoskeletal hard shell. our bodies' soft nudity is turned inside out once it traverses the end of the neck. this makes us into two parallel twisted loops, a two-banded figure of eight, one soft and one hard. the loops interchange position where the extrovert intimacy of the body loops into the introvert intimacy of the brain; the impressions and memory of the nude body enters into the alchemical chamber of the skull and subsequently releases
this, in turn, culturally engenders the cartesian divide between mind and body, an analogical division between the endoskeletal and the exoskeletal. so is the psychoanalytical looping of the unconscious into the conscious.
Strickly speaking, however, the human skull is not an exoskeleton. While encasing/protecting the brain, the skull also provides support and structure for the head, which contains most of the body's orifices. And it is indeed these capital orifices that channel the senses of sight, smell, taste and hearing--all refinements of the sense of touch.
[There is a reason why helmets are still a vital part of military garb.]
Consider too how the rib cage provides protection for the body's most vital organs. And how the hiatus between the pelvis and the rib cage is where the body (both male and female) most expands.
The human body's true vestige of an exoskeleton are the nails, which are at the tips of the extremities, the outer reaches, the points of primal physical contact--touch--with other matter. I have in the past wondered if the genes associated with our nails are among the very oldest of our genome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratin
Is there or will there ever be an architecture that reenacts keratin?
(completely?) coincidentally, aaaarg.org has yesterday uploaded 113 texts, a good number of which deal with issues of the body, gender, and war.
http://aaaarg.org/discussions
1998 Dossier Reenactment
1999 Dossier Reenactment
2000 Dossier Reenactment
2001 Dossier Reenactment
2002 Dossier Reenactment
2003 Dossier Reenactment
(forthcoming)
2004 Dossier Reenactment (forthcoming)
2005 Dossier Reenactment (forthcoming)
2006 Dossier Reenactment (forthcoming)
2007 Dossier Reenactment (forthcoming)
2008 Dossier Reenactment (forthcoming)
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