Le Roi Est Mort; Vive Le Roi
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Transcript of Le Roi Est Mort; Vive Le Roi
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> list of contents 3> note 5> le Roi est mort; vive le Roi 11> referential 57
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Being an act of intelligence, Architecture has been in contact
with every philosophic and theoretic gear which had been in
discussion among its contemporaries each time. Rooted
deeply in the very essence of being, the discipline has evolved
into an intellectual continuum radically associated with the
boundaries, as well as the orientation, of the thought of each
era. Sometimes ahead of the concept of its time anticipating
the realm of the society, other times following the political
implementations of class-ruled, or mass-ruled, aggregations,
but nevertheless in time to consort the needs of humanity,
Architecture has been a synchronised and indivisible agent of
the premise of existence.
Paramount to the current semiotics of society is the notion and
application of Simulation to all possible aspects of living. There
is hardly an intellectual or practical property of
contemporaneity which is not represented by a digital, or a
physical, model in order for its parameters to be studied,
revealed, altered, edited, and finalised prior to operation upon
any subject of interest. Although modelling does not exactly
contain a great deal of novelty factor due to its extended use
since the beginning of the history of mankind, it is now, more
than ever, that it is aided by the advances of information
technology to appear as a robust analytical method within
which every inquiry shall find solutions.
[-6-]
Among the practice-related professionals, Simulation is treated
as a tool which can disengage the Gordian Knot of decision
and policy making. The main interrogation relates to the extend
of its efficiency and autonomy, as well as its properties of
subjectivity and position against each matter. Critique is rather
more austere on behalf of the theoretical representatives of the
time. Representation, either as a multidimensional depiction, or
as a two-dimensional image, has been under critique since the
dawn of its constitution. Either as a symbol, or an object
manipulated to the point which it becomes significant,
representation has been subject to discussion for centuries.
And, if its multidimensional representative – be that Simulation
– has only lately started to set off the debate around its
potentials and consequences, the region of the Spectacle has
been under the magnifying glass for at least half a century in
the latest history of Architecture.
Scope of this essay is to attend the evolution track of an
Architectural theory initially related to the Event – Spectacle
dipole, and recently engaged to the Reality – Simulation
dilemma. Albeit the connection between the two confrontations
is not profound, practical and literary references will be
provided to build the infrastructure within which both pose as
the unavoidable extension of the other in terms of qualities and
chronology. The importance of this inquiry is critical for
Architecture, in the sense that it provides both conceptual and
practical output, capable of administering the discipline with
the credentials with which it will be able to negotiate
contribution to the contemporary realm. There are scarcely any
[-7-]
design projects that can exist, and stand out, without a prior
consideration of those credentials.
For the purpose of this essay, a range of bibliographic
references was employed to circumscribe the artificial
perimeter of the topic as accurately as possible.
Similar to the language they use, as well as to the depth of their
criticism, Jean Baudrillard – with his texts on Simulation1 – and
Guy Debord – with his writings regarding the society of the
spectacle2 – are intellectuals which not only commented
against a dominant way of being, but are also interrelated in
the sense that there are merely any differences between the
aphorisms they use to characterise two apparently different
notions. Extracts from their writings will be used within the body
of the essay, as well as in the form of quotes in the image
pages to illustrate relativity between the two intellectuals.
Directly related to Architecture, but sourcing their reasoning
from theory, representatives of an era which lacked cold-blood
analysis on crucial subjects, Bernard Tschumi got involved with
the apology of the event theory in the discipline3, and the
discourse which was born out of it4, and Neil Leach
commented on the aftermath of the events of 1968 related to
Architecture5, as well as the emerging practices which find
1 > Baudrillard J.| 1994| Simulacra and Simulation| United States of America: The University of Michigan||
2 > Debord G.| n. d.| Society of the Spectacle| London: Rebel Press||3 > Tschumi B.| 1994| The Manhattan Transcripts| London: Academy||4 > Tschumi B.| 1996| Architecture and Disjunction| Cambridge, Massachusetts:
The MIT Press||5 > Leach N.| 1999| The Anaesthetics of Architecture| Cambridge,
Massachusetts: The MIT Press||
[-8-]
their reasoning in simulation6.
Collections of the proceedings of two conferences, one
dedicated to the contemporary role of the Spectacle in
Architecture7, and one related to the impact of networks in
contemporary practice8, will describe the current analysis of the
matters of the topic.
Philip Ball and John Thackara are included in the referenced
authors due to contribution of their books in the unlocking of
several premises of thought on decision9 and multidisciplinary
design10 throughout the body of text.
Unedited passages from the nominal work of Italo Calvino,
“Invisible Cities”, will provide meaningful and imaginary
discourses to rather dry and abstruse positions which will be
included in the text, because “Some texts, like Italo Calvino's
metaphorical descriptions of “Invisible Cities”, were so
architectural as to require going far beyond the mere illustration
of the author's already powerful descriptions”11.
Such discourses will be evident on the opposing page of the
booklet, where images will also be placed, and both will
6 > Leach N. [editor]| 2009| Architectural Design: Digital Cities| Volume 79| No. 4 [July/ August 2009]| London: John Wiley & Sons||
7 > Vidler A. [editor]| 2008| Architecture: Between Spectacle and Use| Williamstown, Massachusetts: The Clark||
8 > Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007| Network Practices: New Strategies in Architecture and Design| New York: Princeton Architectural Press||
9 > Ball P.| 2004| Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another| United Kingdom: Arrow Books||
10 > Thackara J.| 2005| In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World| London: The MIT Press||
11 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 145||
[-9-]
correspond to an alternative narrative, interrelated with the
main body of text, yet independent and purely supportive.
Relation of “quotation discourses” with part of the body of the
essay will be marked with underlining. The order of appearance
manages to distinguish the correspondence of each reference.
[/]
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// le Roi est mort; vive le Roi/>
Laurent had been in the kitchen the whole Saturday afternoon,
cooking the perfect dinner for two. After he had spent hours in
the local open-air market shopping for the correct ingredients, he
had finally reached to the point where he could create the right
menu. Rosemary and olive oil baked Camembert to go with
crackers, celery, and cherry tomatoes would be the “hors d'
oeuvres”, accompanied by a fruity rose (Cabernet Sauvignon and
Chablis), which would have the mission to unlock and blend the
used spices with its own. A dried fig and pomegranate green salad
would take the position of the introductory side dish, and would
be punctuated with the mineral taste of a “nouveau” Chardonnay.
Venison roast with raisins, plums, and new potatoes, exposed by a
full-bodied Barolo would bring the situation one step before the
desert; dark chocolate mousse with walnuts – a combination
which would simply flourish when enhanced with the tones and
aromas of a sun-dried grapes Mediterranean Moschatos. He
wanted everything to transmit the sense of casual luxury.
Monique, on the other hand, had walked the boutiques street back
and forward several times, in order to decide on the outfit which
would impress Laurent. She chose a simple, long, straight-line,
cotton dress in dark purple, which exposed nothing but her hands
and shoulders, matched it with brown leather ballet flats, and a
pair of long bronze earrings. She concluded her appearance with
some drops of her favourite perfume, which originated its scent
[-12-]
from essences like honey, solar musk, orange blossom, and vanilla.
Her aim was to appear mysterious, yet accessible, and to
communicate her non-negotiable need for independence. After
all, that was just their first date and, although she liked him a lot,
and knew him for quite a while, she would not reveal her
intentions, nor fall for him as easily as she had accepted to meet
him at his house for dinner.
After she had knocked on his door, and he had welcomed her in
his flat, her initial positive mood was reversed; the space was
rather contemporary decorated compared to the classic manner
she imagined Laurent would have kept it, 1960's jazz which was
playing felt inappropriate and overwhelming whatsoever, the
candles and the amount of wine on the table were adding a
somewhat insolent tone in the atmosphere, food did not exactly
smell the way she would liked it to, and he appeared a bit more
enthusiastic than she expected when he looked at her exposed
shoulders. Laurent did not appreciate the sudden fadeout of her
smile after he opened the door, let alone the outfit which Monique
selected to wear. Albeit he did not intent to rush things, her appeal
towards him could be described with a bit of disappointment.
Where did Monique he used to know go? Where did Laurent she
used to know go? The predictions which had both done, and had
both based on assumptions, were not accurate at all. That
Saturday night did not start well.
[-14-]
/ vanishing point
“Nothing resembles itself, and holographic reproduction, like all fantasies of the exact synthesis or resurrection of the real […] is already no longer real, is already hyperreal”12
“Reality emerges within the spectacle, and the spectacle is real”13
What lies beneath disappointment about the non-resemblance of
the initial hypothesis with the result is obviously the whole
number of assumptions which led to the inexact estimation of the
situation. No matter the morph of reproduction – whether it
remains conceptual, or it acquires physical dimensions and
becomes an image –, it is not a sufficient source of the real. To
what extend it can resemble reality is a discussion which its
modern initiators are the Situationists.
Identifying the social relation between people as one which is
“mediated by images”14, Guy Debord, founding member of the
Situationist International, blamed unification as the catalyst which
pointed to the loss of unity in the world. “Spectators are linked
solely by their one-way relationship to the very centre that keeps
them isolated from each other. The spectacle thus reunites them
only in their separateness”15, he continued in his writings, “Society
of the Spectacle”. Being a strong defender of a life of action, he
thoroughly rejected the elaborate production of the image as the
means through which relations should be transmitted. The
rejection gave instantaneous re-birth to the Event-Spectacle
12 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 108||13 Debord G.| n. d., p. 9||14 Debord G.| n. d., p. 7||15 Debord G.| n. d., p. 16||
[-17-]
dipole, which could not but affect the Architectural practice.
According to Bernard Tschumi, the existence of the theoretical
dipole resulted into a schism in the discipline, and the two sides –
of the very same coin – were separated into “a maximalist
version, [which aimed] at overall social, cultural, political,
programmatic concerns while the other, minimalist,
[concentrated] on sectors called style, technique, and so forth”16.
The latter came along with the seduction of the object, and in this
mannerism it had been assigned several characteristics;
“Seduction, Baudrillard argues, is that which extracts meanings
from discourse and detracts it from its truth. […] Seduction can
therefore be contrasted to “interpretation””17.
There is no doubt that the absence of meaning, or rather, the
ascription of it in objects which have achieved significance based
solely on their desire factor, is the main reason for the slavery of
image. It should not be unanticipated that the most elegant
aphorism in the “Society of the Spectacle” is deeply political, and
well-aimed toward the heart of the economic system: “The
spectacle is capital accumulated to the point that it becomes
images”. The truth behind the quote was present even when the
words within were reversed: “[Spectacle is] an image accumulated
to the point that it becomes capital”. In the ability of the phrase
to transform itself lies the strength of its objective. Debord also
noted the ability of the issued image to obtain “metaphysical
subtleties”18, thus, to become a commodity. The consumers'
passive acceptance would become feasible via the dogmatic reality16 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 103||17 Leach N.| 1999, p. 71||18 Debord G.| n.d., p. 19||
[-19-]
which emerged from the nature of the Spectacle, and gave no
chances for questions; “What appears is good; what is good
appears”19. The solitariness of the dominant life model was
considered as the characteristic of self-destruction according to a
dogmatic rule; “every discipline that becomes autonomous is
bound to collapse”20.
Situationism brought up ideas like “negation of real life”21,
“fragmented views of reality”22, both attached to the Spectacle,
which was considered a phase “opposite to dialogue”23. The next
step is described by Anthony Vidler; “The assemblage of
situations driven by the psychic measuring of environments was
the primary concept behind the Situationinst movement, and
consequently the riots in Paris in May 1968.
19 Debord G.| n.d., p. 10||20 Debord G.| n.d., p. 95||21 Debord G.| n.d., p. 117||22 Debord G.| n.d., p. 2||23 Debord G.| n.d., p. 11||
[-21-]
/ post dramatic
“While one should be wary of ascribing too much influence to the Situationists in this extraordinary series of events, their contribution to raising consciousness and fostering a spirit of resistance – notably through the Situationist-inspired enrages movement – should not be underestimated”24
“The most important contribution of the movement – and the riots, if one chooses to separate the two – was probably the creation of the precedent of possible discourses through the detournement strategy and the manipulation of programmatic attributes, which were considered unnegotiable at the time”25
“[...] throughout the 1970's there was an exacerbation of stylistic concerns at the expense of programmatic ones and a reduction of architecture as a form of knowledge to architecture as knowledge of form”26
The Situationinst concerns for random events reflection on
Architecture was to guide the discipline to consider imaginary
programmatic functions into its own events, and, in that way use
was reviewed to acquire alternative interpretations. Projects which
are considered direct aftermath of the events of May 1968
pursued concepts such as “disorientation”, applications such as
“dynamic labyrinth”, and the meaning of space as an ontological
experience27.
Bernard Tschumi suggested that actions qualify spaces as much as
spaces qualify actions, based on the interpretation of violence as
“the intensity of the relationship between individuals and their
24 Leach N.| 1999, p. 60||25 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 122||26 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 140||27 Leach N.| 1999, p. 59||
[-23-]
surrounding spaces”28. By using terms like “fluid and erratic
motions”, “bodies violating space”, “intrusion”, “carve”, and
“presence”, he was led to the – at least – implicit role of violence
in Architecture; one which should not be neglected29. Having the
latter assured, the Swiss began an apologetic course, through
which he redefined Architecture's necessity for both “reality and
concept”30; “Form, or geometry, or style cannot guarantee the
pleasure of space on their own”31, he argued; “The potential
absence of necessity makes the discipline workable in its domain,
and, therefore lonely in a quest for autonomy and commitment”32,
he continued. The terminus a quo had already started to appear..
In a lecture given at London-based Architectural Association in
June 1982, Tschumi championed the allegorical importance of
snapshots of events33, and commented on the value of the
disturbance to the neutral logic which they carry. Most
importantly, he went through a platitudinal discussion within
which set an end to fundamental matters related to the unofficial
rivalry between the Event and the Spectacle, succeeded to put
them under the same magnifying glass, and noted “strategy, form
and sophisticated reference [which should be given] to a general
public out for the day”34. Whatever operational frame was absent
from the Event theory found its main representative in Bernard
Tschumi.
28 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 122||29 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 105||30 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 48||31 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 111||32 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 47||33 Tschumi B.| 1994, p. xxvii||34 Cook P.| 2008, p. 40| Drawing: The Motive Force of Architecture| West Essex:
Wiley||
[-25-]
/ so much for the avant-garde
“If, in the case of the sublime, the object becomes unbounded – and therefore less and more than an object – with the ideological imaginary of the spectacular countersublime, the object reaches an extreme degree of definition, closure and intensity”35
“[The fundamental error of the architectural avant-garde happened possibly when architectural exhibitions in galleries] encouraged “surface” practice and presented the architects work as a form of decorative painting”36
In the cases which hard-core political declarations never seized to
exist, the excessive manipulation of form for the sake of visual
aesthetics and only, led to reviews which considered that kind of
production related to pornography, an orgy of realism, and the
result of premature ejaculation37. Neil Leach maintains that the
moment reason gave its place to technique and performance, the
entrance to the world of the instantaneous was ineluctable38.
Critiques to the society of direct projection often suggested
methods of informal analysis. Notably, Lebeus Woods study for
Sarajevo proposed “injection”, “scar”, and “scab” as deeper levels
of construction. There is hardly any implication for any kind of
event which might follow that study whatsoever, and Leach
commented rather censoriously that “Woods seemingly fails to
acknowledge the aestheticisation that lies at the heart of his
project, a condition that is exacerbated by his proposed
architectural solutions”39. Indeed, the produce which responded to35 Vidler A. [editor]| 2008, p. 45||36 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 141||37 Leach N.| 1999, p. 74||38 Leach N.| 1999, p. 75||39 Leach N.| 1999, p. 29||
[-27-]
the Spectacle as a non-favourable premise limited itself into
merely spectacular representations of the metaphors of the critics
opinions. What is more, this response was communicated through
exhibitions where “revolution” “became political and claimed a
certain authority”40.
40 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 68||
[-29-]
/ infra-terrestrial
“The 1990s were in many ways a turning point in the discussion of drawing. The computer was beginning to establish a leading position, the discussion of “process” was rampant in the most fashionable schools of architecture, the gadget was a creative trigger, the absorption of photographics, multitudinous printing techniques and the inspiration of film and video led to the spirited discussion of architecture and its presence or non-presence. Contemplating (say) a rectangular surface in front of you did not necessarily mean that you would be offered a total, retainable or definite image”41
“The days of the celebrity solo designer are over”42
“The metropolitan individual has to accommodate and register the
rapid bombardment of stimuli within the city, where even the
crossing of the road would fray the nerves”.43What Neil Leach
points out, could have been easily observed by any inhabitant on
any metropolis on this planet. There is no need for compositional
terms, such as the one of “ontological alienation”44, to describe
the saturation of complex systems in this era, and the vast
amounts of the incomprehensible information which surround
individuals. Any combination of the series of political, economic,
or social factors which are namely responsible for this, could take
the blame, but no matter who the expiatory victim would turn out
to be, one single arithmetic parameter could bear all; “The planet's
population has doubled in [this] generation's lifetime – something
that never happened before”45. The mass-spread of digital culture
41 Cook P.| 2008, p. 146||42 Thackara J.| 2005, p. 75||43 Leach N.| 1999, p. 33||44 Thackara J.| 2005, p. 101||45 Thackara J.| 2005, p. 127||
[-31-]
unavoidably degraded human knowledge – either from education,
or from experience – into a merely symbolic form. Cities are
transformed into layers of symbols, and in order to anticipate that
transformation, encounters and interactions need to be devised
and, almost, injected, in the form of events which will refashion
passive acceptance in post-spectacular practice. “We do not
receive anywhere near the quantity of data it takes to overload our
neurons”46, argues Thackara; therefore the critical task is to
provide the infrastructure to allocate it, and the provision to digest
it.
By the end of 1980s a concern on the premise of infrastructural
schemes was beginning to make an entrance. A discreet
intervention proposed by OMA for the Melun-Senart town in
France in 1987 proposed the incorporation of isolated
programmatic voids, ready to express the tendency which might
be evident in the future. The designers left the building sites open
and undetermined “by incorporating the character and the
potential of the urban plan in the designed characteristics of the
voids”47. The urban surface has never stopped to carry functions
and services in its epidermis since then; in opposite cases – spaces
designed for single functions, usually evident in old-style cities –
the fostering of innovative situations tends to be unlikely48.
Situation specificity took the position of function specificity
through the deployment of a “dynamic, organisational, structural
plan, using scenarios, diagrams, parameters, formulas, and themes,
46 Thackara J.| 2005, p. 162||47 Corner J. [editor]| 1999, p. 238| Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary
Architecture| New York: Princeton Architectural Press||48 Thackara J.| 2005, p. 104||
[-33-]
that [encompassed] the mapping of political, managerial,
planning, community, and private relations”49. The new concern –
and truly, a diachronic one – was to get participants to regain
contact with each other.
The Parc de la Villette, Paris, competition required the
characteristics of the age. Both the realm of the time, and the
extracts of Bernard Tschumi's “The Manhattan Transcripts” were
combined to conceptualise the winning entry; a set of
deconstructed cubical solids applied on a programmatic Cartesian
grid. The Follies, as they were named, were nodes juxtaposed over
layers of functions, as well as operational voids, and the complete
composition could host multiple happenings simultaneously. What
is commendable, in the sense that it leaves no questions for the
timing of “The Manhattan Transcripts”, is that the other entries
of the same competition considered programme as the engine of
the project as well, “driving the logic of form and organisation,
while responding to the changing demands of society”50. The spell
for the use of the diagram had been broken.
49 Thackara J.| 2005, p. 108||50 Corner J. [editor]| 1999, p. 237||
[-35-]
/ event spectacle
“Looked at from a distance, randomness becomes total uniformity. […] Those phenomena that often strike us as the most complex, are, in contrast, not random”51
“We now invest extensively in data mining as a means to uncover unsuspected relationships and to summarise the data in novel ways that are both understandable and useful”52
The capability to analyse information, in any possible form,
document it, and allocate it in databases in which it can be
accessed again, and again, is, until now, the most meaningful
contribution of technology. In the circumstance that the access to
information happens at once with the event generating it, a most
beneficial visual dialogue is engendered; one which its potentials
go beyond the agents which constitute it, because of the dynamic
relations between them.
In his essay “From Data to Its Organising Structure”, George
Legrady stressed the always timely need “to investigate the
potential of the active participant as an influential component of
the multimedia interactive event”53. He has been researching and
applying visualisations of data and its organisation process for at
least four decades. Along with the fresh interest for this subject,
came the need of communicating it in the form of an aesthetic
experience, which should, at the same time, be understandable
within limited time and the use of common knowledge54. The
aestheticisation of information is primarily related to the fact that51 Ball P.| 2005, p. 95||52 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 148||53 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 144||54 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 146||
[-37-]
“Contemporary society's infrastructure is encoded in databases
through our interactions in supermarkets, public transit systems,
educational institutions, libraries, etc”55; information is nowadays
available, accessible, and evident, everywhere; it has become
popular. The issue for the contemporary individual now, is to be
able to refine information in order to actually make efficient use
of it. Legrady maintains that “Information management is the
defining form of culture today as it positions us as citizens in
performing according to economic and political models defined
through the statistical outcome of the collected data”56.
55 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 158||56 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 164||
[-39-]
/ about time
“Contemporary architecture has become a high bandwidth medium produced and monitored in new ways necessitating a recalculation of the field's basic assumptions”57
It would be naïve, to say the least, to pretend that any elaboration
with the visual properties of an image has come to an end. On the
contrary, the spectacular parameter maintains its dominant
position in most fields. It has also entered domains in which it has
never been before, like the data one. But its role has been
transformed into a supporting one. It is undeniable that the
representatives of form manipulation – the list of whom contains
most of the each time media-published practitioners – will
continue to “seek to arrest the image flow, to tie it down to a
place, a brand, and a purpose”58, but it will never stand alone as a
practice method any more. Right at the dawn of 2010s,
Architecture cannot be limited to its merely representational
expressions. It has been like that for thousands of years, while it
had been declaring “something other than itself: the social
structure, the power of the King, the idea of God, and so on”59.
Should it remained like that, it would not pose the faintest
solution to any of the society's issues, and, fatefully would be
compromised into a supporting technical role.
57 Vidler A. [editor]| 2008, p. 155||58 Vidler A. [editor]| 2008, p. 3||59 Tschumi B.| 1996, p.36||
[-41-]
/ network flow
“A network is an abstract organisational model, in its broadest sense concerned only with the structure of relationships between things”60
“The operational principle is a redundancy. There are always multiple pathways between any two points and multiple options being activated at any one time. […] Events don't simply happen in the space. The space itself is the event”61
“The impossibility of rediscovering an absolute level of the real is of the same order as the impossibility of staging an illusion. Illusion is no longer possible, because the real is no longer possible”62
“But what if God himself can be simulated, that is to say can be reduced to the signs that constitute faith? Then the whole system becomes weightless, it is no longer itself anything but a gigantic simulacrum, that is to say never exchanged for the real, but exchanged for itself, in an uninterrupted circuit without reference or circumference”63
Breakthroughs in the mathematics of complexity, as well as the
pace of technology adoption by the consumers introduced
network driven practices in the mid-1990s64. As soon as this was
evident, it had been a matter of time before the network started to
affect, not only performance, but also be concerned “with more
humanist parameters involving social organisation, aesthetics, and
culture”65. It was not only that it maintained its fundamental
properties, such as “flexibility, self-organisation, and
60 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 25||61 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 30||62 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 19||63 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 5||64 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 25||65 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 25||
[-43-]
adaptability”66. Nor that it made clear that it becomes visible only
when it fails, and never before, neither after67. Network practice
consecrated “the socialist ambition of the political model; the
mass distribution of a mass-produced array of elements with the
same status; and a new freedom to laterally redistribute people,
objects, buildings, and activities”68. As Baudrillard puts it, it is “no
longer a question of the ideology of power, but of the scenario
of power”69. In the case of Architecture, Mark Wigley's comment
in his essay “The Architectural Brain” is apposite. “Interiors
became circuits. Flow on the outside ever more seamlessly merged
into flow on the inside until the line defining the limit of the
building became paper thin”70.
Not only the social model that the Situationinst pointed to, but
also the negation for the dedicated object, as well as the need for
the “dynamic labyrinth” are manifested in networks. “Architecture
is no longer the positioning of objects in a field; the field itself
becomes a kind of object. Rather than moving through a system
to reach static enclosure or building, you never leave the
movement system”71.
66 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 25||67 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 30||68 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 32||69 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 27||70 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 32||71 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 34||
[-45-]
/ simulated discussion
“It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real, that is to say an operation of deterring every real process via its operational double, a programmatic, metastable, perfectly descriptive machine that offers all the signs of the real and short-circuits all its vicissitudes”72
“The facts no longer have a specific trajectory, they are born at the intersection of models, a single fact can be engendered by all the models at once”73
“One of the most remarkable discoveries of the physics of society is that behaviour which looks strangely “human” can emerge among agents which are in effect nothing but robot-like automata”74
Simultaneously with the extensive use of network in practice, the
need for exploration rose. Data which could describe, and assure,
its efficiency, as well as parameters of the domains which it
represented, became input, and all parts created one discrete
component; Simulation. In the Architectural discipline, although
simulation is used in several subjects – notably environmental and,
structural flows – it is in the making of cities – in the form of
infrastructure, or built spaces – which interest is centralised. In the
latter case, two types of simulation models are used; continuous,
and discrete. Manuel DeLanda, in an interview to Neil Leach
explains the first type; “Continuous urban simulations use
differential equations to capture the rate of growth of any given
city [as a function of other rates], or to capture rates of
72 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 2||73 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 16||74 Ball P.| 2005, p. 420||
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urbanisation over entire regions”75. The facts are then entered into
a database, over a space-time grid of a certain resolution, and
continuity is achieved once the expression is mathematically
integrated. In discrete models, on the other hand, rates of growth
are derived from the bottom up, that is, are calculated based on
agents whose behaviour is defined by rules76. Effectively, these
agents are also able to interact, and, thus, to produce the effects
which emerge from those interactions. Baudrillard's comment is
caustic; “The real is produced from miniaturised cells, matrices,
and memory banks, models of control – and it can be reproduced
an indefinite number of times from these”77.
The issue then, is on the choice of the parameters which will
constitute the system, as well as the notions which they describe;
“Thus, before applying multi-agent simulations one must be clear
about these nested sets [from persons – to communities and
organisations – to industrial networks and federal governments –
to cities] in which wholes at one scale are the parts of wholes at
the next scale”78. But Baudrillard was sceptic about the substance
of aggregations; “We have all become living specimens in the
spectral light of ethnology, or of antiethnology, which is nothing
but the pure form of triumphal ethnology, under the sign of dead
differences, and of the resurrection of differences”79. He was also
doubtful on the percentage of truth which is embedded in
models, since confusion of the latter with facts could leave space
75 Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 52||76 Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 53||77 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 2||78 Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 53||79 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p.8||
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for all possible interpretations80.
History is a discipline which could be deployed in order for
several inputs and outputs to be manually – or, even digitally –
double-checked. According to DeLanda, most cities, or indeed,
different parts of the same city, are combinations of historic
paradigms, such as Venice – with the labyrinthine medieval core –
or Versailles – a city planned under a network of policy-makers81.
Baudrillard became semiotic in his positioning on doubling; “If
according to Mach, the universe is that of which there is no
double, no equivalent in the mirror, then with the hologram we
are already virtually in another universe: which is nothing but the
mirrored equivalent of this one. But which universe is this
one?”82.
Neil Leach championed the attention which should be given in the
use of agents, as they cannot be deterministic of a sort of
collective intelligence, only to have Manuel DeLanda adding that
simulation should be in the position to embody individual, as well
as group parameters, but, nevertheless, not collective83. What
happens when everything goes wrong, can be easily deleted, from
the hard drive, or considered obsolete. In the case that any given
simulation is considered perfect though, there is a series of
questions which remain unanswered. Baudrillard had one answer;
“When a system has absorbed everything, when one has added
everything up, when nothing remains, the entire sum turns to the
80 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 17||81 Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 53||82 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 106||83 Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 54||
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remainder and becomes the remainder”84; and, another one; “But
what happens when everything is sponged up, when everything is
socialised? Then the machine stops, the dynamic is reversed, and it
is the whole system that becomes residue”85.
Before total simulation is achieved, DeLanda is mostly concerned
with the treatment of populations of agents. In the instance
which simulation practices will be ready for use to make actual
buildings, an extensive elaboration in modelling those agents is
going to be demanded. Due to the work load, and for everything
to run smoothly, rules are going to be controlled by explicit rules,
which are going to be set by explicit constrains, which should
comply with certain regulations86. Even at this point, the
resemblance of what could be named “Spectacle Revolution”,
with what could be named “Simulation Opportunity” is vivid;
both would be able to make spaces. The difference is that the first
came to suggest spatial temporal reactions, and only represented
its proposals, whereas the latter appears determined to go beyond
its representational identity. In other words, the simulation
opportunity – with, or without the quotation marks – is, and this
could pose as a new paradox, Real.
It might be that the referential of violence in response to the
society of Spectacle is lost, but its memorandum is still present,
even if Baudrillard argues for the opposite87. It might be that
before Architecture will be able to generate buildings out of
84 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 144||85 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 144||86 Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 55||87 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 78||
[-53-]
merely simulative practices, it has to be able “to devise intelligent
decision-making agents that can influence others and reflect upon
their own decisions”88. And, finally, it might be that through the
whole of this sequence of re-evaluations, the world, as humanity
knows it today, will change to accommodate the new order. One
which, for Baudrillard will homogenise and finally cancel all the
dispersed functions of body, and social life through the threat of
the hypermarket89, but, for others, may actually create a future
better that the present. It is, once again, in the hands of the
society of individuals – not of the Spectacle, not of the Masses –
to choose.
88 Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 55||89 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 76||
[-55-]
/ next day
Sunday morning sunlight went straight through the window and
directly on Monique's face. She had been sleeping on the red sofa,
in her dress – significantly rumply, the latter – all night. She
pointed her eyes toward the smell of the coffee, which was
coming out of the espresso machine in the kitchen, where Laurent
was preparing breakfast. They had probably fallen asleep while
watching the film he suggested. By the way, although the flat did
not change its referential era of decoration overnight, it looked
better. The night before, she had enjoyed the food, otherwise she
would have not drunk so much wine; she had enjoyed talking with
Laurent, otherwise she would not feel comfortable enough to fall
asleep on his sofa; she had even appreciated his attitude – they
both want the same things. Monique got up from the sofa, walked
barefoot to the kitchen, round the island bar, and gently put her
hands – which were still exposed – around his shoulders – which
were not exposed –, and kissed him for the first time. She only
mentioned her disagreement with 1960's jazz a year later, at their
anniversary, when Laurent got her a new – and probably better –
pair of ballet flats.
[/]
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[-57-]
// references/>
/ annotated bibliography
> Ball Philip| 2005| Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another |London: Arrow||
Collective in its references, as well as its conclusions, Ball’s book is
one informed by classic science, and informative of social science.
From physics to philosophy, and from economy to traffic
planning, the references within cover the majority of areas which
concern the contemporary individual, and their manifestation is
led by the most objective language available: the one of
Mathematics.
> Baudrillard Jean| 1994| Simulacra and Simulation| United
States of America: The University of Michigan||
Due to fundamental argument on the notion of simulation, and
simulacrum – the copy without an original – the author succeeds
to marshal the major idiomorphs in which it exists, and then
extensively decompose it into finite elements. The result is a
collection of essays, which, although they were compiled in the
form of a monologue, they may as well set the scene for dialectics
in multiple directions. Thus, the texts become critically relevant to
the premise of Simulation, which is now rendered naked in front
of the eyes of its devotees and opponents.
[-58-]
> Burke Anthony + Tierney Therese [editors]| 2007| Network Practices: New Strategies in Architecture and Design| New
York: Princeton Architectural Press||
The proceedings of a three-day symposium hosted at the College
of Environmental Design and the Department of Architecture at
the University of California, Berkeley, in October 2004, are not to
be neglected when it comes for referring into a topic not
irrelevant to networks. What is more, the explicit orientation of
all the individual essays included in the book provide sound and
valid views for the relevance of networks with Architecture.
> Calvino Italo| 1997| Invisible Cities| London: Vintage
Books||
A poetic and imaginative prose, chaotic and specific at the same
time, this classic novel harbours the allusive verbal representations
of the multiple faces which bear in one single city: Venice.
Through the memorabilia of the trips of Marco Polo, Calvino
creates an almost tangible collection of situations that occupy
space and time in Kublai Khan’s empire. ‘Invisible Cities’ allows a
reading in the co-existence and/or overlapping of the happening
and the image which is nevertheless fresh; free of hard-core
political associations, thus specific to the contemporary gear.
> Cook Peter| 2008| Drawing: The Motive Force of Architecture| West Essex: Wiley||
[-59-]
Through the whole aggregation of nine chapters dedicated to
architectural drawing and representation, the author presents a
series of drawings and their creators with the simultaneous
explanation of their speculations and origins. Of special interest
are the parts which contain Peter Cook’s view on the evolution of
the drawing mannerisms in parallel with the theory which
supports them. Drawing produces images; therefore spectacular
portrayals are its unavoidable outputs. By dealing with the
technological developments, which affect the idea of the
contemporary architectural image, in a non-aphoristic way the
former Archigram member compiles his predictions and
aspirations on the emerging Architecture of the invisible fields;
the kind of fields that derive directly from events that create
spectacles that create events and so forth.
> Corner James [editor]| 1999| Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture| New York:
Princeton Architectural Press||
This is a collection of essays examining contemporary landscape
architecture, which includes the essay “Programming the Urban
Surface” by Alex Wall. The essay is specific on the rising interest
for infrastructure, as well as the strategies which need to be
followed in order for Architecture to fulfil its role as a social
discipline.
> Debord Guy| n.d.| Society of the Spectacle| London: Rebel
Press||
[-60-]
As the common sense reader might guess from its title only, this
book is a manifestation against what the notion and the society of
the spectacle has produced and how this affects the participants
and the humanity as a whole. Written and articulated primarily as a
polemic, it includes terminology, historical references and (its, and
ours) contemporary relations to a model of life which is stated by
the author as dominant. Guy Debord constructs a fundamental
text on the theory of the Situationists, which, albeit political and
unilateral in its contents, is uniquely analytical in its narrative and
disturbingly accurate on quite a lot of its statements.
> Leach Neil| 1999| The Anaesthetics of Architecture|
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press||
A critique on the fetishisation and the privileging of the image as
the means with which the contemporary architectural culture pace
may be constituted, Leach’s caravan of essays aims to reproach
the “intoxicating world of the image”. The visual narcotics of the
image, as opposed to the lived experiences, are responsible for a
corruption which leaves the architectural discipline exposed in
front of –particularly- the eyes of the users, according to the
author. Spectacle and Event are, therefore, in a confrontational
status in a dialectic which favours the latter, but prejudges the
“victory” of the first.
> Leach Neil [editor]| 2009| Architectural Design: Digital Cities| Volume 79| No. 4 [July/ August 2009]| London: John
[-61-]
Wiley & Sons||
“Digital Cities” explores the impact of digital technology on the
design and analysis of cities under the care of Neil Leach who is
the guest editor. In the interview of the latter with Manuel
DeLanda Urban Simulation is carefully discussed, and the extracts
of that discussion are nothing but fundamental in the exploration
of Simulation per se.
> Thackara John| 2005| In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World| London: The MIT Press||
A study on the added value of the technology and its devices to
the life of the contemporary individual, this book may as well
balance on the threshold between the Design and the Business
categorization, but it also reveals the junctions which describe the
two. The author, based on the circumstances and the situations of
today, delivers ways of innovation which can still transform what
is not prosperous now to what will offer better living standards to
the humanity tomorrow. Parts of the book which deal with
situation-based design, as well as flows and invisible fields are
relevant to the essay topic, especially because they are placed in
the contemporary context.
> Tschumi Bernard| 1996| Architecture and Disjunction|
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press||
Tschumi’s writings are considered among the most important
[-62-]
prerequisites in the field of event-based architecture, as well as in
the property of alternative readings which may be done in order
for the discipline of architecture to be understood. This book is a
melting pot of ideas which deal with the incidents, the experiences
and the images of architecture and throughout its collection of
essays (dated from 1975 to 1990), it negotiates the possibility of
disjunctions through its body. Furthermore, it is a clear statement
of both the precedents and the aftermath of the “The Manhattan
Transcripts” by the same theorist and practitioner – Bernard
Tschumi.
> Tschumi Bernard| 1994| The Manhattan Transcripts|
London: Academy||
Probably the architectural book with the best proportion of
thoughts/ words value, Bernard Tschumi’s theoretical project
consists of stories narrated in a three-square form appropriate to
architecture, but initiated by films. Influential in its topic and
multi-collective about the discussions that set off, “The
Manhattan Transcripts” suggests sequence, reciprocity and
conflict, among others, in an allegorical mannerism which turns
out to be less and less metaphorical as architecture evolves to the
discipline which is today, and will probably be tomorrow.
> Vidler Anthony [editor]| 2008| Architecture: Between Spectacle and Use| Williamstown, Massachusetts: The Clark||
Social idealism, technology, and the environmental impact are the
[-63-]
main issues that the essays in this book deal with, along with the
realm of the spectacle. All were presented in a conference held in
2005 and all are products of an era that has hopefully surpassed
political and moral preoccupations and is focused on aspects
which enhance the role of architecture today. Whether the role of
it should be commercial or spectacular whatsoever is a question
that finds many answers within.
/ illustrations
[i] Miles Davis
http://www.fusionjazzer.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/
MilesDavis20.346181151.jpg
[ii] Riots in Paris, France, 1968
http://joelbrady.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/may68-01.jpg
[iii] Constant's New Babylon
http://joqnelson.com/constant.jpg
[iv] The Manhattan Transcripts
[Tschumi B.| 1994, p. 16]
[v] Sarajevo: Scar
http://historyofourworld.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/lw-ii.jpg
[vi] Alienation
http://www.reconnaissanceart.com/wp-
content/uploads/2008/04/alienation.jpg
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[vii] Melun-Senart, OMA
http://ensav.shinslab.net/wp-
content/uploads/2009/05/web0181.jpg
[viii] Schouwburgplein
http://netzspannung.org/cat/servlet/CatServlet/
$files/217934/Schouwburgplein-2.jpg
[ix] Parc de la Villette
http://de.academic.ru/pictures/dewiki/80/Paris_parc_de_la_ville
tte_cite_des_sciences_la_geode_folie_200501.jpg
[x] Parc de la Villette, Winning Entry
http://www.imageandnarrative.be/uncanny/_img/3tschumi.gif
[xi] Parc de la Villette, OMA
http://www.arc1.uniroma1.it/saggio/DIdattica/Cmu/2001/Studi
o/lect/land/image.jpg
[xii] Pockets Full of Memories, 2001-2005
http://netzspannung.org/cat/servlet/CatServlet/
$files/264600/map_graphic.jpg
[xiii] The effect of Worms on the Internet
http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project_details.cfm?
id=268&index=16&domain=Computer%20Systems
[xiv] Flight Density
[-65-]
http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project_details.cfm?
id=67&index=2&domain=Transportation%20Networks
[xv] Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
http://architetour.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/guggenheim-
bilbao-1.jpg
[xvi] Director Interlocks
http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project_details.cfm?
id=175&index=10&domain=Business%20Networks
[xvii] The Regionmaker, MVRDV
http://architettura.supereva.com/books/2003/200309009/index.
htm
[xviii] Ballet Flats
http://cdn2.ioffer.com/img/item/137/762/741/sxXUziJoq4tsH
9K.jpg
/ cover quotes
[inside| back| top]
> Baudrillard J.| 1994, p.6||
[inside| back| bottom]
> Baudrillard J.| 1994, p.146||
[/]
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