The displayed CATTt opens to all pages at once. The text is folded deep intothe (gut)ter between drawings. Between each folded page is an accumulationof folded V's. The drawings and gutter text are sewn together by machine sothat small pockets are formed between text and drawing and larger pockets areformed between the drawings. The pages have small metal eyelets attached ateach corner and are tied together with cat gut. Definitions, visuals resources,footnotes (cat's feet) are tied to the eyelets and placed in the pockets.

‘skinning the (CAT)Tt repre-sents a field of serious analogi-cal play among, book, body,and architecture with associa-tional networks of hypertext.These networks inform everyaspect of the project, from con-ceptual apparatus to materialsand tactics of movement. Aforay into a place where thedream mechanisms of con-densation and displacementand arational digital logics andlogics of making and inventingcoincide, it is a substantialpiece of research into thequestion of the relation ofdrawings and buildings raisedby Robin Evans inThe Projec-tive Cast ... 'skinning the cat'suggests nothing so much asturning oneself inside out, ofturning a body out of its skinso that the complexinterworkings of the flayedbody are displayed. When the'cat' becomes 'CATTt' througha pun, body shifts to method,or rather, the so-called 'anti-method' introduced andexplored by Gregory Ulmer inhis third book exploring practi-cal applications of post-struc-turalist theory, Heuretics: TheLogic of Invention. Both con-notations of 'skinning the(CAT)Tt' as does its gerundialform that makes a noun out ofa very active and aggressiveverb, refer to processes, thingsin motion. The object that hasbeen produced under thename of 'SKINNING THECATTt' reflects all of this bril-liantly. The thesis does what itsets out to do, both physicallyand intellectually, including theacknowledgment that whenone removes the skin from adomestic animal understoodcomplacently (like architec-ture), gravitas takes over andthings begin to unfold in unpre-dictable ways. Indeed, grav-ity, which is the great presentabsence in architecture,acrobatics, and removing theskin from a body, is literally andfiguratively at work in thisthesis. This project simulta-neously skins many cats, butmost substantially, the cat ofarchitectural complacency isrevealed to be only a skin that,once removed, allows themagic beneath, or inside, to beperformed. Pat Potter per-forms her architecturalacrobatics beautifully, notabove a present or absent net,but with and within many un-folding and intersecting netsthat we can perceive, once weopen up her cat, her book, herconstruction' (Bloomer 1997).

skinning the(CAT)Tt

Patricia Potter

Opening a space between art and architecture, between writing and drawing.

In collaboration with Jennifer Bloomer and Christoph KlingItalic sections of type are taken from correspondence with Jennifer BloomerDec. 1995-Dec 1997

An Invitation:This is an invitation into an empty, exuding, imaginative space. This fertilevoid oozes words and images with more than one possibility of interpretation.In moving across the threshold we move from a static space and time into aprocess of spacing and timing. It is the gesture of the tale/tail that punctuatesthe space. It is a gesture that requires the precision of the acrobat, the passionof the erotic and the patient, creative mind of the reader.

Space and Culture 6

This began as a thesis project for the MESA fellowship program (Masters in European Studies inArchitecture), a nomadic program based in London, Paris and Helsinki. From the beginning I thoughtof the book as a method of collecting. Journals containing sketches, quotations and chance sitingsand events were kept over a period of time. When several notebooks were complete I needed asystem of ordering and referring and added tabs - words, places and people that were of interest tome.

When it came to assembling 'the CATTt,' tabs were used as a way to encouragehypertextual reading, allowing the reader to select a word of interest as a placeto begin. The tabs are printed on strips of acetate and are sewn in so that theybridge the gutter connecting inside and outside. Excerpts from correspon-dence with several artists and architects are printed across the strips.

tab: Acro

'the way farthest out ex-tremes, the little tips thatmake endings: fingers, toes,nipples, taste buds, the tipof the nose, earlobes. Theacrobat walks on these tips,these extremes, these littlepoints. The fern is anacrogen, a plant that growsout of the tip of its stem. Thedrawing of a line is like thisplant, the line always ap-pearing as a laying down ofgraphite (or whatever) bothout of the tip of the drawinginstrument and out of the tipof that part of the line thathas already been drawn.'

64 Patricia Potter

A Network of Associations:Skinning the CATTt is an operation on Greg Ulmer's counter-methodologicalheuristic CATTt , an operation performed on a multi-faceted hypertextual object.Skinning is to peel in the thinnest of layers, to get under the skin, to irritate orstimulate. The operation is an act of violence -- a direct approach, a literal interpre-tation. Growing from the extremity of Ulmer's CATTt and the slippery alogic ofJennifer Bloomer, Skinning the (CAT)Tt extends their efforts to replace argumen-tative writing with associational networks. Describing and stating belong to theold logic -- 'skinning' moves from description and illustration to resonance andcorrespondence, structuring a new order.

The drawn line isused as aparallel form ofnote-taking, inthe margins ofthe process.Forms aresequential as wellas spatial.Drawings areused to stimulateopenings. Theytrace the form oroutline inZwischenraum,the spacebetween.Between art andarchitecture,between writingand drawing,between surfaceand air, betweenobservatory and(s)crypt, betweenprojection andprojected object,betweenknowing andnot-knowing.

The method of this tale is the book -- supported by the spine whose extension is theCATTtail. The cattail, a fuzzy cluster, grows at the edge of the swamp. In thisswamp of words and images skin, as well as swamp, might be noun or verb --metaphor or metonym. The tomentose of short, dense matted hairs is the skin ofthe CATTt. It may be an accumulation of pores or of eyes, apertures or orifices.From beneath the skin, from the body of the CATTt, from the muck of the swamp,things emerge, materialize and come into existence.

Skinning the (CAT)Tt 65

Definitions occupy the slits between gutter and margin. They should be looked at asa condition composed of all possible meaning. They are hybrids or half-truths, linksbetween writing and drawing.

The discovery of the compass enables one to imagine a net of coordinates laid overreality and independent of its structures, in which the unexpected can be caught andarranged. . .One may hope that nature conceals in its womb still more, of greater importance,which lies entirely outside the familiar paths of the power of imagination and whichone can only be sure of finding through the systematization of accident (Ulmer 1994).

Multiple readings are possible as definitions, quotations and resources are pulledfrom their pockets.Swamp: a place of mystery, of enchantment, of danger, where liquid sounds hang inthe mist. The swamp is not like a mountain range or a sunset that might be lovedfrom a distance. You must be in the midst of the swamp — sense its dangers — toknow the enchantment of its presence. The swamp is a place for passive, unproductiveactivities — watching, listening — allowing something to be done to us. The swampis a place of non-symmetrical reflections — where trees are indistinguishable fromtheir roots — a place that is alive, aware — a place of origins, of contradictions.

This anti-book is acontainer of loosepages that mightleap out or shift po-sition and of parcelsthat may be un-wrapped.It explores :the book as collect(a collection and aprayer, an aggre-gate of materialbound by immate-rial).

the book as markermarking place,marking time.

the book asbuilding... an archi-tectural perfor-mance.

66 Patricia Potter

Greg Ulmer'sCATTt is a part ofhis discourse onmethod. Inreference toBreton's mani-festo of Surreal-ism he reveals'a common set ofelements, whichare representablefor mnemonicreference by theacronym CATTt . .. the CATTtincludes thefollowing opera-tions:C=Constrast(opposition,inversion,differentiation)A=Analogy(figuration,displacement)T=Theory(repetition,literalization)T=Target(application,purpose)t=tale(secondaryelaboration,representability)'(Ulmer 1994).

Space and Culture 6

Like Greg Ulmer’s acronym CATTt, PATTt’s CATTt begins with:C = Contrast.The act is to push away from the material, from the architect’s use of expensive,highly refined materials and from the consumer’s obsession with materialityinto the zone of projection. Both the unimportant and that without body or formare seen to operate in a material way.A = AnalogyThe gesture is the armature, the skeletal spine that outlines and opens theinterpretation of the acrobatic and the erotic. The gesture draws while passionerases, carving out the hollows, the halloweds.

T = Theory. The materialization of the CATTt is an invention showing thattheory can not only be written but drawn and built. Moving from generalapplication to a particular position, its representation forms a detailed linkingstructure.T = The Target is the collaboration of artist and architect.The architect desires the freedom of the artist. The artist desires the rigorousinquiry of the architect. The architect, while desiring freedom, fears the intuitive.The artist wants to incorporate both rational and irrational worlds yet fears theprecision of the mechanistic. The architect fears uncertainty, the artist fears thecertain. The between (process/space, space/ process) must preserve the fears, aswell as the desires, for it is here that openings can be projected.t = The Tale conveys the manner of operation, the gestures and passions, the'mystory' of the process. Observation is a process that unfolds space as it leapsback and forth -- defining space with its gestures. This inquiry developed froman interest in how the gestures of opening and closing, of absorbing and emerging,of embracing and releasing, of extending and submitting to a gravitational pullmight create a gestural space in relationship to body, building and time.

Skinning the (CAT)Tt 67

The examination of the snakeskinled me to the interval of spatial connec-tions between existent and existence --between material and immaterial. Once re-leased, the work of art, of architecture, isthere to be intersected, dissected. The ges-ture is the ssslow ssslide of the snake outof its skin, made easier if there is some-

thing to push against, something material.The idea of the material vs. the im-

material is an old argument. The adjectivematerialis derived from materia only meant‘of or concerned with subject matter,'. . .so it was natural for the English word im-material, first recorded in the 15th century,to come to mean not important. It was onlylater that material meant consisting of mat-ter.

tab: SnakeThe slithering line -- the snake.Did I tell you that when I first returnedhome I was reaching down in a dark cor-ner of my studio to retrieve something thathad fallen beneath the copier and insteadof the paper that I reached for I lifted a 4foot snake skin. It is thin, transparent anddeceptively complete with holes, terrifyinghollows, where the eyes and mouth hadbeen and yet the tip of the tail is beauti-fully intact. I am reminded of MarkCousins' lecture at the AA in London,where he asked, 'How can you see thingsas not being there? -- a negation that can’tbe handled by philosophy but only by artand literature.' The sight/site of no eyesterrifies.

The heuristic is easiest to explain by showing how research, memories and accidental events coincidein such a way as to shape the final object. The snakeskin first appeared in my studio and then in aletter from Jennifer Bloomer.

tab: SSSSSSSSS

'After the eclipse of the moon, on Jeckyll Island, Sarah and I came across agreat diamondback rattlesnake in the road, ssssing across miragelike in the plane ofheat above the asphalt. We stopped to watch, terrified, entranced, blocking the roadso that she could cross safely. We moved only after she had reached the grasses ofthe shoulder. A big red car with a big rednecked driver immediately came out of

nowhere and ploughed off the road to run her over. We are still shuddering. '

tab: Acrobat

'Light and darkness re-quire only the support ofspace. The acrobat re-quires the support of theline in tension. The linerequires thesup-portof fourhundredyears of philosophy.Sssss is the between, theexcluded middle, of ten-sion and compression.Even the form, S, is amarker of this.Flaccidity,flow, orsnakemovementof alternating tensionandcompression. Themuscle ofthe acrobat.Light does not travelthis way inspace,but will snake nicely through other media.'

Ex Exit Exist Excite Exert Extend Explode Extrude Exude Exult

X

68 Patricia Potter

'e0rot0ic (#-rÄt2#k) adj.

2. Tending to arouse' (American Heritage Dictionary 1994)an erotic passage -- stimulating openingThe stimulated O might dilate, freeing the pass for the pen. The pen is an instrument of passage, a passage thatthe pen might scrawl through, gathering words, elapsing, sliding, in transition, becoming a gathering of paths,ejecting a map. Between writing and drawing there is a rumor of passion interrupted by the excited screech ofthe drawer. Can something with the same vibration be used to silence the sound while revealing its quality, so

'"Ut" is Latin for "How?" And wassometimes used to mean "So that .. ." (in a sense it is a word thatsuggests both a question and itsanswer.'

The gesture of expression, themanner of holding, of releasing --the gesture of the hinge, opening andclosing -- might be the armature thatstructures the interpretation. Twosets of double-hinged gesturesinform the performance --those ofthe acrobat and the erotic. Both riskfalling. Both move towards anirresistible force. The acrobat worksagainst gravity and then incollaboration - extends and drawstoward the natural force ofattraction.

'Erotics may be described as thenatural movement of the soul ...controlled by laws analogous to thoseof physical gravity.' 3

'what we need is an eroticsof art' (Sontag 1994).

X emerges as the pattern of the process . . X marks out . .Words that extend from the sound x(eks) ex. extend OUT. They hollow OUT, cry OUT, keep OUT, breatheOUT. They x-cavate, x-claim, x-clude, x-hale. The American Heritage dictionary lists fourteen pages of wordsbeginning with ex. Some of these words are slippery, their meanings shift with time. For example before the15th century exorcise meant 'to call up or conjure up spirits' rather than 'to drive OUT spirits,' a sense firstrecorded in 1546.

The X might be seen as a crossing of good and evil, a place where all possibilities exist. We see the gravitationalshift from the X to the spiral nebulae, where the straight lines of the X are curved into the tips of the S. Acombination here gives us S(X), S(ex) -- male, female, instinct, a detail of the body.

The double-hinge denies gravity then collaborates with it, collaborates thendenies. It is a double-hinged geometry that draws away from itself.Drawing OUT into UT

Words allow double-hinged movements, shifts of direction, play. Byextending the O and shifting its scale, in a way by stretching OUT, it mightbe read as a circumscribed UT, as Universal Time, as UTerus, as containeroutline, boundary, the UTmost, the UTter, the UT-O, the accident. The O isnot a circle, not an established O but an orifice, leading to a cavity or passage

Skinning the (CAT)Tt 69

'The gesture of the informe, the ges-ture of the informe,the gesture of theinforme, the gestureof the morfein, the gesture of theformein, the gesture of the informe,the eros of the formmeeting, the furthermeeting o thefoes, the gesture of the informe, theunmarked inscriptionsof little tips....rep pete tition enddescryption evulving into secretformuless. Mi Splay.Spam = mapS S S SS SSSS SSSSS S S S S SSSSsssssssssssssss..................................the gesture of the informe.'

that projections -- fuzzy images and whispered sounds, interrupted by screams of light -- might inhabit theroom. The effort is not to reach the rune, the secret of the writing, but deep into the vibration of the sound, tostay at the point of potential for as long as possible -- to connect with its origins. O is stimulatable, a vent, anentrance, an (E)vent == the opening of the drawer. Wax might be used as a lubricant so that it slides easily.Screeching sounds of passage are reduced to ink and are communicated by the pen as it slides between writingand drawing -- as it slips beneath the table.

In the swamp artificial markers are necessary for navigation.

ARTificial Markers are usedhere to project qualities, informspacing. The space 'informed' isfor inventing, for dangling, forlinking, for intuiting, for inter-preting, for longing. The spacingallows for trembling, for over-powering fear, for double-hingedmovements, for moments ofequilibrium.

'" Informe" is a word with twoopposite meanings. The latinprefix "in" signifies a privation, anegation, but also "in, inside";inform is, without form, in theform . . . The "informe" is thewithout form which at the sametime nourishes and subverts theform in, from its very interior . . .It is always the without formwhich is capable of being theorigin of form' (Rifkin 1987).

ARTificial markers are found in the pockets between the drawings: artists, architects, writers, art-works, places and passages project their qualities, passions, structures and strategies onto this swampof words and images. To the body they are the nourishment that sustains the process. Looks ofmutual desire stimulate the corpus to action and passion and the building to resonance. For example,the quality of the observatory, Horlorge Solaire of Grenoble is investigative and the passion is

70 Patricia Potter

knowing while the quality of the crypt, the catacombs of Paris, is displacement and the passion isnot-knowing. The strategy of the observatory is mapping while the strategy of the catacombs isburrowing. These qualities inform the drawings.

In the Catacombs of Paris we are faced with bones. As members of the body and as architecturalmembers they line the passages. The flesh, the body has been pulled away by gravity and time.

The observatory Horloge Solaire in Grenoble, France was built by the Jesuits in 1673. Mirrorsplaced on window sills reflect beams of light onto a map drawn on the walls and ceilings of astairwell. The earth is revealed by the heavens and the keeping of time is a natural event. Time isseen through direct observations of nature as planets move, crops grow and are harvested, creatureslive and die. The cycle is the abode of time. With the invention of the clock mechanical time begins.The universe becomes a mechanism, along with the body.

The abode of time is now the computer. In the computer bits of data are suspended in timelessness asin the swamp bits of matter are suspended in fluid.

‘The central process of the computer ... removes data from a timeless setting and imprints temporalityonto it. The computer’s past is not fixed, linear or chronological as in the old clock culture. The newpast is formless, timeless data, taking on new meaning every time it is transferred into new programs.The new time is now a resource, not a reference point’ (Rifkin 1987).

This new time might work collaboratively with natural time. The division of time into the nanosec-ond might be the extension while cyclic time is the force that we gravitate toward. Extension, con-nection and body are pulled by gravity while presence is pulled by time.

Misunderstanding comes from locking things into categories. Things can be shifted from onecategory to another, they may be open or closed. The necessary condition is corresponding, aware,alert to all possible meanings. It is not binding -- it holds and releases with the same gesture. Itdoesn’t require the jerky, awkward movements of sequence but exists as 'smooth space' -- a reflectiveyet tricky surface...melting, melding...as gravity pulls the flesh from the bones (Deleuze 1987: 478).

Skinning the (CAT)Tt 71

To study Ulmer’s chapter on the square in Heuretics is to study the useage and linkage of the hingein smooth space. It might be read like the I Ching where the changing lines are of great significance.This process of use and linkage may be remade into a drawing to be read as a series of changinglines, constantly changing direction. Stones are removed from the quarry, directions are taken fromARTificial markers. The mark of the boat through the swamp is one that is immediately erased. Thisline of erasure carries the consequences of the changing line. Into it can be read the shifts of themuck; from land, to mud, to water; from water, to mud, to land. ARTificial markers are the stonesthat figure my stupidity, but in a smooth space the points are subordinated to the trajectory. Therealization is that what is being created here is not only a way, a course, a path but ourselves.

Between writing and drawing, between art and architecture a passage is cast. A passage containingmadness. Ulmer’s madness is the Legionaire’s caffard, the madness of skinning CATTt is therisk of falling, the risk of the acrobat and the erotic. The line drawn is sinfully thin. To leap acrossit is to leap across all boundaries. The acrobat on the flying trapeze must release one trapeze beforegrasping the next. The madness is in the release.

For the artist and architect, the madness, the risk is in the release of the line.The longed for quality might be found in the gesture of the release. The lines released here are linesthat are alive, that are live wires compared to the dead lines released by precision. Matter, thematerial has no significance in itself, only the spaces both real and imaginary that are projectedinside and out. Once released, the line is open to critical examination. There is folie and madness inthe literal interpretation. The CATTt taken literally may be skinned. This porous skin filters what isinside and out. By turning something inside out we might describe the operation of projection,absorbing some things and allowing some to emerge. Ulmer takes stones from the quarry and movesthem to the palimpsest. The receptacle sorts and combines -- contains an absent presence.

The text splits into definitions in the same way that a building splits into plan, section and elevation.

Drawings are sewntogether to formpockets containingg e n e r a t i v eresources. Writtenportions of the dia-logue characterizethe complex move-ment between ob-server and drawing,convey the gestureof the "informe."Images and textfold and unfold --slide in and out.

72 Patricia Potter

The X is a device connecting different levels of discourse. It operates in several sign systems,language, sound, symbol, gesture. It mediates in the space between material and immaterial. It is theinteraction of the gesture with the line informing the interaction of elements -- air, water, earth, fire.The line is in one instance the surface of the water and in another, the horizon. It is the countenanceof the face of the earth erupted by fire or laughter. The line is a point that moves simultaneously infour directions, a movement that extends the point to the four corners of the square, to the fourcorners of the table, to the CATTt with four legs and a tail/ tale.

Hinging from a trajectory, creating an art that hinges off of process rather than image, implies mov-ing in another direction with the same passion. Turning requires lifting and looking under, examin-ing the snakeskin and the trace left by its passage. The line is an apparatus for turning, for opening,for following the shadows of ourselves as we disappear through the doorway shedding a layer ofskin in the process.

Crossing the line between art and architecture requires the timing and precision of the acrobat andthe passion of the erotic.

In collaboration with the acrobat, the erotic forms the X -- penetrating the line with gesture andtouch. The tip of the tale is the acro -- the line, the i. The tip reveals intentions, provides insideinformation to lead one on. It is the end of this project, this projection but it may be fitted to the end,or to the beginning of something else. Skinning the cat is a gymnastic twist that turns the acrobatinside out. The acrobat hangs from the bar and extends the legs through the space between the bodyand the bar, between the lines. The skin of the CATTt irritates and stimulates, getting under the skinis the desire of the operation. The skin filters -- separates liquid or gas from particulate matter, itrejects some vibrations and radiations while receiving others.

Skinning the (CAT)Tt 73

The Cattcage is formed by a steel armature containing a waxed skin. It holds together, encloses,frames the images and texts, performing an analogy between the body's skeletal structrue andarchitectural structures. Simultaneously the cage contrasts conventional methods of bookbinding.The CATTt book is analogous to the German girdle book ( c.1350) covered by a soft skin with a tail.The tail/tale closes the process and forms a handle to grasp the CATTt in a physical and theoretical,material and immaterial sense.

74 Patricia Potter

The CATTt scans an architecture of details -- lines, joints, weights, words, links, hooks, hinges,switching mechanisms. This endless project begins and ends with inconsequential details whoseaccumulation desires to be grounded by a site. Tips and points of connection materialize. The detailis the joint that leads to gestural space. Dislocating is an act of violence, turning inside out, skinningthe CATTt, dislocating a joint. The drawing is not a classical detail but more like a section, an x-ray,cut through the moment of desire or the moment of fear.

In the end all we have are the moments, the details. We watch as they are absorbed by the paper,as they slide between blank pages. The details are more than a magnified view -- more than fragmentsof the whole. They are the lines, the tales, that open to all boundaries at once.

Between the surfaces of timeare absences of love,absences replaced by exploding time.Gesture surfaces as memory,memory that reachesover, under and around.The artist and poet can't forgetwhat no one else seems to remember.

Skinning the (CAT)Tt 75

AcknowledgementsIn 1986 when I first read an article by Jennifer Bloomer in ART PAPERS, I was immediately enamored. Her work wasreaching a depth that I wanted to be able to connect with from my similar dance on the surface. I went immediately to thetelephone and we met the next week for lunck. A uear later I rented an apartment in Atlanta no knowing at the time whereshe lived. I moved into a smaller flat at 11 The Prado and coincidentally she lived in the one directly above. She was thenat work on her doctorated and we saw each other often, I enjoyed reading fragments of her text as it develped. Sheintroduced me to the MESA program and has been my advisor through the final monthes, her advice and (co)respond-enceare an integral part of my work. While I corresponded with several other artist/architects only once, HJennifer and I havehad an extended correspondence, and for that reason here writing breathes more life into the CATTt. I am deeply indebtedto her for her time and her friendship.

I am also indebted to Christoph King, a German architect and fellow MESA student, now working in Berlin. As Potter XKling, we are collaborating on a teporary installation for the Gallerie Nikki Diana Marquardt, Paris and a permanent sculpturegarden "The Frame Game (Secrets in the garden)", a game for handicapped children for Mac Cormac, Jamieson, PrichardArchitects, London. For more information check out the Potter X Kling web site: http://www.snafu.de/~chris.kl/. I wouldalso like to thank Dr. Anne Strand, Jungian psychologist, artist, writer and long time friend for her time in reading and

discussing this essay. Doina Petrescu was a tutor in the MESA program and her critiques have been invaluable to my work.

Iowa State University,USA

References: + X tracks and CATTt's feetAmerican Heritage Dictionary, 1992, 3rd Edition, Houghton Mifflin Co.Bloomer, Jennifer. 1997. Report on MESA thesis project (May)Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix. 1987. A Thousand Plateaus, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota PressPetrescu, Doina. Notes from a Doctoral ThesisRifkin, Jeremy. 1987. Time Wars, New York: Simon and SchusterSontag, Susan. 1994. Against Interpretation, London: Vintage Random HouseUlmer, Gregory L. 1994. Heuretics: The Logic of Invention,Baltimore and London: John Hopkins University Press

Anti-Methods

76 Patricia Potter