Spatial Design

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October 31, 2005

The Shape of Space

In The Shape of Space, Minsky hypothesizes how we, as newborns learn to sense the space around us, with an eye towards crafting artificial intelligence algorithms to do the same. How do we figure it out and put it all together? Where is the prime mover for the development of our relative understanding of our surroundings. How is it that individuals come to the same collective understanding about what is and isn't?

What I find most interesting is the how we consistently mistake truth for our imagination. When we have seen an object from a single perspective, we imagine what it looks like from other perspectives and 'recognize' it from said perspectives. We do this using learned information about perception and space. This power of imagination allows us to function but closes us off to worlds and possibilities that we will no longer allow to happen. Real breakthroughs appear when we recede and let go of those assumptions. When we think like a child, again.

Posted by Bukhin, Mike at 10:09 PM

The Library of Babel

Borge's The Library of Babel describes a labyrinth containing a finite set of all the books ever written and all the books ever to be written. By generating all combinations of a set of alphabetic characters, the Library's contents guarantee a super set of all possible information. All predictions into the future, including a visitor's personal post mortem biography, exist somewhere in the Library.

All the useful information in the world has been generated for the library but the problem is it lacks context. The books, shelved arbitrarily, possibly by the location of the characters on their pages do not give any insight into their truth or validity. They exist as is and it is up to the reader to give them value. This arrangement is maddening to the library's visitors and employees.

The library is visited both by official censors and truth seekers. Both will fail. The censors can never truly destroy any information they deem dangerous because another, slightly different (maybe with just an extra comma), version of the same book exists somewhere else in the library. The truth seekers find the truth but they never know if it is the truth that they are looking for. There are many answers in the library but it's up to the visitor to match the answers to the questions.

Borge's essay is a timeless reflection on the value and weight of information, on the subjective perspective that defines truth. His essay could easily be applied to the current emerging medias, where everyone can publish their own book of potentially meaningless alphanumeric characters. I would also say that the essay is hopeful. There is a certain beauty to a labyrinth of true answers, indestructible and unhindered by self interested.

Posted by Bukhin, Mike at 08:23 PM

Labyrinths

Using a very vivid and a very labyrinth -like complexity approach to describing the fictional city of Tion, Borges recreates everything about this city from its history, customs and even languages.

Borge’s labyrinth -like description of Tion seems to be viewed from an external frame and it amazes that he is so descript ive in the rich detail s of an imaginary city. As I was reading his description I felt as though I was truly exploring his city of Tion instead of just reading the words from his short story.

Overall it took some time to fully appreciate his story but it made for a very interesting reading.

Yonatan Kelib

Posted by Yonatan Kelib at 04:17 PM

Shape of Space:

In reading the Shape of Space, I could not help but draw a very interesting correlation between the overall theme of the article which to me was about understanding how a illusion is created by our brain using different types of sensory input in and to one of my favorite Rodchenko’s works, which is Hanging Spatial Construction No.11.

The connection that I came across between the concentric elements in Rodchenko’s Construction No.11 and the Nearness Diagram of the skin sensors was the fact that these concentric elements as well as the skin sensors were part of a much large r organized structure designed to perform a series of tasks or functions.

While in Rodchenko’s art piece it can be said that the concentric elements we re in place to hold the structure together, can not the same be said for the skin sensors, are they not there to keep our psychical forms in place?. It amazes me that if you really think about it, almost every physical object is made out of smaller parts that serve a specific task or function. When these smaller objects work in unison, they become part of a much more organized and cohesive structure…either a art form or a physical body.

Yonatan Kelib

Posted by Yonatan Kelib at 03:57 PM

Rodchenko’s Work

When thinking of Rodchenko’s various art pieces, some of the terms that
automatically come to my mind are connectivity, isolation, explosion,
confinement and interdependence, these following terms may seem to
contradict each other but it’s the overall idea of cohesive
contradiction that seems to emit from his various art forms.

This sense of contradiction can be seen in several of his Hanging
Spatial Constructions works. Within these art forms you can sense the
explosion of the concentric elements yet also their confinement, which
they are under by the outermost section of the sculptures.

Overall I’m truly impressed Rodchenko’s clarity of though and vision as
it was reinterpreted in his paintings, photographs, and sculptures.

Yonatan Kelib

Posted by Yonatan Kelib at 03:34 PM

Shape of Space

I've always thought that we learned our "spatial" senses through past experiences and with using our five senses. I never thought they were simlpy an "illusion."
"Points are nothing by themselves but exist only in relation to other points"
"...our thoughts are largely shaped by which things seem most similar"
Does this mean that we all have somewhat of a partiality when it comes to our own senses? It seems quite a complex labyrinth that goes on in our minds when it comes to senses. Could we actually map this out?

Simply the reading maps it out like this.

Sensors in skin (nerve bundles) --> Spinal cord agents (nerve bundles) --> Anents for repairing minor disorderings (nerve bundles to other brain-centers) all of this which represents the body- surface regions.

Posted by min at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

Labyrinth of Words

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Borges' "The Library of Babel."
Borges believes in the "infinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries." Throughout the writing, he creates a complex labyrinth for us to think about. Only a few thousand words long, Borges' story draws us into a world both deeply familiar and utterly surreal. I question as to why the "absolute shape, or at least our perception of space" is hexagonal. What about cirular shapes? Is it really "illogical to think that the world is infinite?"

Posted by min at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2005

Nerves

An interesting point in Minsky's "The Shape of Space" relates to how each nerve only sends a binary signal (or as he puts it "i'm here"). Our brains form a combination of these signals into an understanding of the space around us. The "nearness" of signals, the relationships between nerves, are major clues that help in this process. Perhaps an understanding of how to manipulate this phenomenon is key in developing virtual spaces that "fool" the viewer into an immersive experience.

Posted by Andrew Maskin at 11:59 PM

The Shape of Space

When I was younger, I was pretty sure I hated olives. I can't really say how many of them I had ever actually eaten in my life (probably one, ever) but it was enough to know that I didn't like them. But one day, it did occur to me, I think I must have been at a market in Paris looking at the myriad of different flavors laid out before me, that nothing else on this earth tastes like an olive. No one could really describe their flavor to me, except maybe by describing what ingredients had been inserted into the marinade. That's when I decided to make a concerted effort to develop a taste for olives. Because of their uniqueness.

I couldn't help but think of this personal anectdote while reading the Minsky excerpt. It's true of so many things: we know what they are because we know what they are like, and to describe to someone with no frame of reference, or to describe something that is dissimilar to everything else is all but impossible. Because of this, it makes sense to assume that our brains receive and process information regarding the physical space around us by ingesting as much data from all of the objects around us to be able to make a healthy comparison. We may also recall certain bits of information regarding spaces we have been in before and objects we have touched or seen in order to come to a conjecture about things we may never have seen before, or perhaps cannot see in their entirety.

It's incredibly interesting stuff. I've often wondered wether colors exist in the universe (or perhaps some other) that humans have never seen before. I try to imagine what they might look like, but can't.

Posted by Roman, Christin at 01:39 PM

October 28, 2005

Delgario and Duc presenting the Labyrinth

Friday morning class, Oct 28th 2005.

Duc volunteered to go through Delgario's labyrinth.

Posted by min at 05:33 PM

Labyrinth

I had mixed feelings about the labyrinth readings. I was amazed that it any feelings at all. I started John Hejduk’s monotonous description of some fairytale landscape I had just about had it. I have never been much one for fiction, I prefer very heavy philosophy and technical manuals, something that can challenge the way I see the world, show me something new or teach me to create something, so, to take this uneventful, stroll through a fanciful world with two characters who I have no connection to was frustrating and boring. What is their relationship to the place? Where are they going? Do they understand what they are seeing , yet do not interact with anything, not even each other? Sure one goes left and one goes right and they meet in the center, but I would hardly call that interaction. I did find his description of the various clocks interesting, how they work differently during the day than during the night, but still don’t seem to show exactly what time it is. It is easy to see all the endless stories that could easily be told as someone rambles on about all the imaginary things he sees while walking down each possible path, but thankfully Hejduk spared us.
As I tentatively began reading Jorge Luis Borges I quickly realized his thoughtful metaphor of the world as a vast library/labyrinth. I loved Borges’ grand scheme of intelligible books in the library somehow containing all the secrets of the universe and his interrelation of all the librarians and scholars trying to make sense and order of all the books, some even trying to destroy the books. They would sometime discover patterns within books and patterns within sections of the library and patterns within the entire library, but the vastness and infiniteness of the library would always supercede. I found this a very unique way of describing the order of the world as out of our total control even tough we try to make order of it, by trying to make a library out of it. Who was the originator of the library anyway? I wonder how Borges would imagine the infinite possibilities of the world could be arranged today in the age of the internet and more access to information than every before. I think even the idea of a library being thought of as an endless labyrinth is not endless enough when compared to the internet.
Anyway, I really liked Borges’ ideas of an endless library containing all secrets and diversity of the world more than Hejduk’s tedious description of a fairytale world with no interaction. However, after I read Borges I was able to rethink Hejduk as a description of endless possibilities for discovery within a foreign land, this is what inspired me to show my daily walk to school as a labyrinth with different levels, encounters, and nodes of interest. The hardest thing to do was to shorten it down to three minutes. Take a look.
Labyrinth.mov

Posted by Leif Mangelsen at 02:46 PM

Labyrinths: The sequel

I'm glad this is the real Labyrinth short story, because the first one was pretty disapointing. In this story, Borges takes the time not only to describe this world to us, but to lead us through the emotional reponses that evolved from its inhabitants as they sought to discover and make sense of their world, and this is where a story really becomes interesting for me.

The books the library contains could be a metaphor for those aspects of our world that we humans have always tried to make sense of: maths, sciences, biology. These can all be seen as microcosms of the universe and we have always looked to our studies to help us answer that ultimate question: why are we here? When our physical surroundings and the rules that they obey are so orderly and logical, it;s easy to believe that someone or something with some higher purpose must have created them for us. But, occasionally, a phenomenon will present itself with no logical or orderly explanation, one that doesn't adhere to the rules as we understand them. Borges describes the library itself as infinite, but explains that it must hold a finite number of books, though no one has ever seen the end of them. This is one of those such anomalies.

On another level entirely, I have to wonder if perhaps borges wrote this story to describe how it can feel to be a writer, or any artist for that matter, who sees the works he can create as finite, and, perhaps, even pre-defined. Like a bad case of writer's block, I'm sure this concept has often plagued even the most prolific of artists: how will we feel when we've reached the end, when everything that can be written has been written? If we ever thought we had any purpose before, we certainly won't then.

Posted by Roman, Christin at 01:41 PM

Pewter Wings...

I"m sure I should have been gleening all sorts of interestings concepts from this excerpt, but, to be perfectly honest, I couldn't get past the "opposing forces" Heiduk conjured to lead us through his physical space. Why people insist on seeing male and female as absolute opposites I will never understand. The only purpose his bi-gendered characters served was to describe left from right, up from down, etc., and that really could've been accomplished a number of other ways that don't require talking about men and women as though they are from different planets (and they are NOT from different planets). Really, honestly, that's all I have to say about it. I find it that distracting.

Posted by Roman, Christin at 01:40 PM

Learning to fail : infinite world and labyrinth

Coming from my engineering world, even if before that (and to some extend during)I was a painter, I've been influenced by the straight path through problems that is taught in engineering schools.
I planned to build a sphere for the assignment this week. The sphere was to be made of umbrellas' skeleton and was supposed to be floor high.
Well, I failed. I wanted to much, too fast. I lost myself into my own ideas about this project. I didn't spend enough time exposing myself to other ideas, the history of Umbrellas. The plasticity of the result, not the technicality.
The labyrinth aspect of it all is the fact that I isolated myself into a small set of elements that I was combining in infinite ways, going nowhere, feeling lost.
The only issue to my attitude was to get out of the non-creative labyrinth I set for myself. I admit that there was nothing more to do to fix the project. I have to start over from scratch. Failing as an exit. Good to reset the ego and move forward.

Posted by Duc, Thomas at 02:25 AM

I found the Borges text captivating — both physically and meta-. More than anything, I enjoyed the latent humor, nearly irony throughout the writing. Still the concepts Borges presents are very much sobering. The passages regarding the limited nature of the labyrinth — the lexicon — are perfect. Borges plays with scope in very interesting ways — there are definite limits to the labyrinth of language, but they are so vast, we often deify them — canonization. Borges defines the length of the books, the size of rooms, and alludes to a finite number of works comprised.

I was also struck by the passage regarding the destruction of certain volumes. The writing almost seems self-deprecating, invalidating word-smiths. But Dan O'sullivan put it nicely today, to paraphrase, "Just because someone painted flowers before, that didn't stop people from painting flowers." The concept is very Aristotelian, that the knowledge is there, the trick lies in recovering/remembering it. I was consistently thinking of entropy while reading this.

Hejduk, however, I found tiring. Too much relied on abstract symbolism, I felt — so I chose to read it for what it was — a short work of fiction. The imagery, however is fitting of the content. I just couldn'y see anything more than novelty within the context.

I maintain that last week's 'reading' dealt with labyrinths. What about Calvino???

Posted by alex at 01:10 AM | Comments (0)

Labyrinth as Process

This week for spatial, we are collecting data for our labyrinth project. Since I have been wholly immersed in physical computing for the past three weeks, I thought that the process that my group went through to build our breathable plushy would be a great fit for the labyrinth project.

 

There are two maps. One for the observation phase and one for the implementation phase. The second one is a continuation of the first. In the three weeks that we spent on this project, we travelled down many interconnected paths to our final destination. We backtracked, turned down certain directions and accepted others. The maps above are the raw data for the paths we traversed. In the maps, as our ideas become more solid, I start using more photos and less clipart.

Since we are considering labyrinths, these are not linear maps. One could be dropped down in the middle of either of them and then travel through the tunnels of process.

I'd also like to thank Min who taught me a thing or two about documentation. I wouldn't have believed that so much happened so quickly if it wasn't all blogged.

Posted by Bukhin, Mike at 01:06 AM

October 27, 2005

(hu)Man the imperfect librarian

The architecture that Borges constructs in "Library of Babel" and "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" delivers a prophetic picture of how our culture will shift within an ever-expanding informational space. As access to the internet and other production tools has increased, we can see some of what Borges describes in these works. Each product that society creates (i.e. film, book, website, political exercise) is almost immediately split through the prism of culture into an array of analyses, satires, and rebuttals. Within this structure, how can an individual navigate this explosion of ideas? Even if one thinks that s/he is certain of what they are searching for, how can they be confident that the resources they locate are definitive? (I really appreciate Ed's thought on Wikipedia in this context.)

The passage that I find most compelling, and the most devastating, in the Library of Babel is where Borges describes the reaction to the all-inclusiveness of the Library. At first, people are very excited by the prospect of having access to all information because they equate access with a path for the revelation of truth. Shortly, they realize that information is not all that is necessary for understanding, and thus they become inordinately depressed by the infinite forking of information pathways. I think this is where we stand now in relation to the internet and media technology. After the initial enthusiasm for the internet, we are struggling now to determine how to manage the mounds of information piling up.

Posted by Robert Croft at 04:27 PM

Language as a Labyrinth

I thoroughly enjoyed reading both pieces by Jose Luis Borges and John Hejduk. The mind-boggling imagery and logic of both labyrinths they create is, to my mind, even more of a fantastic accomplishment when one considers that it was done entirely with the written word. The ability to convey such grand sweeping visual ideas in a medium that uses nothing but language, either written or spoken, is a skill that everyone can benefit from. The temptation in the "new media" age we currently inhabit is to overlook the importance of words as another valuable tool that we can use to express our ideas.

The Borges piece was also interesting in that it not only used language for the expression of his idea of the Libray of Babel, but it also employed words in a series of books as the basis for the logic of the labyrinth. To even just fathom for a few moments the seemingly infinite set of possible ways letters could be arranged, while still recongnizing that this does actually represent a finite system, is astounding.

Ultimately, I found both works succeeded in not only creating a world with a logic and system that is easily visualized during the course of reading through the pieces, but they also reminded me of why I still constantly crave and seek out the unique enjoyment of reading and writing.

Posted by Fernando Cervantes at 03:04 PM

October 26, 2005

ARToolkit

Jean-Marc asked me to post a link to the toolkit I used for my project this week. It's the Augmented Reality Toolkit (ARToolkit) which allows you to track markers in 3D space from a video input. I can show the code if anyone is interested. So far it's pretty simple!

http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/

The processing power on handheld devices is now enough that you can run this on WinCE and similar devices. e.g. handheld augmented reality -- invisible trains.

Posted by Michael Ang at 01:21 PM

Hejduk

I didn't enjoy Hejduk's piece at first, mostly because it seemed as though he was just writing about differing perspectives and paths, which all seemed pretty obvious to me. But when I thought more about why I didn't like the piece, I realized it was also, and maybe mainly, the writing style: it's very unemotional and blunt, and also linear. It occurred to me that his point in this style is to force you to experience the journey as the man and woman do: step-by-step, obstacle by obstacle. Any emotion you feel is not related to the description of the object, but is related to your own previous experiences with the objects he describes. I had a conversation with someone recently about our comfort levels in situations when we don't have a clear sense of direction (north, south, etc). I generally have a good sense of direction and I find myself getting frustrated and antsy when I lose it, which is also how I felt while reading this piece.

Posted by Fiona Carswell at 12:09 AM

October 25, 2005

Borges & reality

The hazy existence of Tlon, and it's slow bleeding into "reality", made me think about the fluidity of culture, and the transformation of thought into form. Borges seems to be hinting that our culture, and our group conception of reality, is only perpetuated through our own complicity, our own unspoken agreement to share certain assumptions and definitions. If our culture exists to such a large extent as a shared point of view, then as that point of view shifts, so will reality itself. So, if new ideas and thoughts begin to spread and take root, then the apparently solid structure of society will morph. It's like he's suggesting that we live in a room, the physical structure of which is constantly, subtly shifting in response to thought, just as fictional elements of Tlon begin to manifest themselves as fact. Makes me think about the works of Decoi, and fantasize about performance/installation spaces that bend and subtly reshape in response to the inhabitants.

Tlon also made me think about Wikipedia, which is almost like a much less extreme version of Tlon. Here is an ever growing, enormous encyclopedia, which is defining our universe. However, I wonder how much of the facts listed in Wikipedia are really correct, and if minor error after minor error might not subtly start to change our history.

I loved the concept of Hronir, and of the Hronir of Hronir, 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation Hronir. A process similar to that of creative inheritance, how people create by unconsciously combining and expanding upon the creative endeavours of their peers and forebears. Ideas cannot help but breed other ideas, no matter how elusive, mysterious and labyrinthine that process may be.

The Library of Babel seemed to be another metaphorical commentary on our experience of "reality", this time focussing more on the concept of chaos within symmetry, and with the impossibility of true perspective. The librarians suffer the knowledge of their own limitation to see the big picture. They are only able to ever see the tip of the iceberg. If their understanding of reality is based on experience, and their experience only consists of the tiniest fraction of what exists, then they are always stuck in the bug's-eye view.
But they also have to live with the knowledge that everything has already been written, and so in that way everything has already happened - every possibility has already been mapped out. But they can never live long enough to find maps that they can understand. So. They are in a double bind: not much point doing anything new, but also not much point seeking the answers in the library.

Spatially, architecturally, this made me think of the power of repetition, and of suggestion. Repetition to create a sense of the perpetual, and half-hidden allusions that suggest the existence of deeper, inaccessible levels.

Posted by Ed Purver at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2005

Infinite Libraries & Stone Veils

John Hejduk writes with visual metaphors. His writing related to parts of my brain that normally deal with visual concepts rather than written language. Rather than trying to follow plot lines and character developments I became solely occupied with creating massive multi-dimensonal landscapes in my mind. With every paragraph the words seemed to paint large abstract emotionally charged vistas into my imagination; it seemed as if his words related more to subconscious thought patterns as experienced in a dream rather than anything at all literal. I agree with the idea that architecture and spatial constructions speak to each of us on a different personal level. In the part of the text where he describes the man going through the Hedge Maze, "He remembers the ruins of Delos and the cries of his beloved Angela... He leaves the maze with unease; she leaves it with a sense of comfort." This shows us how a space can trigger particular personal emotions based on our own worldview and life experiences. For him the Hedge Maze caused distress, for her it caused comfort. Experiences in such a place are subjective to the individuals' history.

The infinite library had a similar metaphorical style, but was written within a different context. This library represented a universe with its own set of rules which all its inhabitants were bound to. To me it revealed just how bound we all are to our own fabricated consciousness. Scientific and logical reasoning can only explain a small portion of the world around us, yet our minds make us believe that things must happen in believable and predictable patterns. Our laws of physics are completely relative to earth and our existence as humans. On a molecular level our laws of physics break down into mere guess work of probability. The same infinite chaos exists in the library as well as on earth.

I also liked the idea of using books in the library as the connective fiber within this created universe. It seems that all these texts formed a collective consciousness for all people. Together these books are all knowing of everything, they are God essentially. He mentions the search for ones 'Vindication', the idea of finding the meaning of all things, which is a similar quest of people in our world. This is the ultimate question which we all seek to answer in one form or another. In physics it's string theory, in religion it's God... I believe a universal connective force must exist on some type of metaphysical level.

Posted by Karl Channell at 09:31 PM

October 23, 2005

Borges' infinite library

I had some initial problems with the premise of this piece, in that the term "infinite" was used somehwat loosely. That said, I appreciated the part where he points out that in reality there is a finite number of books in the library because they are each unique combinations of a finite alphabet (or alphabets).

In a way it reminded me of a conversation I had last year about the old saying about monkeys and shakespeare. The adage is that if you set up an infinite number monkeys with typewriters, one of them will eventually write the complete works of shakespeare. The conclusions I reached regarding this adage were as follows:
1) If you had an infinite number of monkeys, then you would have the complete works of shakespeare instantly (rather than eventually)
2) The effort to produce the desired results, assuming a a fixed number of monkeys, fixed charachter set and total randomness can be measured in units of monkey-hours (number of monkeys * number of hours)
3) There is a finite number of monkey-hours that would be required, and this number is basically a function how fast monkeys type
4) Mathematically, assuming a given piece is 8000 characters long, and we are dealing with 30 possible characters, this number would be very large (# of monkeys)(30^8000)/(monkey typing speed in characters per hour)
5) To accomplish this feat in one person's lifetime, you would need a quantity of monkeys that greatly exceeds the number of monkeys that have ever lived
6) Even if you did have that many monkeys, there is probably not enough room on the face of the earth to support all of them
7) If you found a way to somehow stack them, the sphere of monkeys around the earth would be so large that many of them would need to be furnished with air supplies as they would extend into space.
8) At this point, obviously, one has to be concerned with how to handle issues of nourishment, waste removal, and breeding successive generations of new typing monkeys. Plus you have to watch out that the monkeys on the outer layers are not somehow burnt by the sun.

But i digress.

I liked the way Borges described the way the people who inhabited his Library tried to cope with such an overwhelmingly large undertaking such as making sense of the world in which they found themselves. This serves as a fairly transparent metaphor to how we try to understand our universe. He even throws in a religion allegory, which was a nice touch.

In an attempt to tie my earlier monkey tangent to the reading a bit closer, I'd say an interesting common theme is man's effort to make sense out of a dauntingly complex undertaking. I think this is a key element of what being inside a labyrinth is all about.

Posted by Andrew Maskin at 05:36 PM

October 22, 2005

Rodchenko

When looking at Rodchenko's work, I often returned to the notion of how he found a way in space to model emergent complexity through the use of concentric simple shapes. Light enters as a secondary element, casting shadows as a third. When hung from the ceiling as opposed to being placed on a pedastal, the natural movement of the suspended object causes shifts in space, light, shadow, and perspective that would not otherwise be made available to the viewer. As a viewer myself, I was made aware of this increased number of available perspectives, as well as the fact that this self-aware moment becomes a part of the notion of the piece as art, which may also be the trigger for the hypnotic effect that Leif pointed out in his entry. Often, hypnosis is aided by the moment when self-awareness is made apparent to the subject, causing the mind to pause blankly for a time as it tries to work out the discrepancy of seeing the self from outside the self, making the subject open to suggestion. This technique is often used in neuro linguistic programming.

Posted by Demi Pietchell at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2005

KILLING THE MINOTAUR.

Very spatial, LABYRINTHS comes to open definitely, the space and the architecture of some imaginary space that can be easily built by the images the author describes, even though he became completely blind at the age of 55, this images are set as a labyrinth in a mathematical way in which time and space are two elements related one to each other.
The imaginary space that a mirror can describe, the angle it gives, in whatever position you place it, is going to give its own view, as a determine scene, that never corresponds with “reality”.
The idea of inability (from Theseus)to get inside a labyrinth, or the necessity of having a string of Ariadna (myth of “Ariadna and the Minotaur”) as the only way to get to this animal, and sacrifice it, (Minotaur, biggest falic symbol depredator of virgins, that hides inside the labyrinth).
The same inability to get inside the reality a mirror shows, the same inability that Borges had when he got blind, ironically being a writer.

Killing the Minotaur is ending with our own inabilities.

"Llego a mi centro, / a mi álgebra y mi clave / a mi espejo. / Pronto sabré quién soy". J.L. Borges.

Posted by carolina pino at 02:10 AM

October 20, 2005

Labyrinths, by Borges

Borges writes about the findings of this nation called Uqbar. He seems to be overly fascinated with Tlon. It's amazing how engulfed he is of Tlon. He creates a labyrinth- like story for us and directs the reader in ways that is very unique in writing. Borges even emerges to attempt to reconstruct the entire history, culture, and the languages of that world. I feel that he has great complexity in his writings and that his writings. His ideas could be applied to certain design processes.

"They judge that metaphysics is a branch of fantastic literature. They know that a system is nothing more than the subordination of all aspects of the universe to any one such aspect."

Posted by min at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)

I found this selection completely ridiculous - dissident. I feel dissatisfied at the lack of completion - the dissidence - in the idealogy of the peoples of Tlon. And I just can't get away from this. This is the labyrinth. They are comprised of Spinoza, Plato, everything, but not to completion. Their very collective existence is hypocritical. Each facet a false door, dead-end, oubliette. Even the nihilistic genesis of the concept is hypocritical - from the founding tricksters to the ascetic slaver - notably exemplified in "demonstrate to the nonexistant GOD that mortal man was capable..." This is error not by error, but by exclusion. The logic is incomplete, and like most real games, there is no second place. The piece is a labyrinth in and of itself - circularity. Spinoza should be beaming. Everything does not comprise GOD, but GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD. This is the correct substantiation of the concepts initiated by Borges. But would that make an interesting story?

Posted by alex at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)

"At times some birds, a horse, have saved the ruins of an amphitheater"

Borges describes a fantastic world, through the conventional device of an encyclopedia. An encyclopedia has entries for weather, Paris, mammals and Uqbar. Uqbar is a place, a nation in the fact that it can appear in an encyclopedia under 'nation', but that's where the comparison ends. Uqbar exists in collective minds, in platonic forms, in perception and understanding, and Uqbar ends when nouns and definitions and when objective understanding are involved.

Uqbar's true nature is in realm of possibility. Borges opens me up to the fantastic, to the potentially possible, to the unexplainable becoming real. The jarring part of the reading, outside the quantifiable nature of Uqbar as a 'nation' placed in an encyclopedia, is the story of someone on Uqbar dying. Maybe that was the use of a conventional word in an unconventional sense. The people of Uqbar never die and they were never born. Somewhere they exist and someplace else they cease to exist and yet they always are.

For me, this was a meditation on perspective and direction. What is, what is not and what could be might easily be switched around.

Posted by Bukhin, Mike at 07:29 PM

October 19, 2005

The reverse Function

It is funny to me that most posts about Borges are text only. I think we stick too much to the text...

The picture above is a 4 part photo of Miss Maggie. on the first two pictures(upper left and lower left) there is mirroring effect, the lower is the upside down version of the upper. The last two pictures reveal the same mirroring effect but the image has been modified to reverse the orientation of the eyes and the mouth. Consider the lower right picture now.

We always see what we are able to think. A labyrinth is an infinite world.
The infinite is a combination of finite entities but the infinite still remains unthinkable. Have a look at the next picture and think about your feelings in front of these events.

The unexplainable is a labyrinth. it's where our Gulliver gets lost. What about embracing uncertainty?

Infinite is also in numbers. Floating numbers (note that they are 'floating') are numbers in between which you'll always find other numbers. Is there any civilization living there? Maybe not but the Greeks used only integers. That must give you an idea of what they were not WILLING to see.
I love the reverse function. this beauty of mathematics ( y=1/x ) is a curve that reaches 0 in the infinite x. When x gets close to 0, the curve reaches the infinite.

the labyrinth is always around. Close to us, so close that in order ensure protection from it we have to set rules and pretend that what we see, do, think and believe is making sense.

Posted by Duc, Thomas at 05:16 PM

Borges: Labyrinthine imagination

Reading Borges' story made me think of the many elaborate labyrinths we create for ourselves in our own imagination. It is like the opposite of Occam's Razor -- that the simplest solution is usually the correct one -- instead, our minds (at least mine), likes to traverse a complex and twisted path to come to some conclusion. Even the most mundane things -- Wondering why your lover is late can lead your mind from the simple (Subways must be down), to the convoluted (he's having an affair with a someone he met at a cafe, or she's planning my surprise party, she's picking up dinner). As the hours go by you can make a thousand paths that your lover might have taken. And then suddenly you remember, oh, she told me -- she had class tonight! And your imaginary labyrinth falls to pieces.

It's easy for our minds to travel these often absurd paths. I'm also reminded of Umberto Eco's book, Foucault's Pendulum. It mirrors Borge's story of a protagonist who discovers a secret text that has been passed down through shadowy conduits, and who then struggles to make sense of it. Eco's story really indulges this imaginary labyrinth of conspiracy, with the hero falling deeper and deeper into what he perceives as a hidden path to the true 'masters of the universe'. Without giving away the ending of that wonderful book, suffice it to say that the paths that he follows are as much informed by his own mind as by the physical evidence he has been following.

Posted by schwa23 at 08:18 AM

October 18, 2005

Labyrinth

This story remined me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 years of solitude. Both talk about an imaginary world (though Borges is far more imaginary) and each floats between what is real and what is mythic. The whole idea of the obsession with the place that doesnt exist, and a large group of people working on to create diffrent cultures and countires for this magical world was also interesting. This aspect sort of reminded me of Open Source software, with each person contriburting something diffrent and unique, but all in a system that has to work as a whole.

Posted by Aaron Harmon at 10:38 PM

Wk 5: Rodchenko
Rodchenko’s work is so strong in its simplification of form in terms of a distillation of structure to its simplest elements which is a perfect segue to modular building. This modularity seems most possible once you know the function and context for a given form.

This week I was struck by the relationship between the way Rodchecko approaches constructing his sculptures and programmatic logic. In both construction and logic processes are broken down to their essential objects and actions.

Wk 6 Borges
Borges obscure and scientific narrative led down a path of insecurity similar to some of Nabakov’s writings--it begs questioning the narrator. The indefinite world that Borges describes, matched with dense language created the sense of a slippage of reality.

Applying these concepts to physical space while working with modularity in building my model kept me adapting whatever I was working on this week.

This all made me want to create works that are not only functional for today but imagine the applications to the as yet unrealized.
Pierre Huyghe’s moving/migrating walls or room piece, ‘Streamside Follies’ at Dia does this to some extent—shifting the walls/room in a way that we have not asked walls to do. http://www.diacenter.org/exhibs/huyghe/streamside/

Posted by Kati London at 08:03 PM

Borges' "Labyrinths"

This must be the stuff Science Fiction is made of. The idea of creating one's own planet may seem exciting at first, but I imagine, once these men started, they got a shock when they realized it was actual work! It became not only a lifetime commitment, but one that lasted through several generations. Reading about them made me feel like I was reading about the free Masons.

This is all very well and good, but probably besides the point of why we were assigned to read this passage. No, I imagine the bits I should be extracting and elaborating upon are the Tlon's concept of space and objects, and their way of thinking about them. The author makes the connection between space and time that the people of the planet Tlon culturally do not. I believe the example involved a burning cigarette in one hand a burning bush in the other, or some such thing, and there being no real-world correlation between the two, because in order for there to be, the cigarette would had to have moved through space and existed in time to light the bush. He furthermore explains that any existing correlation between the two is only a result of psychological association.

Right. Leave it to a bunch of old men to create a world that exists only the way they perceive it to- no guilt, no cause and no effect. Oh, wait! I think that's Earth I was just talking about!

I have to say that I don't find the Tlonian way of thinking nearly as labyrinthine as the author would like me to. The confusion lies only in the pieces of the puzzle left out of the writing. I think many of the ideas are obvious biproducts of human superstition and the others simply pipe dreams. Wouldn't it be wonderful if objects existed solely to fulfill our needs? Yes, of course it would- much less clutter for one thing. But, there are people on this planet who might argue that it already works this way. We call it metaphysical. Strange, yes. Labrynthine, I think not.

Posted by Roman, Christin at 10:00 AM

October 17, 2005

Borge's Tlon

I was very interested in Borges' approach to this story. Instead of directly describing a world, he describes an encyclopedic account of this world. In this way, it would seem, the reader is allowed to get a sense of the labyrinth that is Tlon as a whole rather than being ensconced in it directly.

When inside a labyrinth, the person experiencing it can only experience the boundaries immediately around them. But seen from above, the labyrinth can be appreciated as a whole and individual elements can be examined. Borges' technique similarly affords the reader a context from which this imaginary world might be explored.

Another theme that I enjoyed was that of linguistic differences and philosophical debates within this imaginary world. This added a good deal of richness to this environment. One could imagine it as a truly three-dimensional world to explore, rather than a flat world with simple rules.

Posted by Andrew Maskin at 12:32 AM

October 16, 2005

Rodchenko

I am impressed by the extraordinary complexity in Rodchenko’s repetition of basic rudimentary shapes. Although when we break down any complex system we find redundancy at the fundamental level, i.e. billions of single cells compiling the human body, the crystalline structures of complex molecules.
My experiment in emulating Rodchenko’s style started just as he did by building concentric shapes, in my case squares, one inside the other. Separating the squares in space I saw how they could be placed and rotated inside of one another, I was almost overwhelmed by the possibilities. Falling back on the words of Rodchenko, I followed the “voice” nature. The pieces began to find their own place creating a natural balance rather than a preconceived form. It was interesting, the complexity that arrived through the repetition of these basic structures, demonstrating, as Rodchenko said, the elements’ interdependence on one another. I am drawn to Rodchenko’s minimalist approach, using only materials that are easily available and within understanding, and by reducing his compositions to the basic levels of spatial organization. I liked how modular his sculptures are, offering limitless structures made from the same pieces. A gestalt arises from final piece being greater than the sum of all its parts.
I was also impressed by the lengthy documentation of care taken in displaying Rodchenko work. Not until I saw my structure slowly rotating with the air currents as it hung from the ceiling did I realize how effective the organic slow-motion movement overhead provided multiple moving points of view to the stationary viewer; almost hypnotic.

Posted by Leif Mangelsen at 11:53 PM

Borges' Labyrinths

I believe Borges invented a mental maze with this piece. He explores the freedom to invent a completely new world, complete with a philosophy of idealism and how that influences its language, literature, institutions, "history" and "future".

Within this labyrinth of Tlon exists a different perspective and approach to the whole thought-process. It's interesting how Borges designed their ideals in response to their sense of time, their physical environment. He provides an immense amount of detail, even describing the weight and emotion inflicted by the foreign material from Tlon.

It's difficult to imagine creating a new world, a new society, to break away from what we know in this world. I feel like we're always hoping to do so, bit by bit, to make at least our own space or a larger part thereof, improved in some way. Borges took this on by creating his own complex planet.

Posted by Angela Pablo at 08:21 PM

Rodchenko

Rodchenko's sculptures used basic geometric shapes and calculated positions to create new perspectives of space. The form and space of certain pieces seem architectural in nature. My favorite of his sculptures were the spatial constructions made of blocks of wood. They contrast his more delicate mobiles, and convey stability, weight and playfulness.

I also looked at some of his other works in "Experiments for the Future" - I was really drawn to his photography and graphic design. His simple approach and ideas about geometry carried over into these mediums as well.

Posted by Angela Pablo at 08:20 PM

Jorge Luis Borges: "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"

One of the more interesting things about rereading this story in the context of a class on Spatial Design is that, until I reached the end, I couldn't really understand how it was relevant to the subject of our inquiry. (In fact, I suspected that we were supposed to have read another Borges story, "The Library of Babel," but had been given the wrong handout by mistake.) It was only in the last couple of paragraphs of the story, in which Borges describes Tlön as "a labyrinth devised by men" (17-18) that I began to understand why we were assigned a reading that only tangentially discusses space. What is at play in this story (in relevant part, at least) is the concept of Complexity. Specifically, Borges addresses the distinction between infinite complexity, which can never be deciphered (e.g. the logic of irrational numbers, like pi or e), and finite complexity, which is "destined to be deciphered by men" (18). Borges suggests that mankind's apotheosis, our ultimate creation, is an object that, while finitely complex, is so vast as to create the illusion of infinite complexity. In the end, Borges tells us, even such a vast accomplishment -- the so-called "Greatest Work of Man" (17)-- is destined to be understood (and consequently rendered meaningless) in a matter of time. However, Borges also leaves us with the thought that the illusory verisimilitude of a man-made labyrinth (which is, to Borges, equivalent to -- or at least a function of -- its complexity) may be so successful, and so pervasive, that it convinces even those who know it is finite and man-made to treat it as infinite and real.

Posted by Sai Sriskandarajah at 07:41 PM

October 15, 2005

Rodchenko

The Rodchenko reading wasn't so much a reading as it was a dry narrative of Rodchenko's career. Though there wasn't much to read, the photographs of his work pointed to a clear vision of simplicity and structural integrity. It's as if he was stripping away every-thing, maybe even the thing itself to show the foundations.

That's why it was difficult for me to do this week's assignment. Every time I put something together, it seemed to be too much. I was overdoing it, providing to much detail or context and not exposing the underlying structure. My end result should have been viewed as a starting point, a foundation for many directions but I felt that my attempts were creating too much interference. The raw structure was no longer available.

I decided on a minimal structure composed of the hammer and sickle communist logo. Rodchenko's career is intertwined with the 1917 communist revolution. At the same time, I took the hammer and sickle apart so they would loose their combined imagery and rearranged them into an abstract structure. There are three columns, each comprised of two hammers and one sickle. The three components of each column are on pivots and can be titled in either direction. A movable structure, which with one turn conveys a different idea, moves away from the particular and into the realm of the abstract. It becomes a starting point for an idea. An opening, not a closing.

Posted by Bukhin, Mike at 01:43 AM

October 14, 2005

Rodchenko...

The power in Rodchenko's work emerges from the ability to immediately understand the makeup of the elements in his constructions. He employed basic materials and geometric combinations which are easily comprehended by the viewer. Due to this simplicity, a transparancy of form results that allows one to focus on the complexity that Rodchenko creates in his works. Repetition of form and poignant moments of balance between shapes introduce a language between space and material combination where previously in art only a dialogue between formal representation and emotional response existed. I think this is Rodchenko's most valuable contribution to the evolution of art in the 20th century. The lesson that formal manipulations of simple materials can be an evocative means of artistic communication. This approach can also lead not just to advances in art but science and engineering as well.

While I admire his formal investigations, I do not identify well with Rodchenko's aesthetic, at least in his sculptural works. I find his poster designs striking, but for some reason his constructions do not inspire me. I've had this reaction to almost all constructivist sculpture. It is too mechanical for me to engage myself in it. I enjoy investigating the logic of their structures, but I always find myself yearning for more meaning when I look at constructivist work.

Posted by Robert Croft at 01:12 PM

Rodchenko

In spite of my good intentions, I couldn't help but be more interested in the pictures of Rodchenko's work than in the information written about him. This is just as well anyway, because the pictures really tell the story just fine. I love this period in twentieth century art, where the artist becomes scientist and starts to look at the fundamental physics behind his work. He really, for the first time, asks the question "what is beauty?". After centuries of learning the techniques for recreating the physical aspects of beauty - lighting, framing, position, etc. - we start to wonder why we find certain combinations appealing, what makes them beautiful. And, like most things, the answers can be found in nature. This in turn, poses the question, "all this time, has the artist really been trying to recreate relationships that occur naturally?" There is something reassuring in the fact that Rodchenko took so much effort in not just mimicing these natural occurrences that inetrested him, but in mathematically replicating them. It's comforting to the side of my brain that always wants to know if an apparrently straight line is really a straight line. It's beautiful not only to look at his work for the aesthetic appeal, but also for the calming effect it can have on the mind. Of course, looking at all art mathematically in this way, it would be rather depressing to think that all this time, the artist's elevated roll has been not just a mimicry of our biologically hardwired ideals of beauty, but an imperfection in the eyes of nature. Fortunately, there is a nother side to my brain which things this is okay. This also is beautiful, and that human imperfection must, in some way, also be part of the equation.

Posted by Roman, Christin at 01:02 PM

Constructivism in Venezuela

The reading about Alexander Rodchenko made me think about the influence of constructivism in my country. The figurative art tradition in Venezuela is well known but in the beginning of 1940s and 1950s many Latin-American artists responded to the early developments of abstract art. Constructivist artists in Caracas explored forms of kinetic art, adding moveable objects to the paintings and sculptures. The oil revenues made possible ambitious architecture and urban projects based on constructivism principles.

After 1950, geometric and constructive art – particularly optical and kinetic art – found a niche in Venezuela. Artists like Jesus Soto and Alejandro Otero joined the movement. European artists like Victor Vasarely visited the country. Other European artists settled in Venezuela, like Gego (Gertrud Goldschmith) who came to the country in 1939 as a Jewish refuge. Gego’s wire sculptures suggest “continuum” by the use of repetitive geometric elements. Her work is maybe the antithesis of constructivism but at the same time made according to constructivist concepts. She met the constructivist sculptor Naum Gabo during a brief residence in New York. I wanted to share Gego’s work because I always admired her work. Also she was one of the artists who helped to found the design school where I received instruction (Instituto de Diseno Neumann) Her work influenced the graphic design in Venezuela.

Posted by Villarreal, Sandra at 03:46 AM

October 13, 2005

Well, first of all, I confess I didn't read. Read what? Anything about Rodchenko. Where was the reading? But in any case, I did look at Rodchenko's photographs, and enjoyed his forrays into graphic design. I have always been interested in and inspired by the Bauhaus and like schools of art and graphic design. Rodchenko's photography seems very geometrical, not photography, really, but a strange bastardization. He abstracts his subjects - twists them to seemingly unatural views, his images often displaying a disorienting tilt. I especially enjoy (conversely) both the birds eye and ants perspective he employs in composition. The photograph titled Pioneer Girl gives the subject a certain power unmistakable. She brings forth thoughts and fantasies of the early 20th century european - strong, passionate, patriotic. And through his entire body of work, there remains a constant movement. Even the images portraying still subjects display a tense electricity not easily explained. Movement obviously doesnt have to be literal, much the opposite.

Posted by alex at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)

Why it still talks to us

Rotchenko's work is 70 years old. Fuller's work is 40 years old. What is so modern in Rotchenko's approach that we still think of it as inspiring?
We live in an industrial society and (to some extend) an industrial city. Everywhere we look we see shapes organized by human beings. Most of these objects are elementary(square, rectangle, circle, etc...). Most things are produced in big numbers, all equals.
Rotchenko though in terms of precise production, but in a world where mass production wasn't a fact.
Therefore we are misleading ourself if we think of him as part of the historical path toward mass production. In his era, producing a straight line wasn't something obvious. Regular shapes were the exception, not the rule.

Rotchenko's ideas about simplifying shapes are in some respect comparable to Mondrian's but Mondrian is not though so much as a pionneer. Both had simplicity as an objective, not multiplicity.

I definitely think that our love for Rotchenko is partly due to that cultural misunderstanding. A sort of ethnocentrism that makes his work positive to our contemporary eyes.

Posted by Duc, Thomas at 07:06 PM

Rodchenko - Universal and Timeless Design

While researching some additional information on the web about Alexander Rodchenko and his work, I came across an interesting fact. It appears that the latest album cover by the Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand was inspired by a poster designed by Alexander Rodchenko that features a photograph he took of Lilja Brik, wife of formalist writer and critic Ossip Brik. The spatial constructivist elements that typify Rodchenko's work and aesthetic are very evident in the poster (and the album cover). Lilja has her left hand behind her mouth as she appears to be shouting something out. The shout juts out into angular lines forming a triangle that takes on the resemblance of a megaphone with text spelled out among the lines.

What struck me the most about this work is the seamless way in which the same idea is represented in works that were created nearly a century apart. As Alexander Lavrentev states, in "The Iconography of Space," "Rodchenko demonstrated that the laws of structural organization of material are universal in nature." This allows them to scale to immense proportions, as subsequent artists have attempted. But additionally, I also feel that this has resulted in works that are timeless and universal in their ability to communicate ideas. For myself, as someone who has always been interested in media forms as a method of communicating one's own ideas, I find this to be the most fascinating aspect of his work.

Posted by Fernando Cervantes at 02:59 PM

October 12, 2005

RODCHENKO’S ICONOGRAPHY OF SPACE

After seeing samples of Rodchenko’s creations and thinking of how recently (early 20th century) all of these creations took place, it makes me think how many new things there are left to discover, or at least to play with and make new ways to view art.
I like the simplicity that Rodchenko uses in his pieces, I like the fact that cubism was born because of his observations, and although his creations are very linear, I can’t stop thinking back to the Renaissance epoch, although the styles are completely different, I believe that the same idea applies, the use of exact measurements, whether in the study of form in the Renaissance, and Rodchenko’s exact measurement of lines to create accurate three dimensional structures

Posted by Espinosa, Carmen at 10:19 PM

Inspiration

I must say that I have been looking for inspiration for a good few days now and I just couldn't find enough from researching the web about Rodchenko's work. I know we're probably all supposed to react positively as to how great his work his, how he was a pioneer of his time and all the wonderful things he did. But from researching the net and reading the 'iconography of space' handout, I just was not inspired at all to do anything. Remembering our 'Blog' I finally logged in and read everyone's entries. I must say that was probably the best inpiration for me. Just seeing everyone's different reactions really touched me in a way.

I definitely connected more to the Rodchenko's strong will to recreate natural patterns through geometric rules. I think that in our daily lives we tend to forget, naturally, all of the building blocks from which our world is made of. I'd like to think that there is a direct link between nature's way of building its 'structures' and our way, as humans. I mean, after all, the structures of nature have passed through the greatest test of time - Evolution. And here we are, building all these great structures in our big cities, based on engineering rules that have only been established for some two hundred years?

There is certainly a tendency to move back to nature nowadays, and really appreciate the complexity and beauty of how things evolve naturally. Reading all of the reactions, I remembered a series of photographs that I took last year, which are quite similar to what Rodchenko was trying to do in one of his stages. I think I know now what I would like to do for the assignment.

Posted by Gilad Lotan at 09:58 PM | Comments (1)

Rodchenko: lessons in scale

It seems that one of Rodchenko's (many) gifts was his ability to conceptualize with a sense that his structures could vary greatly in their size. From some of the photographs, it becomes an optical trick to determine how big a structure actually is.
I was reminded especially of artists like Mark di Suvero's works at the Storm King art center in mountainville, ny. You get a sense of this idea scale in great effect; in an expansive outdoor space you can view structures from so far away that they are almost like toys, but you also can interact with them in their monumental reality.
(images from storm king, august 30 2003//click an image to enlarge)

Technorati Tags: disuvero, rodchenko, stormking

Posted by schwa23 at 12:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 11, 2005

Kinetic Arts:Rochenko and Calder

When it comes to mobiles, I always thought about Calder until I learned about Rodchenko this time. Although I am not sure about the relationship between Rodchenko and Calder, I am supposing they must have shared common ground for some points. Rochenko may have explored more various fields of arts while Calder is represented by his signiture mobiles.
It was only a few weeks ago when I found out about "Calder's Circus". I was fascinated by Calder's Circus at Whitney Museum, and it changed whole perception of mine toward Calder. The pieces of the Circus were so tiny, but they moved as they were designed with simple strings or wires to be pulled. It was very inspiring in terms of how the pieces could be designed so simple while functioning in a way they were supposed to. They showed that the kinetic arts could bring very interesting results to the audience with its simple calculation of design.
The implication of Calder's Circus may not be identical as Rodchenko's works, however, the core concept of kinetic arts in both works may be compatible in a sense that they both brought organic movements into their aesthetics. Rodchenko created space out of flat surface, and simple lines were suggesting a plasticity of the piece. I learned that the way to put lines could have a large impact on the impression of a whole art piece.

Posted by Jane Oh at 11:30 PM

Rodchenko

I found the passage about flat space being more spacious than a voloumous body. This is interesting in that logically the converse would seem to be true. However, when you look at Rodchenko's work, the planes appear to extend out beyond the physical space of the sculpture, where as a volomous body rounds back around to itself. The idea of mobiles lighted by spotlights reminds me of a sculpture I saw in Tate National Gallery in london, where the remenents of an explosion are hung around a lightbulb, and create these shadows that seem more importnat than the mobile itself.

Posted by Aaron Harmon at 08:59 PM

Structural Organization

After reading Rodtschenko's piece, I was amazed at how he was able to form such complex structures from using basic shapes. As these simple forms come together, they are held in place together and there is a presence of great energy between each of them.

"Rodtschenko apparently opted for a very simple method of constructing." But from the looks of his pieces, it tells us otherwise. His working method is very clear in his sketches. He put in a lot of thought behind his piece and carefully executed it.

It's a pity that he wasn't able to realize his metal works further. I could just imagine layers of metal wires that would create an illusion of space.

Question...What is it with designers and shaved heads?

Posted by min at 07:16 PM | Comments (0)

Rodchenko, the originator

After reading the article about Rodchenko, the first thought that came to my mind was the word “constructor.” Stacked. Piled. Built. Modeled. Assembled. Linear. Centric. However, self-generating. His works, his constructions, seemed to be self-generating in a given space, as the space was served as the rejuvenator of his art. “Art brut” seems to be a perfect definition for his art. Like art generated by sudden brute force, his materials seems to be interacting with each other to generate a mass, a volume, and even a more complex dimension like three-dimensional. Even though it looks very simple and normal at this period of time, but reflecting back to his period, was 3-D normal to everyone? I truly think that he is “originator.”

Moreover, relating his thoughts to our spatial design class, his saying that “all spatial constructions have consecutive numbers, but they are not broken up into group,” demonstrate somehow the “cognitive structures for the conceptualization of interdependency.” “The laws of structural organization of material are universal.” Maybe it is such openness and clarity that have created different notions in spatial design and different perspectives in approaching different materials in relation to the notion of applied art.

Finally, his spatial constructions for the purpose of the applied art have been very successful, and even admirable, considering the period he came up with this thought. Like he said to follow the “Voice of Nature,” any design should be approached and even accomplished as naturally as possible so it can become universal to any space.

Posted by Tae Ho Yoon at 12:49 PM

October 10, 2005

Rodchenko's Constructions

Rodchenko was able to express himself using the most basic of geometric shapes. As the beginning of the article mentions, his work seems to embody a similar structure to nature in its expression of the basic laws of nature and their codependency on one another. The idea of a 'conceptualization of interdependency' is quite fascinating and apparent within his work. His sculptures reveal an intrinsic relationship between each part and shape within the design. The laws of physics are shown as 'artistic fact' within the kinetic energy of the sculptures, each piece helping the other stay in place through symbiotic relationships.
Rodchenko had an ability to strip nature down to these simple building blocks and then reconstruct them into complex looking kinetic shapes. I enjoyed the volatility of many of his works, each one shifting within a space by altering shadow and form. Most of his works have interconnecting parts which imply strong movements that cause the sculpture to extend outside of it's space; they almost force a connected line or arc between the spaces around them.
Many of the lines and shapes that exist in his work seem to be classic forms of graphic design that are still very apparent in today's designs. Capturing kinetic energy within a sculpture without the use of a machine is highly provocative. The manipulation of sharp angles, perspective and the interconnectivity of parts is what causes much of the energy within his sculptures.
If it weren't for the preservation of a few photographs, much of his work would not have been preserved in any way. I also found it interesting that he transformed into more of a designer than a fine artist with the creation of some of his work for film titles. Had the technology been more accessible he may have made a strong use of the film medium in the context of his work. Overall, his use of universal laws in his work is still a current and powerful process.

Posted by Karl Channell at 01:21 PM

FROM 2-D TO 3-D. (A.RODCHENKO-THE ICONOGRAPHY OF SPACE)

When revealing another vision, or a new vision of something that already exists, sometimes we call it Art.
Some Rodchenko’s minimalist structures were the base to other artists of cubism (see Picasso’s famous photo when drawing with light), minimalism (Sol LeWitt) and Russian constructivism (Malevich)
The first one in using some elements that were only for mathematicians, Rodchenko’s work in sculpture could open new paths or bridges, towards the worlds of 2 dimensions and 3 dimensions. This is idea of substract the main lines of a determine force, gave his work a strenghtful way of conceiving sculptures from 2D, putting together planes to finally build an object in the world of space. Maybe this is why he could narrow the ways in between the image and the object, as we can see on his work as a photographer.
His work with geometrics was later considered as the firsts steps towards kinetic art. Brut Art also gives him some tribute because the early use of cardboard, and raw materials, in despite of traditional aesthetics, Rodchenko’s incredible ability to work with the minimum of materials; and maybe the most important contribution, is made to the engineering world, demonstrating that laws of structural organization of the material are universal, and remain their structure when changing the scale.

Rodchenko is the sketcher of the space, traducing the concept of drawing and structure into it, as if it were a commonly way of explaining the object’s world.

Making objects from planes is maybe the best way of understanding the space.

Posted by carolina pino at 04:22 AM

INNER IMPULSE (“Building a Character”, C. Stanislavski.)

Trying to catch the spirit of a single movement happens to be the result of the observation and disintegration of a subject in motion.

Plasticity of movement or the spirit of one motion; in sculpture, when modeling human figure, in photography making of one gesture a single still frame (when taking pictures of nature, portraits or human figure) or painting (as in Bacon’s studies), we must consider the idea of trying to catch the spirit of the subject; this is to enclose hundreds of movements and freezing them finally in one product.

The subject (in my own work, the human figure) gets its own external plasticity, as stated in Stanislavski's text, in its inner sense of the movement of energy. This energy must be consider the one that makes possible the motion and also makes real (to be seen) the external of something that is really an internal energy (force).

To synthesize plasticity, to show in one single piece lots of frames, to make external this inner energy, is that making art comes to recover or really make sense.
The power of synthesis is the achievement that the artist’s hands (got previously by the eyes) have to center their capacity, even when is not necessarily the human figure, or the motion the final goal.

Since also an abstraction of an idea or a main concept can be the “motion”, or the spirit of something/////in the photograph "HIP", Carolina Pino 1999, melted aluminum.

Trying to catch the plasticity of motion in one frame, (is it possible that this could be the same as synthesis?) or building the physical form of a character, when the inner becomes external, not only by observing motion, but experiencing it.

Posted by carolina pino at 03:38 AM

ORIGAMI: TENSION AND COMPRESSION

The invention of the Wire Wheel (1975) was a tensional integrity, a perfect system (synergy, or the behavior of the whole is predicted by the behavior of the parts) that could worked because tension and compression were acting together, the same way as in Buckminster’s Geodesic Structures (from studies of beam and column, he could establish new structures).

I had worked with polyhedron origami for a couple of years, making installations. I had solved a lot of problems related with structures, since these type of work don’t use any kind of glue, or other way to put the modules together, but using the same cavities of the folds, and considering the scale I use is big enough to have a person inside its structure, tension and compression in working with geometrics and origami, had made me think, work out and solve hundreds of “compression-tension” problems to remain the truth of this ancient practice (its own grace), and dealing with some big troubles sometimes in art exhibition who is people.
People standing inside, trying to guess the material, talking aside…
The whole structures I had worked on are made of folded paper (thick, big size papers), making modules, for then put them together and making these big geometrical structures.

Tension and Compression had become an issue in my work, because an origami structure will only support itself when all the parts are put together. Here tension plays the most important role; each module has to wedge or match into the next one.
It’s a system; it depends on each part to stand the whole.

Posted by carolina pino at 02:44 AM

October 09, 2005

Spatial Construction

Rodchenko's idea of "listening to the voice of nature is interesting in the context of the time in which he lived... many artists were involved in using geometric shapes. For example in cubism, the key concept underlying Cubism is that the "essence of an object can only be captured by showing it from multiple points of view simultaneously". In a sense Rodchenko did this in his sculpture, his geometric shapes moved and showed us many sides to the harmony of nature and perhaps the power of shapes reinforcing the structure of other shapes.

There is something very beautiful about his spheres that show multiple inward spheres descending in scale... There is a kind of resonance in his use of repetition, by resonance I mean that he achieves a strength through a kind of frequency.

When I was working on our movement project I couldn't help thinking about Duchamp's "Nude descending a staircase". I see Rodchenko as another step forward in my thinking of how shapes can move through space.

Posted by David Bamford at 07:45 PM

Rodchenko & Geometry

In reading about Rodchenko, I was struck by his emphasis on geometery. In many of his works there seems to be a certain symmetry, a harmony that defies the hard edges of his materials.

I was also interested in the relationship between his work and the times in which he lived. In many ways he was a trailblazer, as he defied many conventions of the day. It's also interesting to view his work set against the historical perspective of early 20th Century Russia. Many of the ideas prevalent at the time incorporated the notion of man as a machine that could be fit into the larger machinery of a planned economy. I feel as though in a way this notion is reflected in his use of rigid shapes to represent human motions.

Posted by Andrew Maskin at 05:42 PM

October 07, 2005

Bucky Fuller reading, Wire Wheel

I don't know if Fuller's writing is at all appealing. It was difficult to understand and his ideas were quite complicated compared to those of Stanislavski's.

One quote that did stand out is,
"... all these tension-vs-compression patterning relationships are completely reversible..."

I have to admit, I've never really observed wheels closely. But it is an amazing structure with so much energy in between each part. The way the strings are held together and how tension between the ends and the wheel frame complete the structure is quite scientific and rather surprising when closely observed. I think such structures should be implimented into architecture.

Posted by min at 11:42 PM | Comments (1)

A Russian Actor Pretends

What a scene this guy makes! Talking about the dancers and how their movements are meaningless and empty. I can imagine a class of actors learning to use their bodies and move in ways they may not ever need to just to explore the extremities of their capability of movement, and I can understand why. It is up to them to give their movements meaning, they are the actors.

In the same way, I can understand Tortsov, or Stanislavski or whoever he is, teaching these students to understand their "sense of movement" and explore the flow of energy that courses through their bodies not when they are performing concocted dance moves, but when they are doing something as normal and everyday as walking. However, I don't see how ultimately this excercise was any different from the dancers', seeing as NO human being actually walks this way. Tolstov likes to think that our movements are dictated by this internal energy, but the truth is, in everyday life, are movements are dictated more by the external things whose influence he despises. We walk a certain way because we feel a certain way, because we are rounding a sharp corner, or avoiding running into other people, because we are in a room surrounded by superiors or friends who look up to us. I would think that, as an actor, studying these effects should be the next step, immediately following a dance lesson or a lesson in walking, they both appear to be serving very much the same purpose- simply to open the body and explore its range of movement in order to be more capable of isolating characteristics of movement.

Posted by Roman, Christin at 11:55 AM

(Uncle) Buck

Geodesic domes are the most ridiculous looking structures ever concieved. Fuller seems to write like a megalomaniacal fanatic. But Fuller's concepts are interesting, if heady and sensationalized. The sociological theory behind his concepts are more interesting than the actual science - to me. We live in an era that focuses on both ends of the spectum - a necesary dichotomy - between compression and tension. Previous to the recent past, compression was dominant. But compression married with tension makes for a much greater force. Fuller gathers that the world is still controlled by the past way of thought, even if the methods are modern. The old systems remain - even if only as a shallow structure around which ideas are learned. It seems fuller remains on the same subjects through the majority of his discourse - human obsession with past paradigms, himself, and his domes. Structural integrity can only bring a form so far. Other factors do exist, of which Fuller makes little mention.

Posted by alex at 01:42 AM | Comments (0)

October 06, 2005

THE WIRE WHEEL and TANSEGRITY

Both readings refer to the relationship between tension and compression, since the invention of the wire wheel and geodesic designs, inventors have been looking for ways to work around both of these relationships. They have been trying to create structures, which architectonically, were always thought to never have been able to stand on themselves, but through the ingenious designs of these inventors, they have been made possible.
I also thought that it was very interesting the fact how someone can patent these geodesic structures. The fact that these types of structures can exist, and withstand large weights, opens a whole new way to view architecture, but in many ways, some architects are still hesitant to make these kinds of structures livable, for now they are just being large sculptures, until someone dares to put one of these creations at play.

Posted by Espinosa, Carmen at 09:37 PM

Patenting a structural style

By using lofty language and appealing to the poetic over the literal, I felt as though Fuller's article attempted to impress upon the reader that geodesic structures were (cue echo chamber effect) The Architecture of the Future.

Surely these were exciting times to be rethinking architectural vocabulary. Lunar cities, here we come! I found it interesting how the article fixated on how, despite being based on natural structures, geodesic architecture is indeed a patentable idea.

Those few lines that talked about the cases where patents should apply vs when they shouldn't perhaps reflects a society shifting toward a state where ideas and information are valuable commodities. Nowadays we're patenting one-click shopping, user interface elements, gene sequences, all without batting an eye.

I'm sure it must have been an awkward position for Buckminster to be both an outsider in the architectural design world and to also have such faith in the revolutionary potential for his new structures. Patents must have been a key factor in allowing him to promote geodesics as the next wave of the future without fear of having his ideas ripped off.

Posted by Phiffer, Daniel at 03:34 PM

Thinking Inside the (Wire) Wheel

Buckminster Fuller gives us plenty to think about in his musings on the Wire Wheel and Tensegrity. Although I found his use of the wire wheel structure as a basis for geodesic design fascinating, I was more intrigued about what he (and by extension, his work) had to say about the status quo's resistance to new ideas if they stand in opposition to commonly accepted principles, even if those new ideas are derived out of actual lived experience and observation.

For myself, as someone new to any type of formal training in design theory and principles, I find it refreshing to read the work of someone who urges us to trust what we see and experience, even if others in the field of study we are concerned with, find it disruptive or unfeasible. The freedom to trust what you experience yourself is what seems to have driven Fuller to investigate forms that others found inexplainable. Now, of course, many of Fuller's principles are part of the accepted body of architecture "knowledge." I find it both fascinating and liberating that by continuing to develop his ideas in directions other initially resisted, he was able to truly make a difference, both in his field and in any creative activity where risk must remain part of the equation to truly create something that engages and, in many cases, might even frighten people.

Posted by Fernando Cervantes at 02:01 PM

Stanislavski versus Fuller, motion and structure

It stroke me how the way Stanislaski looks at movement is somehow similar to the concept of tension inside shapes in Fuller's writing. Of course Fuller's style is not appealing. Self centered person, he is in contradiction with what he is talking about.
Nevertheless it is interesting to see how these two theorists are influential in today's world. I chose the museum of Bilbao to illustrate my post because it wouldn't have been possible to build such a structure without the ideas of both these men. The structure of the museum is preconstrained concrete, transforming compression forces into tension to maintain together these arches and volumes. On the other hand the structure itself does not seem to be still. always moving, like volutes of smoke or the imprint of a bird's fly.

For those interested, here is the official website of Bilbao's Guggenheim museum: http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/ingles/home.htm

Posted by Duc, Thomas at 06:32 AM

October 05, 2005

Tensegrity

The description of geodesic structure in "Tensegrity" by Buckminster Fuller was not easy to understand, perhaps because I was not familiar with the idea. The photographs of the structures were helpful, and those pictures made me wonder if the structure might be applied to architectural structures. It may not be the same, but for the bridge, which requires stable and strong support from its structure, geodesical analysis may give better solution for optimal design. Even for the project of this week, as I used the wire, balance and stability was essential point in building the model.

Posted by Jane Oh at 08:56 AM

October 03, 2005

Tensegrity and Bucky Fuller

In wirewheel Buckminster Fuller speaks about structural-tension using a social language. This continues Stanislavsky's line of reasoning that movement should follow meaning, in structural terms. Superimposing content on structure in some ways can create an indisputable connection to an original intention.

Both wirewheel and tensegrity make me think of Frei Otto

Fuller's collapsible (I think) lunar structures made me think about the scale of our class models. With such a crunch for space, it is challenging & inspiring to communicate ideas by creating collapsible and/or portable models that are still strong and dynamic structures. If you haven’t seen it everyone should try to get to see the Extreme Textiles exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Museum, it is up until October 30th. There is a Mars landing gear that couldn’t exist without Buckminster Fuller’s work.

Posted by Kati London at 10:41 PM

Plasticity of Motion

Stanislavski mentioned the mercury metaphor in the article. He suggested that the inner mindset can define the body movement. It simply reminds me of a traditional Chinese knowledge about how to use personal mind to control the body movement ... more

Posted by Min Weng at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)

Tensegrity

Buckminster Fuller's descrption of geodesic structures mentions how the behavior of the geodisc could not have been predicted by the academic framework in 1951 is intersting. The fact that such structures work without individuals "having to know why" is fascinating. I always find people who expirement and find ways to do things that, as Fuller says, "not obvious," inspiring. Primarily because I think its worthwhile to break a few mathematical rules form time to time.

Posted by Aaron Harmon at 06:26 PM

Tensegrity

When Buckminster Fuller describes geodesic structures as complex arrangements that are 'sometimes superficially similar to nature', I was reminded of some of Andy Goldsworthy's complex hanging pieces which appear as serendipitious acts of nature even though they involve a great deal of human design. Though the examples in the tensegrity article all involve metal rods/spokes, probably because the author is thinking in terms of architecture and lunar structures, I'm interested in the use of other, more organic materials, such as what Goldsworthy uses, where the bending of the material also becomes a factor in the overall tension and creates a softer, more organic finished form.

Posted by Fiona Carswell at 01:30 PM

Building a Character

Stanislavski's Building a Character provided a new perspective on movement and its connectedness to a flow of energy. It's interesting to deconstruct our bodies and our movement, and attempt to understand how each part should move to utilize its abilities. He states it very eloquently when he refers to dancers "whose poses become artificial, whose flowing gestures become disproportionate and pompous. They use movement and plasticity for the sake of movement and plasticity. They learn their movements without any relation to inner content; and they create form bereft of meaning."

It makes sense to apply this idea across all mediums of art - without meaning or purpose, is it just art for art's sake? It should express some idea or concept, which becomes the core of that piece. It drives the entire piece forward, providing the energy.

This reading really complements our assignment with the acetate sheets and the building of the model, as we begin to analyze and break down a physical movement into fractions, or frames. As we connect the dots, we begin to trace the flow of energy that we send through our bodies.

Posted by Angela Pablo at 01:17 PM

Basis of Movement, Stanislavski

After having read "Building a Character" by
Stanislavski, I have to admit that I was more aware of my walking posture and each step that I took.

It is true that "people do not know how to make use of the marvellous apparatus which is their legs." I don't think any of us are aware of the each movement of the muscles or bones as we walk. We simply take it for granted and our minds are ahead of our each step.

Yet,when we do dissect this movement and study it, like Jean-Marc had in our lecture, the movement of the body quite beautiful and the structure of it as it is dissected, is quite grand.

Stanislavski states, "It is important that your attention move in constant company with the current of the energy, because this helps to create an endless, unbroken line which is so essential to our art." He makes us realize that things that is apart of us daily.

I spent the past Summer in Burma, in a meditation center for a month and traveling for two months. There, they teach all of us to focus on all our individual movements. They train us to observe all our actions and intentions that occur in our mind. This reading relates a lot to Vipassa Meditation.

"... you realize that at the foundation of plasticity of movement one must establish an inner flow of energy."

Posted by min at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)