Outpost 141022
Water : A Phenomenal Lens.
Refractive Phenomena.
Void Space Water Gardens.
Steven Holl.
The haptic realm of architecture is defined by the sense of touch.
When the materiality of the details forming an architectural space become evident, the haptic realm is opened up. Sensory experience is intensified; psychological dimensions are engaged.
The psychological power of reflections overcomes the science of refraction.
As rational metaphysics teaches that man becomes all things by understanding them, imaginative metaphysics shows that man becomes all things by not understanding them, for when he does not understand he, becomes them by transforming himself into them.
Vico, New Science.
One of the tragedies of modern urban life is that a complex of urban constructions often puts us out of touch with the poetry and unpredictability of the everyday change in the weather.
Patti Smith
Baptised by the New World
Site : Circumstance and Idea.
Phenomenal zones function life a manifold of parts, presenting the question of a whole more substantial than any of its components.
Each challenge in architecture is unique; each has a particular site and circumstance or program, and for each to fuse sit, circumstance, and a multiplicity of phenomena, an organizing idea .. a driving concept is required.
The unity of the whole emerges from the thread that runs through the variety of parts; whether it be one discrete idea or the interrelation of several concepts.
To find a balance between the science of water and the exhilarating qualities of experience, consider the many states and transformative properties of the substance. We might consider water a 'phenomenal lens' with powers of reflection, spatial reversal, refraction, and the transformation of rays of light.
The 'void space' water gardens and the interior ceilings of the adjacent apartments are connected by reflected light from the ponds. These 'void spaces' containing three inches of water over black smooth stones from Ise, are analogous to a sacred space within the every day world of domestic urban life.
Hungate Medieval Art.
Water, Working Title.
Exhibition, St Peter Hungate, Norwich. 2023.
Sculpture, Installation, Sonic Art, Performance and Film Screenings.
The live reflection of echo and re-echo within a stone cathedral increases our awareness of the vastness, geometry and material of its space.
Water, its use in Christian rituals, baptism, confirmation, confession, ordination, matrimony and anointing of the sick.
Responding to the physicality of stone fonts as objects to hold holy water.
Objects produced according to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church before the Reformation.
An attention to phenomenal properties of the transformation of light through material can present poetic tools for making spaces of exhilarating perceptions. Refraction phenomena produce a particular magic in architecture that is adjacent to or incorporates water.
Of Sound.
Quieting the mind
deep in the forest
water drips down
Hosha.
The brevity of a Japanese haiku poem isolates the 'thing-in-itself' of experience and perception of material and detail.
Space brings the resonance of the acoustic near to life.
John Cage.
In some European cities, the regular sound of the church bell's community call creates a psychological space. Its perceptual associations are tied to the materiality of the bell, its resonant tower, and the adjacent square. This kind of 'sound space' cannot be accurately recreated with electronic speakers.
Sound is absorbed and perceived by the entire body. A sequence of sounds can have a mesmerizing effect on the psyche.
John Cage went into an anechoic chamber over sixty years ago in order to 'hear sounds' and found that experience gave his life direction. Cage's radical and poetic experiments with sound bridged the conventional gap between musical phenomena and the physical and psychological effects of sound.
Electronic music has increased the ranges available to composers and changes in thinking have reframed sound and time.
Scripting Aural Phenomena.
The architecture of music, the structure of aural phenomena might have a graphic parallel in architectural notations; plans sections, axonometrics, etc. Many composers have used time-space notations in order to compose with irregular rhythms. Notations which allow for accidental chromatic notes, microtones, clusters of vertical bands between marked pitches all appear different from conventional notation.
Accordingly we consider a re-framing of space, light and time in architecture.
Paul Valery suggested the closeness of music and architecture, that sculpture and painting one can turn way from, but music surrounds us as does the space of architecture.
Detail : The Haptic Realm.
Today the industrial and commercial forces at work on the 'products' for architecture tend towards the synthetic; wooden casement windows are delivered with waterproof plastic vinyl coatings, metals are 'anodized' or coated with a synthetic outer finish, tiles are glazed with coloured synthetic coatings, stone is simulated as is wood grain.
The sense of touch is dulle or canceled with these commercial industrial methods, as is the texture and essence of material and detail displaced.
The total perception of architectural spaces depends much on the material and detail found and experienced through the haptic realm.
The texture of a silk drape, the sharp corners of cut steel, the mottled shade and shadow of rough sprayed plaster or the sound of a spoon striking a concave wooden bowl, all reveal an authentic essence which stimulates the senses.
Fields.
Diagrams of Field Conditions.
All grids are fields, but not all fields are grids.
On of the potentials of the field is to redefine the relation between figure and ground. If we think of the figure not as a demarcated object read against a stable field, but as an effect emerging from the field itself- as moments of intensity, as peaks or valley within a continuous field, as the figure and field become more enmeshed.
Rather than considering photography as a means to capture an instant, some artists subverted this practice to express duration in time. Sometimes through collages, sequences and superimpositions, in some cases through a single long exposure.
Photographers are exploring different methods to synthesize the fourth dimension within the bidimensional range of the frame. The results provide a wide variety of unexpected solutions, some extremely synthetic while others very fragmented, pushing further the boundaries of the practice.
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