terms of reading

Summarizing my initial steps of investigation into thesis: I read. I read a lot. Some of the most relevant texts I found were perhaps more tangentially related to my topic than precisely analogous to it, as I suppose they allowed me the space to make my own conclusions and take my own perspectives.

I read an interesting article by Peter Sloterdijk called "Modernity as Mobilisation." In it, he argues that modernity has created a tachocracy (LOVE the term) in which "subject functions" (or the Nietzshian will to the self-appropriated production of self) are switched off for being too slow, too sensitive and non-universal. I suppose what he means is that modernity has bred a culture of consumption without digestion, a desire for the quick-and-easy answer, direction, meaning.

Edward Dimendberg's "The Will to Motorisation - Cinema and the Autobahn" comes up with some pretty interesting terms itself. Perhaps the most central is the idea of centrifugal space, encompassing territory, communication and speed. All of which Foucault declares outside the realm of the architect, but whatever. I mean perhaps it is precisely the division between what is within the realm of architecture and what is outside of it that has contributed the desire for objectivity, and the urbanistic clash between spaces that are necessarily objectively created (infrastructure) versus those that rely upon the accumulation of subjective experience ("space" by Marc Auge's definition).

Edward Soja defines synekism as the "critical mass potential for innovation that exists in urban areas, not typically available in rural environment." Curious.

expanding time

ambiguity and image; signs and urban space. how can a familiar image be de-contextualized and rendered unfamiliar? what is that space of unknowing?

Originals

Below is the original statement for my project, and images of my DP board.
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I read the city as necessarily narrative-based. Its spaces emerge out of an amalgamation of the stories of its inhabitants, congealing into a sense of place inextricably tied to its politics. In this context, I define "politics" not necessarily in terms of a legitimized government, but rather as an informal hierarchy that evolves from the ethics of urbanism. Interactions between inhabitants and the social conditions of a city invariably leave a mark on the physical environment, and the structure of the city expresses its shifting public's dynamic.

When these interactions are lost, the spaces evaporate. The connection between them dissolves: bits of information pixellate into discrete signs and lose their syntax within the sociocultural landscape. Ambiguity within the city's semiotics necessitates an active participant, an analyst; non-places reduce the complexity and subjectivity of language to a set of universal, objective signs. These images do not allow for the space of subjectivity, the place in which to dwell, to gather, to accumulate a plurality of meanings.

A modern ideology of technology and the machine has generated vast networks that consume (constrict) space and time, just as Catholicism's cathedrals lengthen, expand them. In each case, the evocation of a destin(-y/-ation) manifests in its physical form. Yet the horizon of Catholicism's divinity differs from the horizon of the destination of the modern non-place of (disembodied) speed. Pavement flows seemingly infinitely into the landscape and the physical
footprint of the highway proliferates toward a horizon, an intended, perceived termination. But the passage does not end; it exists as a segment within a continuum of occupation. Inhabitation of a static place by the traveler is necessarily momentary, removing the physical landscape from the construction of place.

How does the perception of a horizon shift with perspective? Does it? On what scale must this shift take place? Is the shift physical/geographic, or social/cultural? Can an ambiguous network of signification exist within the realm of a non-place? In places of speed? What are the consequences?

Intro! Duction!

since Ben has linked my blog, I suppose I should make this thing semi-legit. So as an introduction, this is a blog charting the development of my degree project for my M.Arch. at the Rhode Island School of Design.

There it is.

http://archinect.com/features/article.php?id=67166_0_23_72_M

http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/

http://www.openstreetmap.org/
http://www.openstreetmap.org/traces