2001.02.16
Reenactionary Architecturism topics
I have yet to review and include any early BIA notes into the reenactionary notes. I will do this soon, but I think I will at this point keep them in a separate html index, just for convenience at this time.
The offerings within 'paradigm' of OTHERWISE EYES suggests that there is still material to review regarding the BIA in general.
If I do not go to Las Vegas to take pictures of the 'great city of reenactment', then I might just be able to make something with pictures of Atlantic City. In fact, I could well present Atlantic City as a reenactment of Las Vegas, thus making the case (both good and bad) as to how 'reenactment urbanism' is presently being manifested in practice.
....
2001.02.16: In reviewing note 001128 re: a publication devoted to the promenade architecturale, it occurs to me that Reenactionary Architecturism may be a publication produced in several part. Part one is then (perhaps) based more exclusively on the letters, thus offering a general overview of the theory, although with many excursuses nonetheless. Part two then elaborates on the whole promenade architecturale theme, and part three can involve a year by year study of the "real" Baroque (with great use of copyright free material, i.e., my eBay books. I'm not yet sure if there is a fourth part (such as BIA/Zeitgeist), but overall I'm presently sure the subdivision of the theory of reënactment in general is the path now being followed.
2001.04.10 09:41
Re: militarism and freedom...
Utilizing (in this instance) a metabolic imagination, I am free to opin destructively as well. I, like all humans, have a series of operations going on within my body (which includes my mind).
If one equates or exchanges Imperialism for Capitalism, then US business/foreign policy does indeed act agressively well beyond its own borders. If one agrees with Schumpeter (sp?) that Capitalism is 'creative destruction', then it is likewise easy to see how (any) militarism is closely related to capitalism.
In my (chronosomatic) opinion, the United States of America is our planets consumate Assimilating-Metabolic State. It absorbs, it creates, and it destroys, and it does all this in tandum more than anyplace else. The era of unrestricted expansion is now over, however. And a (re)new(d) structural duality is now beginning (East-West in simple global terms). (Again in my opinion) two centuries hence, the operation of assimilation on a large scale will diminish, while metabolism will then be the predominate modus operandi, keeping in mind the structural duality is steadily growing and strengthing as well.
Is the People's Republic of China also an Assimilating-Metabolic State? I venture the answer is probably yes, and likely more so than the West realizes.
2001.09.28 10:53
11 Sept. 2001 considered chronosomatically
0. re-read "The Gauge" and "(chronosomatically) Contemplating the Navel."
1. Note that 2001 AD slices through the body at the lowest tips of the rib cage. Note also that the top-most edges of the hip bones correspond with the early years of global exploration (e.g., Magellan's global circumnavigation in 1521).
2. Roughly the last 500 years correspond to that part of the body where there is no skeleton along the corporal periphery (only the spinal column in the background). This corporal hiatus is also where the body most readily and freely expands.
3. Within the Timepiece notes, the new and sudden appearance of the tips of the rib cage mark the beginning of the end of humanity's unrestricted expansion. Additionally, the polarized duality of the rib cage tips mark new polarized extremes within humanity. Moreover, the new corporal extremes are indeed structural, if not also ultimately protective.
4. "(chronosomatically) Contemplating the Navel" relates the historical events that correspond with the slice of the body that simultaneously cuts through the upper-most edge of the hip bones and the navel. The events of 11 September 2001 (particularly, and with full ironic inversion of unrestricted expansion, the dual implosions of the World Trade Center) correspond with the slice of the body where both lowest tips of the rib cage are now firmly and simultaneously present.
5. There is much hope for the future of humanity in that the rib cage gradually manifests a strong and protective structural network, even thought oblique opposite-ness is also part of the make-up. Ultimately, however, the rib cage forms a full ring when it reaches the same level as the heart (approximately 1100 years from now).
According to chronosomatics, what has changed for humanity since 11 September 2001 is that the era of completely unrestricted expansion has come to its 'corporeal' limits. The notion of more and more forthcoming peripheral limits, however, is something that humanity (especially the "West") cannot deny.
| |
2001.09.28 11:39
Re: travels in hyper-reality
What I (Steve) actually wrote was, "The largest themed environments today are for the most part fantasy reenactments, and for the most part the general public is completely aware of the fantasy."
Yes, there is a reenactment of Giza at Las Vegas (i.e., the Luxor Hotel), and isn't it interesting that the laser light that is nightly emitted straight up from the point of the Luxor Hotel 'pyramid' is so far the only single light point that can be identified precisely by astronauts orbiting the Earth in the Space Shuttle. Perhaps the Las Vegas pyramid should thus be considered as having gone a significant degree further than the original in Egypt. (How does the notion of "decline" fit into that equation?)
As to the "principle aim of [themed re-appropriation being] capital accumulation," doesn't it appear obvious that that is exactly what the 'architect' of the Great Pyramid was also doing?
Could it be said that 'post-modern' signifies an historical/cultural period where the assimilation of reenactment pervasively swells?
2001.10.24
the reenactionary physiology of human imagination
2002.06.07 18:03
Re: 88 houses of ill repute
Should/Could the 88th house be a Chronosomatic House where the basement is from the heel to the toes and as you move closer to the toes you're actually moving closer to the beginning of life, while above all the levels between the heels and top of the heart represent the space/times from c. 6000BC to c. 5000AD consecutively, but then the house splits with the choice of either moving/transcending through the narrow neck (the corporal cut off point) and into the all sensual, all frequency realm, or you can go perpendicular in either right or left directions out the arms and thereby slowly, slowly, slowly go back in time until you reach the tips of the fingers which turn out to be not at all different than the tips of the toes?
2002.07.30
Some[what] Incompletely Louis I. Kahn
1. neighborhood synagogues, particularly in North Philadelphia and along the North Broad Street corridor, Philadelphia's quondam Jewish neighborhoods.
2. architecture of osmosis / electromagnetism (Kimbell and Hurva) and thus discussion of BIA re: osm/em.
3. some reenactment, particularly Koolhaas, M/G, and even Venturi (Ahavath/Guild House).
4. Piranesi's Campo Marzio.
5. Guadet.
6. Northern Liberties photo documentation.
7. circle/square - does it lead to ideal scaling?; rescale the plan/models to match a 6' tall man, etc.
Last night (2002.08.03) I had the idea of reenacting Erdman Hall via a manipulation of the Hurva model.
2002.10.11
contents of the Working Title Museum...
| |
2002.12.09 17:41
Re: Sentimental Journey
Our planet's celestial cycle, literally, does reenact itself with each revolution around that star we call the sun. And yes, human procreation is often akin to reenactment. Yet, more than anything, it is human memory that manifests the primordial reenactment that we humans deal with consciously and unconsciously all the time. Our memories are nothing but reenactments.
How all this relates to the sensibility toward artistic creation, be it a new sensibility or an old one, is easily considered an open question. What would it mean if human imagination is actually a mental process that reenacts corporeal physiology, for example, an imagination that behaves like osmosis where an equilibrium is sought, or a metabolic imagination where creative and destructive forces act in tandem toward a manifestation. Would such thinking yield a truly new sensibility?
If the imagination indeed already does operate in a way that reenacts corporeal physiology, then it has been operating as such for as long as there have been humans. Could it be that the new sensibility that you say is coming turns out to be a better understanding of our own visceral sensibilities?
2003.05.18 12:53
Re: logical software
...you may have in the past seen me make reference to The Timepiece of Humanity and/or chronosomatics... ...this text comprises the initial results of my 'reading' the hardware and software of the human body as an architecture delivering content.
There was also a time when I considered composing The Body, the Imagination, and Architecture were the physiological operations of the body (fertility, assimilation, metabolism, osmosis, electro-magnetism, ultra-frequent synapses) are explored as also engendering 'physiologies' of human imaginations (fertile imagination, assimilating imagination, metabolic imagination, osmotic imagination, electromagnetic imagination, ultra-frequent synaptic imagination) which were then explored as further engendering physiologically categorized architectures (fertile architecture, assimilating architecture, metabolic architecture, osmotic architecture, osmotic architecture, electromagnetic architecture, ultra-frequent synaptic architecture). There are many unpublished notes and some drawings pertaining to this project.
2003.05.25
sentences
3797
2003.06.20 11:54
Re: WTC & Real Estate Development
Cities have always been centers/engenderers of vitality. The word vitality relates directly to life, as does (the word) metabolism. Are cities always metabolic then? To many degrees, such as the day to day goings on, the answer is yes. But what of cities and their processes in the long term? Are cities metabolic over time as well? A safe answer is that many (if not most) large cities throughout the 20th century have manifest enormous creative/destructive dualities, i.e., metabolic natures. Berlin is a perfect 20th century example, and Baghdad is well on it way to being a perfect turn-of-the-millennium example. Even (North) Philadelphia has gone from one of the largest manufacturing (creative) centers of the world in the late 19th and early 20th century to now being a large urban area where huge factory complexes are long abandoned and 'decaying' and even 'disappearing' (ultimately destroyed) month to month. Given that capitalism has itself been described as "creative destruction" (or really destructive creativity as well), any city that is likewise a center of capitalism is by default metabolic--and here the mega-cities of so-called Communist China cannot really deny their capitalist natures because of their undeniable creative/destructive natures.
All this also makes me wonder what the USA will be like when so-called 'urban sprawl' begins to age/show its ongoing metabolic nature over time. Perhaps therein lies a forthcoming perfect example of real estate development's undeniable metabolism.
| |
2003.06.26 19:29
fact check and some proof
I'd say the real shell architectures were those caves some humans used to live in, and beyond that architecture became an applied shell, and going to an(other) extreme, a space station is all shell, but hardly natural.
2003.06.26 20:02
fact check and some proof
I see your point about architectures that fulfill nomadic intentions, but I also see mobile homes, trailer parks and even just automobiles as architectures that fulfill nomadic intentions better than hotels. Hotels fit more the oasis typology/metaphor, acting as both way-station and/or destination.
2003.08.14 13:59
Re: biggest construction project in the world
I'm thinking metabolic. I'm thinking reenactionary architecturism.
I'm wondering how long this "Israel Wall" is going to remain standing. Will it stand almost 30 years like the Berlin Wall? Will pieces of the Israel Wall someday sit on coffee tables around the world?
Wonder what would happen if Palestinians started to constantly play trumpets at the wall.
2003.10.21 13:06
Re: human apparent asymmetry
What's interesting about the double organs of the kidneys and the lungs is that both organs carry out a lot of osmosis, thus it might just be that the design of these organs reflect the balancing operation that they largely perform.
osmosis : diffusion of fluid through a semipermeable membrane from a solution with a low solute concentration to a solution with a higher solute concentration until there is an equal concentration of fluid on both sides of the membrane
2003.11.17 12:14
Re: Is it the end of theory?
Although I'd surely like to see the Kimbell Art Museum in person, the longing to do so has been greatly diminished since I've seen the Trenton Bath House, where Kimbell can be see in its seminal state. I see both buildings as osmotic, architectures that brilliantly manifest an equilibrium of inside and outside, not at all different in this regard than the Pantheon/St. Mary of the Martyrs at Rome.
2004.02.13 12:44
Re: of castles, fortifications, etc.
The metabolic urbanism of contemporary Israel.
2004.03.18 12:51
Re: architecture and nature...
nature of fertility?
nature of assimilation?
metabolic nature?
nature of osmosis?
electro-magnetic nature?
the nature of all frequency?
or merely
the academically stunted nature of imitation? (doctored mimesis)
| |
2004.11.19
ideas
Chronosomatic architecture: circle/square juncture plans, Washington DC 1981, chronosomatic imaginations; could be the next chapters, including architecture of the body and architecture of the theory itself; architecture of the continuum; of course, go through all the notes including BIA.
“Architecture of the imagination” as in “there is an architecture to the imagination.”
2005.04.29 17:04
Sexual Architecture??
The Khajuraho Temples (circa 950-1150 AD) happened chronosomatically when the plane of the present sliced through the ovaries, hence manifesting an architecture of high fertility. Can there still be an architecture where the fertile imagination is utilized with such profundity?
2005.08.16 11:28
the agnostic design of spiritual space
I have some ideas about how to design sacred space, and they have to do with making it osmotic and electromagnetic. Some of Kahn's best architecture is osmotic and electromagnetic.
|