WRITING IS DRAWING
In the beginning, it was oral. The vessel of cultural knowledge, in the beginning, was oracular; humans communicating with each other with sounds that come from their mouths. The traditions and history of cultures...
Monthly Archive: May 2016
SCARPA SYNESTHETICS
Carlos Scarpa has always been a hero. So it was with great interest when I came across this passage in Harry Mallgrave’s The Architect’s Brain; Neuroscience, Creativity and Architecture. This quote is attributed to...
CORB IN THE M’ZAB VALLEY
In the 23 May 2016 issue of The New Yorker, Julie Belcove writes about a new architectural exhibition that is being constructed in the Guggenheim. The artist is Kader Attia, and he has set...
PLATO ON PERSPECTIVE
In The Republic, it is nice to hear that Plato was skeptical of the linear perspective. Writing in 380 BC, he states in Book X: “Thus (through perspective) every sort of confusion is revealed...
KNOWLEDGE DRAWING
Drawings used to be vessels of knowledge. Yet the trajectory of vision has led to detachment. Instead of a body centered experience, the distancing, as we have seen, promotes the nihilistic attitude that pervades...
SUPERFICIAL IMAGES
Heidegger, Foucault and Derrida have all argued that the dominance of vision in our culture has only served to separate ourselves from the world. While I don’t agree with this premise, I do understand...
SPECTATOR CULTURE
The other evening, we made a design presentation in front of a municipal board for a new building. As usual, we brought in an architectural massing model. And we always work to give the...
AMAZING TRANSPARENCY
Art Qlate commented on Facebook about, to use their term, amazing transparency. They ask which brand of watercolors I use. First of all, thanks to Art for their very kind comments. The short answer...
SPECTATOR THEORY AND JOHN DEWEY
We are not spectators. We are dynamic beings. We move around. We engage with the world in three dimensions. Yet our culture conditions us to be spectators. Spectator theory insists that the world is...
OSMOTIC DRAWING
Our critique of the one point perspective, it turns out, has had many supporting voices over the centuries. One result is osmotic drawing. Maurice Merlaeau-Ponty was intensely critical of the ‘Cartesian perspectivalist scopic regime’. ...
CREATIVE DETAIL
We need to share details of our creative methods and processes. A couple of pages ago, I lamented that we don’t share any of the creative details of how we are inspired. For example,...
Recent Comments