F+D
22.10.2014
course instigator_Prof. Shelley Martin contributors_Bryce Beckwith, Adam Burke, Marcus Confino, Isaac Currey, Brian Heller, Leanna Humphrey, Carina Mohammed, Connor Phiel, Veronique Rodriguez, Mubarak Shehu, Molly Vaughan, Matt Young editor_Isaac Currey
Theory necessarily instigates practice. Practice necessarily instigates the rigors of theoretical inquiry.
Isaac Currey
SYNTHETIC LANDSCAPE + TWO READINGS OF IMAGES ON PERSONALIZATION
1. The landscape as ephemeral environment. I am fascinated by the impermanence of any and everything in the landscape. It could be argued that even the hardest stone of the biggest mountains is different hour to hour, much more day to day. This change happens on a base physical level, with the force of the elements taking their toll on everything they touch. Even the light of the sun changes the landscape, in that, as the sun moves across the sky, our reading and perception of the same contours is altered. In this line of thought, the coal piles of the power plant are a sped-up microcosm of these transformative phenomena. The dusty topography is reshaped on an hourly schedule every day by heavy machinery. The wind and rain can dramatically alter those same peaks and valleys during the course of a tenminute shower. 2. Absence/presence of the horizon. Before actually taking the photos, I hadn’t realized how complicated it would be to place the horizon line as a constructed line. In almost every photo I took, the literal horizon and anything that would even suggest its location was invisible. How do you draw a horizon line that is out of frame? You can’t, unless you start drawing on the wall. Instead, I constructed a fictional horizon, reimagining the
perspective from which the image is taken, and treating elements of the image as other than that which they truly are. This allows the image to instigate questions. If that is the horizon, what is sky? What is land? The addition of a single element recontextualizes the elements of a complex composition, creating ambiguity in a previously straightforward picture. /// This drawing, these photographs and an as yet unrealized film discuss the personalization of the architectural environment, specifically through the para-architectural objects that can populate a space. The site for these investigations is the Cowgill studio desk, the desk being almost as much a given in the studio environment as the walls, floors, and ceilings. 1a. Through the drawing the viewer is given a “neutral” establishing shot. This image lays out the complete contents of a desk and a portion of those surrounding it for the viewer, setting the scene for what is to come and introducing the “characters” that are to play a part. In this way the drawing takes on a role often reserved for a photograph: a semblance of objectivity, a “neutral” presentation of the given conditions. “Here it is.” 1b. The photographs, on the other hand present snapshots of the way in which these objects occupy the desk space. Like the drawing, the photographs function somewhat unusually for their medium. While the drawing is used to present the situation in an “objective” manner (as objective as any representation can be), the photographs are highly contrived. They show an unlikely view, conceptualized in a similar way to an architectural drawing. (A sort of ceiling plan, as it were.) 2a. This drawing, as something of an inventory or catalog of items, presents them as a series of intentional interventions. Each item was brought to Cowgill Hall in response to a need imagined, experienced or anticipated. Conscious decisions. (Or once conscious decisions whose imperatives continue to be carried out unconsciously.) 2b. The photographs capture the post-conscious. They
present the objects in question as they appear in use, giving the viewer a look at how these items live after their intentional introduction into the environment. They represent the unintentionality or limited intentionality with which these things are used after they are brought to studio. Subconscious interaction.
Adam Burke
A STUDY OF MEMORY
Memories are a persistent recollection of our salient images of the past. They are a phantasm of the reality of space-time that we pass through with every passing moment. As we move through space and time our minds are inundated with a vast array of simultaneous stimuli, however our minds are selective. [Our minds] edit, substantially, the world around us and this allows us to piece together a coherent understanding of the world. It is a fascinating orchestra that must be going on inside of our heads. Piecing together our kinetic senses with sight, sound, smell, taste, and tactile sense into a coherent singular sense of self that understands itself as an entity existing at a single point in space and time is a mammoth task that happens passively for most people. We are easily tricked, or at least can come to believe impossible things. A series of still images, a bunch of collapsed time points, demonstrate change and we understand that in relation to space-time. I have the same sensation when I remember events or places. I feel I am generating an illusion of the places I have been. The visual decay or blurring from overlapping snapshots brings to the fore the essential components of the space, not in an iconographic sense, but in a compositional or relational sense.
Memories are the most important thing we carry with us. They are a corporeal record of life.
Matt Young
LANDSCAPE, HORIZON, WALK MEMORY, SPATIAL MEMORY
1.1 A static presentation of the dynamic experience of driving through / along a landscape. The image is constructed on a bed so that the essence of the experience is put on display. 1.2 A constructed line that describes horizon as a thickness that humans are oriented towards. 2.1 A collage and drawing describing the memory of a walk from Main Street to Cowgill Hall. The image explores the abstractions derived from remembered experiences. 2.2 A collage and drawing describing some time spent in a space with a friend. The image explores the abstractions derived from remembered experiences.
Carina Mohammed
ON SOUND AND ATMOSPHERE
One of the key ways we perceive a space is through sound. It is an aspect of “invisible architecture”, but affects the mood of a space. By visually looking at sound waves, we are able to understand very little about the atmosphere of that place. We can only make assumptions about amplitude and frequency. However, by visualizing sound waves, we cannot necessarily tell if the space is chaotic, peaceful, or in between. After studying many clips from my travels in New York, I discovered a disconnect in the audio relative to the mood of some of the spaces. For example, in a clip taken near the running water of Paley Park, the audio wave has a similar amplitude to that of a clip walking down a busy New York street. The atmosphere of Paley Park is much more relaxed compared to the streetscape, yet the visual sound wave does not reflect this. In the park, people smoke and chat idly, while on the crowded sidewalk, there is the constant noise of traffic and chatter. It seems contradictory to acquire similar visual audio waves, considering the adverse atmospheres of the settings. To aid in the understanding of the sound wave, the audio wave is superimposed onto an abstraction of images from the source location. Likewise, color is also overlaid to hint at the mood of the specific spaces. Through this representation, one can make a better assumption about the mood of the space as it relates to the sound. Lou Nanli, a popular Chinese sound artist, refers to this phenomenon as the “visual audio” or “seeing hearing”. This idea relates to that of synesthesia, which means to perceive together. It is when a person is subjected to one of the senses, yet perceives two or more of them. Though a rare condition, the concept explores the interconnectivity of
the senses. In a second study, I explored the intentional recreation of a contradiction of sound and atmosphere. The stills are abstractions taken from a film I recorded of fireworks. The subject itself is jarring, yet the atmosphere created in the piece is not. Through the use of color and transparency, the atmosphere of the piece is reminiscent of water and wind. Conceptually, we typically associate loud sounds with turmoil, and quiet sounds with tranquility. However, in reality, at times we may perceive sounds at higher amplitudes that instead correspond to peaceful spaces. Therefore, our basic perception of sound may not always equate to our understanding of it.
Molly Vaughan
LOGICAL | ILLOGICAL
In the world of the logical, everything is given. We know how things work. We know gravity. We know orientation. We know our place, to an extent. In the world of the illogical, we must fill in its own assumptions about how things work, gravity, orientation, and our role in it all. I have become very interested in the line between something that is logical and something that is illogical. From day to day we typically live in the world of the logical. I have investigated the way in which a photographer, filmmaker, or artist can unlock the world of the illogical. The photographer/filmmaker/ artist can do this in a number of ways. I have zeroed in on how the world of the illogical can be uncovered by the way in which a photo is presented to the viewers. I find it interesting that simply by flipping a perfectly logical photo on its side or even upside down can unlock the world of the illogical. The mind starts to fill in assumptions in order to make sense of a nonsensical image. By presenting their work in a certain way, the photographer/ filmmaker/artist invites viewers to step out of the world of the logical and into the world of the illogical in a beautiful way.
Marcus Confino
HORIZON LINE AND A FIXED POINT + THEORETICAL DURATIONAL LINE
When finding a “landscape” to photograph it was important to understand the scale at which the assignment was being considered. A “landscape” could be as local as a desktop or as large as a mountain range. The scale for this photograph was chosen to explore some elements of personal interest. One definition of the word “landscape” suggests that it means “that which is viewable from one fixed point”. The key phrase is “fixed point” because it emphasizes the importance of the photographer and the positioning of the camera in relation to the final capture. The primary focus for this exercise was to determine the “fixed point” from which to take the final image. An empirical, nondeterminative path was taken relative to the silo in order to explore the multiple ways the photograph could be framed and composed. It was important to be conscious of the physical environment relative to where the photographs were shot. Thus, the photo-composition captures a two-fold narrative. The first narrativedescribes the silo as the polarizing subject around which the observer experiences and occupies a path. This path, or line, provides information, drawn from the environment, about the optimal position of the camera relative to the silo. The second narrative speaks to the observer’s relationship to the silo from the final “fixed point”. The fixed point is determined by the culmination of experiences along the original path. At that fixed point, the observer has a more subjective and informed relationship to the subject (the silo). The culminating image was taken in Heritage Park, a natural park off the Huckleberry Trail in the northern region of Blacksburg. This specific photograph is framed to capture
both elements mentioned previously: the path and the silo. Defining the final position of the camera by standing on a hay bale, I was able to capture the foreground from a high perspective. This allowed the photograph to frame the physical path in the landscape, while bringing the subject closer to eye level. The horizon line is towards the center of the photograph itself, anchoring the primary subject between the ground and the sky. The final capture is meant to convey both a fixed destination and the empirical journey towards it. /// Duration is the internal, subjective, purely qualitative, whole, and continuous experience of the external world. Duration implies more than the passage of time. The exploration of a “theoretical” line is used as a vehicle to study duration and its relation to time, space, and experience within the context of architecture. The line can be seen as the link between space and duration. Duration is purely qualitative, and thus does not exist spatially. A line is a carrier of both time and space; it represents duration both spatially and temporally. The line becomes a means of understanding the internal experience of the external environment. The processes of drawing, photographing, and filming this durational line generated multiple ways to begin to understand, describe, and convey the metaphysical qualities of duration. The act of line-making serves as a way to understand, observe and experience durational qualities. As the drawing progresses, the drawn line becomes a spatial representation of the duration itself. The act of inhabiting the line as a physical movement through space was documented through photography and a written record. The goal was to study space and duration, and derive their specific relation to time. The act of walking became a way to actively participate in time, space, and duration simultaneously. This empiric investigation offers two interpretations of time in relation to space and duration. The external environment can be described in terms of “endurance” and the internal experience (duration) of that environment in terms of “temporality”; the former being “over time”, the latter being “in time”. Thus a connection between space, time, and duration is made. Drawing was weaved through the process again, as a way
of reflecting on duration retrospectively. The diagram is an attempt to draw duration in terms of time and space. The drawing describes an experience in time, affected by an enduring physical space. As stated previously, duration does not exist in space. By drawing duration, duration is brought into the world of space; it is spatialized. Filming the line-making process creates the opportunity for a adjacent participation with the drawing. The observer views duration from a third person perspective. By watching the lines being made, the observer develops empathy for the process, a mutual understanding of the process. A common (inter-subjective) experience of the line can be had.
Bryce Beckwith
CONTEXT AND TEXTURE: A STUDY OF HUMAN RESPONSE
The phenomena of emotion is a human response to information obtained through any one or a combination of the five senses associated with the human body- touch, sight, smell, taste, and audio. Hypothesis could be categorized as another type of human response to information gained through context and time. Texture, being defined as information through sequencing, patterning, and ordering of the depth of the surface of a material, can hold many types of information to which one can perceive and respond. Context is defined as: the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood. The relationship between the words texture and context lies in the Latin root of both words: ‘texere’, a verb meaning “to weave”. Based off of the same word family, one can assume an inherent relationship that the material texture of a place can have to the context of the area. The context of place always has an identifiable atmosphere (architectural) and history that is characteristic of the place, variable is the degree to which they are noticed. The texture of a material surface, i.e. the street plane, building wall, or landscape, is an expression of information to which the observer has the opportunity to perceive in their own individual way and respond. Depending upon context, the response to information displayed through texture can be one of empathy, one of hypothesis, or both. Examples of an empathetic response would be the feeling one gets when walking through an English garden, or the feeling one gets when being in an audio recording booth. Contrary to those examples, hypothetical (as in hypothesis) responses to texture could be the intellectual awareness of an amount
of time one understands when stepping on marble steps that have indentation where the marble has been worn away due to usage, or the knowledge of a time period one can deduce by observing the weathering and material of a cobblestone street. The information that the texture of a context can express can be eye-catching and apparent, or discrete and fine. Either way, texture is always undisguised and tangible, visible for anyone to observe. The degree to which a texture is obvious as well as the attentiveness of the observer or the passerby is variable. In conclusion, texture is a palpable element of atmosphere and an exposed artifact of archeology.
Leanna Humphrey
SIZE AND SCALE/THE FRAME, DIMENSION AND DISTORTION, + PERSPECTIVE AND VIEW
Consider the landscape as a horizontal plane. Although the plane itself remains static, objects and events occupy, interact, and move about dynamically. The horizon line, then, is that intersection between those moments of activity and the place of rest. With regards to perspective, the horizon line is the point of vanishing, the disappearance of the ground plane in the distance to the observing eye. The ending of ground, however, introduces the sky, containing life. The landscape of a desk is a literal object. Unlike the infinite depths of a landscape of the Earth, here exists a readily observable thickness. This thickness provides a volume with a potential for convergence along the horizon, such that in a two-dimensional form the “plane” might inhabit that divisive line. The strong geometry of the site then forms around the thick horizon, identifying the site as static and constructed. In contrast, the objects of work and activity lay haphazard as remnants of event. Although the term “landscape” has many understandings, quite often relating to constructions of nature, there are many landscapes that relate to us more directly and are a part of our personal lives. /// As architects, drawing can be used to record, design, or develop physical concepts of space and building. Drawings
can examine and dissect preexisting structures unlike any other medium, as well as become a part of the design process for things to come, or entirely imaginary. Through plans, sections, and elevations, we can develop and understand space through different, absolute means with scale and dimension as undistorted unlike from looking with our eyes. On the other hand, drawing is also capable of impressionistic representations as well as detailed, photo-realistic or life-like renders that speak additional volumes about the space. It is rare, however, for a drawing to be capable of the full scale and impression of a place, and it still remains a representation regardless. Nonetheless, only through drawing can the limits of reality be stretched in such a way to provide room for in depth analysis, new juxtapositions, varying degrees and topics of focus, alterations to the space, and so on. Such capabilities allow for study unlike what can be produced through other media. In the case of the 100’ line, a selection was made based off the first exercise of the desk as landscape. This desk is one of many in a row on the first floor of Cowgill, approximately 100’ in length. The drawing was made in attempt to understand the capability of a drawing to study a spatial zone and condition. How does one inhabit a line and how does that specific location—the image of exercise one—impact one’s perception of a relative zone surrounding it? Is a drawing capable of, in a sense, capturing that subjectivity? /// A series of images looking to explore the difference in depth from a particular point on a line. The difference between the far end and the near end, the shrinking effect of perspective but the potential for depth and view. The photograph is capable of capturing more true-tolife condition of space as transmitted by light. While the lens alters the viewing of the space, still distinct from our stereoscopic vision, it is much more readily recognized as a ‘true’ representation of a space. Similar to the drawing, the photographs seek to inhabit the line. Rather than an analysis of spaces near and far most likely unmeasurable from the one location selected, the photograph contains the line solely through sight. By looking through the camera, replicating our own lines of sight, we see the far end
of the line (removed from the arbitrary ‘center’ of the desk from exercise one). Turning around but from the same point, we witness the near end of the line, and as such come to discover a range of vision and in turn a range of accessible and understandable space. The images portray the different perception of space resultant from physical distance, The juxtaposition of the set, far and near, exposes their differing geometries, an objectively perceivable condition. In turn, they may additionally also introduce the parallel condition of the subjectivity of reality, or perhaps the grander effect of one’s geographical location in relation to their perspective.
Brian Heller
TIME IS A THEORETICAL LINE
Time as a theoretical line. Time as a measured unit. Time as a dimension of space. Architecture’s test is how it holds up over time. Time is something we believe to understand, because we formulated a unit of measure for time, when in reality time is relative. It appears to fly by, or crawl past. I have been trying to challenge time through photography and drawing. Time as a measurement is a concept we all grasp. 60 seconds in a minute. 60 minutes in an hour. 24 hours in a day. Photography is the only medium I know that actually pauses time. There is nothing else in this world in which we can stop time. But even when we view a photograph it is still through a moving world. We capture moments with a camera, but cannot physically stop time. In photographs that I took I was looking at this idea of capturing more than the moment. To try and see the world move through a single exposure. Exposure is the connection the camera has with time. The amount of time light is allowed to come in contact with the film. I decided to see what the world looked like through the simultaneous collection of moments. I opened the exposure ranging from five seconds to five minutes. We still do not see the world in this way, but it comes closer to what film does in documenting time. It may not seem that different from a regular photograph, but the world doesn’t change every second most of the world stays still while objects move through. The idea was to hold the exposure open for certain periods of time in order to capture a single moment over more than the instant a normal photograph occurs. I found this to only work for exposures under five seconds during the day. Light
bleeds into the film and turns the photograph white starting from the edges and then covering the entire photograph. The story changes when the sun goes down. Seeing the world at night through a camera already requires longer exposures, but I wanted to see what happened over a much longer period of time. I started at thirty seconds and worked my way up to five minutes. It is strange to see the world so flat. The lens has nothing to focus on in the dark, but still takes in a lot of light over five minutes. This resulted in a picture that looks like it is at sunrise or sunset, but the details are all smudged. These were only the instances in which I kept the camera in a still location. I then tried moving the camera while exposing for certain times. This changed the image completely. Rather than having a flat image, there was either an out of focus image with light streaking across the film or just the path of light almost as a line describing the direction of the camera. Through my research the latter result is a photograph of the fourth dimension. Time as the fourth dimension is the first three dimensions moving over time. The best way to describe this idea is that we would be able to see our self in front of us and behind us as a long snake from birth all the way until death in the fourth dimension. This was very strange at first, but the more I thought, the more I understood. What would architecture look like in the fourth dimension? It is a three dimensional form plotted over time. Is it just a never-ending perspective? I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone will know because we live in a three dimensional world. In Architecture we see buildings in a fluidity of time. There is no pausing and staring at a detail never blinking. We get distracted and look away. If only for an instant, but the moment is gone and can’t be recovered. Can we view this fluidity of time through photography or drawing? Is it possible? To feel like we are in the space? Architecture needs to have time devoted to view it. I am attempting to find a way to view architecture through a drawing, a photograph or a film in regards to time. Not a stop motion or an over exposed print or a time lapse, but find a way to understand time; to capture more than an instant, to capture the entire moment.
ETERNITY
Mubarak Shehu A photograph captures a moment forever. Drawings/Paintings do that and more. They have the capacity to express a subject in a series of moments incrementally over time, Up to eternity.
Veronique Rodriguez
SPLIT PERSONALITIES
Through a taxonomy of common housing types across Blacksburg, several specific typologies have been discovered. As a collection, these structures are easily recognized and can be categorized for the region. In a several situations throughout the town, these houses are placed in directly neighboring lots from one another. This duality of two or more identical housing types standing side-by-side, facing one and another, or claiming an entire block is especially intriguing. Such repetition is often associated with large scale suburban planning. Comparatively built out of similar development rooted in time and economy, in this case, repetition is found peppered around the town on a much smaller scale and fuels a greater curiosity. Specifically, the proximity of these duplicates allows a closer comparative study of their physical characteristics. With digital collage as a vehicle, identical typologies located in neighboring lots are juxtaposed to help closer identify not only their similarities, but also highlight contrast and regulating lines. In the situations where identical types are geographically sequential to one another, I have spliced the faรงade to simultaneously present them. When pairs were situated across from one another, the road (or middle ground) between them was eliminated to flaunt their mirrored or reciprocal position. The combination of these conventions was used in cases where multiples faced multiples.
Connor Phiel
BUILDING IN THE LANDSCAPE
“The beauty of nature touches us as something great that goes beyond us. Man comes from nature and returns to it. An inkling of the measure of human life within the immensity of nature wells up inside us when we come upon the beauty of a landscape that has not been domesticated and carved down to the human scale. We feel sheltered, humbled and proud at once. We are in nature, in this immeasurable form that we will never understand and now, in a moment of heighted experience, no longer need to because we sense that we ourselves are part of it.� -Peter Zumthor
My exploration is rooted in the desire to better understand the relationship of modern man to nature. I see a major disconnect that exists between the built environment and the natural environment. So many buildings today tend to simply disregard their surroundings in favor of an inward focus. Physical barriers produce boundaries that separate man from nature not only physically but also spiritually and emotionally. Through technological means man has produced the ability to simply shut the natural environment out in favor of a controlled, artificial one where things like light and temperature can be controlled by the click of a button. The need to live in harmony with the natural world has ceased to exist. I set out to explore the landscape beyond the limits of the town, in hope of a new perspective into the relationship of man and nature. One that was a bit more positive than what I was currently experiencing. I quickly found that even the rural landscape has been greatly intervened by man. The once boundless landscape seemed carved down to the human scale at first glance. The land was divided into a grid of fences that marked the boundaries between parcels. Agriculture has been a dominant force on the landscape for a long time. It was quite evident. Before man settled the land, the landscape looked quite different. Undomesticated. Immeasurable. With time, it has been transformed into a composite of the natural and man made. I began to search for beautiful moments of harmony that exist between the two. I discovered that the older the building, the more it becomes natural. I wondered why this was. With time, nature is able to become a part of the building and they are able to coexist as one.
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