[-2-]
[-3-] / / list of contents /> > list of contents
3
> note
5
> le Roi est mort; vive le Roi
11
> referential
57
[-4-]
[-5-] / / note /> Being an act of intelligence, Architecture has been in contact with every philosophic and theoretic gear which had been in discussion among its contemporaries each time. Rooted deeply in the very essence of being, the discipline has evolved into an intellectual continuum radically associated with the boundaries, as well as the orientation, of the thought of each era. Sometimes ahead of the concept of its time anticipating the realm of the society, other times following the political implementations of class-ruled, or mass-ruled, aggregations, but nevertheless in time to consort the needs of humanity, Architecture has been a synchronised and indivisible agent of the premise of existence. Paramount to the current semiotics of society is the notion and application of Simulation to all possible aspects of living. There is
hardly
an
intellectual
or
practical
property
of
contemporaneity which is not represented by a digital, or a physical, model in order for its parameters to be studied, revealed, altered, edited, and finalised prior to operation upon any subject of interest. Although modelling does not exactly contain a great deal of novelty factor due to its extended use since the beginning of the history of mankind, it is now, more than ever, that it is aided by the advances of information technology to appear as a robust analytical method within which every inquiry shall find solutions.
[-6-] Among the practice-related professionals, Simulation is treated as a tool which can disengage the Gordian Knot of decision and policy making. The main interrogation relates to the extend of its efficiency and autonomy, as well as its properties of subjectivity and position against each matter. Critique is rather more austere on behalf of the theoretical representatives of the time. Representation, either as a multidimensional depiction, or as a two-dimensional image, has been under critique since the dawn of its constitution. Either as a symbol, or an object manipulated to the point which it becomes significant, representation has been subject to discussion for centuries. And, if its multidimensional representative – be that Simulation – has only lately started to set off the debate around its potentials and consequences, the region of the Spectacle has been under the magnifying glass for at least half a century in the latest history of Architecture. Scope of this essay is to attend the evolution track of an Architectural theory initially related to the Event – Spectacle dipole, and recently engaged to the Reality – Simulation dilemma. Albeit the connection between the two confrontations is not profound, practical and literary references will be provided to build the infrastructure within which both pose as the unavoidable extension of the other in terms of qualities and chronology. The importance of this inquiry is critical for Architecture, in the sense that it provides both conceptual and practical output, capable of administering the discipline with the credentials with which it will be able to negotiate contribution to the contemporary realm. There are scarcely any
[-7-] design projects that can exist, and stand out, without a prior consideration of those credentials. For the purpose of this essay, a range of bibliographic references
was
employed
to
circumscribe
the
artificial
perimeter of the topic as accurately as possible. Similar to the language they use, as well as to the depth of their criticism, Jean Baudrillard – with his texts on Simulation1 – and Guy Debord – with his writings regarding the society of the spectacle2 – are intellectuals which not only commented against a dominant way of being, but are also interrelated in the sense that there are merely any differences between the aphorisms they use to characterise two apparently different notions. Extracts from their writings will be used within the body of the essay, as well as in the form of quotes in the image pages to illustrate relativity between the two intellectuals. Directly related to Architecture, but sourcing their reasoning from theory, representatives of an era which lacked cold-blood analysis on crucial subjects, Bernard Tschumi got involved with the apology of the event theory in the discipline 3, and the discourse which was born out of it4, and Neil Leach commented on the aftermath of the events of 1968 related to Architecture5, as well as 1 2 3 4 5
the emerging practices which find
> Baudrillard J.| 1994| Simulacra and Simulation| United States of America: The University of Michigan|| > Debord G.| n. d.| Society of the Spectacle| London: Rebel Press|| > Tschumi B.| 1994| The Manhattan Transcripts| London: Academy|| > Tschumi B.| 1996| Architecture and Disjunction| Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press|| > Leach N.| 1999| The Anaesthetics of Architecture| Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press||
[-8-] their reasoning in simulation6. Collections of the proceedings of two conferences, one dedicated to the contemporary role of the Spectacle in Architecture7, and one related to the impact of networks in contemporary practice8, will describe the current analysis of the matters of the topic. Philip Ball and John Thackara are included in the referenced authors due to contribution of their books in the unlocking of several premises of thought on decision9 and multidisciplinary design10 throughout the body of text. Unedited passages from the nominal work of Italo Calvino, “Invisible Cities”, will provide meaningful and imaginary discourses to rather dry and abstruse positions which will be included in the text, because “Some texts, like Italo Calvino's metaphorical descriptions of “Invisible Cities”, were so architectural as to require going far beyond the mere illustration of the author's already powerful descriptions”11. Such discourses will be evident on the opposing page of the booklet, where images will also be placed, and both will 6
> Leach N. [editor]| 2009| Architectural Design: Digital Cities| Volume 79| No. 4 [July/ August 2009]| London: John Wiley & Sons|| 7 > Vidler A. [editor]| 2008| Architecture: Between Spectacle and Use| Williamstown, Massachusetts: The Clark|| 8 > Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007| Network Practices: New Strategies in Architecture and Design| New York: Princeton Architectural Press|| 9 > Ball P.| 2004| Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another| United Kingdom: Arrow Books|| 10 > Thackara J.| 2005| In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World| London: The MIT Press|| 11 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 145||
[-9-] correspond to an alternative narrative, interrelated with the main body of text, yet independent and purely supportive. Relation of “quotation discourses� with part of the body of the essay will be marked with underlining. The order of appearance manages to distinguish the correspondence of each reference. [/]
[-10-]
[-11-] / / le Roi est mort; vive le Roi />
Laurent had been in the kitchen the whole Saturday afternoon, cooking the perfect dinner for two. After he had spent hours in the local open-air market shopping for the correct ingredients, he had finally reached to the point where he could create the right menu. Rosemary and olive oil baked Camembert to go with crackers, celery, and cherry tomatoes would be the “hors d' oeuvres”, accompanied by a fruity rose (Cabernet Sauvignon and Chablis), which would have the mission to unlock and blend the used spices with its own. A dried fig and pomegranate green salad would take the position of the introductory side dish, and would be punctuated with the mineral taste of a “nouveau” Chardonnay. Venison roast with raisins, plums, and new potatoes, exposed by a full-bodied Barolo would bring the situation one step before the desert; dark chocolate mousse with walnuts – a combination which would simply flourish when enhanced with the tones and aromas of a sun-dried grapes Mediterranean Moschatos. He wanted everything to transmit the sense of casual luxury. Monique, on the other hand, had walked the boutiques street back and forward several times, in order to decide on the outfit which would impress Laurent. She chose a simple, long, straight-line, cotton dress in dark purple, which exposed nothing but her hands and shoulders, matched it with brown leather ballet flats, and a pair of long bronze earrings. She concluded her appearance with some drops of her favourite perfume, which originated its scent
[-12-]
from essences like honey, solar musk, orange blossom, and vanilla. Her aim was to appear mysterious, yet accessible, and to communicate her non-negotiable need for independence. After all, that was just their first date and, although she liked him a lot, and knew him for quite a while, she would not reveal her intentions, nor fall for him as easily as she had accepted to meet him at his house for dinner. After she had knocked on his door, and he had welcomed her in his flat, her initial positive mood was reversed; the space was rather contemporary decorated compared to the classic manner she imagined Laurent would have kept it, 1960's jazz which was playing felt inappropriate and overwhelming whatsoever, the candles and the amount of wine on the table were adding a somewhat insolent tone in the atmosphere, food did not exactly smell the way she would liked it to, and he appeared a bit more enthusiastic than she expected when he looked at her exposed shoulders. Laurent did not appreciate the sudden fadeout of her smile after he opened the door, let alone the outfit which Monique selected to wear. Albeit he did not intent to rush things, her appeal towards him could be described with a bit of disappointment. Where did Monique he used to know go? Where did Laurent she used to know go? The predictions which had both done, and had both based on assumptions, were not accurate at all. That Saturday night did not start well.
[-14-] / vanishing point “Nothing resembles itself, and holographic reproduction, like all fantasies of the exact synthesis or resurrection of the real […] is already no longer real, is already hyperreal”12 “Reality emerges within the spectacle, and the spectacle is real”13
What lies beneath disappointment about the non-resemblance of the initial hypothesis with the result is obviously the whole number of assumptions which led to the inexact estimation of the situation. No matter the morph of reproduction – whether it remains conceptual, or it acquires physical dimensions and becomes an image –, it is not a sufficient source of the real. To what extend it can resemble reality is a discussion which its modern initiators are the Situationists. Identifying the social relation between people as one which is “mediated by images”14, Guy Debord, founding member of the Situationist International, blamed unification as the catalyst which pointed to the loss of unity in the world. “Spectators are linked solely by their one-way relationship to the very centre that keeps them isolated from each other. The spectacle thus reunites them only in their separateness”15, he continued in his writings, “Society of the Spectacle”. Being a strong defender of a life of action, he thoroughly rejected the elaborate production of the image as the means through which relations should be transmitted. The rejection gave instantaneous re-birth to the Event-Spectacle 12 13 14 15
Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 108|| Debord G.| n. d., p. 9|| Debord G.| n. d., p. 7|| Debord G.| n. d., p. 16||
[-17-]
dipole, which could not but affect the Architectural practice. According to Bernard Tschumi, the existence of the theoretical dipole resulted into a schism in the discipline, and the two sides – of the very same coin – were separated into “a maximalist version, [which aimed] at overall social, cultural, political, programmatic
concerns
while
the
other,
minimalist,
[concentrated] on sectors called style, technique, and so forth”16. The latter came along with the seduction of the object, and in this mannerism
it
had
been
assigned
several
characteristics;
“Seduction, Baudrillard argues, is that which extracts meanings from discourse and detracts it from its truth. […] Seduction can therefore be contrasted to “interpretation””17. There is no doubt that the absence of meaning, or rather, the ascription of it in objects which have achieved significance based solely on their desire factor, is the main reason for the slavery of image. It should not be unanticipated that the most elegant aphorism in the “Society of the Spectacle” is deeply political, and well-aimed toward the heart of the economic system: “The spectacle is capital accumulated to the point that it becomes images”. The truth behind the quote was present even when the words within were reversed: “[Spectacle is] an image accumulated to the point that it becomes capital”. In the ability of the phrase to transform itself lies the strength of its objective. Debord also noted the ability of the issued image to obtain “metaphysical subtleties”18, thus, to become a commodity. The consumers' passive acceptance would become feasible via the dogmatic reality 16 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 103|| 17 Leach N.| 1999, p. 71|| 18 Debord G.| n.d., p. 19||
[-19-]
which emerged from the nature of the Spectacle, and gave no chances for questions; “What appears is good; what is good appears”19. The solitariness of the dominant life model was considered as the characteristic of self-destruction according to a dogmatic rule; “every discipline that becomes autonomous is bound to collapse”20. Situationism brought up ideas like “negation of real life” 21, “fragmented views of reality”22, both attached to the Spectacle, which was considered a phase “opposite to dialogue”23. The next step is described by Anthony Vidler; “The assemblage of situations driven by the psychic measuring of environments was the primary concept behind the Situationinst movement, and consequently the riots in Paris in May 1968.
19 20 21 22 23
Debord G.| n.d., p. 10|| Debord G.| n.d., p. 95|| Debord G.| n.d., p. 117|| Debord G.| n.d., p. 2|| Debord G.| n.d., p. 11||
[-21-] / post dramatic “While one should be wary of ascribing too much influence to the Situationists in this extraordinary series of
events, their
contribution to raising consciousness and fostering a spirit of resistance – notably through the Situationist-inspired enrages movement – should not be underestimated”24 “The most important contribution of the movement – and the riots, if one chooses to separate the two – was probably the creation of the precedent of possible discourses through the detournement strategy and the manipulation of programmatic attributes, which were considered unnegotiable at the time”25 “[...] throughout the 1970's there was an exacerbation of stylistic concerns at the expense of programmatic ones and a reduction of architecture as a form of knowledge to architecture as knowledge of form”26
The Situationinst concerns for random events reflection on Architecture was to guide the discipline to consider imaginary programmatic functions into its own events, and, in that way use was reviewed to acquire alternative interpretations. Projects which are considered direct aftermath of the events of May 1968 pursued concepts such as “disorientation”, applications such as “dynamic labyrinth”, and the meaning of space as an ontological experience27. Bernard Tschumi suggested that actions qualify spaces as much as spaces qualify actions, based on the interpretation of violence as “the intensity of the relationship between individuals and their 24 25 26 27
Leach N.| 1999, p. 60|| Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 122|| Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 140|| Leach N.| 1999, p. 59||
[-23-]
surrounding spaces”28. By using terms like “fluid and erratic motions”, “bodies violating space”, “intrusion”, “carve”, and “presence”, he was led to the – at least – implicit role of violence in Architecture; one which should not be neglected29. Having the latter assured, the Swiss began an apologetic course, through which he redefined Architecture's necessity for both “reality and concept”30; “Form, or geometry, or style cannot guarantee the pleasure of space on their own”31, he argued; “The potential absence of necessity makes the discipline workable in its domain, and, therefore lonely in a quest for autonomy and commitment”32, he continued. The terminus a quo had already started to appear.. In a lecture given at London-based Architectural Association in June 1982, Tschumi championed the allegorical importance of snapshots of events33, and commented on the value of the disturbance to the neutral logic which they carry. Most importantly, he went through a platitudinal discussion within which set an end to fundamental matters related to the unofficial rivalry between the Event and the Spectacle, succeeded to put them under the same magnifying glass, and noted “strategy, form and sophisticated reference [which should be given] to a general public out for the day”34. Whatever operational frame was absent from the Event theory found its main representative in Bernard Tschumi. 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 122|| Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 105|| Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 48|| Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 111|| Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 47|| Tschumi B.| 1994, p. xxvii|| Cook P.| 2008, p. 40| Drawing: The Motive Force of Architecture| West Essex: Wiley||
[-25-] / so much for the avant-garde “If, in the case of the sublime, the object becomes unbounded – and therefore less and more than an object – with the ideological imaginary of the spectacular countersublime, the object reaches an extreme degree of definition, closure and intensity”35 “[The fundamental error of
the architectural avant-garde
happened possibly when architectural exhibitions in galleries] encouraged “surface” practice and presented the architects work as a form of decorative painting”36
In the cases which hard-core political declarations never seized to exist, the excessive manipulation of form for the sake of visual aesthetics and only, led to reviews which considered that kind of production related to pornography, an orgy of realism, and the result of premature ejaculation37. Neil Leach maintains that the moment reason gave its place to technique and performance, the entrance to the world of the instantaneous was ineluctable38. Critiques to the society of direct projection often suggested methods of informal analysis. Notably, Lebeus Woods study for Sarajevo proposed “injection”, “scar”, and “scab” as deeper levels of construction. There is hardly any implication for any kind of event which might follow that study whatsoever, and Leach commented rather censoriously that “Woods seemingly fails to acknowledge the aestheticisation that lies at the heart of his project, a condition that is exacerbated by his proposed architectural solutions”39. Indeed, the produce which responded to 35 36 37 38 39
Vidler A. [editor]| 2008, p. 45|| Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 141|| Leach N.| 1999, p. 74|| Leach N.| 1999, p. 75|| Leach N.| 1999, p. 29||
[-27-]
the Spectacle as a non-favourable premise limited itself into merely spectacular representations of the metaphors of the critics opinions. What is more, this response was communicated through exhibitions where “revolution” “became political and claimed a certain authority”40.
40 Tschumi B.| 1996, p. 68||
[-29-] / infra-terrestrial “The 1990s were in many ways a turning point in the discussion of drawing. The computer was beginning to establish a leading position, the discussion of “process” was rampant in the most fashionable schools of architecture, the gadget was a creative trigger, the absorption of photographics, multitudinous printing techniques and the inspiration of film and video led to the spirited discussion of architecture and its presence or non-presence. Contemplating (say) a rectangular surface in front of you did not necessarily mean that you would be offered a total, retainable or definite image”41 “The days of the celebrity solo designer are over”42
“The metropolitan individual has to accommodate and register the rapid bombardment of stimuli within the city, where even the crossing of the road would fray the nerves”.43What Neil Leach points out, could have been easily observed by any inhabitant on any metropolis on this planet. There is no need for compositional terms, such as the one of “ontological alienation”44, to describe the saturation of complex systems in this era, and the vast amounts of the incomprehensible information which surround individuals. Any combination of the series of political, economic, or social factors which are namely responsible for this, could take the blame, but no matter who the expiatory victim would turn out to be, one single arithmetic parameter could bear all; “The planet's population has doubled in [this] generation's lifetime – something that never happened before”45. The mass-spread of digital culture 41 42 43 44 45
Cook P.| 2008, p. 146|| Thackara J.| 2005, p. 75|| Leach N.| 1999, p. 33|| Thackara J.| 2005, p. 101|| Thackara J.| 2005, p. 127||
[-31-]
unavoidably degraded human knowledge – either from education, or from experience – into a merely symbolic form. Cities are transformed into layers of symbols, and in order to anticipate that transformation, encounters and interactions need to be devised and, almost, injected, in the form of events which will refashion passive acceptance in post-spectacular practice. “We do not receive anywhere near the quantity of data it takes to overload our neurons”46, argues Thackara; therefore the critical task is to provide the infrastructure to allocate it, and the provision to digest it. By the end of 1980s a concern on the premise of infrastructural schemes was beginning to make an entrance. A discreet intervention proposed by OMA for the Melun-Senart town in France in 1987 proposed the incorporation of
isolated
programmatic voids, ready to express the tendency which might be evident in the future. The designers left the building sites open and undetermined “by incorporating the character and the potential of the urban plan in the designed characteristics of the voids”47. The urban surface has never stopped to carry functions and services in its epidermis since then; in opposite cases – spaces designed for single functions, usually evident in old-style cities – the fostering of innovative situations tends to be unlikely48. Situation specificity took the position of function specificity through the deployment of a “dynamic, organisational, structural plan, using scenarios, diagrams, parameters, formulas, and themes, 46 Thackara J.| 2005, p. 162|| 47 Corner J. [editor]| 1999, p. 238| Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Architecture| New York: Princeton Architectural Press|| 48 Thackara J.| 2005, p. 104||
[-33-]
that [encompassed] the mapping of
political, managerial,
planning, community, and private relations”49. The new concern – and truly, a diachronic one – was to get participants to regain contact with each other. The Parc de la Villette, Paris, competition required the characteristics of the age. Both the realm of the time, and the extracts of Bernard Tschumi's “The Manhattan Transcripts” were combined to conceptualise the winning entry; a set of deconstructed cubical solids applied on a programmatic Cartesian grid. The Follies, as they were named, were nodes juxtaposed over layers of functions, as well as operational voids, and the complete composition could host multiple happenings simultaneously. What is commendable, in the sense that it leaves no questions for the timing of “The Manhattan Transcripts”, is that the other entries of the same competition considered programme as the engine of the project as well, “driving the logic of form and organisation, while responding to the changing demands of society”50. The spell for the use of the diagram had been broken.
49 Thackara J.| 2005, p. 108|| 50 Corner J. [editor]| 1999, p. 237||
[-35-] / event spectacle “Looked at from a distance, randomness becomes total uniformity. […] Those phenomena that often strike us as the most complex, are, in contrast, not random”51 “We now invest extensively in data mining as a means to uncover unsuspected relationships and to summarise the data in novel ways that are both understandable and useful”52
The capability to analyse information, in any possible form, document it, and allocate it in databases in which it can be accessed again, and again, is, until now, the most meaningful contribution of technology. In the circumstance that the access to information happens at once with the event generating it, a most beneficial visual dialogue is engendered; one which its potentials go beyond the agents which constitute it, because of the dynamic relations between them. In his essay “From Data to Its Organising Structure”, George Legrady stressed the always timely need “to investigate the potential of the active participant as an influential component of the multimedia interactive event”53. He has been researching and applying visualisations of data and its organisation process for at least four decades. Along with the fresh interest for this subject, came the need of communicating it in the form of an aesthetic experience, which should, at the same time, be understandable within limited time and the use of common knowledge54. The aestheticisation of information is primarily related to the fact that 51 52 53 54
Ball P.| 2005, p. 95|| Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 148|| Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 144|| Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 146||
[-37-]
“Contemporary society's infrastructure is encoded in databases through our interactions in supermarkets, public transit systems, educational institutions, libraries, etc”55; information is nowadays available, accessible, and evident, everywhere; it has become popular. The issue for the contemporary individual now, is to be able to refine information in order to actually make efficient use of it. Legrady maintains that “Information management is the defining form of culture today as it positions us as citizens in performing according to economic and political models defined through the statistical outcome of the collected data”56.
55 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 158|| 56 Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 164||
[-39-] / about time “Contemporary architecture has become a high bandwidth medium produced and monitored in new ways necessitating a recalculation of the field's basic assumptions”57
It would be naïve, to say the least, to pretend that any elaboration with the visual properties of an image has come to an end. On the contrary, the spectacular parameter maintains its dominant position in most fields. It has also entered domains in which it has never been before, like the data one. But its role has been transformed into a supporting one. It is undeniable that the representatives of form manipulation – the list of whom contains most of the each time media-published practitioners – will continue to “seek to arrest the image flow, to tie it down to a place, a brand, and a purpose”58, but it will never stand alone as a practice method any more. Right at the dawn of 2010s, Architecture cannot be limited to its merely representational expressions. It has been like that for thousands of years, while it had been declaring “something other than itself: the social structure, the power of the King, the idea of God, and so on”59. Should it remained like that, it would not pose the faintest solution to any of the society's issues, and, fatefully would be compromised into a supporting technical role.
57 Vidler A. [editor]| 2008, p. 155|| 58 Vidler A. [editor]| 2008, p. 3|| 59 Tschumi B.| 1996, p.36||
[-41-] / network flow “A network is an abstract organisational model, in its broadest sense concerned only with the structure of relationships between things”60 “The operational principle is a redundancy. There are always multiple pathways between any two points and multiple options being activated at any one time. […] Events don't simply happen in the space. The space itself is the event”61 “The impossibility of rediscovering an absolute level of the real is of the same order as the impossibility of staging an illusion. Illusion is no longer possible, because the real is no longer possible”62 “But what if God himself can be simulated, that is to say can be reduced to the signs that constitute faith? Then the whole system becomes weightless, it is no longer itself anything but a gigantic simulacrum, that is to say never exchanged for the real, but exchanged for itself, in an uninterrupted circuit without reference or circumference”63
Breakthroughs in the mathematics of complexity, as well as the pace of technology adoption by the consumers introduced network driven practices in the mid-1990s64. As soon as this was evident, it had been a matter of time before the network started to affect, not only performance, but also be concerned “with more humanist parameters involving social organisation, aesthetics, and culture”65. It was not only that it maintained its fundamental properties, such as “flexibility, self-organisation, and
60 61 62 63 64 65
Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 25|| Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 30|| Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 19|| Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 5|| Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 25|| Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 25||
[-43-]
adaptability”66. Nor that it made clear that it becomes visible only when it fails, and never before, neither after67. Network practice consecrated “the socialist ambition of the political model; the mass distribution of a mass-produced array of elements with the same status; and a new freedom to laterally redistribute people, objects, buildings, and activities”68. As Baudrillard puts it, it is “no longer a question of the ideology of power, but of the scenario of power”69. In the case of Architecture, Mark Wigley's comment in his essay “The Architectural Brain” is apposite. “Interiors became circuits. Flow on the outside ever more seamlessly merged into flow on the inside until the line defining the limit of the building became paper thin”70. Not only the social model that the Situationinst pointed to, but also the negation for the dedicated object, as well as the need for the “dynamic labyrinth” are manifested in networks. “Architecture is no longer the positioning of objects in a field; the field itself becomes a kind of object. Rather than moving through a system to reach static enclosure or building, you never leave the movement system”71.
66 67 68 69 70 71
Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 25|| Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 30|| Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 32|| Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 27|| Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 32|| Burke A. + Tierney T. [editors]| 2007, p. 34||
[-45-] / simulated discussion “It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real, that is to say an operation of deterring every real process via its operational double, a programmatic, metastable, perfectly descriptive machine that offers all the signs of the real and shortcircuits all its vicissitudes”72 “The facts no longer have a specific trajectory, they are born at the intersection of models, a single fact can be engendered by all the models at once”73 “One of the most remarkable discoveries of the physics of society is that behaviour which looks strangely “human” can emerge among agents which are in effect nothing but robot-like automata”74
Simultaneously with the extensive use of network in practice, the need for exploration rose. Data which could describe, and assure, its efficiency, as well as parameters of the domains which it represented, became input, and all parts created one discrete component; Simulation. In the Architectural discipline, although simulation is used in several subjects – notably environmental and, structural flows – it is in the making of cities – in the form of infrastructure, or built spaces – which interest is centralised. In the latter case, two types of simulation models are used; continuous, and discrete. Manuel DeLanda, in an interview to Neil Leach explains the first type; “Continuous urban simulations use differential equations to capture the rate of growth of any given city [as a function of other rates], or to capture rates of
72 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 2|| 73 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 16|| 74 Ball P.| 2005, p. 420||
[-47-]
urbanisation over entire regions”75. The facts are then entered into a database, over a space-time grid of a certain resolution, and continuity is achieved once the expression is mathematically integrated. In discrete models, on the other hand, rates of growth are derived from the bottom up, that is, are calculated based on agents whose behaviour is defined by rules76. Effectively, these agents are also able to interact, and, thus, to produce the effects which emerge from those interactions. Baudrillard's comment is caustic; “The real is produced from miniaturised cells, matrices, and memory banks, models of control – and it can be reproduced an indefinite number of times from these”77. The issue then, is on the choice of the parameters which will constitute the system, as well as the notions which they describe; “Thus, before applying multi-agent simulations one must be clear about these nested sets [from persons – to communities and organisations – to industrial networks and federal governments – to cities] in which wholes at one scale are the parts of wholes at the next scale”78. But Baudrillard was sceptic about the substance of aggregations; “We have all become living specimens in the spectral light of ethnology, or of antiethnology, which is nothing but the pure form of triumphal ethnology, under the sign of dead differences, and of the resurrection of differences”79. He was also doubtful on the percentage of truth which is embedded in models, since confusion of the latter with facts could leave space 75 76 77 78 79
Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 52|| Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 53|| Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 2|| Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 53|| Baudrillard J.| 1994, p.8||
[-49-]
for all possible interpretations80. History is a discipline which could be deployed in order for several inputs and outputs to be manually – or, even digitally – double-checked. According to DeLanda, most cities, or indeed, different parts of the same city, are combinations of historic paradigms, such as Venice – with the labyrinthine medieval core – or Versailles – a city planned under a network of policy-makers81. Baudrillard became semiotic in his positioning on doubling; “If according to Mach, the universe is that of which there is no double, no equivalent in the mirror, then with the hologram we are already virtually in another universe: which is nothing but the mirrored equivalent of this one. But which universe is this one?”82. Neil Leach championed the attention which should be given in the use of agents, as they cannot be deterministic of a sort of collective intelligence, only to have Manuel DeLanda adding that simulation should be in the position to embody individual, as well as group parameters, but, nevertheless, not collective83. What happens when everything goes wrong, can be easily deleted, from the hard drive, or considered obsolete. In the case that any given simulation is considered perfect though, there is a series of questions which remain unanswered. Baudrillard had one answer; “When a system has absorbed everything, when one has added everything up, when nothing remains, the entire sum turns to the 80 81 82 83
Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 17|| Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 53|| Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 106|| Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 54||
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remainder and becomes the remainder”84; and, another one; “But what happens when everything is sponged up, when everything is socialised? Then the machine stops, the dynamic is reversed, and it is the whole system that becomes residue”85. Before total simulation is achieved, DeLanda is mostly concerned with the treatment of populations of agents. In the instance which simulation practices will be ready for use to make actual buildings, an extensive elaboration in modelling those agents is going to be demanded. Due to the work load, and for everything to run smoothly, rules are going to be controlled by explicit rules, which are going to be set by explicit constrains, which should comply with certain regulations86. Even at this point, the resemblance of what could be named “Spectacle Revolution”, with what could be named “Simulation Opportunity” is vivid; both would be able to make spaces. The difference is that the first came to suggest spatial temporal reactions, and only represented its proposals, whereas the latter appears determined to go beyond its representational identity. In other words, the simulation opportunity – with, or without the quotation marks – is, and this could pose as a new paradox, Real. It might be that the referential of violence in response to the society of Spectacle is lost, but its memorandum is still present, even if Baudrillard argues for the opposite87. It might be that before Architecture will be able to generate buildings out of 84 85 86 87
Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 144|| Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 144|| Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 55|| Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 78||
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merely simulative practices, it has to be able “to devise intelligent decision-making agents that can influence others and reflect upon their own decisions”88. And, finally, it might be that through the whole of this sequence of re-evaluations, the world, as humanity knows it today, will change to accommodate the new order. One which, for Baudrillard will homogenise and finally cancel all the dispersed functions of body, and social life through the threat of the hypermarket89, but, for others, may actually create a future better that the present. It is, once again, in the hands of the society of individuals – not of the Spectacle, not of the Masses – to choose.
88 Leach N. [editor]| 2009, p. 55|| 89 Baudrillard J.| 1994, p. 76||
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Sunday morning sunlight went straight through the window and directly on Monique's face. She had been sleeping on the red sofa, in her dress – significantly rumply, the latter – all night. She pointed her eyes toward the smell of the coffee, which was coming out of the espresso machine in the kitchen, where Laurent was preparing breakfast. They had probably fallen asleep while watching the film he suggested. By the way, although the flat did not change its referential era of decoration overnight, it looked better. The night before, she had enjoyed the food, otherwise she would have not drunk so much wine; she had enjoyed talking with Laurent, otherwise she would not feel comfortable enough to fall asleep on his sofa; she had even appreciated his attitude – they both want the same things. Monique got up from the sofa, walked barefoot to the kitchen, round the island bar, and gently put her hands – which were still exposed – around his shoulders – which were not exposed –, and kissed him for the first time. She only mentioned her disagreement with 1960's jazz a year later, at their anniversary, when Laurent got her a new – and probably better – pair of ballet flats. [/]
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[-57-] / / references /> / annotated bibliography
> Ball Philip| 2005| Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another |London: Arrow|| Collective in its references, as well as its conclusions, Ball’s book is one informed by classic science, and informative of social science. From physics to philosophy, and from economy to traffic planning, the references within cover the majority of areas which concern the contemporary individual, and their manifestation is led by the most objective language available: the one of Mathematics. > Baudrillard Jean| 1994| Simulacra and Simulation| United States of America: The University of Michigan|| Due to fundamental argument on the notion of simulation, and simulacrum – the copy without an original – the author succeeds to marshal the major idiomorphs in which it exists, and then extensively decompose it into finite elements. The result is a collection of essays, which, although they were compiled in the form of a monologue, they may as well set the scene for dialectics in multiple directions. Thus, the texts become critically relevant to the premise of Simulation, which is now rendered naked in front of the eyes of its devotees and opponents.
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> Burke Anthony + Tierney Therese [editors]| 2007| Network Practices: New Strategies in Architecture and Design| New York: Princeton Architectural Press|| The proceedings of a three-day symposium hosted at the College of Environmental Design and the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, in October 2004, are not to be neglected when it comes for referring into a topic not irrelevant to networks. What is more, the explicit orientation of all the individual essays included in the book provide sound and valid views for the relevance of networks with Architecture. > Calvino Italo| 1997| Invisible Cities| London: Vintage Books|| A poetic and imaginative prose, chaotic and specific at the same time, this classic novel harbours the allusive verbal representations of the multiple faces which bear in one single city: Venice. Through the memorabilia of the trips of Marco Polo, Calvino creates an almost tangible collection of situations that occupy space and time in Kublai Khan’s empire. ‘Invisible Cities’ allows a reading in the co-existence and/or overlapping of the happening and the image which is nevertheless fresh; free of hard-core political associations, thus specific to the contemporary gear. > Cook Peter| 2008| Drawing: The Motive Force of Architecture| West Essex: Wiley||
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Through the whole aggregation of nine chapters dedicated to architectural drawing and representation, the author presents a series of drawings and their creators with the simultaneous explanation of their speculations and origins. Of special interest are the parts which contain Peter Cook’s view on the evolution of the drawing mannerisms in parallel with the theory which supports them. Drawing produces images; therefore spectacular portrayals are its unavoidable outputs. By dealing with the technological developments, which affect the idea of the contemporary architectural image, in a non-aphoristic way the former Archigram member compiles his predictions and aspirations on the emerging Architecture of the invisible fields; the kind of fields that derive directly from events that create spectacles that create events and so forth. > Corner James [editor]| 1999| Recovering Landscape: Essays in Contemporary Landscape Architecture| New York: Princeton Architectural Press|| This is a collection of essays examining contemporary landscape architecture, which includes the essay “Programming the Urban Surface” by Alex Wall. The essay is specific on the rising interest for infrastructure, as well as the strategies which need to be followed in order for Architecture to fulfil its role as a social discipline. > Debord Guy| n.d.| Society of the Spectacle| London: Rebel Press||
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As the common sense reader might guess from its title only, this book is a manifestation against what the notion and the society of the spectacle has produced and how this affects the participants and the humanity as a whole. Written and articulated primarily as a polemic, it includes terminology, historical references and (its, and ours) contemporary relations to a model of life which is stated by the author as dominant. Guy Debord constructs a fundamental text on the theory of the Situationists, which, albeit political and unilateral in its contents, is uniquely analytical in its narrative and disturbingly accurate on quite a lot of its statements. > Leach Neil| 1999| The Anaesthetics of Architecture| Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press|| A critique on the fetishisation and the privileging of the image as the means with which the contemporary architectural culture pace may be constituted, Leach’s caravan of essays aims to reproach the “intoxicating world of the image”. The visual narcotics of the image, as opposed to the lived experiences, are responsible for a corruption which leaves the architectural discipline exposed in front of –particularly- the eyes of the users, according to the author. Spectacle and Event are, therefore, in a confrontational status in a dialectic which favours the latter, but prejudges the “victory” of the first. > Leach Neil [editor]| 2009| Architectural Design: Digital Cities| Volume 79| No. 4 [July/ August 2009]| London: John
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Wiley & Sons|| “Digital Cities” explores the impact of digital technology on the design and analysis of cities under the care of Neil Leach who is the guest editor. In the interview of the latter with Manuel DeLanda Urban Simulation is carefully discussed, and the extracts of that discussion are nothing but fundamental in the exploration of Simulation per se. > Thackara John| 2005| In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World| London: The MIT Press|| A study on the added value of the technology and its devices to the life of the contemporary individual, this book may as well balance on the threshold between the Design and the Business categorization, but it also reveals the junctions which describe the two. The author, based on the circumstances and the situations of today, delivers ways of innovation which can still transform what is not prosperous now to what will offer better living standards to the humanity tomorrow. Parts of the book which deal with situation-based design, as well as flows and invisible fields are relevant to the essay topic, especially because they are placed in the contemporary context. > Tschumi Bernard| 1996| Architecture and Disjunction| Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press|| Tschumi’s writings are considered among the most important
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prerequisites in the field of event-based architecture, as well as in the property of alternative readings which may be done in order for the discipline of architecture to be understood. This book is a melting pot of ideas which deal with the incidents, the experiences and the images of architecture and throughout its collection of essays (dated from 1975 to 1990), it negotiates the possibility of disjunctions through its body. Furthermore, it is a clear statement of both the precedents and the aftermath of the “The Manhattan Transcripts” by the same theorist and practitioner – Bernard Tschumi. > Tschumi Bernard| 1994| The Manhattan Transcripts| London: Academy|| Probably the architectural book with the best proportion of thoughts/ words value, Bernard Tschumi’s theoretical project consists of stories narrated in a three-square form appropriate to architecture, but initiated by films. Influential in its topic and multi-collective about the discussions that set off, “The Manhattan Transcripts” suggests sequence, reciprocity and conflict, among others, in an allegorical mannerism which turns out to be less and less metaphorical as architecture evolves to the discipline which is today, and will probably be tomorrow. > Vidler Anthony [editor]| 2008| Architecture: Between Spectacle and Use| Williamstown, Massachusetts: The Clark|| Social idealism, technology, and the environmental impact are the
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main issues that the essays in this book deal with, along with the realm of the spectacle. All were presented in a conference held in 2005 and all are products of an era that has hopefully surpassed political and moral preoccupations and is focused on aspects which enhance the role of architecture today. Whether the role of it should be commercial or spectacular whatsoever is a question that finds many answers within. / illustrations
[i] Miles Davis http://www.fusionjazzer.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/ MilesDavis20.346181151.jpg [ii] Riots in Paris, France, 1968 http://joelbrady.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/may68-01.jpg [iii] Constant's New Babylon http://joqnelson.com/constant.jpg [iv] The Manhattan Transcripts [Tschumi B.| 1994, p. 16] [v] Sarajevo: Scar http://historyofourworld.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/lw-ii.jpg [vi] Alienation http://www.reconnaissanceart.com/wpcontent/uploads/2008/04/alienation.jpg
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[vii] Melun-Senart, OMA http://ensav.shinslab.net/wpcontent/uploads/2009/05/web0181.jpg [viii] Schouwburgplein http://netzspannung.org/cat/servlet/CatServlet/ $files/217934/Schouwburgplein-2.jpg [ix] Parc de la Villette http://de.academic.ru/pictures/dewiki/80/Paris_parc_de_la_ville tte_cite_des_sciences_la_geode_folie_200501.jpg [x] Parc de la Villette, Winning Entry http://www.imageandnarrative.be/uncanny/_img/3tschumi.gif [xi] Parc de la Villette, OMA http://www.arc1.uniroma1.it/saggio/DIdattica/Cmu/2001/Studi o/lect/land/image.jpg [xii] Pockets Full of Memories, 2001-2005 http://netzspannung.org/cat/servlet/CatServlet/ $files/264600/map_graphic.jpg [xiii] The effect of Worms on the Internet http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project_details.cfm? id=268&index=16&domain=Computer%20Systems [xiv] Flight Density
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http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project_details.cfm? id=67&index=2&domain=Transportation%20Networks [xv] Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao http://architetour.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/guggenheimbilbao-1.jpg [xvi] Director Interlocks http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/project_details.cfm? id=175&index=10&domain=Business%20Networks [xvii] The Regionmaker, MVRDV http://architettura.supereva.com/books/2003/200309009/index. htm [xviii] Ballet Flats http://cdn2.ioffer.com/img/item/137/762/741/sxXUziJoq4tsH 9K.jpg / cover quotes
[inside| back| top] > Baudrillard J.| 1994, p.6|| [inside| back| bottom] > Baudrillard J.| 1994, p.146||
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