Relic(t) query: Questioning Object Charging Place

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This Master's Research Project is submitted to the Graduate School at the University of Florida in partial fulfillment of '~he degree of Master of Architec-I-ure, this August 10, 2000. Dr. Diana H. Bitz, Committee Chairperson Robert Macleod, Committee Member


As in all endeavors, no one person can go it alone. Thanks to all my former studio mates for the many interes1-ing and in-depth discussions, whether involving the theory of architecture or its materiality, or the latest fads in architecture and planning that seem to embed themselves so easily within the mainstream consciousness. Thanks to all the faculty of the Department of Architecture for their intensity and rigor; may it always be so. No one thing is more important in the education of an architect than the sharpening of the mind. Let us all walk away with the ability to decipher the world around us in a significant manner. Most of alL I must thank my family, for without their love and support I never would have fulfilled my dreams. The stars are before us all. And, lastly, but not least to my life-mate, thank you for being. Here begins our practice together. Susan Roseniary Klaus August 10, 2000


You know that feverish sickness which comes over us in our cold despairs, that nostalgia for countries we have never known, that anguish of curiosity?.. Yes, it is there we must go to breathe, to dream, and to prolong the hours in an infinity of sensations ... Mirrors, metals, fabrics, pottery, and works of the goldsmith's art playa mute mysterious symphony for the eye, and every corner, every crack, every drawer and curtain's fold breathes forth a curious perfume, a perfume of Sumatra whispering come back, which is the soul of the abode. [Charles Baudelaire, L'invitation au voyage]


Within '~he speculation and fabrication of architecture, there is the desire to define and locate place. In the reality of our modern technologically-oriented society exists a crisis of place--of its defini1-ion, location and construction. A vast body of theoretical and constructed architectural works exist in which the most basic principle of architectural endeavoL the sheltering of humanity--more specifically, the physical and psychological enclosure and containment of the human body in space--has been forsaken. This crisis of place encornpasses the public measure of place: the communal habitation of place based on tradition--culturai and societal. These traditions are rapidly becoming lost to us as definers of place and spatial operators in the making of place. As a means to investigate this crisis of place, the vehicle of the tourist within an urban context will act as spatial operator. In defining the operation of the tourist within spatial conditions, we may identify specific elements within the context of the city which inform the dynamics of location, containment enclosure, passage, gathering. These investigations must occur simUltaneously at the urban scale and at moments vv'ithin the tourist itinerary in order to reestablish the necessity of the part to the whole in redefining place.


reliquary relie (t) . quer questioning object ~ charging place ~~


The research project did not begin with the notion of exploring the typology of a reliquary. In fact the project does not propose a physicaL built thing in the end, but an expandable, tangible idea of making on which to found a workable architecture. Aworkable architecture is one that facilitates the ability to more discreetly know and understand architec1'ure: its rules, its operations, its limitations, its possibilities-and allow defini1-ive translation from a personal realm into the realm of the communal, public na1-ure of architecture with significance intact. The research project seeks to know, define and describe a contemporary (one which understands and acknowledges 'rhe times in which we exist) architecture. It is one that recognizes the past, but also recognizes, more importantly, that the meanings of past forms and spatial operations can not be transferred from the past into the present as they exist, since we in the present have lost their significance; they do not hold a mythic presence for us today.

relic (t) that which is !eft after the loss, decay or destruction of the rest; something preserved in remembrance, as a memento, souvenir, or keepsake; bones, garments or other momentos of saints or martyrs, preserved for veneration; any outmoded custom, institution or the like.

query a question; an inquiry to be answered or resolved. To ask a question or questions. To seek by questioning; to examine by questions; to express doubt ot to mark with a query.

quarry prey; object of the hunt. a place where (somelhing) is excavated (cutting/ blasting).

WE DO NOT REMEMBER THE MYTHIC ESSENCE of the FORMS of the PAST THAT SURROUND US; THEY ARE THE RHETORIC OF A FOREIGN and ANCIENT LANGUAGE.

III


This crisis of place arises out of the fact that we do not operate on the ideal of place in the same manner as did our ancestors of only a half century ago. Our lives are continuously fragmented: the family is no longer nuclear; we live in the suburbs, but work in the cities, . We have no sense of being connected; we are without tradition, foundation, origin.

What is the notion of reliquary?

Thesis: There exists in the cultural act of architecture a crisis of making place, We, the contemporary thinkers, builders, dwellers, are without groundinQ/ foundation. We must assess the contemporary notion of place and subsequently reestablish forms and spaces that are able to signify,

A reliquary can be defined as the container of reHcs; more specifically, those bodily remains, leftovers, of a greater whole. It is important to note that these relics, collected together, are not always of the same whole.

The problematic of the cultural and societal act of making architecture has been noted as an immense issue; one which does not lend itself to an easily definable or negotiable act. The stability and accessibility of the project relies on the spatial operations of the tourist. The tourist is that figural other who negotiates a multitude of landscapes. Herein, the tourist and his acts are notated as the signifiers, re-presenting one prevalent contemporary notion of seeking and defining place, the hunting and gathering acts of tourism,

It is a space in between the theorist and the practitioner. It is the space in which all ideas are deposited for further musings. It is a very thin space in which to operate on the problem-it is the boundary between knowing and not knowing.

In the making of the research project, the notion of reliquary is present in the text - its words, symbols and meanings - and in the drawings - their signs, lines and notations. The body of the text houses the reassessed components of past endeavors: writings, drawings, models; fragmentary explorations of more holistic intentions.

IV


Dissection: Marking Territories of Operation the itinerary the strategy the process and the method

Extraction: (De-)Signing Place operating on territories no路~ing significance

(Re-)Assemblage: Collect + Classify ordering the chaos the witnessing souvenir the rout(e Jing map the standard mop

Acts of wi'tnessing


The thesis, as relic(t)query, intends to systematically identify and define the nature of the crisis of place, or more aptly, the sense of place--genius loci, This crisis of place was first denoted within the context of the American landscape, both in its urban and suburban counterparts. It was not necessarlly a crisis of the American rural landscape, as the nature of place within its smaller towns and locales have a continuity of place, no matter how desolate its physicaL built self may seem.

tor on, within and through the context of attractions, place was made significant (albeit superficially). The tourist exemplifies the status of the self in relation to the modern dwelling place: it is everywhere and nowhere.

While investigating the historical nature of place and placemaking, '~hrough readings such as Peter Rowe's Making a middle landscape, a history of cultural placemaking within the American landscape, and VS. NaipauJ's The enigma of arrivol, a history of a personal search for place and understanding of placemaking, it became apparent that not only would the proposal need to discuss the crisis of place, but also that which is affected by place--and, in turn, affects it--the self. Through subsequent readings and discussions resulting from a seminar on the crisis of the American landscape, specifically sited within the cultural and social malaise of tourism in Florida, the idea of self as placemaker became ever more significant in identifying the tourist as the potentially necessary operator within '~he identified context. For, here, in the notion of tourist as opera

The crisis of placemaking is more concretely the inability of a proposed or existing physical, mental or spiritual dwelling place to successfully sustain or contain human desires or needs for meaningful existence. It is a place without the ability to signify. The notion of a meaningful place addresses those needs beyond, but does not exclude, eating, sleeping and shelter. In the public concept of placemaking, a meaningful, significant place reestablishes and/or renegotiates cultural and societal rules to the benefit of the individual and group self, A significant place also reaffirms the narrative complexities and abilities of public placemaking,

Further research on the notion of the tourist as spatial operator and constructor brought to light that the crisis of place is not solely a crisis of the American landscape, nor solely of the twentieth century,

The "self" here denotes both the individual self and the collective, cultural self, This notation includes psychological, as well as, physical notions of the self. Subse-

Dissection: Marking territories of operation Noted: A crisis of placemaking We still fee! disquiet at the increasingly abstract and homogenized worid of modern (post-) industrial society. The concept of regionalism]

[Alan Calhoun ,


quent to the developments of the Industrial Age, the self as dweller and participant has become dislodged from a signified spatial context, and has, instead, become defined as an insignificant element in the making of place. In conjunction with the loss of the self, we witness the loss of the city (as the collective self) with the rise of technology and a service-oriented culture. In this the Post-Industrial Age, the age of the consumer extraordinoire, within the contexts of the defined cUltures and societies of developed countries, we are left without ground, without oikos. We are beings of noplace that we may truly call home. We are fast becoming and, therefore, making the legacy of a rootless culture--we are tourists in search of the ultimate souvenir that will give some added meaning to the place we ultimately return to and coil "home."

the consumer and objectifier of place. The tourist is an anonymous other with a specific mode of spatial operation. Defined as anybody from anywhere who is in fact a no-body no-where, the tourist is aware of nothing but his eyes and his feet. Their bodies, as a whole, become significant only when placed in the realm of the object(s) that they seek--when they juxtapose themselves with the object/place in a photo or as individuals in a mass of tourists. Through their spatial operation(s), they construct memories and a memorable place that they carry away with them, returning to it, and negotiating it through their relics.

In this regard, we can de'fine a method for resigning place in a return to the "hunter + gatherer"; a notion of medieval revivalism in which the image/picture embodies the significance of an event or place. The power of the image resides in its creation as a sign for an abstract concept. The tourist is the contemporary "hunter + ga'~herer", the negotiator of space between suburbia and urbanity,

2


Praxis prassein to do; An example or form of exercise, or a collection of such examples, for practice, ... ; a means for practice.

Theory theoria a beholding; spectacle contemplation; speculation.

The idea of formulating and developing a theoretically sound and thought-provoking article is ... an ali-consuming condition. Daily; and upon vjsits to new cities, habitable spaces, especially the ecclesiastical structures, there seems to be the constant struggle ... of belief/nonbelief, mythos/fantasia/rea/ity, earthly/divine, mythic/scientific, bodily/spiritual. experiential/rational. In the first attempts to become immersed within the consumptive conditions of the tourist nature,' in the attempt to be as aware as possible of the truly carnivorous and

3


Identifying the tourist as the essential spatial operator within the making of meaningful place resulted from my participation in a graduate seminar that focused its musings on the problematic nature of tourism as it specifically impacted both the mythical and physical landscape of Florida. Seen as a wounding of culture, that which is both leacherous and generative, tourism became for my own personal prOjections within the landscape a consuming notion of the disembodied-the tourist in search of some other--a continuously shifting identity.

journey of the making of the project is, what can we, as generators and definers of the built and inhabitable landscape, learn from the hunter + gatherer experiences of the tourist. By noting and notating the tourist's operation upon the landscape, both as a physical domain--of the object of desire--a nd as a virtual domain--of visual + auditory + tactile projec-~ions--we may begin to approach the site for a working of architecture. By enacting and acting out the operations of the tourist we may begin to approach the method for a workable architecture.

Noting this condition of cultural wounding, the research project utilizes the embodiment of self in the tourist as he functions in situ, to reesta biish and reconfirm culturai meaning. Borrowing from the Greek act of witnessing, solonism, -~he tourist becomes a significant and essential participant in all contexts. In the act of witnessing} the tourist participates willingly (but, not necessarily, objectively), sometimes imparl-ing a piece of himself within the context. However, he most assuredly departs with some thing; some souvenir or photo to be viewed iater; always some thing that remains as a signifier of (physicaL mental or spiritual) place. What is most significant to ask at all points along the

Dissection: Marking territories of operation DissectorI (re-)constructor: The tourist me-oriented experience of the self as tourist 1 have been consumed... The object-oriented--re/ics, souvenirs--desires of the tourist culture not only consume the tourist/consumer; but a/so those institutions which ultimately serve to feed the beastly hordes. Take for example the final resting place of saints, important historicai figures and the like: Saint Anthony's, in Padova, remains were removed and reassembled after 750 years; the periodic canonical reconnaissances of saintly tombs. It seems sacrilegious that the institutions that teach the 4


Of such [poetic] natures must have been the first founders of gentil e hum ani ty when at Ias t the sky f earf uII y raIJed wit h thunder and flashed with lightning: as could not but follow from the bursting upon the air for the first time of an impression so violent... Thereupon, a few were frightened and astonished by the great effort whose cause they did not know, and raised their eyes and became aware of the sky. And because in such a case the nature of the human mind leads it to attribute its own nature to the effect, and because in that state their nature was that of men all robust bodily strength, who expressed their very violent passions by shouting and grumbling, they pictured the sky to themselves as a great animated body, ... who meant to tell them something by the hiss of his bolts and the clasp of his thunder. An t hus the y beg ant a ex ercis e t hat nat uraI cur i 0 si ty whi chi s the daughter of ignorance and the mother of knowledge, and which, opening the mind of man, gives birth to wonder. [The New Science of Giambattista Vico, 117.]

Estraction: (De-)Signing Place Ordering the Chaos Q:: V>

LIII, 218 clear mind.

Men at first feel without perceiving, then they perceive with a troubled and agitated spirit, finally, they reflect with a

LlV, 220 Whatever appertains to men but is doubtful or obscure, they naturally interpret according to their own natures and the passions and customs 5


Constructor

Strategy

Operatlon

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founding of place

grounding

riH~·=I.

deiineation of place

limit/boundary

III~~ 1I~·h~ II

experience of place

perception

'1.&·,,4 •

spectacle of place

encounter

"·'·ua_

negotiation of place

navigation

In his text Thought and place, on Giambattista Vico's New Science as memory place, Donald Kunze discusses the idea of Vican placemaking as a liminal condition of existence: although we are of the physical world, we are also of the abstract world. We are not however, fully attuned to this abstract sensing of place, and we, therefore, find ourselves struggling in the realm between the abstract (unknowable) and the physical (knowable) worlds. This condition of existence between gives rise to the concept of boundary, of threshold as a spatial definition of existence, out of which culture and, ultimately, civilization arise.

becomes a place of transcendence--there is a blurring of two distinct realms. Building on the perceptions and thoughts of the individuaL communal acts of making place are carried out in an attempt to physically manifest the abstract notions of existence, between the earthly realm and the godly realm. According to Vican Science, based on a poetiC culture, the first communal act is the clearing in the forest marking the boundary of earth and sky. This foundational act of clearing is followed by theater, temple, forum, sacrifice, trial, labyrinth and chorus, each containing within them the notion of boundary and threshold.

This initial cognizance of existence, the liminaL begins with the notion of dark and light wherein the boundary

spring from them. LlV, 221

This axiom is a great canon of our mythology.

[The New Science of Giambattista Vieo .. 75-6.] 6


plan the itinerary plan the strategy plan the process and the method

Ritualized strategies for making visible the invisible; making known the unknowable: (OL Vichian science as discovered in Barbara Stafford's Body Criticism)

Intervention within context establishes itself first as a mark upon the land. This act results in a marred surface. Soon after, a cut is made in the ground, the surface is broken; that which lies beneath is revealed. The idea of place is first defined as subcutaneous in nature.

scanning touching cuffing deforming abstracting generating conceiving marking staining enlarging

The idea of making place begins in this, the dissection of the city. This operative notion seeks to identify the essence(s) of the city.

reducing imagining sensing

(eye) (hand) (hand + tool) (nature; mind + eye; hand; hand + tool) (eye; mind + nature) (mind; mind + hand) (mind + nature; mind; mind + hand) (nature + mind; mind; hand; hand + tool) (nature + mind; mind; hand; hand + tool) (eye; nature + mind; mind; hand; hand + tool) (eye; nature + mind; mind; hand; hand + tool) (eye; nature + mind; mind) (eye + ear + hand +nose + mouth; mind)

Through these strategies for operaling on the unknown, we can establish rela-~ionships between elements, forms, spaces, planes that signify place.

Imagination (leads to) invention (leads to) inscription. (senses) + (tools) + (symbols)

Dissection: Marking territories of operation Deconstructing placemaking sacredness of death and the body, would ultimately, for both (in the service and (re-)offirmation of) religion and tourism, dare to break the holy shroud of death. Another consuming notion is that of spatial continuity/connectedness of the city and the seemingly anomalous condition of the over7


Historically, research would show that for the most part cultures build on what has come before. 1 Although the razing of an existing construct to insert a neweL better ideal is not an anomalous condition in history, this (pre)condition for building anew after the complete annihilation of the preexisting context has become a dangerously common practice in most post-industrial nations, particularly, the United States. Looking to a historicist view of piacemaking, still in practice in Europe and rural America, we can identify a stratified condition of making. This stratificai-ion is not only apparent in the horizontal sectional character of a context; but, also, in its materiality, construction and joinery. Here, there is an enriched nlilieu; each intractable parts of a narrative whole. The following are beginning premises for placemaking, all of which the contextual and historical nature of the Prato della Valle in Padua, Italy, exhibit:

garden, n. gort -- enclosure a plot of ground ... cultivated a container a public recreation area or part...ornamented ... an open-air ea1'ing or drinking place a large hall for public entertainment

, v. layout or work in a garden

myth, n. mythos a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief. or natural phenomenon. a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone, especially: one embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society. an unfounded or false notion. a person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence.

Dissection: Marking territories of operation

.

1 Although I do not cite concise, statistical research on this, i believe that such research would bear this out. Save for the mass clearing of inner-cities during the late 1960's and early 1970's, or that of Hausmann in Paris (or notable other examples of clearing in order to build), ! suggest that the majority, if not all, of human settlement is based on the notions of continuity. superimposition and adaptive use.

8


Light is the clearing within,' it is beginning the naming. Dark is the desire for closure,' it is knowing the naming. Between them is imagination (the senses), invention (tools) and inscription (symbols). Frorn these is borne perception (memoryJ- relics (souvenirsJ- reliquary (place).

whelming vastness of the Proto della Volle. The city; in memory- afrer only two visits, seems a circuitous and convoluted structure,' labyrinfhaf in nature. Analogous to the structure of the brain, (its) clarity of continuity escapes me. I find throughout my attempts to reconstruct my initial routings through the city that there are .. moments in transition from one passage or entry that remain void(s) of place, meaning, form or structure. It is almost as if one posses through without senses--it becomes, at these moments) the 9


Traveling in Italy- one sees the tower before one sees the city, Towers are the one common feature consistently marking public place, urban and ruraL for civic gathering, From a relic relating Firenze and Siena, urban place is denoted in the space of a gnomon--the tower's shade marks the ground plane; and, therefore, civic space, (see Re/ic(t) 1) In Siena's 1\ Campo, -rhe campanile traces a path along the ground, affirming the notion of sundials or gnomons, placed in often obscure niches of cities--such as that along the Ponte Vecchio in Firenze--as vertical elements that mark place in time and, as toweL place between ground and sky. The space of the gnomon in the Campo is occupiable: the presence of the marching shade of the tower establishes genius loci of the Campo.

gnomon (1070) (Gr.)

gnomon --one 'that knows --the index of a sundial --a carpenter's square

1. Any object which by the pOSition or length of its shadow serves as an indicator... (specif.)

a. The style, pin or vertical place of an ordinary sundial, usually set parallel to the earth's axis. b. A column ... erected perpendicularly to the horizon, formerly used to find the sun's meridian altitude.

3. A rule or canon, as of faith.

Of similar dimensions, the Prato della Valle, in Padua, Italy) does not hold space or mark place as emphatically as the Campo. The idea of the Prato as public space originated from an abstract intent of marking place in history--an intent dependent on memory, an abstract function of a person and a culture itself that intends to transcend time.

Extraction: (Oe-)Signing place Noting significance non-experiential city; a city of voids; a city without light (that which gives form, clarity and meaning to place). It is these moments which intrigue me, at present those places of no-place, where one is not awore. nor made aware, of the self or of any other. All things become one in the void of transitions. (from person'(a/)s meandering(s) ... 07.24.94 1a


Sienna and Firenze: Gnomom defined places Tower is a liminal condition between ground and SkY. It is the vertical identifier of city; the threshold of civic place. The tower marks space; ploce is.


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Relic(t) Prato della ValJe: imprecisely demarcated ground ~

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12


The Prato della Valle is a conlinuous space of urban place in the history of -~he Italian city-state of Padua (also referred to as Padova) , Within the declining years of the Eighteenth Century, the governing bodies of the soon-to-be independent city-states of the Venetian Republic sought to develop their respective cities in order to claim the seat of cultural and political influence. In order to do so in Padua, the provvedifore or governor, Andrea Memmo, developed a scheme for the Prato della Valle that would de-fine Padua as a civic and, most importantly, an economic center. The new design envisioned for the enclave of the Prato della Valle grew out of a series of projects designed to impress upon the visitor the importance and elegance of Padua within the Venetian Republic, Each project encompassed a concept that was instrumental in the reworking of the spatial meaning of the Prato as place and as event: the urban spectacle, Unique to Memmo's concept was the intent to market its economic feasibility in order to manifest Padua's independence from the Venetian Republic, This economic intent potentially defines the Prato as the first economic development geared to the visitor, or tourist. The project for the Prato della Valle afforded Memmo

an opportunity to experiment and express his ideological and architectural concepts as he set forth in his text Elementi di orchitetturo /odoliono a rorte di costruire consolidita' scientifica ed elegance non copriccioso, published in 1786 while the project was constructed. As a follower of Father Carlo LodoH in Venice, Memmo was instructed in the theory of architecture as a study of fragments and their potential inherent jointings, In the Prato della Valle's project, each element was a fragment of the city, a physical and abstract member of -~he Venetian Republic, to be brought together to define the new center. Working with friar Domenico Cerato, another follower of Lodoli's theories, Memmo developed a plan to reclaim and redesign a large, loosely defined and underutilized area outside the inner city walls, and provide within it a formalized setting for a place of entertainment, The space's name, Prato della Valle, or the meadow of the valley, itself, gave the space an lndefinite and extramural character. At the time, it was a meadow having an ill-defined notion of boundary, containment, and function, Historically, however, archaeological evidence shows that a Roman theater once stood within the meadow

Extraction: (Oe-)Signing place Operating on territories The Prato della Valle of Padua remains as the most surprising square Itl Europe, the consummation of a reforming technology founded in a policy of images which the Venice of that day was no longer capable of reflecting, moving outside of all pIace and tim e, a drift i ng terr ito ry aban don edan d los tin re!at ion tot hen ewE LI r0 pea n cap ita Is: the ship wreck 0 f Utop i as, the birth of the dead_ [Brusatin, 55] 13


Relic(t) 3 Prato della Val/e: the urban spectacle

Q: <.I)

14


At the time of Memmo's proposal, the space of the Prato was used in an irregular and informal manner. Spontaneously marked by merchants, travelers and animals, tracks imprecisely demarcated a central axis to the doors of Santa Giustina, a large cathedral to the southeast of the space, and a lessor axis to -~he city's foundational cathedral, San Antonio, to the nor~heast. (see Re/ic(t) 2) In order to reorient the space of the Proto, Memmo introduced the axial form of on ellipse. Within the design's elliptical deliniation, architectural elements were utilized as image and object in order to mark civic place. Memmo's initial concept for the Prato was to provide a physically defined space for public spectacles that would allow expansion on the occasion of visits from foreign rulers. This idea encompassed -~he construction of wooden terrace seating and shops, seen as temporary gestures within -,he expansion and contraction of the definition of public place. In his plan, the ragged edges of the Prato, loosely defined by a few religious buildings and palaces of nobility, contracted within the space of the meadow to define a precisely delineated island, the Isola Memmo, within which the city as image was to be presented. Establishing the outer perimeter of the Isola Memmo, a hard-earth roadway encircled

two rings of footpaths, which, in turn, enclosed a canal. The roadway was intended to attract the public by providing a track for carriages which were envisaged as part of the scenery of place as event-image. On either side of the canaL a double ring of statuary, representing noted Italian and foreign figures who were deemed significant in the city's past, served to inscribe the space of the new urban piazza as memory-image. Serving to connect the inner realm of the Isola Memmo to the outer realm of the Prato della Valle, four bridges were constructed, marking the main and minor axes of the ellipse. These bridges were the space of the connector. a space between the expandable outer perimeter of the island, delineated by the removable wooden terrace seating constructed beyond, and the contractible inner perimeter of ",he island, delineated by the temporary wooden shops constructed within. Giving precise form to the elliptical imagery of place as a contrac1-ing and expanding space, a dualistic idea! of contraction and extension took shape in successive rings of water, earth and air, elements of precise architectural intent.

15


Relic(t) 4 Prato della Valle: expanding center

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16


Relic(t) 5 Prato della Valle: contracting center ~ 35:?:

17


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Prato della Valle: contracted center

18


Relic(t) 7 Prato della Valle: expanding event

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19


Relic(t) 8 Prato delJa Valle: exclusion -- the contraction of center

20

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According to literature regarding Padova, the stone figures of the city's largest urban space, the Prato della Valle, are not, save for a few, of any historical significance; nor were the men who were commissioned to sculpt them, Seen as a vehicle to encourage tourist venues, they were put up as quickly as possible in order to impress upon the visitor the extent of Padua's importance, specifically, in terms of the Venetian Republic, and, generally, the world at large,

time, the city was still contained within the medieval walls while the Prato lay outside.

As individual objects, the statues hold little or no significance. The Prato, historically defined by its ring of statuary presents itselt particularly through its maintenance, as an insignificant, forgotten gesture at marking abstract place in history and an insignificant physical place in the city's public dwelling, The signification of the Prato as a mythically charged public dwelling space dates back to the time of the Roman city as evidenced by the ruins of a Roman -~heater lying beneath the existing site.

The Prato della Valle is an immense urban plaza. Like a vesseL the Prato contains within it, and is simultaneously defined by, an island, the Isola Memmo, which is set off from the city by a canal and statuary that ring it, Adding physical form, a market periodically fills the outer edges of the Prato, charging the large expanse. As the vessel is further concealed, its essence is revealed.

Today, although incorporated into the physical structure of the city, it remains a temporary gesture, To a large extent, it is unused and barren, intermittently dissected by mopeds, joggers and couples who anchor themselves along the Prato's inner circle. (See Re/ic(t) 9).

The Prato lies within the walls of the old city; yet, it was originally an outer realm of the medieval city, At some point in the city's history, the Prato became a realm of sub-urban spectacle wherein occurred horse and carriage races and the promenade of citizens. At that

Dissection: Marking territories of operation Dismemberment: Context

Q: U)

[Sec. 706] USeeing distinctly was called cernere oculis, for the eyes are like a sieve and the pupils like two holes, and as from the sieve sticks of dust issue to touch the earth, so from the eyes, through the pupils, sticks of light issue to touch the objects which are distinctly seen. The general expression for seeing was usurpare occulis, as if things seen were actually taken possession of by sight.


Relic(t) 9 Prato della Valle: exclusion -- the denied center

22


The essence of the place of the Prato lies in a duality of existence with the larger extents of the city. For, while the city seems to negotiate the definition of the urban space through indifference, the vast space of the Prato denies the existence of an outer realm. The Prato is an extricated body part unaware of its own significance within the body of -~he city. Through this dUdlity of existence, the Prato is the last vestige of an interiorized realm before removal from the city's core. The ideal of the Isola Memmo originated -From an abstract intent of marking place in history. An intent dependent on memory, an abstract function of individual and cultural place, The Isola Memmo attempts to establish a memoryimage through the redefinition of the Prato's physico! and abstract presence. By placing the statuary within and in a manner that serves to enclose space, the Isola Memmo places the tourist within a place between the mythic, narrative city--the perceived city as presented by others; and 路~he distinct city--the city perceived as possessed by the tourist.

Extraction: (Oe-)Signing place Noting significance Tangere, to tOlJch, meant also to steal, for to tOlJch a body is to take something away from it, [The New Science of Giambattista Vico, 266.J 23


In plan and in the experiential nature of passage within and through 'rhe city- the physical city expands to allow anomalous conditions to appear and take form. These anomalous conditions may appear and disappear at various moments during passage, becoming initially perceived, and therefore, defined, as fragmentary-glimpses of bodily particulates (i.e,: root towec facade). The Prato might be metaphorically related to the city as the clearing within--as in Vico's theory of -~he First Na1-ions--formed by an additive structuring of the city and the substitution of a theater for a meadow.

gouge, n. (OFr.)

gulban --prickle: beak.

2. Act of scooping out; a groove or cavity scooped out; 3. An imposition; a cheat; an impostor.

, v.t. 1. To cut grooves, channels or holes in. 2. To scoop out as an eye, with the thumbnail; to force out the eye (of a person). 3. To cheat; to defroud.

Extraction: (Oe- )Signing place Operating on territories Walking "up" from the "bottom" of the city along the one-way street which fears along the western edge of the Prato, it seems as if a vast fide of people and machines are disgorged from the city and allowed to spill out to the city's newer reaches. Although this is most apparent during the lunch hour, it is still a valid observation during the other times one is within the Proto or along its edges that there is a sense of a gouging of place. Here, I mean that the city seems ready to sever a physical tie to the idea of the Prato as a physical p/oce-

24


Prato--disemboweJed city Unknowing city. Island of Memmo Island of memoria. an island,., of- and in, the city None can claim it yet it is physically a thing; a place; that belongs to many things. It is an island of overwhelming vastness,' yet it is not immense. It is a constructed island,' it is a (constructed) memory. A (rti) fact of non-fact. Memory theater of no-place.

Extraction: (Oe-)Signing place Operating on territories making; the Prato seems to be unhinged from the physical city. This notion is grounded in the fact that three of its four edges ore fastmoving traffic avenues. Due to this condition the entirety of the Prato de/Jo Valle is an island within the city, moreso than the parts of the city surrounded by water. (from person/(al)s meandering(s) .. .o2.09.94

25


In The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture, George Hershey notes the ritual of reassemblage of the body after dismemberment, in war and in sacrifice, as practiced by the Ancients. He ascribes this reassemblage of body parts as an attempt to appease the gods for taking that which only the gods had the right to take: life. In the Catholic church, the bodies of saints are often dismembered, distributed among patron churches and reassembled. 2 Here, this is not carried out in an attempt to please God, but to appease the desires of the congregation and pilgrims to be witness to miracle(s), as well as, make offerings to the saints for miracles.

as well as, of their transparency. They are simultaneously superimposed with one another through a thin wall of articulated glass. The place of reliquary is known at the threshold when one begins to lose the sense of the physical self as the spiritual self is heightened. The place of the reliquary is the place of threshold--the boundary between.

In the act of reassemblage to house and display -~he reassembled bodily remains--relics--casings are constructed. These reliquaries vary in scale and manner of display. Some, mere objects themselves, become relics. The reliquary is an assemblage of bodily particulates (details). It embraces the enclosure of the body within the body of the church. In Padua's cathedral of Saint Anthony, the actual physical space of the reliquary is made visible as a juxtaposition of objects and space,

(Re-)Assemblage: Collect + classify (Re- )Construction: The reliquary 2

Undoubtedly, there are other religions that perform a similar act.

26


bro. chure \ bro -'shu (e) r also "bro-, \n (~fr. brocher to sew, fro ME to prick, fro OF brochier, fr. broche)

(1748) : PAMPHLET, BOOKLET; esp : one containing descriptive or advertising material.

You enter. You coJ/ect 01/ the objects that you can possibly cram into your bag: maps, brochures, schedule of events; in any language that you might possibly speak or learn to speak. You browse through a few of the brochures, seeking any intriguing sites for your itineraries, anything that might interest the tourist within. Your eye is caught for a moment.

Dissection: Marking territories of operation

27


In ancient Greece, there arose an art of touring, Solonism. In the nature of Solonism, the first tourists were honored citizens of Greece, sent out by the polis to be official witnesses of events. Upon return, only their witnessing of an event would be classified as true, as containing the essence of all of the necessary elements needed to reassemble the event. Vichian science defines a second type of witnessing, conscienzQ, wherein a cunure witnesses what it does, not necessarily what it makes or produces. In this witnessing, the methodology of making is embraced. In the act of witnessing, -~he tourist passes through points of threshold; places, physical or abstract, wherein the self as tourist denotes significance by virtue of a souvenir, snapshot, postcard, etc. These points of threshold are events; attractive distances in which some thing has been made desirous. A tourist group is a community of shared desires. Acting as one body, together, tourists are barriers, spatial operators that mask the object that they desire. Between them and the object desired, they place a foi/a tourist guide, camera, or some other thing that maintains the veiled condition of tourist witnessing.

The object of tourist desire is perceived through a tour guide, tourist map, postcard, souvenir, guide book, often before the object of tourist desire is perceived distinctly by the eye of the tourist. Subsequen-I-Iy, the object desired, when ultimately viewed, has been given mythic presence because the postcard, souvenir, etc., serves to condition the perception of place or event. The mythic presence of place is enhanced by the hunt for the object desired; the simultaneous experience of masking and unmasking as -~he tourist negotiates itinerary. The mythic quality of place is re-signed by -~he gathering and subsequent displacement of the object. In the act of gathering, space collapses and folds around the tourist, the desire, -~he object, and becomes a thin place that negotiates the space of the cities visited, Through the spatial operation of the tourist itinerary the city and the events and objects witnessed are conflated resulting in a spatial collapse as the city and its perceived experiential qualities are condensed into a thin, yet dense, experienced place,

Extraction: (De-)Signing place Noting significance

28


A pervasive element in the culture of the tourist the postcard collapses time and space on a flat surface. It is simultaneously a perceived place, a place perceived and a perpetual place, It is a narrative correspondence between an event place, the tourist and home, Assembled together with other relics, the postcard is a mythically charged journeying vessel. The space of the tourist is an itinerant place.

1foil \ foi(e)! \ vt (ME foilen to trample, full cloth. fro F fouler) (14c)

I

lobs: TRAMPLE 2 a: to prevent from attaining an end: DEFEAT b: to bring to naught: THWART.

3foil n (ME, leaf, fro MF foille (fr. l folia, pI. of folium) & foil. fro l folium) (14c)

4: one that serves as a contrast to another.

The tourist is empowered by the fact that he seeks, That which he seeks is empowered by the tourist's perception of its truth, Place is empowered by the tact that it occupies the space between ground and sky-it mediates man's earth-bound nature and his sky-driven desires.

29


Within the mental mapping process of navigating context something that operates at a subconscious level. layer upon layer of information--visual, virtual. auditory, sensual, etc.--merges, coalesces, edits (with) the o-~her(s). It is this process of mapping that reveals the essential city(ies). The idea of essences, as brought forth in Hershey's book The lost meaning of classical architecture, here means those face(t)s of the city that the mind deposits within the mental map. In the initial attempts to record my own internal process of mapping, the facets deposited are those of entry, passage (at points of expecta-rlons of), aHracfions (here meaning events; objects of tourist desire: buildings, plazzL etc.). These images, although not par~icularly symbolic in nature, seem to operate as initial subconscious navigation cues. They also seem to operate at a very basic level of nego-~iation: the figure/ground--establishing places of dark or of light and their entry portal or passage.

tion, stimuli for urban placemaking. In each, there is dlso an attempt to redefine -~he nature of mapping and of maps themselves.

Three drawing types emerge within the process of documenting the visualizing of the multiple city: the witnessing souvenir, the rout(e)ing map, the standard map. In each, there exists the desire for a strategy to pull apart the different cities, examine them, and (re-) assemble them into a more coherent body of informa-

(Re-)Assemblage: Collect + classify Drawings: Relic(t)s from dissection Viewed separately, each element may not hold much significance, but as interrelated fixtures within the landscape of the city; they root the tourist to the image-driven culture of the ideal of city. For the tourist the city can never be more than a masked reality. (from person '(0/)5 meandering(s). ..

30


Relic(s). Images, events, ideas; all attractions that in some way draw the foreigner into any number of the cities. The souvenir is also the vehicle through which the city is conveyed to the emotions and memory of the tourist and away from a site/si(gh)tings by the tourist. Ordering objects.

souvenir, n. \ (Fr., orig. int to remember<L subvenire, to come to mind) (1283): some'rhing kept or serving as a reminder of a place, person or occasion; keepsake; memento.

(Re-)Assemblage: Collect + classify the (witnessing)

souveni,a

It is important to note that I assume that many, if not aiL tourists operate in a similar fashion: witnessing events, objects, extracting specific (a!beit subconscious) stimuli (symbols, sings, objects); and conveying them to some point of initial departure (as in the nature of solonism), It is through this act of witnessing that one may begin to denote specific points necessary in tourism: the point of departure-the oikas, or home; which may also operate (and does in most cases) as 'the point of return--ond pOints of threshold, places, physical or abstract. wherein the self as tourist denotes significance by virtue of a souvenir: snapshot. postcard, etc.

3

31


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Witnessing Souvenir III Post-carte: Ordering the chaos of place within context It is suggested in pion that the alignment of the Prato may be in accordance to the location of the governor's palace, the piaua that fronts it and the duomo; as well as, Palauo Ragione and its attendant piazzi. Perhaps it is Memmo's gesture of connecting his attenuated public (yet, privately financed) piazza to the piazzt more firmly embedded within the memory and functioning of the city's public, civiC and ecclesiastical realms.

34

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The post-carte Is an image constructed after a visitation of place. Drawn or photographed, this image-construct serves to continue drawing the tourist within, within the spirituality of place and within the selt long after physical departure.

postcard post .card post. carte

The post-carte, the drawing made after, is the charged and charging vessel. As such, the Drawing-after charges the grounding for the making of the limen, that space of the essential city as experienced by the tourist. Within the space of the Drawing-after, the various cities enfold one anothec drawing the tourist in.

mail

post

postafter later

carte mop

Continuously revisited by the tourist the Drawing-after is transformed. Transcending each of the cities, the space of the limen begins to unfold from within. This space of the limen is a thin space of infinite depth and length; one that gathers wi"rhin the essential qualities of the cities visited. It is a space that enfolds as it unfolds.

(Re-)Assemblage: Collect + classify

plan drawing

.

Postcarte: the drawing ofter

35


cities be/ow Padova is not necessarily a city of or for tourists. It is many cities,' twisting and turning; entering, moving into and slipping post one another.,. (from person' (al)s meondering(s) .. 1.23,94

.o


Surfaces that narrate images as text. Structured assemblage of images into text. Itinerant p/aces--places which one moves through and within in order to remember. Itineraries.

the narrative city:

post-Carte I a fragment dissected from 0 Podovon tourist ma p Transportation (bus) system narrates a particular movement through the city

37


post-Carte /I ceiling frescoes Giusto d Manabuoii Baptistery of Duomo I

Depict sacred events: places

post-Carte III walls Palazzo della Roglone Pointed cycles of months, seasons, astrology A memory theater according to Dame Francis Yates' definition of a memory theater 38


post-Carte IV room frescoes. 1303-06 Giotto, Cappello Scrovegni Painted cycles of Christ and the Virgin Mary + the Virtues and the Vices A memory theater (according to Dome Francis Yates)

39


Foundational acts of city, Groundings--grounded images of place in city.

the sited city:

post-Carte I charcoal drawing Ring of statuary reflected in waters of canal Isoia Memmo, Prato della Valle

Roman theater be/ow 40


post-Carte /I trees and walls juxtaposed with one another Orto Botanico

Enclosure Identification of essential elements (statuary- trees, walls) 41


City of (seeming) disassociatlons--dfscontinuous and fragmented passage,' connections are not easily read. Places in which one emerges from passage within submerged? hidden cities. "Dead ends --places of untruths,' destinations wjfhin itineraries N

the labyrinthol city:

post-Carte I

a detail Martyrdom of S. Christopher Andrea Montegno Cappella Ovetari. Chiesa degli Erimitani Arches, bridge/well, steir

42


post-Carte II courtyard of the Capitolano and the stairs between the Palazzo della Ragione and 11 Municipio A

passage befv./een

43


Contained city, Corridors of passage. Rhythmic expansion and contraction of movement within and through, Removal and containment of body from city. Ceflular--unified whole through variegated units. Streets: Corso Vittorio, Emanuelle n Via Umberto 1, Via Romo, etc.

the arcaded city:

post-Carle I Loggia AmuleQ, 19th C. Proto della Valle

44


post-Carte II Palazzo della Ragione Market/shop spaces Containrnent of (provision for) specific program elements

45


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City of subsurface; subfacade--that which resides beyond a (seemingly) apparent truth; it is that which is masked.

the hidden city:

post-Carte I drawing--a dissected fragment from personal journal

Contour lines/silhouette Towers + streets of the city

46


The masking city. City of surface,' facade--it is that which masks some other,' enfolds some thing. Wrappec envelope. Background; stogeset for event of place.

.

the foiled city:

post-Carle I market Prato delia Volle

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post-Carte III drawing--a dissected fragment from personal journal

Contour lines/' silhouettes Arcades Facades

48


Mythic; foundational place beneath some other. Grounded place. Roman theater--ruins. Ancient city. Canals.

the submerge.d city:

post-Carte I Prato della Valle

Roman theatre below

49


cities of boundary


Significance given to objects.

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the city of scholars:

post-Carte I seals Universito del 'Bo

51


post-Carte /I Golileo's Chair II 80, University of Padua +

fresco Petrarch Altichiero the Giant's Hall, Oratorio S. Giorgio

52


The city between. Images found in dissection of cities. Thin, compressed place of the in-between.

the liminal city:

53


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post-Carte I spiral--dissected fragment

post-Carte II, III personal urban map--a touring

from a Poduon tourist brochure

Symbolic representation of limen (from Kunze)

Old vs. new wound (Prato vs. modern--Stazione) & urban signifiers between (piozzL chiesi & On-o Botanico)

54


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personal images--a fouring Dis(un-)covering the Proto

55


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post-Carte VII montoge--ossemb/age of parts Sto. Giustina, Orto Botonico + Prato della Valle St~.

Giustino built on the site of earlier sacred places Orto Botonjco--ostronomically aligned Prato della Volle-placed on top of Roman ruins bases for modern city

56


post-Carte VIII

post-Carte IX montage--assemb/age of parts

Loggia Amu\eo + statuary, Proto della Valle Observing platform ObseNed

from tourist brochure, 2 Roman gates Opposed to one another within seal No longer evident in city; not physically within city

57


Detaches body from selt' physically, spiritua/JI( physiologically. Operates on elements entrenched within the city.

Body is dissected,' dismembered Classification; identification of body parts Understand the whole through the port Places body on a platform; body observed

the disembodying city:

post-Carte I Teatro Anatomico G. Fabrici d'Acquapendente, 1594 11 Bo', Palazzo Centrale dell' Universita degli Studi Observers placed above the dismembered Simultaneous movement away from and toward something 58


post-Carte II altar + chapel of S. Anlonio Basilica San Antonio Confrontation of sacred through the profane (body parts/ relics) Spiritually-embodied self heightened over physica/ly-

embodied (profane) self Body part/relics placed within the enclosure of a wall; observers must come to it; move towards it

59


cities of defense


Known through pieces/parts. The city's holistic reading is de/oco/ized. Pieces of the city are missing--where is the rest? Each part gives a sense of the greater whole-leads to question: If you had all the pieces and assembled them together; would what you had perceived in the part be truthful about the whole?

,-

Ponel from painting which is no longer intact due to damage from WWfJ Urban scene with figures, one of which looks at the viewer-architectural panel with frieze--perspectival

the fragmentary city:

post-Carte I a detail Chiesa degli Erimitoni Martyrdom of S. Christopher. Andrea Montegna

(begins Renaissance art) Pointing has deteriorated, but not beyond recognition 61


3 coded ifineranes: red--hote/s bfue--historical places & monuments green--pubfic buildings

post-Carte /I a fragment dissected from a Poduan tourist mop Monuments highlighted with three-dimensional images (photos)lmontage & fourisf information symbols The city is fragmented by a need to suppress 011 back

Qround information (context) that surrounds monuments (itinerory). Only that which has been defined historically essential ports of the city by a body of tourism officials is allowed.

62


City connected by ven-ical elements that rise above the otherwise overriding horizontal nature of the city. Historically definer of cify--towers marked urban public centers--civfc, sacred, etc. Today, they mark historically significant places and/or events, which mark essentiol destinations for the tourist and the pilgrim (as welf as, day-today user). Within the city (& entertwined network of citfesJ towers are mnemonically connected--orientotion, guides--navigational tools.

University of Padua used to observe the Heavens Marks boundary of the medieval city

the city of towers:

post-Carte I 19th Century observation tower Embedded within the walls of the medieval city Marks boundary between ground/sky: profane/sacred; mystical/scientific; irrationol/rotionai

63


post-Carte II towers of S. Antonio

Mark sacred site--disossemb/ed body of 5, Anthony contained within 8 domes in 01/; Eastern-stylized towers

64


Mnemonic vehicles; aids. Places; objects imbued with memories. Places singled-out to be remembered. SiQnificant places that house memory

the city of memory:

post-Carte I Statuary, Proto della Volle

65


That which is essential to accommodate the tourist. That vi/hich is essential to accommodate the historically significant.

the essential city:

post-Carte I Historic city center Tourist map, Poduon tourist brochure Highlights monuments, parking> taxis

66


Threshold between: inside/outside,' city/country,' tome/wild,' protected/unprotected jiminal/boundary. Physicolly mark liminallty of city. Physicafly hold city in p/ace--delimit/contoin urban spoce-- Nbuild within walls. "

the city of gates:

post-Carte I Venice/Portello Gate Guglielmo Bergamasco

67


post-Carle /I

post-Colte III

Porto S. Croce Porta Pontecorvo

S. Giovanni Gate (1528) Savonarola Gate (1530) G. M. Falconetta

68


Delimiters (boundary markers) of Roman island,

the Roman city:

post-Carte I Altinote & Molino Gates

69


Places,' objects that signify hidden cities within. The city that is not easily penetrated.

the guarded city:

post-Carte I charcoal drawing Prato della Volle Reflection of Iso/a Memmo within canal waters

70


post-Carte /I a fragment dissected Armed Angels, Guariento Museo Civico Eremitoni

71


Markers of essential place (within submerged city)--piazzi, event, ch iesi--pilgrimm age, etc. City of memory--cify navigated mnemonically through physical elements.

the sighted city:

post-Carte I Towers, Basilico Son Antonio

72


Limen(s).

standard, n.

A standard threshold in architectural projects. Now, a boundary-foil between what is known/unknown; facti speculation.

8. A structure built for, or serving as, a base or support for something.

These drawings are initially viewed as layered conditions of the historical city, planar in nature; yet, to be challenged as sectional discoveries--vertical + horizontal.

(Re-)Assemblage: Collect + classify the standard map

73


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Where it had once stood desolate outside the ancient city walls, the Proto, through the formalized form conceived by Memmo, could be conceived of as a place holder--or more properly, as a pin connector--fostening the outer limits of the growing city with the well-established and key spaces of the (downtown) medieval center. (from person'(ol)s meandering(s) ... OJ.22. 94)

74


Figure/ground study of centering--citing place within context

75


Standard Map III Edges--boundaries of transition

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standard Map V Transitions within context

78


Standard Map VI Study of mass/void--enclosure arcaded edges

79


Relics, reliquary, limens.

rout, v.

Several different types of drawings inform this category. Lines, symbols and figures; tracings on maps. Initial and subsequent visitations within and through the city. Here, there is the attempt to document the process of mental mapping as the self orients and reorients within the multiple city.

(obscure) To assemble; to collect in company.

route, n. (medicine) The path in, or part of, the body through which a remedy is administered; as the alimentary or subcutaneous route. (2176).

(Re-)Assemblage: Collect + classify the rout(e)ing

map

80


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Rout(e)ing Map II City of Islands Establish boundaries/limits that are expandable The 2nd City: the medieval city Established ecclesiastical city . gated city . walled city . civic city

82


Establish boundary of contraction Cuing center

83


Reassemblage I

84


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Rout(e)ing Map XI

91


Reossemblage III

92


Rout(e)ing Map XIII Reassemblage IV

93


Reossembloge V

94


Rout(e)ing Map XV Itinerant Photos

The city slips and reveals itself; it is a continuol (re-) weaving of the city. Its connectedness resides in its dis fiat of becoming in the process of becoming.


Sequence II .c

o

The ideo of the concealed city is still embedded within ihe mina, It appears and disappears within the makings of the hand. Often, it is in the guise of a face, barely hinted at, yet seemingly very opparent, The city lies iike 0 finely-folded cloth, within which the body is coressed, carefully enveloped in its folds, while the Prato is bored to merciiess jgnorance, Cold, stone figures, bounded (boundary) markers gesturing to some unknown,' sentinels, guarding history and secrets to be discovered if the seeked so desires and is able, Like the Sphinx they stand, pock-marred and worn; silent guides.

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The edges of the city that close in on the Proto, left to loy as jf without care, are incomplete,' Jeff without a finishing stitch, they lock discourse with one another Within the surrounding arcade. the space of the Proto seems on oasis of green within the greyness of the City. It seNes as a foil to these otheMise djsporate ports. (from person'(ol)s meondering(s) ... 02.o6.94




Rout(e)ing Map XV

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clinamen, n. marks the moment when something deviates from its path, collides with another and initiates the formation of things. a pocket of turbulence which fundamentally alters the original flow

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[Sec. 699]

"memoria ... the Latin term for phant8sia, or imagination... Imagination, .... is nothing but the springing up again of reminiscences, and ingenuity or invention is nothing but the working over of what is remembered." [The New Science of Giambattista Vico. 264.]


Rout(e)ing Map XXIV

Deviation I

Reassemblage VIII Itinerant Narrative Construct In the attempt to denote the approach of place as image-conText within the context of the Prato della Volle, an itinerant narrative constructed from mappings delineates a thin, bounded space of perceived experiences. As in the function of the limn space folds around a perceived origin or intended destination.


Deviation II

As the self navigates the itinerant narrative construct the perception of the object sought and the desiring of the object approximate one another. In this function of the limit, the self is centered (grounded) by the awareness (percepfion) and the deciphering (signification) of the enfolding environment.


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Enfolding I

AS the construct intersects the surface of the object--the perceived boundaries of the space of the Prato--the essence of the object is

revealed. Entry is given; place is made. The thin space between object desired and the constructed form becomes relic(t)query as the surface of the found object is encased and enfolded within.


Enfolding II

It is the simultaneous unfolding and enfolding of the surfaces of the itinerant narrative construct and the image-event, their intersect/ones) as threshold, that establish place,


Enfolding III


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-----. 6 Aprile 1990. II Prato. [The Prato). In Padova. Padova: Libreria Progetto.

Baudelaire, Charles. invitation to journey). In

Brunetta, Giulio. 1976. Oi un grande disegno inedito di Pro' della Vol/e. (A grond design ...... s the Prato della Val/e). Padova: Soc. Coop. Tip.

L'lnvitation au voyage. (An

Bergin, Thomas Goddard and Max Harold Fisch. 1984. The new science of Giambattista Vico. Unabridged translation of the third edition (1744) with the addition of "Pracl-ice of the new sciences." Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Berman, Morris. 1981. The reenchantment of the world. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Bloomer, Kent. 1987. Memory and the poetics of arcrlitectural time. In . 23-30. Bosio, Luciano. 1986. Prato della Val/e: due mil/e anni di storia di un' avventura urbano. [Proto deJla Volle: two millenia in the history of on urban adventure). Padova: Signum. Brown, Horatio. 1909. The Venetian Republic. London: J.M. Dent & Co.

Brusa1-in, Manlio. . 1/ Proto del/a Valle: Progetn trasformazioni, perzonaggi e spettacolo di un luogourbano di Padova (The Proto della Val/e: Plans, transformations, people and spectacle on on urban site in Padua). In Cosey, Edward S. 1987. Remembering: A phenomenological study. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Caligaris, Sergio Paolo. April 1981. Fra' Carlo Lodoli, Andrea Memmo, un tricentenario, un bicentenario, Piero Bargellini ... e il postmoderno. Ovverosia prolegomeni aile fortune e alterne vicende di una ideo non conformista di orchitettura. [Friar Carlo Lodoli, Andrea Memmo, a tricentary, a bicentary, Piero Bargellini ... and the postmodern. Or, rather, the .... of fortune and altering events of a nonconforming architectural ideal). In Arte Cristiano, vol. 69, No. 676. 89-92. de Certeau, Michel. 1984. The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

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