Arks as our Holy Savior by Andrew Yu

///////ARK-ITECTURE/////// A r k s

a s

o u r

H o l y

Andrew Yu

S a v i o r

TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents Preface: Arks as our Holy Savior Arks as our Holy Savior: Exhibition

Page 2 3-5 6-16

Ark as Origin

Ark as Structure

Ark as Stronghold

Ark as Preservation

Arks as Paranoia

Arks as Propaganda

Arks as Discrimination

Arks as the Individual

Arks as Projection

Arks as Species

Bibliography

17-18 2

Arks as Our Holy Savior Preface There has always been a call to action from communities to act and react to the changing environment to save the Earth for the next generation. Whether it be the implementation of solar panels onto roofs or the modification of concrete so that plant life can grow from it, these proactive steps are definitely making a palpable effect. However, there is only so much that the architect can do within his or her domain to design with sustainability in mind. The Earth is a fragile little planet revolving around an axis fixated in constant orbit around a dot in the general cosmos that is our universe. The slightest adjustment to its conditions would tip the balance that allows for life on Earth to continue to operate. Therefore, taking precautions against the accelerated burning of fossil fuels, the destruction of wildlife and forests, and the overall exhaustion of the Earth is all but trivial in the grand scheme of things. Eventually, some higher power will wipe the Earth of its previous generation’s blueprints, ushering a genesis in a constant transferring of power from one species to the next. If not for some divine intervention, humanity would consume the world like the cannibalistic parasite that it has become. It would be ideal to freeze frame Earth, but there is no pause button. By implementing all these alternative sources of energy and production, the process of resetting the world is only slowed down. Some unforeseeable end dangles above all of our heads, waiting for the right minute to act. This impending doom that awaits humanity sounds needlessly dramatic, but the sense it is nothing new to people. Always in the back of people’s minds is a backup plan, a last minute protocol that would set survivors up for survival beyond the conceivable notion of end. These plans take on the form of boats or underground bunkers and involve a dedication towards mindset that something is out to get us. In one way or another, they are arks, objects that evoke protection and safety. However, the idea of arks becomes much more than the projective production of the imaginative or figurative capsules that retain human life. Arks dictate politics, create counterculture, exercise control, and act as the pseudo religion that people have come to buy into. Arks become a biased system of storage, filtering and segregating between people and beliefs alike. Arks spawned by the constant paranoia that consumes people manifest into lifeform of their own. Therefore, this set of artifacts explores “ark” not only as object but as belief and execution.

Arks act as positions of origin. The first time the idea of the ark is mentioned occurs in the Old Testament in the form of Noah’s Ark. In the tale of Noah’s Ark, Noah and his family aboard the original ark accompanied by the many species of animals around the world to resist an impending and destructive flood. The flood reset the world, providing a blank canvas for the surviving cast to paint. It is of no coincidence that the ark coincides with the origin of man and religion. The central storyline of Genesis one and the ultimate restarting of the world revolved around Noah’s Ark as the womb that encased our collective embryo. In the most literal sense, the ark became the fountain from which life has sprouted from. However, the inception of this new life couldn’t occur without the impregnation of the original ovum. The intake of Noah and his family as well as the species of the world fertilized the egg, creating a mosaic that infused past with future. Thus, the ark is able to transcend its innate purpose as the shield, embodying an infused duality between a historical past and projective beginning. This idea of the ark as the source of collision for creation and history has been a consistent of arks to this day. Perhaps the most compelling example of this takes place in San Diego’s frozen zoo where the genetic makeup (such as sperm, eggs, and embryo) of many species of animals is storied. The goal of the these frozen zoos are to reintroduce extinct and endangered species back into environments in hopes of repopulating the diverse ecosystem. Nonetheless, it demonstrates the ark’s ability to essentially play God, bringing things back to life and reconstructing the environment around it. Returning to the argument of Noah’s ark as the original vessel from which everything spawned, as the embryo develops into a zygote and then a fetus before it is eventually extracted from its ark home, it is launched into a reality where no structure is predetermined. The first humans trod the virgin ground without order. However, it must have been instinctual for them to construct walls and parameters and distinctions, institutionalizing their very environment. The ark as origin enforced this division and institutionalizing of areas as second nature. In creating these many different sources for arks to manifest, the ark became an instigator for control. The panopticon, Jeremy Bentham’s jailhouse, acts as a prime example of order and control exhibited by an ark. The prison system takes a perverse understanding of arks because it protects those outside from those within as opposed to the normal understanding of ark behavior. However, its purpose as an asylum dedicated to isolating a portion of society from the rest helps to define it as “ark”. Within the panopticon, jail cells are open to the public, allowing for the viewing of the outside world from within and vise versa. Furthermore, there is a tower erected in the middle of the panopticon that allows for guards to watch over the prisoners. This creates a paranoia that the prisoners are always being watched,

allowing for them to be controlled. Though it may be an efficient way of observing prisoners, more importantly it demonstrates an overarching commentary regarding the relationship of the ark to society. The structure laid out by the panopticon can be applied to the framework of civilization. Applying the ark itself as a series of institutions with its set of omnipotent eyes watching our every move, the ark becomes the system for which people operate in. This has proven to be true with governments collecting phone data, accessing series webcams and camera footage, and invading privacy. Therefore, because the ark is the origin from which humanity develops from, it has been able to exert a constant control upon the people. After understanding the ark as this point of origin from which structure is derived, the next step of the process is to observe arks through the understanding of its language and purpose. In the exhibit, the ark is compared to the definition given to it and arks are once again is labeled as a strong and protective entity capable of preserving a way of life. However, beyond this basic function, the role of arks are questioned, leading to questions about arks as propaganda, the perceived notion of paranoia, and arks acting as individual entities. Additionally, through arks, basic social hierarchy and segregation is emphasized with different classes having access to a different reach of bunkers. Finally, through arks, future paths are carved out, providing answers to the otherwise impending doom that awaits mankind. As stated previously, it is essential to return to the most pure representation of “ark”. In doing so, properties of arks can then be extracted. Examples such as the Raven Rock complex, the Cheyenne Mountain complex, and Fort Knox serve as strongholds that are impossible to break into. In these specific examples, the arks simultaneously exude protection from outside as well as strength from within. These military bases were equipped with high ballistic rifles and military personnel and access points that could trigger multinational bombs. Furthermore, they were designed to resist nuclear attacks and natural disasters. However, without any direct experience in scenarios such as a nuclear attack or nuclear fallout, no form of bunker could realistically predict the actual events that would occur. Therefore, rather than this preconceived notion of arks as sturdy, impenetrable objects that were created in response to a disaster, instead arks were erected as a response to the threat of disaster. In other words, the paranoia that lingers and divides humans into sides with different allegiances is the true driving force behind the necessity of arks. Looking to other examples of arks outside of military use, the same paranoia acts as the driving factor for the ark. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a vault located halfway between Norway and the North Pole that possesses the largest diversity of crops in the world, was created for the sole purpose of repopulating the Earth with plants and crops in the case of some apocalyptic emergency. Likewise WikiLeaks stored their servers filled with information and leaks in Pionen, a converted nuclear bunker inside of the White Mountain in Stockholm, all for the sake of preventing the information from getting in the wrong hands. While these could be very real concerns, whether or not any of these precautions are warranted is not up for debate. Therefore, the ark gains its power not from its function as a resource but from its perceived function in the minds of the people. For the ark to continue to expand, its paranoid message must spread like wildfire. In doing so, more people are engaged, attaching more credibility to the purpose of the ark.Therefore we begin to understand the ark and its means of facilitating ideas through arks as propaganda. The media’s portrayal of arks always coincides with subliminal messages that act as warnings for some impending doom. In the 2009 cult classic film, “2012”, the director Roland Emmerich depicts our very own world get destroyed. In a plot similar to the Noah’s Ark, technically advanced arks were constructed to traverse the prophetic mass flooding and subsequent destruction of the Earth. By once again illuminating these Arks as the final viable plan in the event of catastrophe, the survivalist within everyone received a call to action. The dissemination of paranoia was only bolstered by the general power of visual effects have on the human eye. Looking beyond that at examples dating back to the 1950s, students were taught to “Duck and Cover” in case of a nuclear attack by Bert the Turtle. By basically rolling into a ball, the child became his or her own ark, implementing his fragile exterior as the membrane that protected its core. Occurring during the height of the Cold War, paranoia against the Soviet Union clearly set off the implementation of this nuclear attack drill. Looking retrospectively, of course these proactive last minute measures wouldn’t have any effect on the outcome of the human body versus the blast of an atomic bomb, and yet they were taught like holy scripture, forced into second nature by constant drills that occurred in school. Furthermore, the understanding of arks as these possibly makeshift, last second form of protection against the other worldly helps to redefine arks not only as arks for the whole but also arks for the individual. Because of the institutionalization of arks, the occurrence of segregation from within is to be expected. The rich will only get richer, keeping the large facilities to themselves while the poor are subject to the harsh outside world. 4

Once again referring to “Duck and Cover”, those individuals that weren’t privileged enough to abide in a nuclear bunker were expected to protect themselves from the impact with their own body, transforming their own physical being into the ark of choice. Taking this point into contention, we observe the ark as the individual. Francois Dallegret’s Environment-Bubble blurs the lines between man and design, creating a mobile bubble for people to live within with all the “necessities” of human activity already inside. In doing so, Dallegret eliminates the need for people to ever leave the bubble. Instead, the bubble becomes both the home and the protector of the individual. By integrating itself into the everyday life of the individual, the environment-bubble essentially becomes an anatomical extension of the human itself. The eventual coinciding of the two characters, human and ark, joined by the desire to embrace survivalist culture, projects into greater forms of infused hybrids between man and ark. Looking at the final curated artifact, the Ring Worm, man has literally become part of the machine. The human anatomy feed into the material quality of the Ring Worm and the ark becomes a separate and new entity that then continues to consume the Earth. Therefore, ironically in attempting to create a new condition that would protect humans from the external world and vise versa by isolating the two, a new species emerges that follows the same parasitical function as the human race before it. Inevitably, something will eventually exhaust the Earth. Ultimately, the ark is almost this satirical rendering of the human condition. The ark sets to go against the most pure version of humanity by bringing order to chaos through institution and structure. However this order set into place is segregated and ark must be deceptive for power to be maintained. Therefore, this salvation that humans seek in arks is nothing more than spitting image of everything wrong with civilization already. Nonetheless, because of its holy roots as the initial point of origin from which everything has sprouted, the ark becomes a holy entity in itself. Taking the form of a religion, people buy into it not because it is the most alluring solution but because it is the only solution left. Just like religion and its relationship to afterlife, we choose to believe in some random utopia because it’s certainly more comfortable than the feeling that one day we will all perish. In accepting this reality, we engage in Holy Communion, accepting ark as the holy individual from which we prosper. It is only then when the human race that has come to dominate the Earth for the past millennium is replaced by ark as species.

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Arks as Our Holy Savior

Noah’s Ark

Source: AnswerGenesis

Ark as Origin Stories of Noah derive from the Old Testament. Before God destroyed the world, he told Noah that he would ”destroy all flesh because the world is full of violence.” Noah and his family were spared from God’s wrath because they were righteous. Instead, they were instructed to construct a large ark that they then used to house one male and one female from every species of animal. The original ark served the purpose of housing Noah’s family as well as all of the world’s animals from the prophetic flooding of the world that would lead to genesis. What is interesting is this correlation that the first ark had with the origin of man and religion in Christianity. Because the ark was the only escape from the otherwise destructive forces of divine power, it became a symbol of protection, life after death, and new beginnings. In a sense, by acting as the vessel that was able to take the species of 7

Noah’s Ark became the womb where the next generation of life could be harbored. Therefore, Noah’s Ark was the point of origin for the new world, becoming the original source from which all life came out of. Furthermore, because the animals that are being reintroduced to the world once inhabited the old Earth, Noah’s Ark represents the duality between ark as origin and ark and salvation and conservation.

Panopticon

Source: Discipline and Punish

Panopticon

Source: Medium

Ark as Structure The panopticon, originally developed by philosopher Jeremy Bentham, was an attempt at reforming the prison system. Taking place around the same time as the Enlightenment, Unlike previous systems where criminals were simply isolated out of society, Bentham wanted to rehabilitate prisoners so that they could return to civilization and become another contributing member in the world. Therefore, in his design of the panopticon, Bentham made the prison system open so that the prisoners could see the outside world and vise versa. He also implemented a watchtower in the middle of the circular prison system so that this feeling constantly being watched is instilled into the minds of the prisoners. This constant exposure to others as well as the paranoia of being watched acts as a system of command and control, leading to order within the prison system. What makes this

applicable to arks is the fact that arks must apply similar systems of control to keep their housed populations in check. In this sense, the panopticon really is an allusion towards how arks interact with the rest of society with countries like the US as their ark. Like the panopticonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s watchtowers, national governments exercise many degrees of control upon their citizens, utilizing spyware, accessing webcams, and monitoring social media. Under the illusion of freedom, indeed we operate under the control of institutional systems.

Arks as Our Holy Savior

Fort Knox

Raven Rock

Sourced: AtlasObscura

Cheyenne Mountain

Source: Kentucky Education Television

Sourced: Mother Jones

Ark as Stronghold Perhaps the most basic understanding of ark is to see the ark as the stronghold. Because physically and conceptually, arks are basically these impenetrable bunkers designed to keep things out, they symbolize strength and resistance. When looking at military bunkers such as Fort Knox, Cheyenne Mountain, and Raven Rock there are mixed emotions of fear, nationalism, and strength. Arks by nature must be designed with intimidation in mind. We are greeted by the concrete and unfriendly exterior, stripped of any decoration or visual elements. The architecture of these arks are completely evoked by function over form. Besides its durability, exterior is no longer of concern to the inhabitants of these stronghold arks. Rather, the protection of elements within is the prime purpose of these complexes.The architecture of the ark is focused completely on the development of 9

interior complexity, systems, and matrices. The heavy inventory of guns, massive amounts of military personnel, and rigorous training exercises serve as a testament to the importance of keeping up the integrity of the ark as a stronghold. What makes these zones interesting besides how fortified they are is also how unaccessible they are to this day. Even though arks such as Fort Knox and havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been in operation for decades, the fort itself is still closed off from visitors and tourism.Therefore the nature of ark as stronghold is preserved.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Source: Crop Trust

Frozen Zoo

Source: Tree Hugger

Sourced: Mashable

Ark as Preservation Along with the understanding of arks as strongholds is the understanding of arks as sources of preservation. Arks such as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault are an accumulation of the ideas that were previously shown in the curated exhibition. Some arks are required to be strongholds from the outside in order to protect the resource within because said resource could relaunch life on a decimated Earth. In the case of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault the ark has been placed between the North Pole and Norway to ensure as little unnecessary contact with humanity as possible. The vault contains the largest database of seeds in the world, preserved in three play foil packages that are then stored in low temperature rooms with little oxygen to delay the aging process of the seed. While this formula of upkeeping the seeds seems temporal (because it is), seed vaults like the one in located

on the Svalbard archipelago are necessary as points of origin from which life can be reintroduced into the world in case of some terrible disaster. In this way, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault has become, like Noahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ark, a holy spot where life can be created and recreated. Similar initiatives have also been taken for animal species with the creation of frozen zoos. Frozen zoos such as the frozen zoo in San Diego store genetic material from animal species by using cryogenic techniques so that like the seed vaults, as species die out, endangered and extinct species can be saved and reintroduced to other environments. Thus, the preservation of arks such as the seed vaults and the frozen zoos must have the security, strength and protection of the ark to ensure that creation can continue to occur. 10

Arks as Our Holy Savior

Pionen Bunker Interior

Source: Arch Daily

Ark as Paranoia Arks are essentially the fruits of paranoid imagination. Looking at scenarios previously listed However, such paranoia is often times rightfully instigated and necessary to ensure the survival of whatever resource needs to be protected. Depending on the time and place, arks have risen, not as a response to disaster but a response to the threat of disaster.Therefore, arks are exacted on the fear of losing some precious resource. Perhaps the most interesting example the ark as paranoia is the Pionen bunker in the White Mountains of Stockholm. In 2010, Wikileaks relocated their servers into the Pionen bunker. The decision to move these servers to bunkers within countries such as Sweden came both from the fact that these countries provided sanction and freedom in the online space and because such bunkers offered legitimate spaces that could ensure the physical protection of information. 11

Pionen Bunker WikiLeaks Servers

Source: ArchDaily

While it seems over-the-top for WikiLeaks to allocate resources towards protecting their information, the paranoia is justified because the information they leak is a lot of the times sensitive to countries. WikiLeaks has leaked information such as footage of American soldiers gunning down journalists and civilians in Iraq. Leaking such crucial information sways the public opinions, leading to paranoia from the people and a loss of trust in the government. That is why journalists like Julian Assange find themselves with a constant target on their back. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, therefore has every right to feel this paranoia because countries such as the US consider him a large threat to their agenda. For this reason, Assangeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s constant relocation of servers to now undisclosed arks around the world is for the sake of protection of the information and himself. As of April 2019, Assange has been arrested and taken into custody by the US under claims conspiracy and hacking. The paranoia manifested into reality.

Duck and Cover

Source: By Anthony Rizzo

Ark as Propaganda The fuel of the ark is based entirely on the belief in the disaster that would demand for such an ark to be constructed in the first place. As stated in the artifact regarding ark as paranoia, arks aren’t created in response to disasters. They are created in response to the threat of disaster. Therefore, for an ark to come to fruition, there must be a general preconceived feeling of threat. That is why arks have been subliminally transmitted in media as forms of propaganda to encourage the government funding of bunkers and secret locations that would prepare people in the event of some nuclear attack or massive disaster that would trigger mass extinction. Looking back to only a few decades ago, when the US was under the constant threat of nuclear attack from the Soviet Union, techniques such as “Duck and Cover” were spread about as counter-measures to such an attack. By forcing people to practice

Ark from 2012

Source: 2012 (movie)

2012

Source: 2012 (movie)

these ridiculously useless gestures, there was a legitimate panic rolling about within the American community. Therefore the justification for arks such as Raven Rock made sense as countermeasures to perceived acts of violence in a war we now know was fought in series of proxy wars. This attention to media as a form of spreading information and panic within a population could be seen following the hit movie, “2012”. At the time of its release in 2009, there were legitimate claims being made that the world would end in “2012” because of some alignment with the Mayan calendar. Once again, looking back at these claims from the perspective almost a decade later, they seem outlandish. However, by propagating mass hysteria within a population, the necessity of the ark was revitalized. People need to know that they have some sort of plan for any scenario. Through propaganda, more of these scenarios can be introduced, allowing for more arks to be imagined and realized. 12

Arks as Our Holy Savior

Vivos xPoint, shared bunker space

Source: Vivos

Vivos Fortified Shelter Entrance

Source: Vivos

Vivos Community Swimming Pool

Source: Vivos

Ark as Discrimination Because arks have been institutionalized, they are subjected to the same reality of any other human creation. Known as institutionalized discrimination, the creation of hierarchy and the following of social class is simply human nature. Even though in cases of apocalypse, supernatural forces have no sense of social class resulting in every life having the same value, humans still apply these irrational class systems to survivalism because distinction keeps a degree of order in times of disaster. In the case of arks, bunkers have different levels of access based on different levels of wealth. This absurd selling of bunkers to the highest bidders is structured around money because arks, as previously stated, are realized under the paranoia of threat. That is why even if under the unlikely scenario that the world will end in the small period of time, money is still valuable. A great example of this 13

discrimination of life can be seen in the previously mentioned â&#x20AC;&#x153;2012â&#x20AC;?. The selection process for the first people that got to board the arks were of course, the wealthy and powerful. Meanwhile the poor were left to fend for themselves, embracing the eventual eye of the storm. Because the wealthier one is, the better the quality of life they can afford within a set of bunkers, in times of apocalyptic proportion, humans will not unite together. Rather, they will look out for their own interests. Thus, arks are satirical in this way of demonstrating that the most natural conditions of humanity such as discrimination cannot be overcome even in times of plight.

Environment-Bubble

Source: Francois Dallegret

Environment-Bubble

Source: 2012 (movie)

Ark as the Individual Imagining the ark as the individual is a far fetched concept. However, through the exploration of fears as well as the realization of the Orwellian society that we are apart of, it makes sense for the individual to want to detach him or herself from the normative reality. Revisiting “Duck and Cover”, the move that children were taught to perform in case of nuclear attack, by scrunching into a ball under some sort of cover, the children were effectively becoming arks themselves. While it may be ineffective, the methodology of converting self into ark persists in society. Likewise, when militaries issue armor or bulletproof vests, they do so for the sake of protecting the soldier from possible gunfire. Ultimately the desire for the individual to become an ark itself is rooted in our desire to reduce our own mortality. This idea of the ark as the individual is taken and expanded upon by Francois Dallegret

when he designs the environment-bubble. Within the environment-bubble, humans enclose themselves into a bubble with the bubble containing all the basic “necessities” of human life such as television and entertainment. This conceptualization of a world in which man never has to leave his bubble is interesting because it suggests the desire for a unity between man and ark. No longer is it a question of ark and individual with the individual harnessing the ark. Rather the ark is the individual, becoming another member of the human anatomy.

Arks as Our Holy Savior

O’Neill Cylinder

Ring Worm Interior

Source: Andrew Yu and Lukas Lee

Source: William Morrow and Company

Bernal Sphere Interior

Source: Popular Mecahnics

Ark as Projection Imagining the Earth itself as an ark traversing the uninhabitable landscape that is outer space provokes questions of immediate sustainability and long term future. R Buckminster Fuller does exactly so by projecting Earth as a spaceship with a finite amount of resources that cannot be resupplied in his book, “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth”. Floating in this abyss, how can Earth continue to sustain itself? These answers can be found when looking at the ark. The ark is the final solution to the end of the world as well as the expansion of the human race outside of Earth. The most popular version of said space ark is the O’Neill Cylinder that sees humanity stored into a long pipe that has been terraformed to mimic the Earth. The O’Neill Cylinder intends to be self sustainable by using gyroscopic functions to maximize the capturing of sunlight. In addition, artificial gravity and an 15

artificial atmosphere is used to control every nook and cranny of the space colony. The O’Neill Cylinder, in this way, has developed into yet another series of complex systems, designed around controlling the environment as well as the people inhabiting it. Interestingly, by sending populations into space, humanity is also using the ark as a tool to colonize unfamiliar territory.

The Ring Worm

Ark as Species As the end of the world approaches, the ark will ultimately become equivalent religion, perhaps taking on the image of the messiah. Regardless, when faith in God is tested by building pressure exerted by natural disasters and the looming threat of an end, people will ultimately convert their faith towards some higher power to the ark. For those that do not choose to accept the ark as their only true savior, they’ll perish along with the rest of the world. Finally understanding the importance and protection that an ark has to offer, the rest of civilization will join ark, coalescing into one formal organism; the Ring Worm. Just as religion serves as a way to appease those that are afraid of the afterlife, arks such as the Ring Worm offer the only alternative to death. Philosophically, people have chosen to follow an entity that they have never before met and have only read or heard about through word

Source: Andrew Yu and Lukas Lee

of mouth and century old writings. This is because the belief in religion and afterlife provides comfort to those that otherwise be unable to define what would occur after “end”. By presenting the Ring Worm as this final entity that can provide salvation to people, the ark has undermined religious properties. While the connection between man and God was purely sensorial with no true understanding of God as a tangible entity, the Ring Worm provides a much stronger connection because it involves real interaction. Therefore, overcome by the reality of a true source of salvation, it is easy to accept ark as religion. However, in accepting the Ring Worm, we become but another material in the complex system that no longer sees humans as the apex of the animal kingdom. Rather, a new species in the form of the ark comes to dominate the Earth’s landscape, simply replacing the Earth as the predator and the parasite that will slowly exhaust the world. 16

“I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process – an integral function of the universe.”

-Richard Buckminster Fuller 17

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