The Mirror as a Conceptual Design Tool

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE NTUA | ACADEMIC YEAR 2016-2017 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURAL SPACE & COMMUNICATION 7 VOID & TIME: CONCEPTUAL APPROACH OF DESIGN PROBLEMS

the Mirror as a Conceptual Design Tool

TUTOR: N. I. TERZOGLOU | STUDENTS: VASSILIS KALAMPOGIAS - ARISTOTELIS TSAMPAZIS | 11TH SEMESTER

Historically speaking Void can be defined as that which has not been occupied or filled in, that which lacks meaning. In the contemporary history of modernity this notion changes and void can be analysed in two different Ideal Types.

Ideal Type 1: The Void as an “infinite” background of an order of things. The void as absolute space, homogeneous and still. The void which contains the whole universe.

Ideal Type 2: The Void as a “local” rift of an order of things. The void as negative space. The void which intervenes in a pre existing order. The void as a dynamic, instant and violent action in space.

But what are the definitions of infinite and rift? If Infinite is the without end or limits space, time, quantity and rift is the doubt of the cohesion of an organised sum then in Foucault’s study “Of Other Spaces” (“Des Espaces Autres”, 1967) these two concepts correspond to what the writer describes as Utopias and Heterotopias.

First there are the utopias. Utopias are sites with no real place. They are sites that have a general relation of direct or inverted analogy with the real space of Society. They present society itself in a perfected form, or else society turned upside down, but in any case these utopias are fundamentally unreal spaces.

There are also, probably in every culture, in every civilization, real places—places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society— which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are 4 outside of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality. Because these places are absolutely different from all the sites that they reflect and speak about, I shall call them, by way of contrast to utopias, heterotopias.

Exactly in between these two Ideal Types, Foucault recognises a mixed, in-between condition, a meta-place which fulfils both descriptions, the Mirror.

I believe that between utopias and these quite other sites, these heterotopias, there might be a sort of mixed, joint experience, which would be the mirror. The mirror is, after all, a utopia, since it is a placeless place. In the mirror, I see myself there where I am not, in an unreal, virtual space that opens up behind the surface; I am over there, there where I am not, a sort of shadow that gives my own visibility to myself, that enables me to see myself there where I am absent: such is the utopia of the mirror. But it is also a heterotopia in so far as the mirror does exist in reality, where it exerts a sort of counteraction on the position that I occupy. From the standpoint of the mirror I discover my absence from the place where I am since I see myself over there. Starting from this gaze that is, as it were, directed toward me, from the ground of this virtual space that is on the other side of the glass, I come back toward myself; I begin again to direct my eyes toward myself and to reconstitute myself there where I am. The mirror functions as a heterotopia in this respect: it makes this place that I occupy at the moment when I look at myself in the glass at once absolutely real, connected with all the space that surrounds it, and absolutely unreal, since in order to be perceived it has to pass through this virtual point which is over there.

Foucault’s uto/heterotopia state of the mirror constitutes the beginning of our reflection. The mirror for us consists of a conceptual tool that permits us to approach the design of space. At the same time, it fulfils the notion of Infinite and the notion of the Rift. In a rough draft, we define that two mirrors opposite one another create the notion of a never ending continuity, whereas a shattered mirror creates the notion of incontinuity.

the Void as the Infinite

the Void as the Rift

In our attempt to manage better the issue of the mirror, we searched the works of artists who used it as a material in their compositions. The examples we found were used as case studies / a beginning but soon we felt the need to categorise them so that they would be easier understood.

The first phase took account mostly of the morphological aspects of the compositions. We were mostly interested in characteristics such as location (indoors - outdoors), the scale (monumental - human sized), the number of structures (single unit - sum) the kind of the reflective surface (plane-parabola-shattered) and if the thing in itself is interactive or not.

After this “bipolar” phase we began searching for more substantial parameters which would fall in line with the concepts of Utopias and Heterotopias that Foucault posed. This search lead us to Jeffrey Kastner’s study “Land & Environmental Art” where he categorises Earthworks into 5 sections: Integration, Interruption, Involvement, Implementation and Imagining.

Integration ( IG) Manipulation of landscape as a material in its own right Artist adds, removes or displaces local natural materials to create form Like minimalism, emphasis on materiality, elemental geometries and siting Examines relationship of site characteristics, evidence of human intervention Monumental in scale; simulate spatial expanses they occupy Interruption ( IR)

Conjoin environment, human activity using non-indigenous, man-made materials Large scale Manufactured substances and structures, or machines and technology to frame, set in motion or harness natural elements Emphasis on transgressive qualities in activities, questioning notions of “natural” Critique terrestrial exploitation Interrupt landscape by bringing it into gallery space

Involvement ( IV) Individual acting in relationship with land Scale in relationship to human form Emphasis on primal, symbolic link to earth, forms of ritual and reaction against monumentality of early land art Engage conceptualism and substitute words to evoke physical experience Implementation ( IP)

Investigate environment as ecosystem and depository of socio-political realities

Explore nature as dynamic, interactive system Critique of industrial development, urban expansion, mass market agriculture, scientific intervention of natural processes Sculptural and performative

Imagining ( IM) Land as concept, metaphor and signifier Environment as historical narrative, symbols describe contemporary society Forms of measurement such as maps and place names deconstructed and played with as acts of interpretation

Categorization Memorandum LOCATION SCALE NUMBER

indoors | outdoors small | human | monumental 1 unit | multiple units

MIRROR TYPE

flat | fragments | parabolic

INTERACTIVITY

interactive | non-interactive

Robert Smithson

Nonsite (1969)

Mirror/Salt Works (1976)

IR

Robert Smithson

Ithaca Mirror Trail

IV

Yayoi Kusama

Infinity Mirrored Room

IM

Yayoi Kusama - Phillip Johnson

Narcissus Garden

IG

Anish Kapoor

Cloud Gate

IP

Anish Kapoor

Sky Mirror

IP

Anish Kapoor

Untitled

IV

Luycho

Mirror Game: ANDB (2010)

IV

Luycho

Star is Love: Jesus/Monroe (2010)

IP

Jeppe Hein

Folds (2014)

Are You Really Here (2014)

IM

Jeppe Hein

Mirror Angle Fragments (2014)

IR

Jeppe Hein

Semicercular Mirror Labyrinth (2013)

IG

Derek Paul Boyle

Untitled (2015)

IV

Kendell Geers

PostPunkPaganPop (2008)

IR

After the study of these examples, we began to search for a way to design a proposal that would embody the two different approaches of the void, with the use of the mirror. Our experimentation started with some collages that use large scale mirror surfaces, to create discontinuities of the horizon, between the built environment and the atmosphere.

After that, it occurred to us that the mirror, with the conceptual approach that is given to it, could become a design tool in human scale, in the city, and could be juxtaposed to the city’s voids, thus creating heterotopias within the built environment. Urban voids and fragments of the city’s past interact with the continuities and the discontinuities created by the mirror, creating a new dynamic relationship between them.

These interventions could create an ideal network within the city, in a way that the urban walker could confront them during their daily walk and could freely follow them, reaching in the end of the route a bigger intervention, placed inside a larger urban void.

This bigger intervention takes the form of a box (dimensions 5x5x2.5m), dressed with mirrors on all its sides. These mirrors, by reflecting the environment, camouflage the box, which in this way creates an uto/heterotopia that is places within an urban discontinuity. The walker can enter the box through two slits on one side of it and become isolated from their environment, by entering a utopia of a more introvert character. Inside, on one pair of opposing sides there are big mirrors that reflect each other and the object projected infinitely, while on the other pair of opposing sides there are smaller mirror fragments that create an incomplete image of the projected object. Geometric mirror shapes hang from the ceiling of this claustrophobic room, between which the walker places themselves. This shapes create on their turn discontinuities and multiple reflections, thus adding a feeling of intensity to the micro-environment of the room.

discontinuity fragments

discontinuity

infinity

infinity

fragments

discontinuity

discontinuity

Bibliography

Urban Void, Actions 1998-2006, futura publications, Athens, 2007 Michel Foucault, Περί αλλοτινών χώρων (Des espaces autres) (1967), Kastner Jeffrey, Land & Environmental Art, Phaidon Gaston Bachelard, Η Ποιητική του χώρου, Χατζηνικολή

Image Sources www.pinterest.com luycho.com www.robertsmithson.com anishkapoor.com www.kendellgeers.com www.jeppehein.net www.dezeen.com www.koeniggalerie.com www.gletschergarten.ch www.publicartfund.org www.thebroad.org Logo Sources https://thenounproject.com/charlenehea/ https://thenounproject.com/nopixel/ https://thenounproject.com/daniel78/ https://thenounproject.com/miso.kucera97/ https://thenounproject.com/magicon/ https://thenounproject.com/blackspike/