Collapsing the Line of the Land by Brandon Wang

Collapsing the Line of the Land

BR ANDON WANG

Degree Project Advisor JASON WOOD Rhode Island School of Design Department of Architecture 2016

To my father, whose blindness taught me true sight. To CATHY LEE , my undying love and support. To Satanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Group, the best band of kids one could be with to weather the relentless storm.

Thank you.

border

cliff

body

bodies

psyche

territory

system

weight

delicacy

scale

translation

edge

binary

HORIZON

LANDSCAPE

BALANCE

CLIFF

trace

phsycality

turbulence

gesture

disorientation

propagation

storm

extension

extrapolation

scaleless

collapse

spectacle

measure

gap

relentlessness

Here I sit in the still winter night on the drifting ice-floe, and see only stars above me. Far off I see the threads of life twisting themselves into the intricate web which stretches unbroken from life’s sweet morning dawn to the eternal death-stillness of ice. Thought follows thought—you pick the whole to pieces, and it seems so small—but high above all towers one form. Why did you take this voyage? Could I do otherwise? Can the river arrest its course and run up hill? My plan has come to nothing. That palace of theory which I reared, in pride and selfconfidence, high above all silly objections has fallen

like a house of cards at the first breath of wind. Build up the most ingenious theories and you may be sure of one thing—that fact will defy them all. Was I so very sure? Yes, at times; but that was self-deception, -intoxication. A secret doubt lurked behind all the reasoning. It seemed as though the longer I defended my theory, the nearer I came to doubting it. But no, there is not getting over the evidence of that Siberian drift-wood. But if, after all, we are on the wrong track, what then? Only disappointed human hopes, nothing more. And even if we perish, what will it matter in the endless cycles of eternity? FRIDTJOF NANSEN

exploring the North Pole, 1893

Single, Perfect, Straight Line Time Does Not Exist Tone Axis of Rotation Curvature of the Earth Weight Finding Center Footing Losing Ground Violence of the Line Buoyancy Down with Capitalism! Slime Mold Inside and Outside Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the Jig? Copy of a Copy of a Copy Half-Inch Heart Attack Blow Up the Language!! Everything Should be Seen

The search for the land exists between bodily operation and territorial carving. Its horizonâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;line of the landâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;is an spatially relative expansion, a constant self-(mis)alignment. Body is the cliff between the line and the expanding gap. Landscape is the register between scale and scalelessness, its expansive ontology understood through hyper-focused reduction. Scale(less) is the measure between body and landscape, existing between sand particles to crushing mountains. This scale collapses upon measuring the horizon, which lives and dies simultaneously, here and everywhere.

Body enters landscape. Body dies with landscape. Body can never escape the land. LAND IS THE TOMB.

COLLAPSING THE LINE OF THE LAND Stage 01 Find the line. Probe the scales of body and territory. Discover their distances. 10.07.15

Scale one 18” x 60” Graphite, vinyl paper There Will Be Blood (2007) Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson Video Stills

A spatial threshold, a code for violence. One minute in the untethered landscape is an infinite line. Body and Landscape Body and Body Body and Psyche Body and Line there will be blood there will be conflict there will be death there will be scale there will be landscape

Abstracting body and psyche; body and body; body and landscape into the infinity of a line, and expanded relative to each duration in the film. Each scene coded and scaled to these binaries. Bodies are born in, act upon, and die in the land.

Scale two 36” x 144” Charcoal, bond paper Scale two point five 36” x 144” Excavated bond paper in process drawing images digital

Body localized as territory Territory rationalized as body (mis)translate a system weight (wait) of a system time as distance

Each mark is registered against the scale of the body’s reach. The horizon bisects the body, as it reaches torsional and rotational limits. This stress is recorded through the violence of the marked line, probing the expansive bodily horizon into that of the land—the territorial carving.

Scale: Territorial Gesture 120â&#x20AC;? x 72â&#x20AC;? Charcoal, bond paper

in process drawing images digital

The traverse through body and territory, two modes of performance and existence. A gestural mark made in space through scale among landscape. Performance across scale Translation across scale Lag across scale Act across scale Entering / interring scale

Expanding the scale of the bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;moving processionallyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;while tracing that expansion. Three vectors, all drawn through memory of the last, attempts to (re)trace the landscape.

Bodily Territory 36” x 36” Charcoal, bond paper Bodily Territory II 36” x 36” Charcoal, bond paper

Bodily Territory III 36” x 36” Charcoal, bond paper Bodily Territory IV 36” x 36” Charcoal, bond paper

Tracing a line through blind memory. The physial reach of the body’s arm records the mark.

COLLAPSING THE LINE OF THE LAND Stage 02 Enter scale(lessness). Act to (dis)orient with the landscape. 10.28.15

Storm of (Dis)orientation 360” x 36” Charcoal, bond paper

Disorientation through propagation to align with the scaleless, the landscape, the being beyond the being. The cliff is no longer a moment, but a falling into collapse guided by its own inertia. Desperately searching for something to hold onto, something recognizable and fathomable to retain its sanity, but motion prevents it.

in process drawing the line digital sketchbook excerpts drawings

The turbulence between body and territory contains f(r)iction. Exiting body in pursuit of the territory— immeasurable through perception alone—is an inherently slippery performance or extraction. Our scales misalign, our metrics misinterpret. Metric, performance in pursuit of territory; scale, in terms of body. Act; performance as translation, operations that act and act and act and act until the moment of Release Breakage Give

Release from your grounded consciousness, from the heaviness of reliance on visual perception. An environment—the landscape as a series of noncontinuous vertical planes—records the cliff. This cliff is the entrance into scalelessness, aligning with the landscape and yourself through an act of (dis)orientation.

in process drawing the line superimposed digital images

Storm of (Dis)orientation 360” x 36” Charcoal, bond paper

COLLAPSING THE LINE OF THE LAND Stage 03 Tracing the Scaleless Extend the reach into distance. Enter the body into the landscape. Navigate the cliff between bodily failure and the scale of the land. 11.04.15

double reach drawing the land digital

bodily extension drawing the land digital

Extension towards origin; Collapse of weight; (Meta)physical boundaries of space; Disorientation of act; Removal of eye; Irruption of conscious.

Tracing the Line of Distance I 12” x 12” Pen, vinyl paper

Tracing the Line of Distance III 12” x 12” Pen, vinyl paper

Tracing the Line of Distance II 12” x 12” Pen, vinyl paper

Tracing the Line of Distance IV 12” x 12” Pen, vinyl paper

Tracing the Line of Distance V 12” x 12” Pen, vinyl paper Tracing the Line of Distance VI 12” x 12” Pen, vinyl paper

The extension of the reach is met with the extremity of the drawing. The marks exist between the scales of body and its landscape.

Tracing the Line of Distance VI 120” x 72” Charcoal, bond paper

The origin is the through is the origin.

Power of Ten Charles and Ray Eames Digital Stills

Double Negative Michael Heizer Excavated earth

sketchbook excerpts drawings

Bodily gesture; territorial carving; extension of the tool.

COLLAPSING THE LINE OF THE LAND Stage 04 Chasing the Horizon Search for hyperfocus, trace the land through the eye. Draw (un)consciously behind the eye, the translation of the land. 12.02.15

atomizing digital

Landscape as atom, an infinitely scalar spectacle, points of a continuum. Removal of the spectacle of the landscape to a point of no return: the cliff. Bring the landscape into oneself, the realm of scale(less) to enter into (scale)less.

Drawing the landscape through the body. Tracing the line of the land with the (right) eye, reading the back of the head through a series of mirrors with the (left) eye. Visual shafts focus view to the most hyperpoint. The parallax difference marks the cliff, the expanding distance between body and land.

in process digital stills

Horizon Atomizer Pine, steel, plexiglass, mirror, string

traced atomization 96â&#x20AC;? x 36â&#x20AC;? pen, graphite, transfer ink, stonehenge

Horizon Atomizer Pine, steel, plexiglass, mirror, string digital stills

The end of the horizon collapses the relentless scale between body and landscape. The moment of collapse is the focus, the atomizing of scale, when planets compress to atoms. Borders between become spaces between, scale transforms into performance. The cliff becomes a turbulent moment defying the understanding of relativity. The cliff towards the scaleless marks the frontier of defeat,body enters landscape.

Horizon Expander 96” x 16” x 108” d Curved mirror, steel, birch plywood, lens

searching for focus I digital stills searching for focus II digital stills

A steel extension arm holds a 200mm convex lens, which focuses and unfocuses the landscape reflected through the curved mirrors. Distance of the lens relative to the mirror plane is measured against the distance of the eye relative to the lens, establishing a discourse between eye and landscape.

COLLAPSING THE LINE OF THE LAND Stage 05 Inhabiting the Horizon Pivot the tomb to trace the horizon, rotate to draw simultaneously. The body aligns the tombâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s register with the line of the land, leaving the line of the afterlife behind, always behind and away from view. 01.20.16

Drawer of the Land 10’ h x 16’ w x 8” d pine, steel, concrete, mirror

Two drawing arms span a revolving central mast. One arm reads the land and horizon with a fixed register. This register aligns with two vertical mirrors, allowing vision both through to and behind the land. The second arm is fixed with retractable drawing joint, translating vertical movement from the first arm as a planar drawing on the ground. The two share a cable to equate angular displacement.

Land Drawing I 18’ x 6’ charcoal, bond paper

Land Drawing II: Point A video still

Land Drawing II: Point B video still

Drawer of the Land digital

WHEN the streetlights fade.

THE land scape has changed.

WARM RAIN like judgment descends.

YOU donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t recognize me.

THEIR voice numbs me.

THESE pictures slowly fade.

SPEAKING words in a dead tongue. I HAVE walked a road that lead me back to you. FROM A window our glances met. MY TRUE colors I cannot hide.

MEMORIES WITHER they are all gone. FURTHER DOWN the steps get steeper. YOU haunt me in my dreams. I let go and fall deeper. THIS will be the end of me.

CULT OF LUNA Dark City, Dead Man

Land Drawing II 12’ x 12’ excavated snow Land Drawing II (pg. 78-79) 12’ x 12’ excavated snow

Drawer of the Land digital

COLLAPSING THE LINE OF THE LAND Stage 06 Scalar Pivot

02.09.16

Fixed Radius, Fixed Center 72” x 36” rails, 36” radial device birch plywood, mdf, steel, pen

Fixed Radius, Fixed Center video stills

Free Radius, Fixed Center (f36) Device with adjustable radius, fixed rail width Fixed Radius, Fixed Center (3636) Device with fixed radius, fixed rail width Free Radius, Free Center (ff) Device with adjustable radius, without fixed rail width

A railed mechanism to draw simultaneously, controlling one end while subjecting the afterlife to existing topographies. Radial devices with different extension variables perform in (dis)accordance to the center register of 0,0. Rails and arm charted with 1â&#x20AC;?x1â&#x20AC;? grid, adjust to meet center the disjunctions of a recorded line. Each radial device performs, then activates upon that performance.

Free Radius, Fixed Center 72” x 36” rails, 36” radial guard, 18” radial device birch plywood, mdf, steel, pen

And if the worst, or best, happens, and Death comes for you in the snow, he comes disguised as Sleep, and you greet him rather as a welcome friend than a gruesome foe. APSLEY CHERRY-GARR ARD