Plasticity in Arcadia-Folio by Mauricio Espinosa

Mauricio Espinosa |

Plasticity in Arcadia

A Responsive Emplacement for the Park of Moray Firth

Tutor: Phil Watson August 2010 | London, UK Project Folio Blog: [http://mespinosa.tumblr.com] email: espinosaproject@yahoo.com Master of Architecture [Architectural Design] - Candidate 2010 [AVATAR] Advanced Virtual and Technological Architecture Research Bartlett School of Architecture | University College London

“This apple is a little universe in itself, the seed of which, being hotter than the other parts, gives out the conserving heat of its globe; and this germ, in my opinion, is the little sun of this little world, that warms and feeds the vegetative salt of this little mass.”

∞

—Cyrano de Bergerac (Schuhl & Capek 1947, p.169)

Contents Term One 06 08-09 08-11 11 12-15 16-17 18-19 20-21 22-23

Studies I: Drawing, Time, Object & Location Introductory Workshop: Burtynsky’s Cheesemaker in the Landscape Writing, “Homomorphic Emplacement Soup” Writing, “Relative Conceptions” Object in Time, Exercises I & I : The Grandmother’s Banister - Remembering the War Location:, Exercise I : The Findhorn Foundation, Between Fact & Fiction in Northern Scotland Theme, Exercise I I: Pataphysical Domesticity, Creating a 40lb. Cabbage Space, Exercise IV: Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo” Movie, The Ship Over a Mountain Term Final: The Drawing Machine

Term Two 24 26-27 27-29 30 30-33 32-33 34-35 36-37 38-39 40-41 42-43 44-45

Studies I : Ecologies, Exceptions & Narrative Writing: “Regeneration: Boundaries in an Ecologically-Responsive Environment Exceptions in Findhorn Culbin’s Arcadian Topologies: Sir Philip Sidney’s Pastoral Romance Writing: “I. Plasticity in Arcadia” Geomorphology of Moray Firth Overall Site Plan / Fresnel Lens Kinnaird Church Section / Perspective Kinnaird Church Plan Section: Communicative Ecologies in the Landscape Enlarged Plan: Regenerative Burning Lenses Riemannian Plan: Recording Shards of Sidney’s Two Lovers

Term Three 46 48-53 48-52 53 54-55 56-57 58-59 60-61 62-63 64-65 66-67 68-69

Term Four 70 72-73 74-75 76-77 78-79 80-81 82-83 84-85

Appendix

Studies I I: Plasticity in Arcadia Writing: Plasticity in Arcadia Geometric Topologies Projection Study: Euclidean vs. non-Euclidean Space Between Fact & Fiction: Volumetric Constrains - a Polemic on Data Nicod’s “Space of Perception”: Hugh Kinnaird’s Perspectival Projection Interior Perspective: The Baronic Tub Plan, Enlarged Plan: Dorus’ Sheep Shears Section: Recording Shards Buried Beneath Culbin’s Dune Interior Perspective: Dune Crown Grange Hall Exterior Perspective: Baronic Pond Plan: Dorus’ Sheep Shears

Final Projections Overall Site Plan: Culbin’s Arcadia Axonometric: Self-Generating Landscape Site Section: Geomorphic Pathways Enlarged Site Plan: Sage Counseling Axonometric: Pastoral Exercises Perspective: Dragonfly Battery Perspective: Valorous Night Fighting Vessels Returning Home to Arcadia

[CD] Movie: The Story of Culbin’s Arcadia Powerpoint: Final Term Presentations

Term

Studies I: Drawing, Time, Object & Location

- Introductory Workshop: Burtynsky’s Cheesemaker in the Landscape - Writing: “Homomorphic Emplacement Soup” - Writing: “Relative Conceptions” - Object in Time: The Grandmother’s Banister - Remembering the War - Location: The Findhorn Foundation, Between Fact & Fiction in Northern Scotland - Theme: ‘Pataphysical Domesticity, Creating a 40lb. Cabbage - Space: Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo” Movie, The Ship Over a Mountain - Term Final: The Drawing Machine

FG-001 Study for “Findhorn’s Vessel,” 2009; FR-Clay, wood

FGS001-007

A series of drawing studies looking at time, object and location. Instances of technology are explored as potential catalysts in the development of the term project, including the idea of mnemonic sensors, projections, and abstracted concepts for “real” and “virtual” locations. Written text (right) is used as a tactic for investigating ideas and project methods

FG-002 Study for “Findhorn’s Vessel,” 2009; FR-Clay, wood, projected image

STUDIES I: DRAWING, TIME, OBJECT & LOCATION 2009: Excerpt Writing from “Homomorphic Emplacement Soup” “All my life I’ve looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.” —Ernest Hemmingway OVERVIEW Hemmingway’s observation is jarring. His present truth is both informed and naïve. Perhaps it is buried in-between the realities of his world and within one’s quest for the unknown. The ability to remain unchanged and to act on the unloaded ‘face-value’ is an admirable outlook when transfigured into place. For the artistaficionado, the talented architect, the hopeful designer and the town drunk, the ability to conceive and create, to make and mull are largely rooted in one’s understanding of things, and in the realm of one’s existence in their imagination and a world shared twice—if not more—over.

OBJECTIVE This work seeks to lift the events of process and making away from a created object in order to better understand (un)importance in the act of ‘doing,’ set against one’s existence within things. A performed series of analogs are positioned to both remove conventional ‘process’ from its subject setting, and to translate process into an altered place-space to better understand key issues and shortcomings associated within the architect’s design process. To divorce one’s creative inadequacies—isolate and replace them with biological, mechanical, digital, chemical, technological processes while using the conceptual processes of the human mind to control, manipulate, inform, expand—broadens the potentials to create less-inhibited actualizations. (Spil er 2002) This is now argued with regards to the process-of-making: event fidelity and an evolving ‘placespace’ as: object in time. (Badiou 2006) (Heidegger 1978) When one can better understand methodology in process-making, this positively influences the designer’s conceptual ability in looking at the thing in question. (Heidegger 1978)

EVENT FIDELITY The relationship of subject and object is proposed within Alain Badiou’s domain framework—enacting “love, science, politics, and art” as a means for an experimental “generic procedure.” (Badiou 2006) Arguments of love, science, politics, and art wil be postulated against the making of objects in relation to conceptualization, understanding / articulation, and a means of production—hereafter observing the ‘event.’ The central goal in event fidelity is to discuss an object’s essence with regard to the following processes: affect / influence, conceptualization, emplacement, and transferring / producing. Here a non-realized thing has the ability to be dissected and placed into a system in which it would normally not belong within. Although rationalized conjectures of the final process are not expressed within the bounds of this project, its staging seeks to lay out the nakedness present in Hemmingway’s posture.

Affect and Influence The ability of a subject or object to impress upon—for the purposes of this work—the event of the object is the central mechanism responsible for shaping its outcome. A myriad of terms and structures can define the term ‘influence.’ (Kalugin 2006) Since the totality is beyond the scope of the event fidelity process, a translation of the work is used as a method to look at an architectural composition. The affect is in anticipation of concept and it works in reversed order to define this process. This can be demonstrate as public events, changes in a family’s lifetime, desperation, money, inherent drive, and most importantly within one’s position (relative to lifetime).

FG-003 Study for “Piezoelectric Cell,” 2009, courtesy: Softpedia.com

FG-004 Introductory Workshop “Burtynsky’s Cheesemaker in the Landscape,” collaborators: Espinosa & McLemore, 2009, 3D software, digital collage, 24”x36” digital print

FG-005 Study for “Arduino Chip for Grandmother,” 2009, courtesy: arduino.cc

Conceptualization of the Object Double-meaning, loss, and fierce mis-interpretation may be the underlying factors in conceptualizations of an object. (Jarry 2006) However, this dichotomy enables a drive which can allow a project to progress from beginning to “end.” The intellectual and paraphysical abilities which are ‘in-tune’ with nature are used as the first analog in translating a folly. This is set towards the premise of a giant, 40 pound cabbage which grows in the Northeastern region of Scotland. Its cultivation flourishes from Peter and Eileen Caddy’s ability to become ‘in touch’ with the supernatural spirits who—through osmosis—communicate with the Caddy’s an effective process to harvest cabbage growth. (Mitton 2009) When one looks at the conceptual process of being ‘one’ with the spirit in almost divinest intervention, its propagation is, from beginning to end, a direct path. Therefore, the process of making, cultivation, and seed do not exist within the hands of this world; rather, they exist within spiritual divinity (and outcome as part of a circular process). The absurdity of this argument is not in the conceptualization of the object, rather in the belief that—without God or Science—one is able to create something from nothing.

Object Emplacement An outlining of tools to process an event allows a method to purvey. The translation and positioning are the inherent tools which allow a process to be conceived. In the art of Business Administration, this may be better suited to the operation manager’s initial role in the architect’s design process. (Taylor 2007) This involves setup, and can often serve as the first mode of translation. Its coordination is the most plastic and therefore susceptible to change; one may argue that in Badiou’s Eye, emplacement exerts more political qualities than other modes in object making. (Badiou 2006) (Neff 1985) Here, endless frameworks are conceived: object emplacement is surveyed in an il ustrated geological cross-section of ‘Cerro Mercado’ showing host rocks and affected materials conveying a series of events. This depiction can be translated from a scientific analysis of natural phenomenon to that of an object’s artistic feat—a movie frame running at 29.5 frames/sec is set within a structure which wil analyze and assemble an altered outcome between conception and production. It may be in anticipation of production, or rather within production as an affirmation /influence upon conception.

Transferring/Producing the Object Throughout the process of making, perhaps the most ardent act is that of fabrication and execution. Like Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, the characterization of the subject can blindside the conceptual act as the “main event,” leaving its purpose and point to be exposed in wonderment, rather than inspiration. (Kinski and Cardinale 1982) In comparison, we might deploy an artistic, syntactical approach which deviates from—in Herzog’s place—the act of rope-pulling to a process where conception and conclusion are removed (and spirit and drive are maintained). Herzog’s act of rope-pulling is mechanical: it couples human spirit with jimmy-rigged mechanical power. What if the machine had the power and spirit, all-the-while acknowledging its disregard for conception and finalization? (Marcel Duchamp 2009)This, like the artist, would lead to a design analog of perfectionist machines who are frustrated with the available tools to actualize a thought or conception. First and foremost, the machines would be ardent and riddled with conflicting technology (see the Edward Scissorhands dinner scene where Edward—an impressionable machine—quickly becomes frustrated while unable to pair a fork and knife with his appropriated “scissor hands”) (Depp 1991) (Svofski 2009). As in Herzog’s case, the perfectionist machines have no strength and physical connection to the boat. Rather, they are comprised of a pen, eraser, and a webcam which are placed over a television screen running stil s of Fitzcarraldo. (Denis Diderot 2009) The machines have no means of conceptualizing or finalizing the task, however they do possess an overt amount of drive, and frustration. (Nicholson 1990)

FG-006 Study for “Grandmother’s Bannister,” 2009, courtesy: buzznet.com

FG-007 Study for “Grandmother’s Bannister,” 2009, courtesy: www.sears.com

OBJECT IN TIME From its moment of ‘final’ production, an object immediately exists within a place-space, perhaps a factory building in Taiwan, a craftsman’s workshop, or a 30-year old inventor in his mother’s basement. Often its validity exists with the creator, or rather, the first ones to experience the object. Yet unless made for the place in which it currently resides, the object is often transported, shifted, packaged, and placed into its new surroundings whereby its planned existence might be better suited for the designer. In avoidance of larger political issues, the project argues that the moment after an object’s immediate assemblage or ‘completion,’ it exists within an evolving place-space whose worthiness is transformed into an experience. As in the grandmother’s banister, the experience may be something physical, as in an evolving place-space, or rather it may be a memory or reading of the past. The unattainable is something of a measure of time, and may be better suited as a lost object whose wil is actively sought through discovery.

An Object in an Evolving Place-Space An evolving place-space involves the need for relevance and irrelevance over a period of time. An object is validated against conditions, perhaps spatial and functional. (Heidegger 1978) Its meaning and purpose are understood as several things while only being one (this is the elephant in the room with regards to the architect’s role in affecting economic and ecological sustainability). (Shelley 2009) The intention of Meatloaf’s I Would do Anything for Love (but I Won’t do That) song (Meatloaf 1993) can be inexplicably appreciated by the music absorbed, whilst the talents of the band—the skil s, play, orchestration, execution, etc.—are not necessarily relevant to the overall understanding of the thing itself. Meatloaf’s album can be played using a tape and player (4-track); the song can be cut to expose the relevant parts, as one might now understand the ‘dated’ song / playing apparatus as an audible archeology which should be separated and dissected to expose the guts to better understand its original intention and its meaning in present time. (Walker 2009) It is a process of sampling, validity, and the quest for remodeling one’s kitchen by stripping and painting cabinet doors. (Heidegger 1978) Il ustrating a dichotomy between past and present, a grandmother’s ability to appreciate a beautiful stairway banister is equally viable to the task or method a wood carver uses to tool the object from timber. Her thoughts, feelings, and memories jar together as she whisks her hand past the living room banister. It reminds her of the place she first stood as a widow. This is translated towards the location of an object which exists within the described room, however the memory of the house with her hand on the rail is the key aspect to the narrative, which allows for a synthesis of concept and object to conjure the reality of the thing itself. This is based upon both physical placement and emplacement. (Sears Homes 1908-1914 2009) Dissimilar to Stelarc’s work on “Towards the Post-Human: From Psycho-body to Cyber-system,” an augmentation of an environment might rather use James D. Foley’s Data Glove, evoking an alternate memory by transmitting an accompanying data set (a blissful memory) from the banister to the grandmother’s shortterm memory set. The emplacement then evokes pleasure from an otherwise painful memory, while devoid of the conceptualization and transferring / producing of the object. (Foley 1987) (Stelarc 2007)

FG-008 Study for “Landscape & Death,” 2009; Photo

FGS008-014

Location of site and studies of ‘pataphysics and domesticity in a rural / semi-rural setting is explored in relation with mechanism and time. Early studies in geology and archeology are investigated as design opportunities involving spatial development. Northern Scotland’s “Findhorn Foundation” is a spiritual community which introduces the idea of “fact” & “fiction” with the introduction of their famed “40-lb. cabbages” herein seen as spiritual oddities. Early project texts, including “Relative Conceptions” are generative technics attempting to understand ideas of location and object

FG-009 Study for “Findhorn Foundation,” 2009; courtesy: findhornfoundation.org

FG-010 Study“Geomorphic Emplacement Mechanism,” courtesy uni-potdsdam.de

The Lost Object One might say the quest for things is an unending journey, that humankind has already—in one form or another—seen the presence of objects before they appear. The second meeting between a person and an object is merely what one wil have the opportunity to remember. The quest is often comprised of one’s perseverance to find the object as well as an eventual loss, find, or foregone conclusion. The lost object is— at best—a journey of discovery where one never truly finds the object in quest, rather fragments of subjects and objects within a time-based allotment. It exists outside of the object. With the lost object, a piezoelectric analog is attempted to try and enact a series of objects or events by means of a non-human impressionable object. The aim is to remember a lost environment through piezoelectricity and to transform its resonant frequency into an actualized, composed object in space. This is seen as a situational survey, rather than a quantitative assemblage of phase-change materials such as carbon dating or other chemical processes which affect surface character or result in spotted analysis samplings due to their methods of enquiry. One can imagine an age-old placement of lost oxygen pockets which enabled a civilization to flourish, or perhaps to rejuvenate plant / animal life in better grasping the deeper understanding of nature, rather, of Findhorn’s spirit within nature. One could use the inherent property of piezoelectric cells to foresee or to remember the ‘what was’ based upon their impressions in an environment— it acts as an analog to review this information. The apparatus for piezoelectric crystal analysis (“detection of resonant frequency from a change of impedence”) is based upon the Piano Foundations’ composition of measurement which includes: 1) “A crystal-controlled oscil ator for measuring the resonant frequency of the specimens” 2) “A capacitance bridge for determining their equivalent circuits and dielectric constant; and” 3) “An adjustable electrode-system, and a capacitance bridge, for the measurement of thermal expansion” (Station 1957) The apparatus is placed into a remote, dilapidated field in London where, from visual inspection, an overall sense is the aforementioned condition where foliage is of no existence. The crystal or ceramic attenuating material is placed into the apparatus which is fixed with rigid connectors to the ground’s surface. A series of conductors are probed approximately 24 inches into the ground’s surface which are wired to a transducer. These probes attenuate frequency to the cells based upon their impressions from insertion, placement, and extraction as well as from soil alkalinity and pressure. During the analysis, the user wil set and monitor dielectric constants for positive measurement of results. After one week’s readings at 24 hours / day (oneminute intervals), results are postulated into 3D computer scripting which respectively plots the analysis of the crystals in x, y, z, and t directions. The determinants of t are based upon the ratio of probe placements (x, y, z) over one-minute intervals / one week duration. The resulting output format wil be demonstrated upon further investigation of work.

FUTURE SOUP What about our changing roles in society—our observance of structures and changes in technological production, bricks, bionic assemblage, lost keys and bad memories, our reliance on foreign cabbage, and the inquisitive nature of cyberspace and cybernetics?

FG-011 Study for “Emplacement Mechanism”, 2009; courtesy: scielo.org.mx

FG-012 Spatial Study “Fitzcarraldo,” 1982; movie still, courtesy: Filmverlag der Autoren

FG-014 Study “ ‘Pataphysical Domesticity”, 2009; courtesy: findhornfoundation.org

FG-013 Study “ ‘Pataphysical Domesticity”, 2009; courtesy: findhornfoundation.org

For architects and designers, it is rather a procedural placement which can positively affect the critical experimentation in the process of making (as a matter of fact, all objects exist within method). Its roots involve time, inadequacy, and suffocation. (Barney 2005) They involve Ubu Roi’s rage. (Jarry 2006) They are smart. They are responsive. In a world so enthralled with the future, they actively seek the next ‘ism’ which hopes to redefine a generation. For animals and nature, they represent nothing; for human positioning, something more. For the grandmother, it involves death; for Meatloaf, Love. The object is never singular as it exists in a process involving other ideas and things. For Fitzcarraldo, technology was just that—between two things, even though he existed within a realm of technology which he was unable to ‘harness.’ Fortunately, Fitzcarraldo’s drive and imagination overshadowed the short-comings of his production, and this is what one can remember from the movie. Past, present, future—nothing without some warm soup. BIBLIOGRAPHY Badiou, Alain. Being and Event. London: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006. Restraint 9. Directed by Matthew Barney. Performed by Matthew Barney. 2005. Denis Diderot. December 8, 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot (accessed October 27, 2009). Edward Scissorhands. Directed by Tim Burton. Performed by Johnny Depp. 1991. Foley, James D. “Data Glove: Interfaces for Advanced Computing.” VPL, 1987: 24. Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. New York: WileyBlackwell, 1978. Jarry, Alfred. “Ubu Roi.” In The Sources of Surrealism, by Neil Matheson, 142-145. Hampshire: Lund Humphries, 2006. Kalugin, Vladimir: California State University Northridge. Donald Davidson (1917-2003). 2006. http://www.utm. edu/research/iep/d/davidson.htm (accessed December 12, 2009). Fitzcarraldo. Directed by Werner Herzog. Performed by Klaus Kinski and Claudia Cardinale. 1982. Marcel Duchamp. December 8, 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Marcel_Duchamp (accessed December 12, 2009). Meatloaf. I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That). Cond. Jim Steinman. Comp. Jim Steinman. 1993. Mitton, Michael. Findhorn Foundation: Well Being Q&A. December 12, 2009. http://www.findhorn.org/ index. php?tz=0 (accessed November 6, 2009). Neff, Terry Ann R. In the Mind’s Eye: Dada and Surrealism. New York: Abbevil e Press, 1985. Nicholson, Ben. The Appliance House. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990. Sears Homes 1908-1914. 2009. http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/1908-1914.htm (accessed December 12, 2009). Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “The Skylark.” Poets’ Graves. 2009. http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/Classic%20Poems/ Shelley/ode_to_a_skylark.htm (accessed December 12, 2009). Spil er, Neil. Cyber_Reader: Critical Writings for the Digital Era. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2002. Station, Post Office Research. Piezoelectricity. London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1957. Alternate Anatomical Architectures: Walking Head, Partial Head & Extra Ear. Directed by UCL Bartlett School of Architecture. Performed by Stelarc. 2007. Svofski, Viacheslav Slavinski. Motori the Plotter. Russia. 2009. Taylor, Frederick Winslow. The Principles of Scientific Management. London: Filiquarian Publishing, 2007. Walker, Stephen. Gordon Matta-Clark: Art, Architecture and the Attack on Modernism. New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2009.

Relative Conceptions

To substitute the creative inadequacies of the human—separate and replace them with mechanical, digital, chemical, technological, etc. processes whilst using the conceptual processes of the human mind to control, manipulate, inform, expand, and ultimately create ‘uninhibited’ actualizations. ∞ The proposal utilizes the endless conceptions of the mind with tools and techniques that are unlearned from one’s sole abilities. This is a counter-argument to the intuitive nature of technique and method; further, the creation of the thing itself has no bounds to the material or method by which one uses to create something. Ex. The grandmother’s ability to appreciate a beautiful stairway banister is equally viable to the task or method a wood carver uses to tool the object from timber. Ex. The intention of Radiohead’s In Rainbows album can be inexplicably appreciated by the music absorbed, whilst the talents of the band—the skil s, play, orchestration, execution, etc.—are not necessarily relevant to the overall understanding of the thing itself. The project uses a series of ‘clairsensors’ which extricate the conceptual thoughts of one’s mind to a platform of learned, ‘technologers.’ The process allows the precision, speed, and endless depth of programming to be set against what digitism cannot do—rationalize and create conceptions equal to that of one’s imagination. Once the clairsensors transmit, the technologers use a series of outputting processes to actualize the thought or notion. Inevitably, clairsensors, technologers, and outputting processes are to be improved over the course of time; the devices and technologies represented in the project are merely a crude start to a seemingly endless process.

FG-015 Dual-Perspective Drawing, “Object in Time I: The Grandmother’s Banister Remembering the War,” 2009; 3D software, digital collage, 24”x36” digital print

FG-016 Dual-Perspective Drawing, “Object in Time II: The Grandmother’s Banister Remembering the War,” 2009; 3D software, digital collage, 24”x36” digital print

FG-017 Drawing, “Location: The Findhorn Foundation, Between Fact & Fiction in Northern Scotland,” 2009; 3D software, digital collage, 24”x36” digital print

FG-018

Analog translation of Peter & Eileen Caddy’s 1927 Lagonda & coach used to travel to the magical land of Findhorn wherein creating the famed “40lb. cabbages.” The Caddy’s points of perception are exploited as a generative method for ‘pataphysics and the idea of influence with domesticity, location, and time. The interior of the Lagonda is seen from dual points of projection and is a “noncomputational approach” to mixedmedia / drawing; 2009, 2D/3D software, collage, 24”x36” digital print

FGS019-020 (clockwise)

Spatial exploration utilizing movie stills from Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo” (1982) discusses ideas of location and Heidegger’s idea of technology. A 3-Dimensional frame arrangement of the infamous “Ship Over the Mountain” is seen as an opportunity to develop space for a drawing machine-its time sequence is shown as a series of bars illustrating geometric constraints of width, height and depth; 2009, 2D/3D software, movie stills, 32”x60” digital print

The “Frustrated” Drawing Machine translates movie space in time through axis, introducing ideas of translation, rotation, and succession in defining topologies of space; 2009, 2D/3D software, collage, 24”x36” digital print

FG-021

Term

Studies I : Ecologies, Exceptions & Narrative

- Writing: “Regeneration: Boundaries in an Ecologically-Responsive Environment” - Exceptions in Findhorn - Culbin’s Arcadian Topologies: Sir Philip Sidney’s Pastoral Romance - Writing: “1. Plasticity in Arcadia” - Geomorphology of Moray Firth - Overall Site Plan / Partial Section: Fresnel Lens - Section / Perspective: Kinnaird Church - Plan: Kinnaird Church - Section: Communicative Landscape Ecologies - Enlarged Plan: Regenerative Burning Lenses - Riemannian Plan: Recording Shards of Sidney’s Two Lovers

FGS022-023

A series of sites, ‘pataphysical exceptions, and ecologies are explored through narrative. The idealized dialogue between “man and nature” is explored through Ralph Waldo Emerson’s text on “Walden Pond throughout the first half of the term. Ideas of time, object, and location are further clarified in the second-half of the term wherein data sets, and the idea of the subjective viewpoint become generative strategies in interrogating an empirical understanding of the fabrication of architecture in order to further clarify dialogues and communicative ecologies

STUDIES I : ECOLOGY EXCEPTIONS & NARRATIVE Regeneration | Boundaries in an Ecologically-Responsive Environment The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister, is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. I am not alone and unacknowledged. They nod to me, and I to them. The waving of the boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is like that of a higher thought or a better emotion coming over me, when I deemed I was thinking justly or doing right. —Ralph Waldo Emerson ∞ OVERVIEW New ideations are largely shaped through one’s working process and method. Architects of the 20th century found their influence in tools ranging from slide-rulers, triangles, pencils, and bricks; this informed the creation of space, architectural culture, and a plethora of respondent systems. Since the onset of the industrial age, new modes of working have emerged and are largely avoided, misusing ideation for justification in the onset of new technologies and developments. Now, modern programming language, construction tradition, cost, branding, physical prototyping and written control parameters define boundaries of emergent technologies in architecture, leading architects back to ‘square one’ in terms of skil ful, and wide-ranging conceptions of how to handle these emergent technologies in a responsible, exploratory manner. Shelley’s “The Skylark” discusses the read of one thing whilst seeing another. Moreover, difference and parallel. The ‘pataphysical exceptions provide opportunities inform parallel-system cross-overs from one network to the current. QUESTIONS How do changes in prevailing ecological responses modulate and inform our spatial primitives and architectural ideations? How does one define boundaries in these responses and how does this account for exceptions which exist between converging and competing systems? AIM / OBJECTIVE In response to its boundary systems, the methodological working process is something stripped; it becomes a transparent assemblage of information and systems which embody a philosophy of control and nature in a seemingly fluid environment. The system appropriates regeneration as a tactic to discuss architectural space. Regenerative bark in the Australian Eucalyptus tree is an example which uses a regenerative strategy after fire burns its shell. Once this effect has taken place small germinations of seeds are allowed to sprout underneath the ashes of a then-dead bark. An architectural system is strategically buried underneath a dilapidated environment and released to sprout an evolving generational architecture which pairs with an evolving organism. This architecture is then coupled with a listening device which records future movements, speeds, patterns, and behaviors. Jean Nicod’s book Foundations of Geometry and Induction is used as a method to translate steppage, boundary, linkage, and cause-and-effect scenarios that witness a ‘harnessed’ evolution in ecological technology.

SITE -

Sulawesi, Sunda Islands, Indonesia

FG-023 Study for cartesian geographies are explored in the location of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Walden Pond;” 2009, 2D/3D software, collage, 18”x24” digital print

POLEMIC

METHOD

The positioning of work seeks to expose an arduous relationship in a future which conjoins technology with nature, contorting that the two entities can be successfully paired with one-another without combining into one singularized system. The present-day relevance of this motive can be il ustrated as an environment where technology and nature are paired to retain ecological processes. In this instance, technology is positioned as a sustainable event, therefore encompassing an ethical attitude of social, economic, and ecological processes. (Commission 1987) A didactic ecology introduces the theme of cyclical processes; this asserts a holistic system for construction and site selection. As a means of understanding a complex cycle, disciplines outside of science must be deplored.

Driven by architectural design and working process; this is theoretically contextualized within philosophies of ecology, space, boundary, and time. Systems exist between two paralleling places and a seeminglycoincidental overlap of successive events. A beginning framework of operations and viewing exceptions introduces boundaries as fixed spatial, social, chemical, etc. elements which inform the making of an object. These boundaries begin to shift and change as an exponent of time il ustrating motion and scale, as well as the idea of exceptions as referred to Alfred Jarry’s play, “Ubu Roy.“ The working process begins by designing a world with a certain action or “other” which occurs when these two systems collide. TACTIC

CONTEXT According to Wikipedia: Sulawesi is the world’s eleventh-largest island, covering an area of 174,600 km2 (67,413 sq mi). The island is surrounded by Borneo to the west, by the Philippines to the north, by Maluku to the east, and by Flores and Timor to the south. It has a distinctive shape, dominated by four large peninsulas: the Semenanjung Minahassa; the East Peninsula; the South Peninsula; and the South-east Peninsula. The central part of the island is ruggedly mountainous, such that the island’s peninsulas have traditionally been remote from each other, with better connections by sea than by road. The island is subdivided into six provinces: Gorontalo, West Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, and North Sulawesi. West Sulawesi is a new province, created in 2004 from part of South Sulawesi. The largest cities on the island are Makassar, on the southwestern coast of the island, and Manado, on the northern tip.

The non-linear sequence of architectural process is influenced from Ben Nicholson’s work and writings in: Appliance House. Here Nicholson involves topics of artistic process, working method, influence, and continuously changing ideas as a tactic for creating an architectural space for kleptomaniacs, known as “Kleptoman”: In collage the appearance of a subject may be severely altered so much so that the individual characteristics of each component are only barely recognizable through conventional means. If a collage is constructed of pieces of paper that combine an unlimited number of perspectival angles and scales produced by the lens of a camera or the hand of the draftsman, the observer (and certainly the maker) wil find it difficult to look at familiar things in quite the same manner. (Nicholson 1990) The use of this method il ustrates a topical process which allows translation within the work, including concepts of: influence, ideation, emplacement, and production. Additional references: Arthur Ash, Tom Joyce, Matthew Barney

BOUNDARY Regeneration mechanisms of vegetation and the role of tree bark resistance to frequent fire were studied in savanna woodlands and grasslands in Gambella, Western Ethiopia. Data were collected from four sites, each with three replicate plots. The variation between sites in species composition and biomass correlated with the differences in fire intensity. Foliar cover was recorded for individual plant species regenerating by sprouting from older parts of plants that had survived fire or by seedlings; records were made during the dry season and at the beginning of the wet season. Data on bark thickness and tree diameters of 12 dominant tree species were also recorded. Both facultative and obligate sprouters significantly contributed to post-fire recovery, comprising 98.5% of total vegetation cover. The contribution of seedlings to cover and abundance immediately following fire was negligible, but seedling density increased in the beginning of the rainy season, 4 to 5 months after fire. The importance of the sprouting and seeding strategies varied between the different plant growth forms. The highest contribution to cover and frequency was made by the most abundant grass species, which reproduced in both ways. Facultative sprouters made up 67.3% of the vegetation cover, out of which 54% consisted of grasses. Broad-leaved herbs and trees/shrubs regenerating mainly by sprouting made up 31.3% of the vegetation cover. Adaptations to fire in tree species seemed to include the development of a thick bark, once the tree has passed seedling stages. Tree bark thickness and tree diameter at breast height were strongly correlated with the time taken for cambium to reach an assumed lethal temperature of 60°C when exposed to fire, which indicated that mature trees with thick barks might resist stronger fire better than, e.g., small or young trees and trees with thin bark. However, for a given bark thickness the cambium resistance to heat varied three-fold among species. Hence, site differences in fire intensity seemed to influence the distribution of trees depending on their bark characteristics and resistance to fire.

FURTHER IDEATIONS For designers, it is rather a procedural placement which can positively affect the critical experimentation in the process of making (Nicholson postulates that all objects exist within a method). Its roots involve time, inadequacy, and suffocation. (Barney 2005) They involve Ubu Roi’s rage. (Jarry 2006) They are smart. They are responsive. In a world so enthralled with the future, they actively seek the next technological advancement which hopes to redefine a generation. For animals and nature, a conjoined system represents an evolution in a cyclical process which yields a greater involvement with now exponential human processes. Reliance becomes a key concept between the interaction of animals/insects and their respective environments. For technology, a singularity represents a pretense of human extremity; therefore we may consider ethical necessity with advancements in artificial intelligence. Therefore, modal management and a joining of ecology and technology may be the only saving advancement in a future of Kurzweil’s singularity.

FG-024 Study for “Exceptions in Findhorn,” 2010; collage, 18”x24” digital print

FG-025 Study for “Exception in Borromini I,” 2010; 2D/3D software, collage, 18”x24” digital print

FG-026 Study for “Exception in Borromini II,” 2010; 2D/3D software, collage, 18”x24” digital print

FG-027 Study for “Nicodian Church Geometries,” 2010; 3D software, 18”x24”

FGS027-033

Sir Philip Sidney’s “The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia” is utilized in conjunction with geomorphic shifts in the landscape. As a means of assimilating seeminglydisparate elements, Jean Nicod’s “Foundations of Geometry and Induction” is seen as a normative fabric to bridge sensory perception

FG-028 N. Poussin’s “Et in Arcadia Ego” (163738), oil on canvas, courtesy: Musée du Louvre

STUDIES I I: CULBIN’S ARCADIAN TOPOLOGIES OVERVIEW Contemporary use of terms ‘sustainability’ and ‘ecologies’ have led to a increased acceptance of homogenous measures which mitigate large, complex, and definitively absurd topics between the involvement of ‘man and nature.’ According to The Brundtland Commission (1987), a proper management of social, economic, and ecologies are necessary for the continued viability of human involvements within varying cyclical systems. While an increased awareness can be viewed as a positive step towards one’s coexistence within their environment, its narrowness and acceptance might be better viewed within the light of a well-intentioned, false prophet. Terms are given meaning by people, meanings can be (mis)understood, and complex systems can be constructed as a method for “solving” one’s view of the world in relative axioms and terms. It may beg the question that equally-viable (and potential y greater) opportunities may be missed within one’s quest to understand meaning, environment, absurdity, and the environmental.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The project is an attempt to blur boundaries between empirical data sets and social issues in order to propagate an evolved catalyst in the architectural production of space and time. The project utilizes Jarry’s (1896) ‘science of exceptions’ to interrogate an empirical understanding in the fabrication and construction of architecture. Artistically, data gaps are translated into a real-world context through the use of narrative in order to reassess traditional goals in evolving cyclical and social ecologies. Moray Firth’s Culbin Forest— located in Northern Scotland—is a rich, geotechnical environment which is used as a device to translate between a real-world landscape, and the imaginary thematic landscape set forth in Sir Philip Sidney’s The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1593). Its primary tactic for assimilation between elements is the utilization of Nicod’s (1930) geometric exercise in logic which discusses spatio-temporal inclusions as a normative measure of bridging between narrative and site.

SITE ABSTRACT AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS Geomorphology of Moray Firth Culbin Forest is Britain’s largest dune system, with approximately 50 mil ion tons of dune sand below its heavily thatched surface (May & Hansome 2003). The area is intensively researched due to its ‘active’ geomorphic features and traces, most notably its shifting gravel ridges from the post-Holocene period as well as its active sand dunes (Comber 1995) (Gauld 1981). The primary dune-deposit is an accumulation of silt which was deposited down the mouth of the River Findhorn in pre-Holocene from the top of the mountain. During the 1920s, the Scottish Forestry Commission undertook a large effort to stabilize a dramatic shifting landscape by planting plots of marram grass and Scottish Corsican Pine trees in an effort to stabilize the soil (Ovington 1950).

Previous site research data on gravel ridge movements is based on partial evidence from Timothy Pont (Abandoned Communities 2010). Pont’s 1590 map of Culbin (or “Coulbinn” as described in his drawing) shows location mapping which several geologists have used to study the “Bar,” “Gut,” and the Findhorn Bay located East of Culbin Forest (Steers 1937). However, non-empirical data sets such as Pont’s map leave gaps in data; this data has been used in speculating sedimentary deposits, shifts, as well as outside forces from Late Devensian glacial, glacifuvial, to Early Holocene foreshore deposits noted by Comber (1995).

FG-029 Culbin gravel ridge shift, Scotland, courtesy: Steers 1990

FG-030 Study for “Night Fighting Vessels,” 2010; collage, 18”x24” digital print

FG-031 Movie still “A Culbin Story,” courtsey: Scottish Forestry Commission

Culbin Mythology and the Kinnaird Barony According to Wil is, Culbin has always been a fascinating area for researchers, artists and writers as its rich mix of colorful tales and dramatic earth shifts has often made it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction (Gunson, Wil is, Jones, Chapman, Fyf, Dawson, Ilbery, Proudfoot, & Small 1993). Tales of a buried barony lost after the Scottish landowner, Alexander Kinnaird, removed the stabilizing marram grass from atop the dune surface caused him to eventually lose his entire estate in a great storm between 1694 and 1695 (Forestry Commission Scotland 2010). Presumably, area locals are said to have heard screams through the clay chimneys tops of the underground barony, yet research into the exact location of the buried structures is stil underdeveloped as splays in the structures and—according to Steers (1937)—a difficulty in scanning gravel ridges below the soil makes it a challenging endeavor in determining precise locations of sediment, and ‘like’ materials. A geomorphic force path diagram is drawn to il ustrate the difference between “like” and “non-like” materials in order to find the trajectory of the lost Kinnaird Barony. The analysis of prevailing gravel ridge shifts move approximately 11.3cm/day based on gathered evidence from post-Holocene to 1990. Its material density is likely comparable to the stone church in the Kinnaird Barony and would therefore begin to combine its trajectory pattern as it approached a lower depth in the soil. To reach this depth, a timeline is established to compare vertical distance, leaving approximately 140 years before the gravel ridge and church stone might begin to join. Meanwhile, wrought-iron, wood, and light-weight textile materials would follow a more generalized direction of the propagation of the parabolic sand dunes (average movement at 54cm/day) toward the Northeast (prevailing wind direction per Met Office 2010). This analysis allows one to understand the “current” location range of the barony splays within the present year. THEMATIC LANDSCAPE The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia Sidney’s pastoral masterpiece sets six literary themes which the project uses as a point of departure from technical research data in Culbin Forest. According to Davis & Lanham (1965), Sidney’s five books discusses the evolution of several characters who propagate varying, yet seemingly-disparate events tied together by a clear and orderly-literary structure: amorous courting, pastoral exercises, valorous fighting, and sage counseling. Character names also change as their lives parallel other themes within the books. Its general thematic shift is from a classical regiment of Virgil’s imaginary landscape and Jacopo Sannazzaro’s medieval version to a renaissance version fil ed with rich coloration and the simultaneous discussion of both utopian and everyday contexts (Davis & Lanham 1965). These two canvases allow interventions between the Culbin data sets and the imaginary landscape of the romantic, pastoral utopia in Arcadia. Themes are demonstrable as responsive, plastic architectures in space and time whose existence is subject to both empirical pressures and idealized dialogues of life, death, and landscape. Shifting Geometries As a means of bridging dissimilar elements, exceptions within the data set are translated through a working narrative-platform using geometry and fluctuation as a means of bridging metaphysical, narrative, and scientific data sets. Jean Nicod’s Foundations of Geometry and Induction is used to describe a moving site through an inclusionary lens. Through such a lens, Nicod demonstrates the idea of geometry as an exercise in perceiving the logical world as a bridge between metaphysical concepts and mathematical analysis (Nicod 1930). For Nicod, an inclusionary view demonstrates two key concepts in relation to understanding the relationship of a system: spatio-inclusion (space within view) and temporal-inclusion (time within view). Through this lens, one is able to define terms of static and dynamic as a product of movement in space (or lack thereof) within the duration of time.

FG-032 Photo “Findhorn Foundation,” 2006; courtesy: findhornfoundation.org

FG-033 Guercino’s “Et in Arcadia Ego,” (1618-22), oil on canvas, Nat. Gallery, Rome

The lens of Culbin is translated into three metaphorical lenses in the project: Cloddymoss Lens, Moy Fishing Lens, and Drumbeg Lens. These are triangulated geometries located on a “static” portion of the site atop a large Holocene ridge towards the South; for Nicod, this means that no perceived change in space is experienced between longer, temporal periods. More aggressive changes within the responsive landscape are then seen as “non-static” elements, as spatial changes are experienced at a faster rate when compared with their temporal period of study. Metaphorically, one can use these lenses as viewing tackles from the Holocene cliffs into the land of Arcadia. Responsive Landscapes Sand dune crowns are identified by height and melted using a series of tackles to create a lighthouse for Basilius, Ruler of Arcadia. The lighthouse is fabricated with the dune crown, a primary dune in Culbin vis-à-vis melting tackles located both above and below the sand. The construction element uses a Fresnel lens, whose prismatic shaping was once used to refract light wavelengths in lighthouses to propagate the light from a candle over large distances. To verify its strength, annual UV radiation averages are utilized as a data set to amass approximate values in available energy (Varatsos 1998). Mean parabolic dune geometries of crown, step, head, and toe are averaged as viable lens geometries (Steers 1937). Fresnel Lens geometries are inverted from the construction of a single, interior candle source to an exterior source of the sun using Yeh’s (2008) method of cataloguing geometries of ultraviolet wavelengths as a product of refractive indexes. One might think of this as a giant microscope in the sun which cooks small bugs and gum-wrappers when held at the proper angle; this then becomes a Burning Lens. To optimize heat loss in the system, a diffractive plate is fabricated using Yeh’s (2008) geometries to focus varying red, green, and blue wavelengths onto nearly-identical surfaces. As the product of the amount of maximum heat over a peak day at peak time (approximately 4600BTU), its energy is not sufficient to create a phase-change of silt to turn from a solid-to metal-to solid in the quantity needed to create a glass lighthouse. However, this wil suffice in creating dune lenses within the surrounding dunes, allowing the first lens to create a second lens, and so on. These lenses fabricate glass rocks which shift in the landscape as they conglomerate with the Culbin gravel ridges. A Plastic Architecture Basilius’ lighthouse wil serve as a beacon for night vessels to return home after a series of valorous fighting battles which occur outside the land of Arcadia. Its placement near the Dune Crown Grange Hall is translated through spatio-temporal shifts in the landscape (its overall distance at approximately 2.5 kilometers) which “roll” the lighthouse across the sand. The first element in the lighthouse is produced underground by small annealing tackles which mitigate the sub-soil sand temperature with the assistance of the lenses to create an underground kiln or Lehr. The production pieces are six lightbulbs. Through landscape shifts, the bulbs move into the fabricated lighthouse which utilizes the Lehr to reduce mechanical stresses within the glass, further allowing a large, glass lighthouse to be blown out of the landscape (McLelland & Shand 1984). With the assistance of a large tub, sea water enters through a series of glass tubes which create a positive pressure in the tub, blowing up from the earth like a large soap bubble. The project is modeled using soap bubbles as a computing element—their surface area-to-volume ratios are high and therefore efficient, serving as conservative measures in the silt. As the lighthouse passes seaward in the landscape, large culvers are annealed to create pathways within the Salt Marsh and the Dragonfly Pond. With small digging tackles, one designs a system which uses underground wrought iron from the Kinnard Barony and exposes this with the salt water to create oxidation and a battery for the lightbulbs in the lighthouse. As oxidation occurs between the salt water and iron, this produces an anode while the Dragonfly Pond (fresh water) a cathode. Due to large increases in soil magnesium from the large afforestation effort of Scottish Corsican Pine and marram grass in Culbin, magnesium deposits exist in large quantities between 0-48” below the dune surface (Wright 1955). These

FG-034 Blown-out Maviston Dune, Culbin, courtesy Steers (1990)

FG-035 Parabolic Dune Formation, Culbin, courtesy: Scottish Forestry Commission

FG-036 Study for shifting rock-sand geometries in Culbin, 2010, 2D software, 32”x60” digital print

deposits assist the necessary chemical process in iron oxidation. As the lighthouse passes through the culvers, negative wind pressure is utilized to extract battery anodes and cathodes within the central element of the lighthouse. The temporal-inclusion is approximately 305 years for the lighthouse to translate from the Crown Grange Hall to its proper position near the sea. The Dune Crown is also used to shape sheep-shears for Dorus—the pastoral figure of Arcadia. Here, prevailing Northeast winds allow vector and path manipulation with the annealing tackles to define edges through their shaping of adjacent dune crowns. Their temporal inclusion is difficult to define, as storm winds and seasonal irregularities are needed to shape the opposing sides of the shears (Sand Dunes, A Look at Sand Dunes: Formation and Distribution of Dune Systems 2010). Degradation, Viability, Reassembly The Crown Grange Hall is a space for the amorous courting of two lovers. Like Guercino’s painting Et in Arcadia Ego, the lovers are intertwined in shadow and outline as their body movements are traced throughout the prismatic geometries of the Grange Hall. The development of the hall as a 4-dimensional scanning tool might better recall the event of the two lovers as they move throughout the space. Their memories are impregnated within the glass of the serrated lens. Here, Sidney specifies three key symbolic attributes to the courting lovers: “1) Like the garden of paradise in its eternal fertility and its order of conflicting parts, this place draws the mind to that place of which it is the visible symbol…; 2) Classical tradition does not stress the similarity of any Garden of Eden, but merely presents it as a fit place for comtemplation…; 3) Prison cell dialogue where the princes, awaiting their trial for the crime of regicide, contemplate death…” (Davis & Lanham 1965) As parabolic dunes advance within the world of Arcadia, the Crown Grange Hall is destroyed and buried— like the Kinnaird Barony—below the surface of the sand. One can remember the event of the lovers and piece together their memories within the prismatic glass shards which might give clues in solving a future archeological expedition.

CONCLUSION The assimilation of gaps within data is seen as an opportunity to design within differing information sets. Empirical evidence in cyclical ecologies is challenged through Sidney’s narrative within a real world context. Data sets and imaginary settings are translated as Nicodian geometries which discuss like concepts of spatio-temporal inclusions in data sets as a means of understanding logic. Here, the lines between characters and geotechnical analysis are blurred as one may begin questioning the inclusion of imaginary, non-data within given sets, as well as an understanding or “lens” by which one may view their world. REFERENCES Abandoned Communities 2010, Abandoned Communities…Shifting Sands 5, viewed 18 March, 2010, <www. abandonedcommunities.co.uk/shiftingsands5.html>.

Balfour, H, Bagnold, RA, Lewis, WV, Diver, C, Woolridge, SW and Steers, JA 1937, ‘The Culbin Sands and Burghead Bay: Discussion,’ The Geographical Journal, vol 90, no. 6, pp.523-528, viewed on 8 February, 2010, <www.jstor.org/stable/1787650>. Bracewell, JM and Robertson, GW 1975, ‘Thermal Decomposition Characteristics of Humus Horizons from Culbin Forest,’ Journal of Thermal Analysis, vol 8, pp. 117-124.

FG-038 Detail Study Plan Showing Gravel Ridge Shifts in Culbin, 2010 2D software, collage, 18”x24” digital print

FG-037 Geomorphic shifts in Culbin’s landscape recorded by two primary geological features: 1) gravel ridge shifts propagating towards the sea, 2) shifting dune landscape, semi-stabilized

FG-039 Geomorphic Force Path Sectional Diagram for Culbin, 2010 2D software, 18”x24” digital print

Castel, LB 1883, La Nature, pt. 2, pp. 519-520, held at University of Washington Libraries, Seattle. Comber, DPM 1995, ‘The Culbin Sands and the Bar,’ Scottish Geographical Journal, vol 111, no. 1, pp. 54-57, viewed 8 February, 2010, <www.dx.doi.org/10.1080/00369229518736938>.

Nicod, J 1930, Foundations of Geometry & Induction, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London.

Dai, JY, Wang, RZ, Wu, JY, Zhai, H and Zhang LY 2008, ‘Experimental Investigation and Analysis on a Concentrating Solar Collector Using Linear Fresnel Lens,’ Energy Conservation and Management, vol 51, pp. 48-55. Davis, WR & Lanham, RA 1965, Sidney’s Arcadia, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Ovington, JD 1950, ‘The Afforestation of the Culbin Sands,’ Journal of Ecology, vol 38, no. 2, viewed 8 February, 2010, <www.jstor.org/stable/2256448>. Sand Dunes, A Look at Sand Dunes: Formation and Distribution of Dune Systems 2010, BTCV Handbooks Online, viewed 12 March, 2010, <handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/ section/3919>. s’Gravesande, WJ 1721, Magic Lantern, Mathematical Elements, vol 2, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Libraries, Princeton.

Duchamp, M 1942, First Papers of Surrealism, installation, held at The Yong-Mallin Archive, New York. Sidney, Sir P 1577-1580, 1593, pub 1977, The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, Penguin Group, London. Dworkin, CD 2007, ‘The Imaginary Solution,’ Contemporary Literature, no. 48.1, pp. 29-60. Smout, M and Allen, L 2007, ‘Augmented Landscapes,’ Pamphlet Architecture, vol 28, pp. 1-79. Eastwood, DJ, Fraser, GK and Wesley, DM 1950, ‘Microbiological Factor in the Culbin Sands Afforestation Scheme,’ Nature, vol 165, p. 980. Environmental Science Activities for the 21st Century, Alternative Energy: Solar Energy, viewed 8 March, 2010, <esa21.kennesaw.edu/activities/solar/solaractivity.pdf>. Forestry Commission Scotland 2010, Culbin’s Landscape: Dunes and Foreshore, viewed 8 February, 2010, <www.forestry.gov.uk/INFD-77ELE5>. Gauld, JH 1981, ‘The Soils of Culbin Forest, Morayshire: Their Evolution and Morphology, with Reference to their Forestry Potential,’ Applied Geography, vol 1, pp. 199-212, Butterworths, Aberdeen.

Steers, JA 1937, ‘The Culbin Sands and Burghead Bay,’ The Geographical Journal, vol 90, no. 6, pp. 498523, viewed on 8 February, 2010, <www.jstor.org/stable/1787649>. The Brundtland Commission 1987, Our Common Future, Resolution Report, Annex to General Assembly Document A/42/427. Varatsos, CA 1998, ‘Total Ozone and Solar Ultraviolet Radiation, as Derived from Satellite and Ground-Based Instrumentation at Dundee, Scotland,’ International Journal of Remote Sensing, vol 19, no. 17, pp. 3301-3305, viewed on 8 March, 2010, <www.dx.doi.org/10.1080/014311698213984>. Woods, L 1997, Radical Reconstruction, Princeton Architectural Press, New York.

Gleicher, M 2001, ‘Motion Path Editing,’ The 2001 ACM Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics, pp. 1-9 Gunson, R, Wil is, DP, Jones, G, Chapman, K, Fyf, NR, Dawson, AH, Ilbery, BW, Proudfoot, B, and Small, A 1993, ‘Reviews of Books,’ Scottish Geographical Journal, vol 109, no. 2, pp. 123-127, viewed 8 February, 2010, <www.dx.doi.org/10.1080/00369229318736889>.

Wright, TW 1955, ‘Profile Development in the Sand Dunes of Culbin Forest, Morayshire,’ Journal of Soil Science, vol 6, no. 2, pp. 33-42, 270-283. Yeh, N 2008, ‘Optical Geometry Approach for Elliptical Fresnel Lens Design and Chromatic Aberration,’ Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol 93, pp. 1309-1317.

Hansom, JD 2007, ‘Culbin,’ Geological Conservation Review, vol 28, ch. 10, pp. 1-10, viewed 17 February, 2010, <www.jncc.gov.uk/page-3012>. Hasegawa, S, Hayasaki, Y and Kimura, K 2010, ‘Diffractive Spatiotemporal Lens with Wavelength Dispersion Compensation,’ Optical Letters, vol 35, no. 2, pp. 139-141. Jarry, A 1896, trans. C Connolly & SW Taylor 1968, Ubu Roy, Methuen, London. May, VJ and Hansom, JD 2003, ‘Coastal Geomorphology of Great Britain,’ Geological Conservation Review Series, no. 28 McLellan and Shand 1984, Glass Engineering Handbook, 3rd Edition, McGraw Hil , New York. Met Office 2010, Northern Scotland: Climate, viewed 23 February, 2010, <www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/ ns/print.html>. Nicholson, B 1990, The Appliance House, MIT Press, Cambridge.

FG-040 Overall Site Plan for Culbin, 2010, 2D/3D software, collage, 24”x48” digital print

FG-041 Enlarged Geomorphic Transverse Section, 2010, 2D software, 18”x24” digital print

FG-042 Fresnel Burning Lens Showing Chromatic Abberation, ref. N. Yeh, 2010, 2D software, 18”x24”

FG-043 Perspective (Above) / Section (Below) Showing Alexander Kinnaird’s Church Splays Over 200 Year Period, 2010, 2D/3D software, collage, 36”x48” digital print

FG-044 Plan Showing Alexander Kinnaird’s Church Splays Over 200 Year Period, 2010 2D/3D software, collage, 36”x48” digital print

FG-045 (top) Section with Partial Perspectival Projection Showing Communicative Ecologies in the Landscape, 2010 2D/3D software, collage, 24”x48” digital print FG-046 (bottom-left) Reticulated Structures on Free-Form Surfaces, courtesy: Stephen, Sanchez-Alvarez, & Knebel FG-047 (bottom-middle) Lighthouse Blown from the Landscape like a Large Soap Bubble, Non-Computational Element, 2010 soap bubbles, photo, collage, 24”x18” digital print FG-048 (bottom-right) Section Through Partial Soap Bubble / Lighthouse in the Landscape, 2010 2D/3D software, collage, 24”x48” digital print

FG-049 Ultraviolet Dundee UV Indexes (Average) Showing Chromatic Aberration Based Upon Fresnel Burning Lens 2010, 2D/3D software, 18”x24” digital print

FG-050 Enlarged Site Plan for Culbin, 2010, 2D/3D software, collage, 30”x42” digital print

FG-051 (left) Recording Shards Showing The Dance of Sidney’s Two Lovers, 2010, 2D/3D software, collage, 42”x30” digital print FG-052 (right) Destroyed Dune Crown Grange Hall with Recording Shards, 2010, 2D/3D software, collage, 18”x24” digital print

Term

Studies I I: Plasticity in Arcadia

- Writing: “Plasticity in Arcadia” - Geometry - Topology - Projection Study: Euclidean vs. non-Euclidean Space - Between Fact & Fiction: Volumetric Constrains - a Polemic on Data - Nicod’s “Space of Perception”: Hugh Kinnaird’s Perspectival Projection - Interior Perspective: The Baronic Tub - Plan, Enlarged Plan: Dorus’ Sheep Shears - Section: Recording Shards Buried Beneath Culbin’s Dune - Interior Perspective: Dune Crown Grange Hall - Exterior Perspective: Baronic Pond - Plan: Dorus’ Sheep Shears

FG-053 Sketch Showing Deformation Cages - Nicodian Topologies

FGS053-54

One attempts to construct a set of conditions describing the normative qualities of narrative, site, location, technology and mathematics. A series of deformation cages are developed which exist within the 2D / 3D software within the machine. This exploration looks at language as a means of communicating with the topologies, encouraging forms of deformation, translation, scale, rotation, etc. within bound conditions specified in an ecological matrix of architecture. Wittgenstein’s “Philosophical Investigations” is also referenced for the idea of language as a “nonprivate system” of communication within the system. The report text entitled, “Plasticity in Arcadia” is uses this as a process-generating exercise for architectural projection in order to clarify ideas of time, object and location

PLASTICITY IN ARCADIA AIMS & OBJECTIVES A tattered sand-dune environment—fil ed with rich physical and ephemeral qualities—involves topical conditions in the discussion of ‘man and nature.’ The project attempts to clarify ideas of time, object, and location by utilizing Jarry’s (1896) ‘science of exceptions’ 1 to interrogate an empirical2 understanding in the fabrication and construction of architecture. Artistically, data gaps3 may be translated into a real-world context through the use of narrative4 in order to reassess traditional goals in construction, and one’s response to evolving ecologies.5 Moray Firth’s Culbin Forest—located in Northern Scotland—is a rich, geotechnical environment which is used as a device to translate between a real-world landscape, and the imaginary thematic landscape set forth in Sir Philip Sidney’s The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1593). Its primary tactic for assimilating disparate elements is Nicod’s (1930) geometric exercise in logic which discusses spatio-temporal resemblance as a normative measure of bridging sensory perception. One attempts to construct a set of conditions to deal with issues of: site, narrative, technology, mathematics, and largely, one’s response to local ecologies. These ecologies are reconstructed as interdependent, virtual topologies or deformation cages6 which reassemble Culbin’s Arcadia into a rich ecological matrix of architecture, within a trans-objective site.7 Programming language8 is seen as a primary tool for projecting the virtual context of Culbin’s Arcadia into an actualized, computer-landscape topography.

Geomorphology of Moray Firth Culbin Forest is Britain’s largest dune system, with approximately 50-mil ion tons of dune sand below its heavily thatched surface (Hansom 2007, p.1). The area is intensively researched due to its ‘active’ geomorphic features and traces, most notably its shifting gravel ridges from the post-Holocene period as well as its active sand dunes(Comber 1995, pp.54-57). The primary dune-deposit is an accumulation of silt which was deposited down the mouth of the River Findhorn (or “River Lossie” as described by Hugh Kinnaird) in Early Holocene near the top of Mt. Carn na Saobhaidhe (Gauld 1981, pp.199-208). During the 1920s, the Scottish Forestry Commission undertook a large effort to stabilize this dramatic shifting landscape by planting plots of marram grass and Scottish Corsican Pine trees to contain the soil (Ovington 1950, p.305). This method presently remains the sole strategy in mitigating sand dune movements in Culbin Forest. Perhaps its most imminent effects are felt within the neighboring towns of Findhorn and Burghead, whose built environment and agricultural land are subject to adverse environmental effects from the geomorphology of Moray Firth (Forestry Commission Scotland 2010).

1 Alfred Jarry’s definition of ‘pataphysics in, Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll, Pataphysician which describes: “. . .(the science that added to metaphysics as). . .the science of imaginary solutions that symbolically attributes to their lineaments the properties of objects described by their virtuality.” 2 Relying on or derived from observation or experiment; (also) verifiable or provable by means of observation or experiment. (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language). 3 Geomorphological / historical studies of the Culbin Forest which posit a difficulty in establishing “fact” and “fiction” within empirical data sets (Ross 1992 et al.) 4 Sir Phil ip Sidney’s renaissance masterpiece The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia is a thematically-colorized, literary work discussing involvements between ‘man and nature.’ 5 Study of relationships between people, social groups, and their environment . . .in areas of human settlement (Oxford English Dictionary). 6 Lexicon of plastic geometric topologies showing abstract and concrete shifts in space over time. Reference to Nicod’s idea of spatio-temporal resemblance in sense data outlining a definitive border of metaphysics. 7 Computer environment embodying Arcadian topologies where ‘objects’ are removed within a new landscape. 8 Reference to both Wittgenstein’s linguistic accounts of communication in Philosophical Investigations (1958), and programmable computing-software utilizing geometric deformers to construct objects in space(s) and time(s) (via Autodesk Maya 2010 software).

FG-054 Series of Riemannian Geometries of the Dragonfly Battery Showing Tertiary Conditions, 2010, models, 2D software, assorted sizes

Previous site research data on gravel ridge movements is based on partial evidence from Timothy Pont (Abandoned Communities 2010). Pont’s 1590 map of Culbin shows location mapping which several geologists have used to study the “Bar,” “Gut,” and the Findhorn Bay, located East of Culbin Forest (Steers 1937, p.503, 511-512, 517-519, 524-525). Non-empirical data sets such as Pont’s map and Hugh Kinnaird’s parcel studies leave gaps in objective records, introducing the idea of individual or “subjective perception” within empirical data. These sets have been used in speculating sedimentary deposits, shifts, and outside forces from Late Devensian glacial, glacifuvial, to Early Holocene foreshore deposits noted by Comber (1995, pp.54-56). As sited in Ross’ (1992, p.33-36) research (Ross, an academically-respected, self-taught geologist), this evidence can be used to speculate origins of freshwater bodies—such as the Dragonfly Pond—and continues to be a rich reference for geologists at the present date (Gunson et al. 1993, p.124).

Culbin Mythology & the Kinnaird Barony According to D.P. Wil is, Culbin has always been a fascinating area for researchers, artists, and writers, as its rich mix of colorful tales and dramatic earth shifts have often made it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction (Gunson et al. 1993, p.124). Tales of a buried barony lost after the Scottish landowner, Alexander Kinnaird, removed the stabilizing marram grass from atop the dune surface caused him to eventually lose his entire estate in a great storm between 1694 and 1695 (Forestry Commission Scotland 2010). Folklore presents a tragic loss of the Kinnaird Barony to: a judgment bestowed upon Kinnaird for Sabbath-breaking, Kinnaird’s previous wrong-doings with smuggling, and to a potential curse bestowed from pirates for Kinnaird’s imprisonment of a Fair Maid of Norway (Bain 1890, pp.14-15). In present times, area locals are said to have heard screams through the clay chimneys tops of the underground barony, yet research into the exact location of the buried structures is stil underdeveloped, as splays in the structures and a difficulty in scanning gravel ridges below the soil, makes it a challenging endeavor in determining precise locations of sediment, and ‘like’ materials (Steers 1937, pp.500-502, 504, 508-511, 518-523). Particular importance is paid to a series of found artifacts excavated in previous digs, including: coat of arms blocks, bronzed brooches & axes, roman coins, and cinerary urns, to name a few. According to Ross, many pieces were stolen for private collections, while the majority of remains continue to reside beneath the enormous dune surface (Ross 1992, pp.86-93).

THEMATIC LANDSCAPES

The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia Sidney’s pastoral masterpiece sets four literary themes that the project uses as a point of departure from the technical research data of Culbin Forest. According to Davis & Lanham (1965, pp.44-48, 55-58), Sidney’s five books discuss the evolution of several characters who instigate varying, yet seemingly-disparate events tied together by a clear and orderly literary structure: amorous courting, pastoral exercises, valorous fighting, and sage counseling. Character names also change as lives parallel other themes within books I-V. Its general thematic shift is from a classical regiment of Virgil’s imaginary landscape and Jacopo Sannazzaro’s medieval version to a renaissance version fil ed with rich coloration and a simultaneous discussion of both utopian and everyday contexts (Davis & Lanham 1965, pp.7-12, 57). Its primary literary contribution is a general thematic structure where several characters, landscapes, and events describe the involvement of ‘man and nature’ from a plethora of viewpoints, as opposed to the earlier sonnets of Virgil, or the intense interactions which are set by Sannazzaro (Davis & Lanham 1965, p.45, 50-54). These two canvases allow structural interventions between the Culbin data sets and the imaginary landscape of the romantic, pastoral utopia set forth in Arcadia. Themes are demonstrable as responsive, plastic architectures in space and time whose existence is subject to both empirical assimilation and idealized dialogues of life, death, and landscape. Notwithstanding these themes is Sidney’s narrative expansion of beautiful, dramatic accords which, according to Davis & Lanham, discuss once-present and past politics of citizen and state, including their ideological division of the soul into, “. . . the rational part or intellect, the spirited element, and the irrational appetite, which seeks pleasure and the replenishment of wants,” as referenced in Plato’s Republic (Davis & Lanham 1965, pp.137-141, 146-153). One may see clear ties with Sidney’s paired-characters to Alexander Kinnaird and his lost barony (with Sidney: Euarchus the “good ruler” of Arcadia & Basilius the “ordinary ruler” of Arcadia giving into temptation; or that of Pyrocles & Musidorus—respectively, a character mixed of “facts and lies,” and the selfless lover of Arcadia). Sidney’s sage counseling may in fact be a more telling account of ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’ in communicating site ecologies when compared with previous geomorphological research and historical accounts of Culbin.

Shifting Geometries A geomorphic force path diagram [fig.13] is drawn to il ustrate the difference between “like” and “non-like” materials in order to find the trajectory of the lost Kinnaird Barony [figs.8, 14-15]. The analysis of prevailing gravel ridge shifts show movements at approximately 11.3cm/day based on evidence from post-Holocene to 1990 [fig.59]. Its material density is likely comparable to the stone church in the Kinnaird Barony and would therefore begin to combine its trajectory pattern as it approached a lower depth in the soil. To reach this depth, a timeline is established to compare vertical distance, leaving approximately 140 years before the gravel ridge and church’s stone might begin to conjoin with one-another. Wrought-iron, wood, and lightweight textile materials would follow a more generalized direction of the propagation of the parabolic sand dunes toward the Northeast (average movement at 54cm/day, prevailing wind direction per Met Office 2010). This analysis allows one to interpret the “current” location range of the barony splays within the present year of work.

As a means of bridging dissimilar elements, exceptions within data are translated through a working narrativeplatform using geometry and ‘sense data’ as a method for establishing themes of site, empirical data [figs.1920], and metaphysical information sets. Jean Nicod’s Foundations of Geometry and Induction (1930) is used to describe a moving site through a resemblance lens. Through such a lens, Nicod demonstrates the idea of geometry as an exercise in perceiving the logical world as a bridge between metaphysical concepts and mathematical analysis (Nicod 1930, pp.11-16, 61-62). He states: “. . . distinguishing these relations from one another should be sufficient while our aim is simply to trace the order they introduce in nature. Similarly, we have assumed nothing about their conditions or historical origins . . . I do not know the history of (those) relations that appear to me as the elementary connections of nature . . .It is in this (observable) universe that we must discern the meaning and translation of physics.” (Nicod 1937, p.87)

FG-055 Sketchbook Notes for Annealing Processes and Construction of Dune Crown Lens, 2010

For Nicod, an inclusionary view demonstrates two key concepts to understanding the relationship of a system: spatio-inclusion (space within view) and temporal-inclusion (time within view) as one posits sense data (perceived by the self). Through this lens, one defines terms of ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ as a product of movement in space (or lack thereof) within the duration of time sensed by an observer. The introduction of the subjective viewpoint into a mixed facto-fictitious, yet seemingly “objective” site data set is used as a generative study to peer into the landscape of Culbin’s Arcadia. Nicod later expands his local inclusionary view—or relations during similarities—to include the ideas of encroachment or overlapping data, and separation or non-interference / complete succession of similarity (Nicod 1930, pp.85-88). He posits this as a difference in qualitative and local similarities, specifically, a global resemblance (“a priori”) which relates to one’s past experiences (something unique to the individual), versus the urgency of the present or local inclusion (Nicod 1930, pp.82-84, 112-115). With Alexander Kinnaird, one can start to see a reflexive relationship between the management of land and the overnight effect of environmental changes within view, whereas in Sidney’s Arcadia, the people’s uprising against Basilius causes a successive overthrow of power in favor of Euarchus’ ideal republic. Perception of Views Almost 200 years after Timothy Pont’s map of the Culbin Forest, Alexander Kinnaird’s distant cousin Hugh inherits the land where the barony once stood (Ross 1992, pp.32-35). This is seen as a microcosm for a domestic, urban landscape. The project references Hugh Kinnaird’s “Track of the Ferry Boat,” which was used in geographical mapping and analysis of the freshwater pond “Loch Spynie” (Ross 1992, pp.34-36). Due to sand dune advancements, the loch no longer exists in the same form during present day, as it is transformed into the “Dragonfly Pond” freshwater body described in current maps (Ross 1992, pp.102-110). Nicod’s introduction of sense data propagates three key vantage-points from The Ferry Track to the present shaping of the Dragonfly Pond: start (minimum view), middle (average view), and end (maximum view). This is a ramified trajectory, wherein one of three places can divide the other three places (Nicod 1937, pp.109-110). The lens of Arcadia is translated into three instances: Cloddymoss Lens, Moy Fishing Lens, and Drumbeg Lens. These are triangulated geometries located on a “static” portion of the site atop a large Holocene ridge towards the South; for Nicod, this means no perceived change in space is experienced between longer, temporal periods (Nicod 1930, pp.52-77). More aggressive changes within the responsive landscape are seen as “non-static” elements, as spatial changes are experienced at a faster rate when compared with their temporal period of study. These lenses describe transient or stable viewing analogues used for peering into the land of Arcadia.

Construction of Views These viewpoints present the idea of optical shifts, wherein the subjective and objective enter simultaneously into one’s perception and relationship with space in time (Wittgenstein would argue this is solely a subjectivelyconstructed experience, as it related to learned understandings in communication [Wittgenstein 1958, pp.4-6, 15-18, 29-33]). Nicod presents the idea of exteriority and interiority (Nicod 1937, pp.82-84) which, for project purposes, wil refer to volumetric constructions both inside and outside of Arcadia. In her book Studies on Leonardo da Vinci-I, Veltman describes analogous techniques of projection in the paintings and drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. According to Veltman, da Vinci’s construction of several famed works use Euclidean geometries to construct viewing angles and align perceptions with images:

“. . .geometrical method(s) which Galileo codified thus reflect the crystallization of a nexus of problems with which Leonardo had been playing a century earlier. . . Through this nexus Leonardo found a means of bridging abstract geometry with concrete nature and saw, moreover, a means of ordering nature’s powers,” and further that due to the “mathematization of nature . . .The science of perspective had thus instigated a new perspective of science.” (Veltman 1986, p.277)

The project uses Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries to construct deformation cages within the space, while Riemannian geometry is used to reconstruct the lens into the Dragonfly Pond with intersecting splays of the Kinnaird Barony. Image construction uses Nicodian lenses to discuss spatio-temporal shifts in projecting the readied image (Nicod 1937, pp.162-164). Particular importance is paid to Michael Webb’s arcadian project: Temple Island: A Study (1987), wherein space of view and space within view construct a similar relationship in the understanding of physics and geometry to Veltman’s account of da Vinci’s world. In view of Nicod’s “impartial” account of sense data and local resemblance, one might rather posit narrative, fact, and fiction to celebrate gaps in Culbin’s Arcadia.

COMMUNICATING ECOLOGIES Responsive Landscapes Sand dune crowns are identified by height and melted to create a lighthouse for Basilius, “ordinary ruler” of Arcadia (this is later appointed to Euarchus, “good ruler” of Arcadia). The lighthouse is fabricated with the Dune Crown—a primary dune in Culbin—vis-à-vis melting ‘tackles’9 located above and below the sand. The construction element uses a Fresnel lens whose prismatic geometries were once used to refract lightwaves in lighthouses to distribute light from a candle over large distances. To verify its strength, annual UV radiation averages are utilized as a data set to amass approximate values in available energy (Varatsos 1998, pp.3302-3304). Mean parabolic dune geometries of crown, step, head, and toe are averaged as viable lens geometries (Steers 1937, pp.502-507). Fresnel Lens geometries are inverted from the construction of a single, interior candle source to an exterior source of the sun using N. Yeh’s method of cataloguing geometries of ultraviolet wavelengths as a product of refractive indexes (Yeh 2008, pp.1309-1313). One might think of this as a microscope in the sun which cooks small twigs and bubble-gum wrappers when held at the proper angle; this then becomes a “Burning Lens” (Archimedes’ purported classical invention in c.214-212 BC [Knowles Middleton 1961, pp.533-534]). To optimize heat loss in the system, a diffractive plate is fabricated using Yeh’s geometries to focus varying red, green, and blue wavelengths onto nearly-parallel surfaces (Yeh 2008, pp.1314-1317). As the product of maximum heat over a peak day at peak time (approximately 4600BTU), its energy is not sufficient to create a phase-change of silt to turn from a solid-to liquid-to solid in the quantity needed to create a glass lighthouse. However, this wil suffice in creating secondary dune lenses within the surrounding dunes, allowing the first lens to create an annealed second lens, and so on. The idea of a self-generating landscape which fabricates structures is quantitatively introduced with no additional supplemental energy; its required inputs are: local materiality, and solar harvesting, respectively. These lenses fabricate glass rocks which shift in the landscape as they combine to ‘kiss’ the existing Culbin gravel ridges. This is a method of fabricating an idea as an existing materiality within the process. The production of ideas does not include equipment, rather, it provides a conceptual framework. Drifting is part of the Dune Crown and Arcadian parody, burning both conceptual and physical materials.

9 Devices reference extensions of technology. The video Fitzcarraldo 1982 uses similar tackles to mechanically-translate a ship over a mountain via ‘actual’ mockups, and ‘virtual’ cinematic special effects.

FG-056 Sketchbook Notes for Dune Shifts and Gravel Ridge Movements in Culbin, 2010

A Plastic Architecture Basilius’ lighthouse wil serve as a beacon for night vessels to return home after a series of valorous fighting battles which occur outside the land of Arcadia (historically, Culbin was taken over as a secret WWII base for military exercises which may have aided D-Day landings at Normandy in 1944,” [Forestry Commission Scotland 2010-2]). Shortly following its morphosis, Euarchus’ lighthouse wil serve as a beacon of hope to sustain the economic viability of the neighboring fishing town of Nairn, giving a small glimpse into the evolving theme of sage counseling. Its placement near the Dune Crown Grange Hall is translated through spatio-temporal shifts in the landscape (its overall distance at approximately 2.5 kilometers) which ‘roll’ the lighthouse across the sand towards its ‘idealized’ position at the sea. The first element in the lighthouse is produced underground by small, reflexive annealing ‘tackles’ which mitigate the sub-soil sand temperature with the assistance of lenses to create an underground kiln or Lehr. The production pieces are six lightbulbs. Through landscape shifts, the lightbulbs move into the fabricated lighthouse which utilizes the Lehr to reduce mechanical stresses within the glass. This allows a large, glass lighthouse to be blown out of the landscape (Herrod et al. 1988, pp.43, 45-46). With the assistance of a large Baronic tub, sea water enters through a series of glass tubes which create a positive pressure in the tub, blowing liquid silt up from the earth like a large soap bubble. The modeling of such a soap bubble is used as a computing element—its surface areato-volume ratios are highly-efficient, serving as conservative measures in the processing of silt. As the lighthouse passes seaward in the landscape, large culverts are annealed to create pathways between the Salt Marsh and the Dragonfly Pond. With small digging ‘tackles,’ a reflexive system uses underground wrought iron from the Kinnard Barony and exposes it to salt water, creating oxidation and a battery for the lightbulbs in the lighthouse. As oxidation occurs between the salt water and iron, an anode is produced while the Dragonfly Pond (fresh water) is created into a large cathode. Due to massive increases in soil magnesium from the large afforestation effort of Scottish Corsican Pine and marram grass in Culbin, magnesium deposits exist in large quantities between 0-48” below the dune surface (Wright 1955). These deposits assist the necessary chemical process in iron oxidation. In their report “Deflection of Sand Movement on a Sinuous Longitudinal Dune: Use of Fluorescent Dye as Tracer,” Tsoar & Yaalon accounts for the difficulty in excavating beneath sand dune surfaces, concluding that a site-based research approach yields the most “truthful” results (Tsoar & Yaalon 1983, pp.25-26). The Arcadian excavation is seen through direct and indirect sunlight—its refraction is traced as rays conjoin several elements, including: air, freshwater, anodic sand, and the iron-rich artifacts found in the splays of the Kinnaird Barony. These methods are used to describe reflexive attributes within shifting geometries. As the lighthouse passes through the culverts, negative wind pressures extract the battery water into the lighthouse. The temporal-inclusion is approximately 305 years for the lighthouse to translate from the Crown Grange Hall, to its ‘idealized’ position near the sea. The Dune Crown is also used to shape sheep-shears for Dorus—the pastoral figure of Arcadia. Prevailing Northeast winds allow vector and path manipulation with annealing ‘tackles’ to define edges through shaping adjacent dune crowns. They represent an aspiration for an idealized state—as Davis & Lanham might specifically deem a “loved object” used to “climb a certain way up the Platonic ladder,” (Davis & Lanham 1965, p.84). The temporal inclusion of the sheep-shears is difficult to define, as storm winds and seasonal irregularities are needed to shape the opposing sides of the shears (Sand Dunes, A Look at Sand Dunes: Formation and Distribution of Dune Systems 2010). Dorus’ shears provoke an encroachment into the misfortunes following two greedy friends, while he enters a “mystic union with the Divine through love,” (Davis & Lanham, p.96, 105-106). The sheep bathe in the Baronic tub while portions of its water overflow to the neighboring town of Findhorn10 via a small, glass culvert. Their shears are made of crystallized silt, which—as in the whole of Culbin Forest—is the trace of individual grains of sand that traveled down the River Findhorn. These hold no recorded memory; they remain as geometric artifacts within varying perceptions 10

‘Spiritual’ neighborhood near Culbin senses tub water movement outside of Arcadia.

and understandings. In the account of the subjective geometry of his own house, G. Bachelard notes: ”All we communicate to others is an orientation towards what is secret without ever being able to tell the secret objectively. What is secret never has total objectivity. In this respect, we orient oneirism but we do not accomplish it,” (Bachelard 1958, p.13). In Arcadia, Dorus’ artifacts remain as both told and untold secrets. Degradation, Viability, Reassembly The Crown Grange Hall is a space for the amorous courting of two lovers. Like Guercino’s painting Et in Arcadia Ego (c.1618-1622), the lovers are intertwined in shadow and outline as their body movements are traced throughout the prismatic geometries of the Grange Hall. The development of the hall as a 3-dimensional scanning tool might better recall the event of the two lovers as they move throughout the space. Basilius’ lighthouse quietly rolls across the landscape to protect them from turbulent winds. Bachelard accounts for similar poetics in ecological geometries: “A hermits hut. What a subject for an engraving! Indeed real images are engravings, for it is the imagination that engraves them on our memories,“ (Bachelard 1958, p.32) In the Crown Grange Hall, memories are impregnated within the glass of the serrated lens, while Sidney’s symbols specify three key attributes of courting lovers within the space: “1) Like the garden of paradise in its eternal fertility and its order of conflicting parts, this place draws the mind to that place of which it is the visible symbol . . .; 2) Classical tradition does not stress the similarity of any Garden of Eden, but merely presents it as a fit place for contemplation . . .; 3) Prison cell dialogue where the princes, awaiting their trial for the crime of regicide, contemplate death . . .” (Davis & Lanham 1965, p.61-63) As parabolic dunes advance within the world of Arcadia, the Crown Grange Hall is destroyed and buried—like the Kinnaird Barony—below the surface of the sand. One can remember the event of the lovers and piece together their memories within the prismatic glass shards which might communicate clues in understanding future archeological expeditions involving time, object, and location. These themes may reappear as the lovers recall the microcosm for a broken city (or in Culbin, a barony), which begins to adapt to its changing environment.

FG-057 Annual UV Index for Dundee, Scotland, 2010; courtesy: Varatsos (1998)

FG-058 Sketchbook Notes for Dune Shifts and Gravel Ridge Movements in Culbin, 2010

PROJECTING CULBIN’S ARCADIA

CONCLUSION

Virtual Topologies and the Ecological Matrix

Bachelard once wrote: “if we compose a poet about a house, it frequently happens that the most flagrant contradictions come to wake us from our doldrums of concepts, as philosophers would say, and free us from our utilitarian geometrical notions,” (Bachelard 1958, p.53). In the case of Culbin’s vagrant sand dunes, one questions relationships of ecologies by utilizing Jarry’s ‘science of exceptions’ to interrogate an empirical understanding of traditional goals in the fabrication and construction of architecture. These establish connections between virtual and actual environments. ‘Sense data’ is further clarified within information gaps; these gaps are artistically-translated through Sidney’s narrative canvas. Nicod’s exercise in geometry and induction is used to assimilate these seemingly-disparate information sets by discussing spatio-temporal resemblance as a means of clarifying relationships between objects, space, and time. In order to project these new ecologies, virtual deformation cages construct and communicate the new topologies in Culbin’s Arcadia. These cages are semi-permeable. Such virtualizations exist within geometric programming software as both abstracted and concrete landscapes, which establish a new project topography using Maya’s MEL scripting language. In Wittgenstein’s account, the validity of the new, virtual landscape exists within an altered context of view; it is further described as a degrading computer hardware system in time. This may become an opportunity to construct the future lens in one’s own world—or rather, their fiction.

As a means of assimilating information sets, ‘deformation cages’ are used as a tool to reconstruct geometric, Nicodian topologies from the reflexive ecologies of Culbin and Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia. This is a projected view within a thematic, virtual world. These geometries attempt the ‘removal’ of the object in order to clarify a boundary between mathematics and Nicod’s understanding of a “. . . border of metaphysics,” (Nicod 1930,pp.86-87). They are singular, reflexive ecologies utilizing computer software (Autodesk’s 2010 Maya, or ‘Maya’), as a means of assembling virtual deformation cages as plastic, permeable, and translatable geometries which communicate with one-another in space and time. Maya constructs virtual points, vectors, surfaces, and paths as singular, mnemonic geometries which are linked to variable ‘string’ attributes to construct images, animations, as well as analyze attributes within code. Its generative software is a ‘programmable’ language (MEL scripting) which is used to construct an ‘ecological matrix’ to deform, reconstruct, and ultimately clarify Arcadian objects over time. This exists within a program rule-set where mathematical matrices are described through language. Their varying ecological matrices are comprised of programmable geometries which are modified by ‘action scripts’ in order to translate virtual geometries from: Culbin geomorphology data sets, Kinnaird history sets (including objective / subjective views), thematic events, and plastic architectures. Maya’s topology becomes a representational, trans-objective site ecology, or rather, the projected part of thematic systems.

Abstract-Concrete Topography Perhaps Wittgenstein would view Maya’s MEL scripting as an opportunity to discuss language. A programmable edifice comprising topologies affected by an ecological matrix is viewed as the new construction of an Arcadian topography. It is artistically scaled from a virtual environment to phyiscal computer hardware. According to Wittgenstein, language is not an “a priori” knowledge of the universe, let alone a means to explain it. Language is a means of communicating, which is agreeable or disagreeable depending upon one’s subjective viewpoint (Wittgenstein 1958, p.7). As all language is learned, it remains in Wittgenstein’s view, ’non-private’ (Wittgenstein 1958, pp.76-85). In Culbin’s Arcadia, Maya’s MEL scripting may also demonstrate portions of Wittgenstein’s critical view in the falsity of language and “meaning,” specifically: scripts run “actions,” matrices “propose translations”, and the viewer is left to assimilate these “demonstrations” (Wittgenstein 1958, pp.109-112). In this context of Maya’s programming ecology, the topography of Culbin’s Arcadia is perhaps demonstrable under a more clarified view of communicating landscapes comprised of objects, space, and time. The project is translated to a new trans-objective site, where coded software pixels translate grains of Arcadian sand. The programming software shifts to the system’s hardware. Like the ecologies of the worn Barony, the new landscape topography is a slowlymalfunctioning edifice seeking gentle repair as heat advancements corrupt computer circuitry. As scripting language communicates dense actions, physical hardware processes respond by projecting the plasticity in Arcadia; it slowly decays its own PC circuitry in response to one’s use of language. As in Wittgenstein’s subjective viewset, this language is communicated into an actualized computer topography.

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FG-059 Culbin Artifacts Found at Archeological Site Digs Showing Brooches, Coins, Spears, courtesy: “The Culbin Sands--Fact and Fiction” Ross (1992)

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May, VJ and Hansom, JD 2003, ‘Coastal Geomorphology of Great Britain,’ Geological Conservation Review Series, no. 28.

Webb, M 1987, Temple Island: A Study, Architectural Association Publications, London. Wittgenstein, L 1958, trans. GEM Anscombe 2001, Philosophical Investigations, Blackwell Publishing, Malden.

Met Office 2010, Northern Scotland: Climate, viewed 23 February 2010, <www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/ ns/print.html>. Mitton, M 2009, Findhorn Foundation History, Findhorn Foundation, viewed 6 April 2010, <www.findhorn.org/ whatwedo/vision/history.php>.

Wright, TW 1955, ‘Profile Development in the Sand Dunes of Culbin Forest, Morayshire,’ Journal of Soil Science, vol 6, no. 2, pp.33-42, 270-283. Yeh, N 2008, ‘Optical Geometry Approach for Elliptical Fresnel Lens Design and Chromatic Aberration,’ Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol 93, pp.1309-1317.

National Library of Scotland 2010, Pont Maps Web Site, Edinburgh, viewed 14 June 2010, <http://www.nls. uk/pont/specialist/gordon23.html>. Nicod, J 1930, Foundations of Geometry & Induction, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London. Ovington, JD 1950, ‘The Afforestation of the Culbin Sands,’ Journal of Ecology, vol 38, no. 2, pp.303-319. Pouissin, N 1637-1638, Les Bergers d’Arcadie, painting, held at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Ross, S 1992, ‘The Culbin Sands—Fact and Fiction,’ Centre for Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen.

Sand Dunes, A Look at Sand Dunes: Formation and Distribution of Dune Systems 2010, BTCV Handbooks Online, viewed 12 March 2010, <handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/ section/3919>. Schuhl, PM & Capek M 1947, ‘Le theme du Gulliver et le postulat de Laplace,’ Journal de Psychologue Normal et Pathologique, no. 40, pp.169-184.

FG-062 (top-left) Hugh Kinnaird’s Map Following Alexander’s Lost Barony in 1694 Showing the “Track of the Ferry Boat,” courtesy: Ross (1992) FG-063 (middle-left) Ross’ 1992 Mapping of the Extents of the Barony and Speculation of Origination of the ‘Loch of Spynie’ as a Freshwater Body Showing Data Gap in a Developing Dragonfly Pond, courtesy: Ross (1992) FG-064 (bottom-left) Geomorphic Site Section Showing Sedimentary Deposits and Accumulation of Silt, Gravel, Peat, and Neighboring Holocene Cliffs, courtesy Ross (1992) FG-065 (top-right) Volumetric Constraints Reflecting Nicodian Idea of Point, Path, and Succession, 2010, 2D/3D software, collage, 18”x24” digital print FG-066 (bottom-right) Enlarged Volumetric Constraints Showing Dragonfly Pond and Potential Area for Archeological Dig within the System, 2010, 2D/3D software, collage, 18”x24” digital print

FG-067 Study I Showing Volumetric Constraints of the Baronic Tub as Seen by Hugh Kinnaird’s “Track of the Ferry Boat,” 2010, 2D/3D software, 24”x36” digital print

FG-068 Study II Showing Volumetric Constraints of the Baronic Tub as Seen by Hugh Kinnaird’s “Track of the Ferry Boat,” 2010, 2D/3D software, 24”x36” digital print

58 FG-069 Study III Showing Interior Perspective of Volumetric Constraints of the Baronic Tub with Tertiary Location of Alexander Kinnaird’s Lost Barony, 2010, 2D/3D software, collage, 24”x36” digital print

FG-070 (left) Enlarged Study for Dorus’ Sheep Shears Constructed in the Landscape, 2010, 2D software, collage, 24”x36” digital print FG-071 (right) Overall Study for Dorus’ Sheep Shears Constructed in the Landscape Showing Critical Points of Geometry of Parabolic Dunes in Culbin, 2010, 2D software, collage, 24”x36” digital print

[amorousCourting]

String [topologyD] = duneCrownGrangeHall spaceForTwoLovers transverseSectionView 1. 2. 3. 4.

Recording shards for Pyrocles & Philoclea Minor parabolic dunes (2208-2308AD) Non-annealed Dune Crown glass Surface glass rocks

plasticity

mauricioEspinosa != [ responsiveEmplacementForTheParkOfMorayFirth

InArcadia ]

Int = term3 { term3 = july27_2010 println() = tutor_philWatson println() = “This apple is a little universe in itself, the seed of which, being hotter than the other parts, gives out the conserving heat of its globe; and this germ, in my opinion, is the little sun of this little world, that warms and feeds the vegetative salt of this little mass.

∞

—Cyrano de Bergerac (Schuhl & Capek 1947, p.169)” }

6. 4.

[valorousFighting]

String [topologyA] = valorousNightFightingVessels returningHome elevationView 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Kinnard church (1592AD) RGB diffuser Dune Crown Grange Hall, recording shards Night vessels Glass ridge rocks Basiliusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lighthouse Advanced dune 65 Annealed burning lens

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Burning lens Basilius’ bulbs, partial fill Baronic tub Trickle of water floods Findhorn’s 40lb cabbages Dune Crown Grange Hall Kinnardian cathodes: brooches, coins, iron splays Dorus’ long horn sheep Silt

[sageCounseling]

String [topologyB] = dragonflyBattery elevationDetail

[pastoralExercises]

String [topologyC] = dorusSheepShears planView 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Annealing tackle Partial shear shard Parabolic dune geometry Water spigot 34o crown section

Term Final Projections

- Overall Site Plan: Culbin’s Arcadia - Axonometric: Self-Generating Landscape - Site Section: Geomorphic Pathways - Enlarged Site Plan: Sage Counseling - Axonometric: Pastoral Exercises - Perspective: Dragonfly Battery - Perspective: Sidney’s Valorous Night Fighting Vessels Returning Home to Arcadia

One questions an empirical understanding in constructing

Culbin’s Arcadia by

utilizing data exceptions to clarify ideas of time, object and location in architectural design

1. A self-generating landscape manufactures a series of objects in reference to Sir Philip Sidney’s pastoral Romance “The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia” 2. Burning lenses utilize data averages as a means of constructing annealed silt for objects in the landscape 3. Deformation cages describe topologies within an ecological matrix of conditions by utilizing Jean Nicod’s “Foundations of Geometry and Induction” as means of bridging spaciotemporal relations as a normative method for understanding sensory perception 4. This introduction of the subjective viewpoint accounts for a “facto-fictitious” history of geology, geomorphology, folklore in Culbin; this also includes artistic translations and a method of exploiting data gaps as a platform for design 5. Basilius’ lighthouse is rolled gently across Arcadian sand in order to discuss Sidney’s “valorous night fighting vessels” who return home safely from war. This references both historical and literary issues of an idealized republic 6. A discussion of “man-and-nature” is introduced in Alexander Kinnaird’s barony lost to advancing sand dunes due to his mismanagement of land 7. The Dragonfly Battery utilizes pond water and fragments of Kinnaird’s barony to create anodic and cathodic conditions to power lightbulbs in the Basilius’ lighthouse 8. Euarchus, the “good ruler” of Arcadia fabricates a chamber for Culbin’s artifacts in reference to the appropriation and display of “lthic” vestiges 9. Sidney’s idea of “Sage Counseling” is discussed by Dorus’ Sheap Shears fabricated by geometries present in Culbin’s parabolic dunes 10. The “Amorous Courting” of two lovers--Pyrocles and Philocea--are recorded within the mnemonic shards of the Dune Crown Grange Hall. Their presence remains as traced shadows of their dance, an introduction of life and death in the landscape

Overall Site Plan

4. Moy Fishing Lens

8. 9. 10.

Cloddymoss Lens

Drumbeg Lens

towards Moy Fishing Lens 2.

towards Drumbeg Lens

6. 7.

Self-Generating Landscape

Lenses are annealed to propagate a vis-a-vis the primary Dune Crown Grange Hall. The hall constructs a series of interior spaces based on N. Yeh’s research in geometry and the Chromatic Abberation of Fresnel Lenses.

5. High

5. Low

1. Dune Crown Grange Hall translates Archimedes’ purported invention of a “burning lens” in the landscape to melt silt to glass 2. Cloddymoss Nicodian Lens is triangulated atop a Holocene Ridge, introducing a “stable position” used to peer into the land of Culbin’s Arcadia 3. Glass lehr churns subsoil silt to create a semi-constant temperature below the surface in order to alleviate mechanical stresses on subsequent glass surfaces 4. Diffuser concentrates RGB ultraviolet wavelengths to a concentrated point based on solar minimums, maximums and averages of Dundee solar indexes 5. Glass lines draw seawater of Moray Firth at high and low tide to create positive pressure and rotation in reference to Nicod’s perceptive succession of the subject-object about a single point 6. Shifting dune landscape at low-soil moisture areas based on dune tracer research of “Deflection of Sand Movement on a Sinuous Longitudinal Dune” by Tsoar & Yaalon and wind regime from Met Office 2010 7. Alexander Kinnaird Barony lost in 1694 due to a mismanagement of land by removal of Marram grass thatch. Sir Phillip Sidney’s The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia is introduced to discuss a thematic interpretation of “man & nature” 8. Volumetric splay of Kinnaird Barony over 316-year timeline reduces “like” and “non-like” materials into deforming topologies in the landscape. Their location maps potential intervention for the construction of a large battery for 75 Basilius’ lighthouse

11:30 12:30 10:30 13:30

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8:30

9:30

15:30 16:30

7:30

JUN

16:30

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17:30

18:30

Plan Profile of Life and Death in Culbin’s Arcadia

1. Holocene ridge triangulates mostly static placement of perception of construction in shifting landscape. Cartesian coordinate system is distinguishable in relation to a stable mapping of views

3. Glass lehr driven by high-low tide pressure through tubular culverts in the landscape

Geomorphic Pathways

as Primary points of perception of views frame a method of discussing spatio-temporal relations of Culbin’s geographical data sets. A linguistic account of Wittgenstein’s non-private language system describes geometries rather as points, paths, and volumes as potential normative means of bridging sensory perception

1. Nicodian Lens charts a linear progression of lenses in the landscape, originating from the Dune Crown Lens 2. Volumetric Barony Splays are charted using weight density of church materials in conjunction with sedimentary weight of moving gravel ridges and shifting dune silt (“The Microbiological Factor in the Culbin Sands Afforestation Scheme,” Eastwood, Fraser, and Wesley). Primary church materials include: wood timber, stone / mortar, iron bells, iron frames, brooches, coins, and arrowheads 3. Glass lehr churning subsoil silt in conjunction with seawater and moisture vapor, allowing more constant glass production temperatures (reference to Herrod, Rickel and Garland’s research on “Glass Annealing Process Simulation Using Expert Systems: A Glass Industry Application of Artificial Intelligence” 4. Dune Crown lens remains the only non-annealed lens in the landscape, leading to its eventual death. It remains a translation of N. Yeh’s research on Fresnel Lens in conjunction with Pyrocles and Philocea, two lovers who dance within the space 5. Parabolic dunes shifting 5.3cm/day (avg.) as a product of wind and soil moisture. Contrary to myth, the development of dune systems would not have occured overnight as speculated, rather over some 10 years time 6. Glass lines draw seawater of Moray Firth at high and low tide creating positive pressure and rotation in reference to Nicod’s perceptive succession of the subject-object about a single point 7. Diffracted spheres are centered in the fresnel lenses to refract red, green, blue wavelengths into a concentrated point in the landscape, allowing a finer level of control for the burning of conceptual and physical materials in the system

Transverse Site Section Looking South

2. Temporal displacement of Kinnaird Barony from yea 1694 to present. Altered volumetric pathways of stone / wood materials are trajected in conjunction with grave ridge shift data of Culbin Forest from 1690 to 1990. Exponential increase from 1990 to present parallels sea current over longer periods

1790

1810

1830

1850

4. Dune Crown Grange Hall traces minimum, maximum, and average solar angles for burning silt within the landscape. Its own death is traced within the landscape amidst of one’s shadow (Guercino’s Et in Arcadia Ego) utilizing Varatsos’ “Total Ozone and Solar Ultraviolet Radiation, as Derived from Satellite and Ground-Based Instrumentation at Dundee, Scotland.” Two lovers find their traces within a trace; mnemonic recording shards record their movements within the facets of fresnel profiles. It is a non-annealed structure subject to higher mechanical surface stresses over small temporal durations

7. Diffractive plates swing in the landscape as wind regimes advance in Culbin’s Arcadia

6. High-tide glass culverts

6. Low-tide glass culverts are inserted in the landscape, drawing seawater through suction in wind, causing rotation in the massive underground lehrs

5. Dune shifts meet sea floor at high tide, changing their force trajectory as driven by sea current as opposed to wind

ar e el

1870

1890

1910

1930

1950

1970

1990

Enlarged Site Plan

Sage Counseling is discussed as a

Through a series of landscape tools Romantic literature within a thematic, communicative landscape

1. Dorus’ Sheep Shears remain as potential artifacts within the landscape 2. The Dune Crown Grange Hall becomes a dialogue in the falsity of data, as well as a polemic on functional constructions within architectural design 3. Averages and deformation cages are conjoined through the use of a written, ecological matrix describing the translation of the object in time 4. Nicod’s idea of volumetric constraints and a general persuasion for succession, overlay, and separation utilize a singular viewpoint (herein described by the rotation of the body about a circle’s centroid, as well as a following of paths in the description of points and volumes) 5. The lighthouse fills with Baronic Tubwater, then succeeds towards Moray Firth’s ocean as do gravel ridge shifts within Culbin’s geomorphological records 6. A cartesian coordinate system is paired together with the idea of the “subjective” by using gaps in historical records to propagate the construction of geometry, herein described by Hugh Kinnaird as “The Track of the Ferry Boat” 7. The spatio-temporal shifts of Alexander Kinnairds Barony constructs the lighthouse’s Dragonfly Battery by separating elements of wrought-iron/bronze with heavier materials (stone) within the system 8. Euarchus’ chamber doubles as a museum for Culbin’s Arcadian artifacts as do Aberdeen University and the Museum of Edinburgh in displaying lost Kinnairdian artifacts. The majority of remains exist underneath the dune surface; their recorded events become of key importance as their mnemonic geometries begin to uncover the archeological issue of the lithic in cataloguing a facto-fictitious environment

2. 6.

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Axonometric View Looking Northeast

2010

2060

The Dragonfly Pond translates Sir Phillip Sidney’s

Pastoral Exercises with

baronic pond water to fill Basilius’ lighthouse

1. The Dragonfly Pond combines freshwater as perceived by Steers’ research data and combines a saturated, magnesium-rich silt due to Corsican Pine and marram grass plantings done by the Scottish Forestry Commission from the 1950s-present 2. A volumetric condition of Alexander’s Barony splays from 1964 to present date. A tertiary intersection of iron shards and artifacts create a cathode for Basilius’ lighthouse 3. The lighthouse “dips” into the pond and fills with water under heavy winds from the SW 4. Burning lenses generate a series of glass rocks which mimic existing gravel ridge shifts in Culbin. They roll the lighthouse in the landscape as Steers’ prediction of a general propagation towards the sea (northwest) 5. A series of WWII war sticks offer an architectural polemic of cartesian geometry in the generation of form construction. This introduces the idea of the subjective viewpoint in projection 6. In reference to Hugh Kinnaird’s map of Culbin (following Alexander’s barony destruction), Hugh maintains the “Track of the Ferry Boat” in the generation of his drawing. The ferry boat also reflects Nicod’s idea of: succession, exclusion, and overlap in the understanding of space. The boats map the start, middle, and end of views as the lighthouse is constructed in the landscape 7. Basilius’ lighthouse is filled with the cathodic water to create a battery which runs a series of light bulbs for the return of Sidney’s “Valorous Night Fighting Vessels” 8. Point of rotation in reference to Nicod’s basis of perception

4. 8.

10.

Basilius’ lighthouse is filled with pondwater creating a

Dragonfly Battery as

Night Fighting Vessels slowly advance in Culbin’s Arcadia

1. Perception of view from Hugh Kinnaird’s “Track of the Ferry Boat” allows an exploited data gap offering an origin to the pond water of Culbin. The view of lighthouses is relative to their points of projection 2. Deformation cages warp and translate views of Basiliius’ lighthouse as they move relative to both Ferry Boats and Culbin’s gravel ridge shifts 3. A series of burning lenses assist in the production of glass rocks which gently roll the lighthouse across the landscape 4. 0% battery fill 5. 25& battery fill 6. 75% battery fill 7. 100% battery fill 8. A series of WWII war sticks offer an architectural polemic of cartesian geometry in the generation of form construction. This introduces the idea of the subjective viewpoint in projection 9. Point of rotation in reference to Nicod’s basis of perception which discusses succession as a method for understanding space and body in time 10. Lehr drills poke out of the sand prior to pond water rising in Culbin 11. Basilius’ lighthouse is constructed by tracing a noncomputational method for form generation: the blowing of soap bubbles which are traced as geometry existing within the hardware of one’s computer

Perspectival View Looking East

11.

7. 6.

Partial Longitudinal Section Through Basiliusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Lighthouse

Return of Valorous Night Fighting Vessels Looking East

Self-Generating Landscape