Academic Portfolio 2005-2008

herme(neu)tic formations:

architecture and the orchestration of ritual jordan a kanter 2005 - 2008

Academic Portfolio Jordan A Kanter Masters of Architecture, Graduated with Distinction, Henry Adams Certificate, September 2008

Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles, CA Bachelors of Science, Major in Molecular Biology/Neuroscience, Minor in Architecture, June 2000

Massachusettes Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

1/monument to the people’s hero 2/megachurch 3/l.a. public library 4/border bathhouse 5/seminars

[Kudra] was frankly disappointed when [Pan] proved to be slighter in stature than her Alobar, and she could barely keep from sniggering at his foul tangles of wool and his silly tail. Even his stench failed to measure up to Alobar’s description of it, striking her as more locally naughty than universally nasty. It wasn’t until he began to pipe that Kudra got some sense of Who (or What) He Really Was. At first, his playing, too, seemed slight; it was so simple, careless, and primitive that one had to sympathize with Timolus, who, judging the music contest between Pan and Apollo, had unhesitatingly awarded the prize to the Apollonian lyre, thereby establishing the tradition that critics must laud polish and restraint, attack what is quirky and disobedient, a tradition that endures to this day. Had Timolus not hooked Pan off the stage so quickly, had he possessed the - what? the honesty? the humility? (Timolus, after all, couldn’t play shit) the nerve? to actually listen to Pan, to respond with something more genuine than his preconceptions, he might have been affected, as Kudra began to be affected, once she stopped smirking at his obvious lack of formal training and quit comparing him unfavorably with the flutist, Lord Krishna. Pan’s song, because it served no purpose, was above all, liberating. It was music beyond the control of the player’s will or the listener’s will; the will, in fact, dissolved in it (which may explain why it was politically necessary for Apollo, with the compliance of Timolus, to drown it out)... Kudra felt that at Pan’s concert she was on less than solid ground, yet, as unsteady as that ground might be, she was driven to dance upon it.

- Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And, at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between...all rolled into one big ‘thing.’

- Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts

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The very idea that, beneath the deceptive appearances, there lies hidden some ultimate Real Thing too horrible for us to look at directly is the ultimate appearance - this Real Thing is a talismanic spectre whose presence guarantees the consistency of our symbolic edifice, thus enabling us to avoid confronting its constitutive inconsistencies.

- Slavoj Zizek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real Why...is Mao’s final resting place...referred to as a ‘memorial hall’ [jiniantang]?

Has it perhaps to do with the ambiguity, in Chinese funerary custom, of permanent preservation of the flesh, as opposed to the bones? Is Mao dead, or alive, or ambiguously neither – the perfect joker defying normal classification, Monkey, forever?

In the old taboo of words, has death – at least for Mao – become almost anti-socialist?

- A. Cheater, ‘Death Ritual As Political Trickster in the Peoples Republic of China’

1/monument to the people’s hero 2/megachurch 3/l.a. public library 4/border bathhouse 5/seminars

1/ monument to the people’s hero graduate thesis, summer 2008 advisors hernan diaz alonso + benjamin bratton

Who is this ‘joker’, this ‘Monkey, forever’? Perhaps, rather than fixing the iconography of Mao in the name of the state, the preservation and display of the body had the opposite effect, enacting a symbolic castration of this excessive organ of state power (Mao) from the main body of that authority (the state and the CCP), severing the universe of Mao symbolism from the apparatus and ideology of political institutionalization. This freed the state to evolve beyond Mao (as evidenced by the rapid supplantment of Hua Guofeng by Deng Xiaoping and the economic reformists from 1978 to 1982). But perhaps more importantly, it freed the iconography of Mao from its corporeal bind, allowing it to virtualize, multiply and proliferate.

Rather than symbolizing a fixed edifice, Mao’s body, in its emptiness, suggests an explosive multiplicity with the potential to represent and incite ironically - both the ontology of orthodox communism doctrine (i.e. the little red book) and the impulses of entrepeneurial capitalism (i.e. the little red lighter). As one visitor to the memorial commented: “I used to think of Mao as a god. Now I see him as a man just like any other.” He is among

us, he is with us, he is us.

The ritual of Mao visitation can be understood in diagrammatic terms as a cannibalistic cycle. Confronted with the body in its state of suspended animation, the “talismanic spectre of the Real” is momentarily raised - the body is stripped of its garments and trappings of authority, collapsing the distance between Mao - central edifice of power - and the everyman. At this moment the inherent emptiness of the body as object is unveiled, perpetuating an act of cultural cannibalism: in revealing itself as an empty container of cultural signification, Mao is consumed by his own ritual.

The symbolic order of Mao, divorced from its physical ground, infests itself in (or is consumed by) the visitor as a sort of memetic virus, and is thus carried out into the active space of Chinese culture. In this way, the symbolic order gains a freedom to evolve and transform, speciating into a wide spectrum of ideological orientations in response to local cultural situations. It participates in the physical manifestation of these ideologies, in the form of objects and actions carried out in the name of Mao. This explains how two seemingly ideologically incongruous objects, the little red book and the little red lighter can take their meaning from the same point of reference. These objects, two examples of the universe of pluralistic symbolic Mao material, depend for their signification on a referential return to the body of Mao - it is this return which guarantees their consistency and communicability to one-another and to the culture at large. And so the ritual of Mao visitation takes on even greater meaning: the proliferated symbolic material that is the physical manifestation of culture hungers for a return to the body. It is this cultural impulse, this hunger, which maintains the relevance of the ritual, closes the loop of the cannibalistic cycle and ensures the efficacy of Mao as master signifier.

Taking the Mao visitation ritual (and the associated cannibalism cycle diagram) as an exemplar case study, this thesis explores how existing societal rituals can be employed as a framework for architectural design - or perhaps more to the point, how architectural interventions can frame themselves as prisms onto the underlying psycho-social realities of a given ritualistic practice. Understanding that the problem of the Mao memorial is in many ways too big for any singular approach, this thesis operates with what might be described as a schizophrenic design process: multiple approaches, deployed at multiple scales were mined for possible intersections and insights into the ramifications of the ritual. Working on the body of Mao as object, Tiananmen Square as field and the larger cultural milieu as ecology, the proposed monument(s) attempt to frame each scale as a diagramof-itself. These propositions become a provocation for sense-making by the public, inciting them to make their own determinations into the nature of the ritual, the ways it produces and supports the larger symbolic framework and, most importantly, the particular avenues of agency available to the individual for transforming and personalizing the production of symbolic meaning in the context of Chinese culture.

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Mao Zedong born December 26, 1893 died September 9, 1976

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Daniel J. Martinez

Self-Portrait #9B: Fifth Attempt To Clone Mental Disorder or How One Philosophizes with a Hammer, After Gustave Moreau, Prometheus, 1868; David Cronenberg, Videodrome, 1981, 2001

Instead of Science(fiction) remaining a domain for positivist and determinist propoganda, it should norish the seeds of our own monstrosity – our own loss of control and indeterminism, chaos theory and biogenetics – as a force striking alliance with harpies and earthly creatures, the Faustian dark side and the Strum und Drang, against the rationalist wigs and the works of Hegelian spirit, and open up to a world where even fears become fables, as lovely as they are carnal... ...Architecture is not something to be thought or produced later, like the standard bearer for a morality.

It can only be negotiated live, in its contingency on a situation and its solubility in a set of givens. This critical and territorialized attitude is in sharp contrast to macrocynical flights of fancy (the market creates the form!)...and instead launches processes that reactivate the concept of throbbing, complex and unfinished localism.

- Francois Roche, (Science)Fiction & Mass Culture Crisis, 2003

Open vs. Hermetic Monumentality Eiffel Tower (1889) Statue of Liberty (1886) Monuments of the Industrial Age

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sensor node F_064

security agent 25501

13

class kSensorNode{ kVec

(cont.) int _count = nearest_SubstrateAgents(substrate);

pos;

if (mouseToggle == 2){ render(); }

// constructor kSensorNode( kVec _pos){

OUTPUT_1

renderFix(_count);

pos = kVec.clone(_pos);

}

if ((mouseToggle == 1)||(mouseToggle == 2)){ strokeWeight(.5); stroke(225,25); line(pos.x,pos.y,1500,(height/2)); }

void update(ArrayList substrate){

sense value to master LED dim

float intensity_level = vicinity(substrate); if (mouseToggle == 2){ render(intensity_level); } if (mouseToggle == 1){ render(intensity_level); }

}

} // steer kVec steer(kVec target) { kVec steer; // The steering vector target.minus(pos); float distance = target.length();

float sense (ArrayList substrate){

if (distance > 0) { target.normalize(); target.scale(maxVel); target.minus(vel); //steer = kVec.clone(target); target.limit(maxForce);

float desiredseparation = 100; kVec sum = new kVec(0,0); float contribution; float intensity = 0; for (int i = 0 ; i < substrate.size(); i++) {

} else { target = new kVec(0,0); } return target;

contribution = 0; kSubstrateAgent other = (kSubstrateAgent) substrate.get(i); float distance = pos.distance(other.pos); if (distance < desiredseparation) { if (distance < 1){ contribution = 1; }else{ contribution = 1/distance; } }

SEARCH AGENT

intensity = intensity + contribution; } return intensity; } void render(float intensity_level){ stroke(255); fill(200); intensity_level = intensity_level * 25; ellipse(pos.x,pos.y,intensity_level,intensity_level); } }

_repulsion _attraction _sense

class kSearchAgent{ kVec kVec kVec kVec kVec float float float float int String

acc; vel; pos; posFix; vec; maxVel; maxForce; wandertheta; search_rad; loc_threshold; arduinoCall;

} // seek kVec seek (ArrayList substrate) { float neighbordist = 300; kVec sum = new kVec(0,0,0); int count = 0; for (int i = 0 ; i < substrate.size(); i++) { kSubstrateAgent other = (kSubstrateAgent) substrate.get(i); float dist = pos.distance(other.pos); if ((dist > 0) && (dist < neighbordist)) { sum.plus(other.pos); // Add location count++; } } if (count > 0) { sum.scale(1/(float)count); return steer(sum); // steer towards the location } return sum; }

CROWD POPULATION _repulsion

// separation from other search agents kVec separate (ArrayList search) { kVec sum = new kVec(0,0,0); int count = 0; for (int i = 0 ; i < search.size(); i++) { kSearchAgent other = (kSearchAgent) search.get(i); float dist = pos.distance(other.pos);

_attraction

// if the distance is greater than 0 and less than an // arbitrary amount (0 when you are yourself) if (dist > 0) { // calculate vector pointing away from neighbor kVec diff = kVec.clone(pos); diff.minus(other.pos); diff.normalize(); diff.scale(1/dist); // weight by distance sum.plus(diff);

// constructor kSearchAgent( kVec _pos, kVec _vec, float _maxVel, float _maxForce, String _arduinoCall){ acc = new kVec(0,0); vel = new kVec(0,0); pos = kVec.clone(_pos); posFix = kVec.clone(_pos); vec = kVec.clone(_vec); maxVel = _maxVel; maxForce = _maxForce; arduinoCall = _arduinoCall;

count++; // keep track of how many } } // average -- divide by how many if (count > 0) { sum.scale(1/(float)count); } return sum; } void borders() { if if if if

} void update(ArrayList substrate, ArrayList search){ kVec sek = seek(substrate); // Seek kVec sep = separate(search); // Separate // Arbitrarily weight these forces sek.scale(5.0); sep.scale(500.0); // Add the force vectors to acceleration acc.plus(sek); acc.plus(sep); acc.plus(vec); vel.plus(acc); vel.limit(maxVel); pos.plus(vel); acc = new kVec(0,0); borders();

// reset acc to 0 each iteration

(pos.x (pos.y (pos.x (pos.y

< < > >

0) pos.x = (width); 0) pos.y = (height); width) pos.x = (0); (height)) pos.y = (0);

} // Address Substrate Agents, Render Search Lines + Create Locator if threshold reached int nearest_SubstrateAgents (ArrayList substrate){ int count = 0; loc_threshold = 0; search_rad = 400.0; kVec sum = new kVec(0,0,0); for (int i = 0 ; i < substrate.size(); i++) { kSubstrateAgent other = (kSubstrateAgent) substrate.get(i); float dist = pos.distance(other.pos); // if the distance is greater than 0 and less than an // arbitrary amount (0 when you are yourself)

(cont.)

(cont.)

(cont.)

// Arbitrarily weight these forces sep.scale(30.0); ali.scale(1.0); coh.scale(.25); avd.scale(25.0);

if ((dist > 0) && (dist < search_rad)) { count++; if (mouseToggle == 1){ stroke(255,55); strokeWeight(.5); line (pos.x, pos.y, other.pos.x, other.pos.y); }

// Arbitrarily weight these forces } } if (count > 0) { sum.scale(1/(float)count); return steer(sum); // steer towards the location } return sum;

OUTPUT_2

// Add the force vectors to acceleration acc.plus(sep); acc.plus(ali); acc.plus(coh); acc.plus(avd);

} } if (count > loc_threshold){ //world1.addLocatorAgent(new kLocatorAgent(pos,count)); } return count;

vel.plus(acc); vel.limit(maxVel); pos.plus(vel); acc = new kVec(0,0);

} void render(){ stroke(255,0,0,140); strokeWeight(1); line(pos.x,(pos.y-6),pos.x,(pos.y+6)); line((pos.x-6),pos.y,(pos.x+6),pos.y); }

} // avoid search agents kVec avoid (ArrayList search){ float desiredseparation = 200; kVec sum = new kVec(0,0); int count = 0;

sense value to local LED dim

for (int i = 0 ; i < search.size(); i++) { kSearchAgent other = (kSearchAgent) search.get(i); float dist = pos.distance(other.pos);

// reset acc to 0 each iteration

borders(); render(); neighbor_connections(substrate);

if (dist < desiredseparation) { // calculate vector pointing away from neighbor kVec diff = kVec.clone(pos); diff.minus(other.pos); diff.normalize(); diff.scale(1/dist); // weight by distance sum.plus(diff); count++; // keep track of how many }

} // seek void seek(kVec target) { acc.plus(steer(target)); }

void renderFix(int _count){ // determine alpha value of crosshair based on number of // substrate agents addressed by search agent float alphaCount = _count * 4; //println(alphaCount);

// steer kVec steer(kVec target) { kVec steer; // The steering vector target.minus(pos); float distance = target.length();

if (alphaCount > 255){ alphaCount = 255; }

if (distance > 0) { target.normalize(); target.scale(maxVel); target.minus(vel); //steer = kVec.clone(target); target.limit(maxForce); } else { target = new kVec(0,0); } return target;

float xSize = _count/3; stroke(255,0,0,sqrt(alphaCount)+25); fill(255,0,0,sqrt(alphaCount)); ellipse(posFix.x,posFix.y,xSize,xSize); noFill(); ellipse(posFix.x,posFix.y,xSize/1.25,xSize/1.25); stroke(255,0,0,75); rect(posFix.x-2,posFix.y-2,4,4);

} // average -- divide by how many if (count > 0) { sum.scale(1/(float)count); } return sum; } void render() { fill(200); stroke(255); if (mouseToggle == 1){ stroke(150,0,0,100); noFill(); ellipse(pos.x,pos.y,8,8); }

SENSOR NODE

// write to com port, communicate with arduino chip

}

}

// separation kVec separate (ArrayList substrate) { float desiredseparation = 150; kVec sum = new kVec(0,0,0); int count = 0;

void if if if if }

int arduinoInput = int((alphaCount*alphaCount*alphaCount)/500000); for (int i = 0 ; i < substrate.size(); i++) { kSubstrateAgent other = (kSubstrateAgent) substrate.get(i); float dist = pos.distance(other.pos);

// draw line between posFix and pos if(mouseToggle == 1){ stroke(225,75); strokeWeight(1);

// Neighbor Connections void neighbor_connections (ArrayList substrate) { float maxDistance = 50; kVec sum = new kVec(0,0,0);

_sense

// if the distance is greater than 0 and less than an // arbitrary amount (0 when you are yourself) if ((dist > 0) && (dist < desiredseparation)) { // calculate vector pointing away from neighbor kVec diff = kVec.clone(pos); diff.minus(other.pos); diff.normalize(); diff.scale(1/dist); // weight by distance sum.plus(diff); count++; // keep track of how many }

line(posFix.x,posFix.y,pos.x,pos.y); } if(mouseToggle == 2){ stroke(225,75); strokeWeight(1); line(posFix.x,posFix.y,pos.x,pos.y); } }

for (int i = 0 ; i < substrate.size(); i++) { kSubstrateAgent other = (kSubstrateAgent) substrate.get(i); float dist = pos.distance(other.pos); // if the distance is greater than 0 and less than an // arbitrary amount (0 when you are yourself) if ((dist > 0) && (dist < maxDistance)) { stroke(255,255,0,100);

} // average -- divide by how many if (count > 0) { sum.scale(1/(float)count); } return sum;

}

class kCrowdAgent{

if (mouseToggle == 1){ stroke(255,30); line (pos.x, pos.y, other.pos.x, other.pos.y); } } }

} kVec kVec kVec kVec float float float float

acc; vel; pos; vec; maxVel; maxForce; wandertheta; alphaDist;

} } // alignment kVec align (ArrayList substrate) { float neighbordist = 200; kVec sum = new kVec(0,0,0); int count = 0; for (int i = 0 ; i < substrate.size(); i++) { kSubstrateAgent other = (kSubstrateAgent) substrate.get(i); float dist = pos.distance(other.pos); if ((dist > 0) && (dist < neighbordist)) { sum.plus(other.vel); count++; } } if (count > 0) { sum.scale(1/(float)count); sum.limit(maxForce); } return sum; }

// constructor kSubstrateAgent( kVec _pos, kVec _vec, float _maxVel, float _maxForce){ acc = new kVec(0,0); vel = new kVec(0,0); pos = kVec.clone(_pos); vec = kVec.clone(_vec); maxVel = _maxVel; maxForce = _maxForce; } // calculates new location void update(ArrayList substrate, ArrayList search){ kVec kVec kVec kVec

sep ali coh avd

= = = =

separate(substrate); align(substrate); cohesion(substrate); avoid(search);

borders() { (pos.x < 0) pos.x = (width); (pos.y < 0) pos.y = (height); (pos.x > width) pos.x = (0); (pos.y > (height)) pos.y = (0);

// // // //

Separation Alignment Cohesion Avoid Search Agents

// cohesion kVec cohesion (ArrayList substrate) { float neighbordist = 200; kVec sum = new kVec(0,0,0); int count = 0; for (int i = 0 ; i < substrate.size(); i++) { kSubstrateAgent other = (kSubstrateAgent) substrate.get(i); float dist = pos.distance(other.pos); if ((dist > 0) && (dist < neighbordist)) { sum.plus(other.pos); // Add location count++;

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Master LED, Agent_3 Location of Maoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Body North-South Axis Master LED, Agent_1 Master LED, Agent_2

Local LED, Sensor_C14

Crowd Cluster w/ Sensor Node Response

Crowd Agent, typ.

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Frame 020

Frame 040

Frame 060

Frame 080

19 Frame 100

Frame 120

Frame 140

intervening in the site of the memorial: rupturing the hermetic body /or/ ten ways to fillet a horse Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succerrer vitae.

[This is the place where death rejoices to help those who live.]

Autopsy is a culturally discursive act. There is a visceral brutality not present in the precise and careful techniques of surgery (with good cause). It is an excavation, not just into the inner workings of the organismal structure, but also into the idealized cultural conception of the human body as hermetic vessel. It satisfies a basic human fascination and traverses the space of taboo. As such, it is encapsulated in highly orchestrated rituals - think of the rites of the Mayan sacrifice, the spectacle of the dissection theatre or even the wild articulations of the slasher/grindhouse film. Anatomy, the representational by-product of the autopsy, renders visible the interior excesses of bodily formation, inscribing in the cultural narrative new visions of beauty and monstrosity in our own conception of ourselves.

The proposed intervention of the Mao Zedong Memorial rips asunder the classical Stalinist facade of the existing building, unveiling the inherently baroque character of the ritual contained within. The hermetic capsule encasing Maoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s body is reconstituted in the form of an insectile enclosure, but the space of the memorial, cleared of its warren of partition walls, is left open to the fluid meandering of the crowds and the immensity of Tiananmen Square. Visitation of the body is organized through processional ramps which reach out into the square, enforcing the inherent linearity of the ritual. These two formations - the meandering crowd and the orchestrated processional queue - are set in relation to one another: while waiting in line to view the body, one is aware of the fluidity of the crowd below; while meandering below, the crowd can appreciate the performative capacity of the ritual as manifested in the queue. These two distinct formations are thus folded into one another as a pliant mixture (in Greg Lynnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s terminology), allow each to maintain its cohesion and identity, but always in direct relation to the other. The memorial becomes, then, a site of dynamic interference, immersive and yet never succumbing to any singular ideological reading.

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23

N

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This place is a vortext of unconditional love. It looks like a building, it looks like a church, it looks like - whatever it looks like - but it is really a non-local event that is happening in consciousness, and every insight that flows through you simultaneously effects the entire universe. So your willingness to be more yourself, to be more loving, more compassionate, more giving, more understanding - your willingness to be your real self - not only effects you and your local environment, but it effects the entire planet.

Right now your willingness to change is changing the world.

Do you realize that?

- Dr. Michael Beckwith Agape Spiritual Center

1/monument to the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hero 2/megachurch 3/l.a. public library 4/border bathhouse 5/seminars

2/megachurch

vertical studio, spring 2008 instructors hernan diaz alonso + benjamin bratton w/ jessica rivera + carlos medina

In the Gothic cathedral there is a persistent play of lightness in mass, a dialog of structure, enclosure and aperture. Gothic architecture marries a profound iconicity with a drive towards dematerialization. In this way, the cathedral detaches from its corporeal ground, framing itself as a microcosm of the divine. The experience is immersive: the more intricate it becomes, the more it takes on the character of the organic world, the more supple it is in response to environmental conditions - the more the cathedral facilitates the ritual of transubstantiation - a literal transformation of the congregation into the body of the divine.

The cathedral typology is the product of a historical process. Over the course of the 400 year project of the Gothic cathedral, its intricacy evolved in relation to a changing religious, social and technological context.

Techniques employed in the production of the cathedrals had a certain inertia, fixed in the way people work, in the institutions that organize this work, and in the collective memory of society. They died hard (unless there is a compelling reason to abandon them) and so, as new techniques came into use, older ways of working were not so much superceeded as overlaid. The intricacy emerged in the tracery of multiple, accumulated techniques.

This model for the emergence of intricacy has an analogue in theories of biological evolution. Such an argument posits that intricacy in organismal structure (insect appendages, for example) is not so much the product of environmental hyper-specificity but instead the result of the inherently emergent character of their structural development. Biological appendages are in a perpetual process of becoming and unbecoming: unless an appendage is specifically disadvantageous to an organism, the structure will tend to persist. This accumulation of vestigial appendages has an evolutionary advantage, providing the organism with manifold templates for the deployment of novel functionality in response to environmental conditions undergoing persistent, unpredictable and at times radical transformation.

Working from this biological model (which might be described as symbiogenetic) and within the design logic of cellular aggregation, we explore the possibility of authoring an emergent aesthetic for contemporary religious architecture. The design process begins with generic cells. These cells are aggregated in the development of an architectural proposal. In these aggregations, the cells form (transient) associations â&#x20AC;&#x201C; even if these associations do not remain in the final form of the architecture, the vestigial traces of the association persist.

The intention is to reproduce the kind of intricacy and tracery found both in the Gothic cathedral and biological structures, providing an architecture which supports and breathes new life into the central rituals of that quintesential contemporary American religious institution: the Megachurch.

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client: AGAPE INTERNATIONAL SPIRITUAL CENTER The Agape International Spiritual Center was founded in 1985 by Dr. Michael Beckwith. It is a transdenominational congregation and a member of the New Thought Ministries. The congregation has over 6000 member and is located in Culver City, California. Agape is founded on an universalist view of spirituality, mining a wide range of religious traditions, including Christianity, Native American, Hindu, Buddhist and contemporary Scientific research, exploring their teachings, practices and iconography for a common spiritual language. Dr. Beckwith is both avatar and guide in the realization of a transcendental experience through group-driven self-realization exercises. These exercises foster communal bonds and a common purpose seen to be missing in contemporary society.

In the view of the congregation, the enactment of this shared spiritual experience not only repairs bonds within the group, but has the potential to resonate out into the community at large.

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2 km site: LOS ANGELES, CA The site occupies a city block next to the 110 freeway, adjacent to the new LA Live development (including the Staples Center and Nokia Theater). It bridges the boundary between downtown and the residential neighborhoods of Koreatown to the west.

1 km

.5 km

.25 km

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Gloucester Cathedral

architect: multiple, unknown location: Gloucester, England date completed: 1104 - 1450

Chiesa dellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Autostrata

architect: Giovanni Michelucci location: Autostrata del Sol, near Florence, Italy date completed: 1960

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secondary assemblage: armature

vestigial formations:

squid-basket hybrid

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Circulation Diagram 1. Processional Ramp 2. Fore=-Chamber 3. Congregation Space - â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mandalaâ&#x20AC;?

4. Administrative Tower

4

2 3

1

41

Partial Section Through Administrative Tower

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1/monument to the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hero 2/megachurch 3/l.a. public library 4/border bathhouse 5/seminars

3/ l.a. public library core studio, level 2, fall 2006 instructor tom wiscombe w/ haan chau

This project exploits a series of physical, visual, tectonic, and architectural means to engage the space of the city and explode the barrier between public/exterior space and private/interior space of the library. With the intent of wrapping the tectonic of the public city-scape into the library space, the desire is to collide public and private paths of the pedestrian, driver, transit commuter, etc. creating a dynamic space of interaction and exchange. In this way, the library becomes a social and cultural attractor in the dispersive city-space of metropolitan Los Angeles.

The architecture is organized through a clear distinction between the public, iconic aspects of the program (the library as a cultural attractor) and the more auxiliary, functional aspects of the program (the specific requirements of media storage, maintenance, distribution and administration). The pragmatic elements of the library, including the stacks, are placed underground, allowing the cultural program of the library to operate with a fluid iconicity. This approach of decoupling the iconic from the pragmatic, organized around the hyper-linear context of the Wilshire Avenue corridor, becomes the strategy for negotiating the three part role of the contemporary library: as a place of congregation, as a place of contemplation/

research, and as a logistical hub for a dispersed institutional network.

45

47

oxford st

western ave metro line red

wilshire blvd

49

51

Compression Elements

Composite Structural System

Tension Elements + Glazing System

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[This] is the best I can offer, to produce space that gathers people to it, neither by labeling, design nor marketing, but through an opportunity for communal identity.

- Mark Goulthorpe, Praxis Journal Issue 6

1/monument to the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hero 2/megachurch 3/l.a. public library 4/border bathhouse 5/seminars

4/ border bathhouse core studio, level 1, fall 2003 instructor ann pendleton-jullian

A security wall runs 20 miles (soon maybe much more) along the western stretch of the US/Mexico border, from desert mountains out into the ocean. It slices the landscape, truncating the urban growth of Tijuana, insulating San Diego from the realities of the border. The wall represents an attempt by the US to subvert the condition of the border, to deny its inherent porosity, collapsing the border into a political abstraction: the line; here and there; us and them. The bathhouse is conceived as a reflexive political act, re-establishing the border as a space of interaction, a zone of dynamic transition.

Incubating and amplifying, the architecture becomes a social beacon, broadcasting the

experience of the border out into the larger milieu.

The building consists of four distinct programmatic zones. Directly under the main platform is the entry courtyard, with sliding security gate and a entry kiosk. Moving west along the border wall, descending a wide staircase, one reaches the main pool.

Intended primarily for children, the community pool creates an entirely new atmosphere - filled with laughter - along the wall. Moving east from the entry courtyard, one is sandwiched between a large glass wall and the border wall. Changing pavilions line this laminar open-air corridor. Continuing east, one makes an abrupt 180 degree turn and begins up the processional ramp, hanging from the glass wall. One climbs above the border wall and enters the main platform. Supported by a series of plinths (which contain a fire stair and elevator), the platform cantilevers out over the border wall. Its concrete folded form encloses the baths, creating a space above the everyday realities of the city and the border, offering a sanctuary of contemplation. Views extend back towards Tijuana and across the border towards San Diego. A media screen, spanning the height of the platform, wrapping two sides, providing a canvas for artistic and cultural expression, visible far across the border.

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media screen (broadcast)

border state park (USA) platform

border monument

(enclosure)

municipal bullring (MEX)

mesh towers

(vertical circulation)

glass walls

(horizontal circulation)

site

(surface)

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1/monument to the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hero 2/megachurch 3/l.a. public library 4/border bathhouse 5/seminars

5/ seminars, etc. fall 2005 - spring 2008

Building Information Modeling Instructor David Gerber, Fall 2007

Datascapes:

Locative Media, Software Agency and Coding Interoperability

Instructor George Showman, Fall 2007

Strategies of Representation II

Instructor Josh Taron, Spring 2007 (w/ Reine Wong + Josh Tully)

Strategies of Representation I

Instructor Josh Taron, Fall 2006 (w/ Kim Lu + Peter Wood)

Introduction to Digital Design

Instructor Elena Manfredini, Summer 2006 (w/ David Keulby)

Metolious Cabin

Personal Project, developed with the Kanter Family, Fall 2005

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Building Information Modeling

Grimshaw Partner’s Core building at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England was taken as a case study for exploiting parametric geometric logic in architectural form. Of particular interest was the structure and cladding of the spiral roof, generated through the mathematics of Fibonacci phyllotaxis, which describes a family of geometrically related radial arrays, commonly found in plant formation (the sunflower seed head being a familiar example).

Digital Project (DP), parametric software developed by Gehry Partners (based on the Catia platform) was used to develop a parametric model of the case study. As DP possessed no tool to explicitly generate this spiral array, a script was written in Processing (a Java based scripting language built by the Media Lab) to calculate the positions of the array nodes. Data produced by the script was output from Processing to DP via a design table. Curves were associated to these node points, and the subsequent threedimensional geometry was, in a hierarchy of relations, associated to these curves. This hack allowed for precise mathematical control of the geometry - changes executed in the script effecting the parameters of the array automatically updated the corresponding

geometry in the parametric model.

In exploring this project, I sought to develop a more compelling system of patterning for the skylight aperture: in the Grimshaw design, the panels are either flush with the structure or popped up, to create a skylight. I was interested in defining skylight aperture as a gradient condition in response to site orientation. Embedded in the logic of each panel in the digital model was a relationship between the height of the panel aperture and its angle to a master vector (corresponding to sun orientation). As each panel was instantiated into the context model (containing the structural grid and master vector), it checked itself against the master vector and adjusted its height accordingly, creating a gradient effect related to the sun angle. Once the panels were fully instantiated, the context model could be rotated relative to this master vector and the skylight gradient would update responsively.

Occulus

Skylight Panel Closed Panel

Distichous Phyllotaxis (Angle of Distribution = 180°)

Whorled Phyllotaxis (Angle of Distribution = 180°)

Scale Model of (e) Building, showing roof patterning, variation of roof panels (closed/skylight), and the central occulus, location of the Peter Randall-Page sculpture

Spiral (Fibonacci) Phyllotaxis (Angle of Distribution = ~137.5°)

Multijugate (Fibonacci) Phyllotaxis (Angle of Distribution = ~137.5°)

Parastichy Numbers (3,2) = 1(3,2)

Parastichy Numbers (10,16) = 2(5,8)

Different Types of Phyllotaxis in Nature

“The Seed” Peter Randall-Page

Underside of bent Glu-Lam lattice structure

Analysis of (e) Building

radius(m),angle(radians) BUILDING PARAMETERIZATION - NODE GENERATION This processing Processing script written to generate the radial point array defining the nodes in the roof structure. The positions of the points are exported comma separated values (CSV) format as a text file, to be imported to DP. //declare parameters & position array int n = 500; //iterations float C = 1.1613; //expansion constant float ang = 2.3998; //divergence angle in radians float occ_radius = 4; //oculus radius float [] radius = new float[n]; float [] angle = new float[n];

parastichy[34]

parastichy[34]

n=64 n=43

//declare output visualization, crosshairs size(800,800); background(0); noFill(); stroke(80); line((width/2), 0, (width/2), height); line(0, (height/2), width, (height/2)); //generate point positions; draw to window for verification; for(int i=0; i<(n); i++){ radius[i] = C*sqrt(i)+occ_radius; //loads radius value to array angle[i] = ang*i; //loads divergence angle sum to array fill(255); ellipse(10*radius[i]*sin(angle[i])+(width/2), 10*radius[i]* cos(angle[i])+(height/2), 5, 5); } //draw sample parastichies one in the CW and one in the CCW dir. for(int j=22; j<n; j+=21){ stroke(100); noFill(); line(10*radius[j]*sin(angle[j])+(width/2), 10*radius[j]* cos(angle[j])+(height/2), 10*radius[j-21]*sin(angle[j21]) +(width/2), 10*radius[j-21]*cos(angle[j21])+(height/2)); } for(int k=36; k<n; k+=34){ stroke(100); noFill(); line(10*radius[k]*sin(angle[k])+(width/2), 10*radius[k]*cos(angle[k] )+(height/2), 10*radius[k-34]*sin(angle[k-34])+(width/2), 10*radius[k34]*cos(angle[k-34])+(height/2)); }

n=22 n=104 n=70

n=1 n=36 n=2

parastichy[21]

//outputs polar coordinates to status screen in CSV format for(int l=0; l<n; l++){ println(radius[l] + “,” + angle[l]); }

processing script defining spiral array R(n ) = C * sq r t (n ) + Oc c Ra d

spiral array w/ parastichy curves

4.0,0.0 5.1612997,2.3998 5.6423264,4.7996 6.0114307,7.1994 6.3226,9.5992 6.5967455,11.999001 6.844592,14.3988 7.0725107,16.798601 7.284652,19.1984 7.4839,21.5982 7.672353,23.998001 7.8515964,26.3978 8.0228615,28.7976 8.187126,31.197401 8.345186,33.597202 8.497696,35.997 8.6452,38.3968 8.788162,40.7966 8.926978,43.1964 9.061989,45.596203 9.193491,47.996002 9.321745,50.3958 9.4469795,52.7956 9.569399,55.1954 9.689184,57.5952 9.8064995,59.995003 9.921492,62.394802 10.034291,64.7946 10.145021,67.194405 10.253792,69.5942 10.3607025,71.994 10.465844,74.3938 10.569304,76.7936 10.67116,79.193405 10.771484,81.5932 etc.

spiral array output data spreadsheet

parametric model based on array datapoints

R( n ) = C * n + O c c Ra d Θ roof panel instantiation

Θ

Z-value(Θ)

Zvalue(Θ) = | A * cos (Θ/2) | master orientation vector

A = Z-value amplitude parameter

R(n ) = { ( C * n * n ) / sq r t (n )} + O ccRad

R( n ) = C * n * n + O c c Ra d

z-axis at roof centerpoint

master control vector

Changes to the processing script are parametrically linked via the spreadsheet to the geometry of the Digital Project parametric model

The roof panel apature is parametrically linked to the building orientation

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Datascapes: Locative Media, Software Agency and Coding Interoperability

partial data sample: refugee plot

“People will play World of Warcraft for 80 hours a week. There’s no difference between that and playing Wikipedia for 80 hours a week. It’s even more fun because of none of the characters in World of Warcraft think they’re what they are. People on Wikipedia, some of them think “hey, I’m contributing to the sum of human knowledge.” You can fuck with those people, that’s extra bonus time. So, 80 hours a week on Wikipedia, who cares, that’s pretty cool, that’s pretty neat.

So it’s not a waste of time to these people, and they’re right. If they’re able to successfully screw with an article, a lot of people will see it. I’d buy entirely that the Penny Arcade theory, which was normal person, plus anonymity, plus large audience, equals flaming fuckwad. That’s the mirror that Wikipedia is presenting to us, and I think that we can learn quite a bit from it.”

- Jason Scott, The Great Failure of Wikipedia

The lesson of Wikipedia is one of contested history. Under the surface of each content page is a world of contention, negotiation, politics and intervening identities playing out in the edit history and discussion forums. Rarely visited by the layman, they are a catalogue, a genealogy of vacillation, and in this sense remain inherently ambivalent. The content pages “pop out” from this body of contention, digested, calcified (at any given moment), framed, ready for consumption and proliferation. This emergence is inherently violent (like any birth); it stems from utility and yet distances the user from the nuance, the process and clash of biases which produce and give meaning to the content pages.

A data mining algorithm was developed to visualize this contested space. Written in the processing language, a script was developed to parse data from the Wikipedia servers specifying time and geographic location of the IP address responsible for each edit to a given content page. Five content pages were investigated: refugee, tourist, migrant, pilgrim + tribe. This data was then displayed in a dynamic and interactive representation, registering the specific temporal and spatial biases of the edits as a collective body of contestation.

(1) The REFUGEE plot, showing a clear triangular pattern, with roughly equal dispersion of nodes and wars between the US, UK and Australia (2) The TOURIST plot, show a more distributed pattern, with edits occurring throughout Europe and in South America and Southeast Asia.

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2

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Strategies of Representation I

This project advocates an expanded understanding of form. A normative system â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in this case a bicycle wheel â&#x20AC;&#x201C; is taken as a basis for exploration.

Working from a preliminary digital model, the system was interrogated through a series of dynamic transformations effecting the underlying spatial and temporal logic of the system. Animations trace this evolving reformulation. The resulting geometry represents an articulation and an expansion, visualizing the inherent potential of this formal system.

Introduction to Digital Design

This project begins with a surface, which defines the basic massing of the canopy. Working from the logic of the NURBS surface geometry and through a series of iterative re-constructions, , this surface was embedded with increasing specificity and intelligence. The result is an architectonic system which performs structurally, phenomenologically, programmatically and aesthetically.

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Metolious Cabin

Working from the footprint of an existing shed building, this project adds a bedroom, studio and storage space to the property. A wood lattice system is used to articulate and control the light and view into and out of the building. The positioning and massing of the building introduces emphasizes underappreciated vistas, away from the river, out towards the unexplored ponderosa forest tract.

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her·met·ic Function: adjective Etymology: Medieval Latin hermeticus, from Hermet-, Hermes Trismegistus Date: 1605

1> a: of or relating to the Gnostic writings or teachings arising in the first three centuries a.d. and attributed to Hermes Trismegistus b: relating to or characterized by occultism or abstruseness 2> [from the belief that Hermes Trismegistus invented a magic seal to keep vessels airtight] a: airtight <hermetic seal> b: impervious to external influence

her·me·neu·tic Function: noun Date: 1737

1> the study of the methodological principles of interpretation (as of the Bible) 2> a method or principle of interpretation

source: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Objective Explore new modes of form-finding, representation and fabrication, working to achieve a higher degree of intricacy and cultural relevance in architectural practice; make a meaningful contribution to the architectural discourse, both through built work and theoretical provocation.

Education Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles, CA

Masters in Architecture September 2008

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Bachelors of Science in Biology, Minor in Architecture June 2000

Professional Experience Intern / Project Manager, MAD Inc., Beijing, China

June 2007 – August 2007

Directed the design and execution of a number of projects, operating in the highly dynamic context of the contemporary Chinese metropolis. Worked with and managed a flexible team of international collaborators to meet a perpetually instable set of deliverables and deadlines. Projects included a fabricated installation and animation for the Get-It-Live design exhibition, a collector car showroom, a scheme for a hotel interior and the continued development of an art museum in Inner Mongolia.

Editorial Assistant, Benjamin Bratton, Los Angeles, CA

May 2008 - Present

Provided editorial assistance on the forthcoming publication “Suspcious Images, Latent Interfaces,” part of the Situated Technologies pamphlet series (www.situatedtechnologies.net/).

Transcribed and edited a number of extended conversations between the Benjamin Bratton and Natalie Jereminjenko in the development of the text for submission. Credited in publication as such.

Intern, Emergent Architecture, Los Angeles, CA

January 2007 – May 2007

Worked with Tom Wiscombe on the second phase of a major international competition for the National Library in Prague. Assisted in all aspects in the development of a cohesive design proposal, including a 3D digital model detailing the construction and tectonic language of the project. Additionally, was involved in the development, fabrication and implementation of the “Dragonfly” installation at the SCI-Arc gallery, completed in May 2007.

Freelance Designer, San Francisco, CA

October 2005 – August 2006

Collaborated on a number of projects with Bay Area design firms, assisting with project management, design development, digital modeling, rendering and presentation. Worked with Fougeron Architecture (www.fougeron.com), an award winning, design-oriented architecture firm and Randy Thueme Design (www.randythuemedesign.com) a well established residential landscape design firm. Developed a refined sensibility for design while gaining experience in a wide range of working styles and project types.

Junior Designer, SOM, San Francisco, CA

August 2004 - July 2005

Worked on renovations and a new medical office building for the Davies Campus hospital in San Francisco. Held a variety of responsibilities, including 3D rendering, CAD management, plan and detail development and coordination. Worked with medical planners and hospital staff to develop phasing schemes for the renovation construction in critical use areas (surgery, recover, emergency department, imaging, etc.), gaining invaluable experience working with a large team on a highly complex project.

Jordan A Kanter 1133 Isabel Street Los Angeles, CA 90065 310.482.1533 j.kanter@gmail.com

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