THESIS PROJECT - Discovering the Invisible by Kyriaki Papathanasopoulou

EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH 2016-2017

Design and Digital Media (MSc) (Full-time)

FINAL PROJECT THESIS

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

PAPATHANASOPOULOU KYRIAKI (s1670597)

Supervised by Richard Coyne

Edinburgh, August 2017

III

A BSTRACT The primary purpose of this thesis is to study the book of Italo Calvino, entitled “Invisible Cities”. The narrative of the story goes on a journey that aims to map the city’s multiple experiences and to explore the neglected and hidden aspects of the urban fabric. This is a book that includes a debate on the modern city both as a concept and as an experience. It touches the main concerns of the city planners and asks what the city means today for us. Thus, it would be possible for the “Invisible cities” to be the starting point for reconsidering the real structure of the cities and the contemporaneous concerns that surround them today. That’s exactly what I will try to do by illustrating, as a 3d Virtual game, the “Invisible Cities”. How it could be if the players have stepped into that 3d Virtual environment and create their own narratives inside that plattform? It is all about a constructed 3d Virtual environment which is based in the plan of Venice. There, by using the “vocabulary” of the book (a big collection of 3d assets inspired from the book), we would see together surreal images of the city which symbolizes various opposing concepts, such as subjectivity and objectivity, the abstract with the concrete, the real with the imaginary, the acquaintance with the unknown (exactly like what you experience when you read the book). In addition, the players, who immerse in that world, can create their own avatars, which are designed to resemble the famous carnival custumes of Venice, as an element of the local tradition of the cityzens. This 3d Virtual game, aspires to become a playful way for the cityzens to re-read the city in a new urban context. The unique way in which the cities are read, according to their experiences, contributes to the multiplicity of Italo Calvino who states that: “who we are, who is each of us, if not a mixture of experiences, information, readings and daydreaming” (Calvino, 1978). It’s all about a puzzle where the pieces can be placed in different and varied ways. From these combinations, we come up with, infinitely, unique results. Thus, we can imagine the space as a potential field, in which flows and relationships develop between both the 3d objects and the persons. In that way, with the help of architecture, space can be transformed into an active field of reconciliation and action between the individuals and the relationships between them.

WATCH A SAMPLE OF THE VIDEO GAME ΙΝ: https://vimeo.com/243175497 (password: archportfolio) BLOG: https://discoveringtheinvisibleblog.wordpress.com/

CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER_Α INVISIBLE CITIES

1. DESCRIPTION 2. UTOPIAN ARCHITECTURE AND THE THIRD SPACE 3. 3D VIRTUAL WORLDS

5 7 11

CHAPTER_Β THE NARRATIVE

1. THE CONTENT 2. ANALYSING THE 55 INVISIBLE CITIES

15 17

CHAPTER_C DESIGN APPROACH

1. METHODOLOGY 2. THE ELEMENTS OF VENICE 3. CREATING ASSETS

41 45 53

CHAPTER_D FINAL RESULTS

1. GAME OUTLINE 2. VERSION OF CITIES

65 79

CONCLUSION

109

REFERENCES

113

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

INTRODUCTION «I will put together, piece by piece, the perfect city, made of fragments mixed with the rest, of instants separated by intervals, of signals one sends out, not knowing who receives them. If I tell you that the city toward which my journey tends is discontinuous in space and time, now scattered, now more condensed, you must not believe the search for it can stop.» Italo Calvino, 1978

The aim of this project is to create a 3d virtual world, a virtual game. My previous concerns about not only that kind of virtual games, like Second Life (my study in Media and Culture course was about that topic) but also the human need of a utopian world, drew me into the decision of creating a similar space in order to rethink the elements that compose a city. Focal point of this project is Italo’s Calvino book, entitled “Invisible Cities”. Marco Polo, the famous Venetian explorer narrates his journeys to Kublai Khan, the Emperor of the Tartars (the plots leads to a presentation of 55 cities). The city of Venice is a reference point for Polo (a place that was born, raised and lived) and so every city, that he visits, he reads it through his own city experience. This is the way in which the identity of a person is determined by the city where he lives. Thus, when he visits a foreign place he is sure to see it from his own everyday life aspect. Every city, every journey of Polo is the shadow of another city, which leads the traveler to deconstruct the experience of all aspects of urban life. Calvino invites the reader to discover the conceptual elements that make up a city since a real city includes the desires, the fears, the dreams, the aspiration and the needs of its inhabitants. In other words, Calvino believed that a social and urban renewal was required (Calvino, 1988). For this reason, he created the character of Marco Polo and then he turned him into an invisible architect who, through his travels, teaches the reader how he can create his own alternative architectural images, escaping from the existing stereotyped perceptions. What will happen if humans start to create their own images of the city of Venice and how it could be if all these images become different parts of the city in order to create an interactive Venice Palimpsest - a kolaz of different imaginative aspects of the urban life? That was, exactly, the challenge I had to undertake during my final thesis. All the above, inspired me to create my own 3d virtual world called “Discovering the Invisible”. The game takes place in the cityscape of Venice. First of all the users, who immerse in that world, can create their own avatars who look like the carnival costumes of Venice. After that, the avatars can have the possibility to build their own part of the city by using a variety of 3d assets (the 3d assets are an interpretation of the book). In the end, an imaginary 3d visual environment is created, by which calls the user to live, to interact and to communicate with others, in order to build a vibrant city beyond the physical borders.

INTRODUCTION

The project is structured into 4 chapters: In the First chapter, an attempt is made to analyse the main features of the book, entitled “Invisible Cities”. Then, by introducing some concepts like the idea of Utopian architecture and Third Space (which are highlighted in the book), the need and the desire to create 3d virtual environments, in order to escape from the burdens of the real world, is examined. The Second chapter, is about revealing the structure of the book and the way Calvino narrates his own storytelling. An approach to understand the different “vocabulary” and the main ideas, that are used by the author to describe each aspect of the 55 cities, is made. The Methodology and the main components that shape this project are thorough described in the Third chapter. The main field of study is Venice, a city with many special architectural characteristics, that are pointed out from the book, entitled “Elements of Venice”. After all the above studies, a big collection of 3d assets is created. My intention was not to create a whole new space but to design different versions of 3d objects, inspired by the book of Calvino. In this way, the user will have the chance to reproduce the city of Venice, through multiple choices (by putting different assets togethers). Ultimately, in the Fourth chapter, the final outcomes of my project are presented. How it could be if the players have stepped into that 3d Virtual environment and create their own narratives in it? Through my presentation skills, I tried to put different assets together, so as to create some versions of the city. My ambition was to οutline some different features of the game, in order to end up by creating a kolaz - a palimpsest of different imaginative aspects of Venice. Ideally, I hope that my work would be the starting point for revealing the true city’s image through the play. In other words, through this virtual reality game users can escape from the real world and live a virtual life while, at the same time, the player will have the chance to map the city’s multiple experiences and to explore the neglected and hidden aspects of the urban fabric.

IM. 1 Cover Design of the book

INVISIBLE CITIES

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

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1. DESCRIPTION In the Invisible cities, Italo Calvino directs the famous explorer Marco Polo to narrate his journeys and his stories to Kublai Khan, the Emperor of the Tartars. The narrative is represented by the presentation of 55 cities in equal parts. We know that, during the thirteenth century, the Venetian explorer, Marco Polo, traveled all the way across Asia through Japan and India. At that time the vast Asian territory was unfamiliar to the humans. Therefore, the actual and narrative journey of the story is carried out in a complicated and unexplored geography. In its original travel phrases, the cities usually serve three special characteristics: 1. they become landmarks for the marking of the traveler’s position 2. they shape the description of the traveler 3. they define the focal point of the journey. The city of Venice is a reference point for the explorer Marco Polo (a place that was born, raised and lived) and so every city, that he visits, he reads it through his own city experience. This is the way in which the identity of a person is determined by the city where he lives. Like this, when he visits a foreign place he is sure to see it from his own everyday life aspect. Thus, every journey of Polo is the shadow of another city, which leads the traveler to deconstruct the experience of all aspects of urban life. Kublai Khan keeps a map from all the cities of his empire. The map includes cities that have not yet been built, ideal cities, like utopias and even future cities of the modern world. Each of the cities, which are described, is a unique journey that every visitor is invited to recognize and discover, using all his senses. Calvino invites the reader to discover the conceptual aspects that make up a city, since a real city includes the desires, the fears, the dreams, the aspirations and the needs of its inhabitants. In this way they should be dealt with and be decoded. The final phrase of the book is important for understanding the whole idea of the book: “try and learn to recognize who and what and try to give it the appropriate time and space.” The author seeks to discover the hidden causes that contributed to the decision of people to live in cities. For that reason, he composes a mental map, based on the elements that essentially make up a city, as well as, the hidden elements, which contain the experiences of its inhabitants. It is, therefore, imperative the need to treat the city as an opportunity to discover the elements that make up it, both in time and in space. The language, that Calvino is used, is impregnated by the gaze of Polo. On the roads of the “Invisible Cities” the vision and the thought move together in ambidextrous direction: from the fact to the word and from the thought to the fact. In the “Invisible Cities”, the vision moves between the deserts of the blind eye, the

INVISIBLE CITIES

ncongruous facts and the combinations without meaning. At the same time, the foundation of the image is the â&#x20AC;&#x153;journeyâ&#x20AC;&#x153;, that the reader will follow, the creation of a common center of arrival, exchange and departure. Thought and word come together with the image. This is the exact time when the cities will be visible to the reader. At this point, a hot question arises about why the author chooses to name his cities invisible. Two possible options are set for this choice: 1. cities as buildings are invisible when the language that describes them becomes as abstract as chess. 2. the cities are invisible when the power of the gaze is blunted by the habit. It could be said that the cities are invisible as they are built from the words, abstract materials, and invisible to the human eye. They are only visible in the world of imagination, a medium which is particularly powerful as it can evoke thought. The imagination is, therefore, the meaning for the investigation of the obvious and then for its reconsideration, in order to think the data in a new way.

IM. 1 Invisible Cities

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2. UTOPIAN ARCHITECTURE AND THE THIRD SPACE The Invisible cities are a utopian text of the 20th century, which proves to us that there is urgent the need for the revival of the lost paradise. The author titles his cities “Invisible“, however it is another version of the characterization “Utopian“. Both words come from negative prefixes (in and un) and two nouns (visible and place) (“utopia = not place” in Greek), which state existence, the sensation of the real. In this book, we see Asia as a world that is divided into many ideal cities (submerged cities, cities in the sky, cities below the territory). Αt a first glance, the cities do not seem to aim or promote a good life. But finally the reader discovers that inside nightmarish cities, a spark of revitalization, hope and joy hides. Compared to other theories about utopian cities, Calvino does not want to show the ideal image of a society but he wants to reflect the true city’s image and promote its own special characteristics. Calvino believed that a social and urban renewal was required at that era. For this reason, he created the character of Marco Polo and turned him into an invisible architect who, through his travels, teaches the reader with ways in which the reader can create his own alternative architectural images, escaping from the existing stereotyped perceptions. Besides, the image, the basic component of the imagination, is a condition of thinking. The imaginary, the image-formed of thoughts is the imagination that seeks to discover new potentials of action in public space. In her book, Letizia Modena (Italo Calvino’s Architecture of Lightness, 2011) believes that three were the main elements, Calvino used, to compose his utopian narrative: the lightness, the multiplicity and the visibility. With the term of lightness, Calvino opposes to gravity, which according to him means inaction and the opaqueness of the world. The images, illustrated in the invisible cities, create visual images, which carry the intangible author’s messages, with three characteristics: they are very light, they are in motion, they constitute beams of information. Calvino attributes the lightness with three different meanings: 1. weight reduction, with the concepts acquiring the same light consistency 2. the narrative of a reasoning or a psychological process in which they act tiny, unintelligible elements or any description that involves a high degree of abstraction 3. a symbolic image of lightness, which has an emblematic character. Besides that, there are many people who seek to escape from their reality, overcome it and move to a different world, a world of lightness, a world free of the burdens of everyday life. But these weights not allow them to flee. According to Calvino, the link between the lift, the severity and the painful deprivation is an anthropological constant. It is inevitable, but it is always there. However, through imagination, we can escape and we can, in this way, imagine structures swinging, that are composed of moving elements and which change whenever we want it. Referring to multiplicity, Calvino means a cluster of relationships that exist on any object. It is a network of icons, intertwined and endless. The “invisible cities” is a book that combines different knowledge and different

INVISIBLE CITIES

codes, creating, at the same time, a multifaceted and multidisciplinary image of the world. The unique way in which the cities are read, according to their experiences, contributes to the multiplicity of their author, who states that: â&#x20AC;&#x153;who we are, who is each of us, if not a mixture of experiences, information, readings and daydreamingâ&#x20AC;?. In other words, we are talking about a puzzle where the pieces can be placed in different and varied ways, and from these combinations, they come up, infinitely, unique results. Therefore, we can imagine the space as a potential field, in which flows and relationships develop between both the objects and the persons. In that way, the space can be extended in any direction in order to facilitate any possible development of a free movement of each person. At the same time, through cross-networking relationships, meeting points are created between them, and so cross-links can occur (where an urban condition meets the other). We see, therefore, that, with the help of architecture, space can be transformed into an active field of reconciliation and action between the individuals and the relationships that connect them. Lastly, when it comes to visibility, we would say that the imagination is an instrument by which we explore the inner self, a way in which a person can communicate messages in a transcendental way, a means of knowledge both of himself and the world. Calvino supports this position by stating that: â&#x20AC;&#x153;the imagination was the mean to reach a hyper-atomic, super-subjective knowledge (Modena, 2011). Through the concept of visibility, spatial representations gain substance, as they express a collective vision of improving existing conditions in the urban environment. And at this point the role of architecture can be catalytic as it has the potential to give shape to these potential urban depictions. It is, therefore, fundamental, the ability of man to produce or to view images, in order to shape future worlds in a more alternative way. To achieve this, he must observe the world, that surrounds him and then imagine it differently, filter it and transform it with the help of the imaginary, while the architecture can offer him the same stimuli.

IM. 2 Mapping Venice

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

IM. 3 Reflect the true cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image

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The Invisible Cities are a complex of architectural ideas, which are in a direct correspondence with the modern reality and the urban fabric. We believe that the point at which the utopian thought touches the reality and reflected in the space, is inhabited by heterotopian elements, as it is perceived by the meaning of Third-Space. In the Third-Space the two concepts of utopia and heterotopia are merged without abolishing one another, but in a complementary state with the common aim of re-examining urban phenomena and redesigning them. Any place is ready to be discovered by the explorer. The Third-Space consists of a vast universe which despite the fact that it is common to all, hides places that do not appear at the same time or are completely misunderstood by everyone. Edward Soja (Thirdspace: journeys to Los Angeles and other Real and Imaginated Places, 1996) defines the Third-Space as a space which is comprised of discrete spaces. However, it is perceived as a whole, with hidden aspects, which are intended to be discovered by the viewer. According to Soja it is a real place, which also contains other places, in the sense that we have to recognize and experience it in different ways, ways that has not been discovered so far. In this way, imagination and thought are two dominant elements that are used to trigger for different experiences. At this point, we can say that the concept of Third-Space can be defined as the mean by which multiple utopies are reflected in real space. The Third-Space symbolizes various opposing concepts, such as subjectivity and objectivity, the abstract with the concrete, the real with the imaginary, the acquaintance with the unknown. Through Third-Space, there is the possibility to transform everyday space into a field of essential action and life. With the help of architecture, we could inspire through the utopian images presented to us in order to create a different world with alternative uses of space. The actions in combination with the materials give the original shape of the city. In the formed streets of ”Invisible Cities”, contemplation and vision merge in an ambidextrous direction from the object to the word and the reflection towards the object. This book is a real treasure, to which we have to revert every time we have run of ideas. There is a rich network of images, and of course we read the structured world with another eye and we learn to communicate and interact with it. The important thing is that we can not appropriate the urban space if the individual does not conquer it by walking. Through this path we can stand and recognize the points of urban space that will have a positive impact on the image of the city in the individual consciousness. The “traveler-reader” is the living element of the built environment and without him the city is clinically dead. This view is particularly intense and dominant in this project as all the descriptions are created after the images and places have first been inhabited by the footpath of Marco Polo. At this point it would be good to emphasize the value of the portal as a basic element of passing from a marginal state to another, in other words as a clear activation of heterotopias. It is a step towards the difference, the pass over a limit.

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

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3. 3D VIRTUAL WORLDS In that point, it is imperative the need to talk a little bit about 3D virtual worlds, as a new way for humans to immerse themselves inside an environment which combines all the elements that compose a utopian narrative and a third-space, as discussed above. These virtual games (The Sims, Second Life, InWorldz etc) aim at the users’ ability to create their own narratives from scratch. Indeed, it is all about a three-dimensional simulation of reality in cyberspace where people can live, work, socialize and create their own community (Balkin, 2006). Which are the characteristics of such virtual environments and what factors do game designers need to take into account? It is true that through these non leveling games, there is a desire to escape from real world and live another life, more imaginative, beyond the physical borders. Although it is just a digital landscape, without particular rules, what is it intriguing about them is that you become part of the scenery, not just a detached observer. This digital medium has the capacity to unsettle the familiar realms of spatial experience and to fulfill our dreams. We can fly, control at a distance or preside over complex architectural structures (Coyne, 2009). A very important motivation to play games is fantasy fulfillment. Games allow the player to manipulate the fantasy, but the rules governing the fantasy remain fixed, as a virtual environment can be compared to a “subset of reality” (Crawford, 1982). Clearly, no game could include all of reality without being reality itself; thus, a game must be at most a subset of reality. The choice of matter in the subset is the means of providing focus to the game. A game that represents too large a subset of reality defies the player’s comprehension and becomes almost indistinguishable from life itself, robbing the game of one of its most appealing factors, its focus. If you want to take part in these games, you need to create your own character, called avatar. In these 3D virtual environments, the space is created by its users (3d assets and digital tools help the player to create his own forms and 3d shapes). Space would not exist if there was not a relationship between things or people. Joining a game community means entering into a shared social culture (Jenkins, 2004). The evolution of virtual games has led to a point where the communities that spring up within and around games act as a microcosm for the larger society (Rabin,2005). Virtual worlds are continually evolving and are designed to be open-ended. Even if you are not on the game, the environment continues to exist and changes over time (Balkin, 2006). Therefore, game designers need to re-create the existing spatial concepts in order to provide new possibilities for the virtual habitant. To create a vivid three-dimensional landscape, designers need to add constantly interest, in order to enrich the storytelling and deal with the millions of unplanned interactions of virtual characters.

IM. 4 InWorldz - A Virtual Reality World

IM. 5 Second Life - 3D Virtual world created entirely by its users

INVISIBLE CITIES

THE NARRATIVE

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

THE

NAR RATI V E

1. THE CONTENT The narrative of this book consists of the presentation of 55 Cities in equally topics. The sum of the topics is divided into 9 Chapters. CalvinÎż secures 55 themes using 11 topics, which have a periodical repeating every 5 times. The first and the second chapter contain the description of 10 cities, while the rest of them contain 5 cities each. Thus, the 11 Topics are: 1. Cities and Memory 2. Cities and Desire 3. Cities and Signs 4. Thin Cities 5. Trading Cities 6. Cities and Eyes 7. Cities and Names 8. Cities and the Dead 9. Cities and the Sky 10. Continuous Cities 11. Hidden Cities The organization of content is complex and is based on a mathematical equation.

IM. 1 The Organization of the Content

THE NARRATIVE

CalvinÎż has transformed narration into a landscape of logical and subtle relationships. We may have to consider the reasonable landscape and ask ourselves whether we can build that journey in reality. Thus, the 55 cities can be manufactured as material objects of limited scale. How can they be ordered in the space in order for the logic of the narrative to become a â&#x20AC;?journeyâ&#x20AC;? within the text? We may, for example, propose the layout presented in the diagram below (Peponis,2003):

IM. 2 The Architectural Form of the meaning

Here the 5 cities that compose each chapter are placed on the vertices of a normal pentagon, and the 11 topics are arranged as co-centered pentagons, engraved one inside the other. The succession of the pages corresponds to the unfolding of a wall. With three exceptions, marked as columns, the cities are all situated at the corners of the wall, where the course changes each time. In this construction, the unfolding of the wall faithfully follows the line of the book. The construction has a geometric coherence that is reasonably understandable but not sensuously realized. If the magic of the city is the surprise revealed by the journey and concealing the plan, the art of architecture is intended to offer the surprise of synthetic inspiration. In this direction, it would be possible to seek the parallel between the literature and the architecture of the cities.

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

THE

NAR RATI V E

2. ANALYSING THE 55 INVISIBLE CITIES CHAPTER I This chapter could have the title Identity & Desire, since all the cities that are included into it, explore the city’s identity and the residents’ desire. The cities in this chapter are mainly confronted on the memories and the desires of the inhabitants. It refers to the concept of the past. The significance of the traces of the city is also emphasized. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Cities & Memory 1: Diomira Cities & Memory 2: Isidora Cities & Desire 1: Dorothea Cities & Memory 3: Zaira Cities & Desire 2: Anastasia Cities & Signs 1: Tamara Cities & Memory 4: Zora Cities & Desire 3: Despina Cities & Signs 2: Zirma Thin Cities 1: Isaura

CITIES & MEMORY: DIOMIRA Dio + Mira = in astronomy it is a variable star ‘‘There are 60 silver domes, bronze statues of the Gods, crystal theaters, multicoloured lambs, a golden cock who is singing on a tower.’’ Its main feature, though, is that anyone who is living the city during night is very happy. Each city has a peculiarity that makes it charming and unforgettable for those who do not live the city everyday. CITIES & MEMORY: ISIDORA Isidora = refers to the bitter life of the famous dancer Isadora Duncan ‘‘The buildings have spiral staircases encrusted with spiral seashells, where perfect telescopes and violins are made.’’ It is the city of dreams. It is the first city where a horse rider can meet after many days of exploration. The important thing is that when you arrive there you become older and your desires have made memories. This city, perhaps, is the fulfilled desires of our lives and now the time has left its signs of time. It may indicate the hard “journey” of our life. Maybe the alienation of everyday life leaves us away from our dreams and desires. It requires a special time and progress towards the fulfillment of desires, but as a person grows and his wishes change over time, these changes are made on the basis of his ideals, which he has them as the ultimate goal. It is perhaps even more important the “journey” to the fulfillment of desires and to the utopia itself rather than the ultimate destination. At this point we would say that this city could be likened to the famous painting of Jean-Antoine Watteau “The Embarkation for Cythera” (1717).

THE NARRATIVE

CITIES & DESIRE: DOROTHEA Doro + Thea = the gift of God It is the city of high-speed rhythms of life (Metropolis,Lung), ‘‘decorated with aluminum towers, nine quarters, houses and chimneys’’. It is the image of the big city through the eyes of a visitor, who is coming from a small town. CITIES & MEMORY: ZAIRA Zaira = in Italian language means the dawn and in Arabic the rose ‘‘The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning rods, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls.’’ The city is determined by the events of the past, and not by the high plumes, the arches and the gates. All of these are connected to each other and constitute the city. It is about the details of a city, which can reveal many stories, many elements that can give information about the city they live in. At the same time, the city evolves with the help of the past and must not insist on it, but must have the ability to incorporate it into the processes that take place there. According to Aldo Rossi (The Architecture of the City, 1966), memory becomes the clue that penetrates all the complex structure of the city (the palimpsest of the city). Therefore, we can assume that the path to the utopia also involves the relationship of the individual person with the past and the elements that are carried with him, since they are some of the negative ones, which he wants to escape from them. CITIES & DESIRE: ANASTASIA Anastasia = the soul resurrection ‘‘At the end of three days, moving southward, you come upon Anastasia, a city with concentric canals watering it and kites flying over it.’’ When the visitor finds himself in the center of the city, all his desires wake up and encircle him. The city appears as a whole where everyone is part of it. Personally, I believe that this city has effects from the theory of the West, which corresponds to the utopian American Dream. It can be linked to the perception of Metropolis where economic immigrants wish to obtain a better chance. It is the city of promises, the city where all dreams become possible, the city where everything can be reached.

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

CITIES & SIGNS: TAMARA Tamara = it is a name of an asteroid, it is also a palm ‘‘The signboards that emerge from the walls simulate a reality.’’ They replace words or phrases. They have a clue, a sense, a message. When the signboards are absent, the shape and position of the building reveal its function. The signboards are signs of valor, power, elegance, sensuality. The city of Tamara the urban fabric is the image of the modern city with the various signboards, and the place can be recognized as a book with a central reader, put himself in a process of naming everything and compromising his desires according to the loaded signs that encircle him. What is behind the lines? Abandoning the city continues to form and give nominal figures to the clouds, to the earth, to the wind. A useful reference would be the book of Robert Venturi (Learning from Las Vegas, 1977). Venturi makes a critic of the signboards of the buildings in the city, all of which, having as their original purpose to distinguish themselves from the highways that run at high speed. Today signboards have reached the point of overseeing the building itself, while its exact function is stated there as they become fluffy. If we put off the signboards, the buildings would look like a blanket. Therefore, we need to become open to the stimuli he receives as well as to have the chance to dig through the messages that are hiding on the surface of the city. CITIES & MEMORY: ZORA The city does not have any particular characteristic or rare beauty. ‘‘The forms, such as the flows of the residents and the streets, follow a musical score.’’ It is a city that you remember from memory. But in a wrong attempt to fall into immortality, and stable in time it dwindled, dissolved, disappeared, lost its identity. The conclusion is that each city can maintain its identity without any exaggeration because then there is a danger of obstructing and forgetting the city. The flow of the residents is the main element that composes and maintains a city. Looking back to Situationist movement, we can focus on the basic points of Guy Debord’s theory in Psychogeographic guide of Paris (1957). CITIES & DESIRE: DESPINA For access to this city there are two routes: ‘‘one from the land that is followed by a camel driver and reminds him of a ship or a boat and one from the sea from where the sailor imagines him as a camel.’’ The city is shaped by the desert in which it resists. In the city of Despina, the conception and the fantasy (iconography) is conceived. It’s the city-frontier (between two deserts). For me, it is the outing of the two extremes. It is the medium that you can travel and depart from the usual. It feeds on imagination. The one user is dreaming of reaching the other’s position and vice versa by biting Despina. Despina is the city as possibility, but these possibilities are dependent on which face of the city you see. If your ways of seeing enable you subtly shift your perspective, you can cross the border between two desserts, and see the other face of the city and the

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opportunities it provides. A similar experience occurs with illusionistic images, and so they have been used in the re-presentation of the city. They were not chosen because they trick and deceive the eye, but because they allow for multiple ways of seeing. They do not dictate how the viewer sees what is before them. The idea of ”faces” reminds me of duck/rabbit illusionistic representation of Ludwig Wittgenstein. CITIES & SIGNS: ZIRMA ‘‘My memory includes dirigibles flying in all directions, at window level; streets of shops where tattoos are drawn on sailors’ skin; underground trains crammed with obese women suffering from the humidity.’’ The city is stunning. Memory is stunning. So the city is the memory. It’s a logical sequence. Through the signs there is the city. Inspirational signs, people, imply the city. The repetition of the elements and movement has a direct relation to the personality and the time of perception of the facts of each of us. This particular city could be related to the continuous cities since, depending on the time of perception, the city could have a start but not an end. THIN CITIES: ISAURA Isos + Aura = an invisible energy believed to radiate from a person or object It’s a deep underground city. ‘‘It’s the city of thousand wells. In the city of Isaura the water rises from shady wells, but more attention is paid to the aerial constructions of pumping and channeling.’’ There are two different assumptions: 1. the first is that the Gods of the city live in the depths of the earth; 2. the second is that the Gods reside in any element moving upward. The city, therefore, moves to the sky. The writer presents the second version, the most optimistic one. This is a subterranean city -lake, which has the requisite and managed to retreat to the surface. Perhaps, this city describes the need to improve the conditions of the urban fabric.

CHAPTER II This chapter could have the title Memory & Past, since all the cities that are included into it, express the memories of the residents like the souvenirs that tourists have bought from their travels. Calvino seeks to

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strike a direct relationship with the signs of a city, but also the way that they are recorded in the memory of the inhabitants. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Cities & Memory 5: Maurilia Cities & Desire 4: Fedora Cities & Signs 3: Zoe Thin Cities 2: Zenobia Trading Cities 1: Euphemia

CITIES & MEMORY: MAURILIA The card-postal show the city as it used to be. The city of cards is a provincial town of the past, which has been transformed into a present metropolis with the same character. At this point there is a reference to the revival of a city (different character) or to the reconstruction of a city that tries to obtain specific traits due to the historical significance of its name. It is the memory of the name that exercises influence and power to imitate the pattern of the past. This description reminds us of the postcards of many tourist resorts that remain the same during the years without being refurbished according to the changes that are being created in the city itself. Nevertheless, a particular atmosphere is achieved because this is how each region is modeled. The postcards are there to remind us of the glory of the past and its characteristics in order to bring them to our modern times. CITIES & DESIRE: FEDORA At one time someone had imagined how it could be if this city was turned into an ideal one. During the processing of a small copy (miniature), she realized that the city was no longer the same as that of reality, and so far she had imagined her future. ‘‘Now it was just a toy box encased in a glass globe.’’ The important thing here is to realize that it is futile to change a city by retaining its elements. When we enter into the process of creating an ideal model for the city, then we come to a hypothetical reality which has nothing to do with the present. CITIES & SIGNS: ZOE Zoe = refers to the life ‘‘In every point of this city you can, in turn, sleep, make tools, cook, accumulate gold, disrobe, reign, sell, question oracles. Anyone of its pyramid roofs could cover the leprosarium or the odalisques’ baths.’’ Each human entity carries in its minds a city made up of differences, a city with no shapes and no form, a city in a different order, a city full of peculiarities. In Zoe, the traveler, failing to distinguish the various signs of the city, confuses even those that he had clearly in mind. This city is an amorphous mass, the place of indivisible existence.

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THIN CITIES: ZENOBIA ‘‘It has been built on dry ground, elevated all over towering piles.’’ The conical shapes generally have the role of the heavy construction bearing, while in this description ‘‘they are inverted and act as rainwater collection containers.’’ The houses made from bamboo and zinc are built at different heights and are connected by ladders and hanging bridges – sidewalks. The balconies of the houses and the public spaces are unevenly distributed. The city is ranked in those that continue to shape desires and wishes throughout the years. If residents are asked to plan their dream city, then they will create a model based on the existing city. Personally, I will rank it as a happy city where the inhabitants are happy in the way of their lives and with the help of the memory of their presence they live their future. TRADING CITIES: EUPHEMIA Euphemia = Eu + phemia = worth to tell This city enables its users to trade commodities that can be found in all markets. Every day people exchange their memories. It is therefore characteristic that those who arrive in the city in addition to the exchange of material goods also exchange stories that they recall in their memory when it is time to leave the city.

CHAPTER III This chapter could have the title, the Dreamy City, since all the cities, that are included into it, express the Utopian need of residents’ to satisfy their needs and desires. However, the cities that are presented in this chapter cease to be beautiful and end up being cities of illusions and cities of trap. This chapter expresses, in other words, the heterotopia of the cities. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Cities & Desire 5: Zobeide Cities & Signs 4: Hypatia Thin Cities 3: Armilla Trading Cities 2: Chloe Cities & Eyes 1: Valdrada

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CITIES & DESIRE: ZOBEIDE For the creation of this city, people based on a dream they had, and so everyone drew the path that they followed. ‘‘We see, for example, galleries engraved on the path of a hunted woman.’’ Each resident carved his own route based on his dreamlike pursuit (atomic architecture). The streets of the city became the everyday streets of work and no longer related to the dreamlike pursuit. The spaces and the walls were shaped in such a way that they will not escape for the dream. Such a city ceases to be pretty and ends up being a city-trap. CITIES & SIGNS: HYPATIA ‘‘I climbed the porphyry steps of the palace with the highest domes, I crossed six tiled courtyards with fountains. The central hall was barred by iron gratings: convicts with black chains on their feet were hauling up basalt blocks from a quarry that opened underground.’’ Here we can say that what looks beautiful in a city may not apply or be exactly the opposite. Signs and traces may have two dimensions, two sides. This depends on how the passer-by can perceive it but also he can overturn their importance. Hypatia is a city that gives food and stimuli to it with the part of absolute peace being the cemetery. It is probably the city of illusions, the elements that no one knows if they are real and if they have power. THIN CITIES: ARMILLA ‘‘It has nothing that makes it seem a city, except the water pipes that rise vertically where the houses should be and spread out horizontally where the floors should be: a forest of pipes that end in taps, showers, spouts, overflows.’’ It is all about a very special city where there are no walls, roofs or floors. There are only water pipes that are branched like a tree, with basins and bathtubs being its fruit. So they are the boundaries of property. There, the fairies and naiads live (dreamlike creatures). They have occupied the city and are the absolute masters of the water element. In this description we can see a clear reference to the dream element with the revival of old myths and beliefs. We are talking about the soul of nature. This narrative is also associated with the importance of water in the water supply network of an urban fabric. This is something like a rehabilitation of the value of water, which has been perfumed today, since it is taken for granted while it is the main source of life. TRADING CITIES: CHLOE It is a city where people on the streets do not know each other. The only case where residents are talking to each other is whether they start to live their ephemeral dreams. Then their thoughts about others would be realized and they would acquire a communication system. Here is depicted the alienation that occurs in every major city where only silent thoughts are made about the people around us. According to Kracauer this is the element of anonymity and lack of contact.

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CITIES & EYES: VALDRADA ‘‘The ancients built Valdrada on the shores of a lake, with houses all verandas one above the other, and high streets whose railed parapets look out over the water. The visitor sees two cities: a upright city above the lake and an upside down mirrored in it.’’ Each point of the city is shaped to reflect its mirror. The mirror prevents residents from being left instantly in luck and oblivion. This peculiar mirror sometimes increases the value of things and sometimes denies or reduces it. This is a mirror with deforming properties. The two cities live one for the other, looking at each other continually in the eyes but without being loved. Their inhabitants have a problem because they are not allowed to live spontaneously, to escape even a bit of the trivial and to be forgotten because at the same time this energy will be reflected in the other city without knowing the size and the intensity of the reflection. Here, perhaps, there could be a parallelism with the police-dominated states, where the resident becomes constantly watched (Panopticon, Jeremy Bentham, 1785). According to Michel Foucault, the mirror is a kind of mixed experience for man as it reflects a non-place while the observer can give his place. Through the mirror, however, man realizes his absence, since at the same time he is not in that place, when reflected elsewhere, in the non-place. If the city of the mirror ceases to exist, at the same time a part of the inhabitants will be lost, what lives in the heterotopia of the mirrored city.

CHAPTER IV This chapter could have the title Contrasts & Oppositions, since all the cities that are included into it, express the opposite perception of the city. The cities in this chapter are mainly confronted on some totally different characteristics that could occur in a city. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Cities & Signs 5: Olivia Thin Cities 4: Sophronia Trading Cities 3: Eutropia Cities & Eyes 2: Zemrude Cities & Names 1: Aglaura

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CITIES & SIGNS: OLIVIA A City which is rich in products and profits. Nevertheless, we are never able to admit that we really know a city only from narratives and theoretical descriptions. Correspondingly, it is difficult to get to know a civilian structure even if we live in it. We become part of it and we are lost in its fallacy and its lie because the primary organ with which we perceive it is our eyes. When we acquire the same visual contact, because of our personality and our experiences, we each perceive them differently. Thus, we would say that even a dream city with specific characteristics commonly accepted, each person would describe it differently without negating any real and existing element (different perceptions of the same place). ‘‘This perhaps you do not know: that to talk of Olivia, I could not use different words. If there really were an Olivia of mullioned windows and peacocks, of saddlers and rug-weavers and canoes and estuaries, it would be a wretched, black, By-ridden hole, and to describe it, I would have to fall back on the metaphors of soot, the creaking of wheels, repeated actions, sarcasm. Falsehood is never in words; it is in things.’’ THIN CITIES: SOPHRONIA The city of Sophronia is made up of two half-cities. ‘‘In one there is the great roller coaster with its steep humps, the carousel with its chain spokes, the Ferris wheel of spinning cages. The other half-city is of stone and marble and cement, with the bank, the factories, the palaces, the school, and all the rest.’’ One is stable, while the other is temporary, and when it is finished, it is dismantled and transplanted into the vague territories of another half-city. The paradox is that the stable city consists of ephemeral structures such as the amusement park, while the temporary is made up of fixed and stable structures such as stone monuments, courts, hospitals and other institutions. So it is a bourgeois form that opposes modern urban planning. But its title is justified because the ephemeral piece is transferred to vague lands of another half-city. It is a utopia in which the notion of free public space has actually been realized, which is in contradiction with the controlled entertainment space of modern malls. The city of Sophronia could refer to the city of Instant City, (Archigram, 1968), except that the mobile part includes the entertainment facilities of the residents. TRADING CITIES: EUTROPIA Eutropia = eu + tropos = be transformed in an easy way It is the capital of a country. The traveler sees more than one city that is of the same size, similarity and located on a wide plateau. There are all cities together and they are inhabited by times. The organization of society is such that there are no great differences of wealth or power. The city repeats the same and become unaltered of its everyday life, moving to different locations as if it were the squares of a checkerboard. It is perhaps an inexhaustible utopia, where everyone has the opportunity to change their tiring activities and transform their lives into something they really want. In other words, we are talking about a painstaking effort by the people to change, aiming to find what they are looking for.

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CITIES & EYES: ZEMRUDE Zemrude = zen + rous = the journey to the good road In this city the mood is imprinted on its structures and becomes visible every day according to the senses of its users. If the user has a happy mood then he knows it from the bottom to the top, ‘‘from the thresholds to the window sills, flapping curtains, fountains.’’ Otherwise, it only sees soil. The remarkable thing is that the beautiful version of the city is reminiscent of those lost in the ugly, and rarely the opposite. CITIES & NAMES: AGLAURA Aglaura = aigli + aura = old glamor It is a faded city, with no character. Sometimes it has something unique, rare and amazing. Through this narrative we understand that a social and bourgeois structure has many elements that constitute its existence, but when it is actually perceived in real space-time it is said to be less real, since it does not have as much as it is rumored.

CHAPTER V This chapter could have the title Relaionships & Networks. since all the cities that are included into it, present the relationship of inhabitants with other elements that compose the city. Calvino seeks to make clear that every city consists of a network of things that interact and at the same time co-exist together. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Thin Cities 5: Octavia Trading Cities 4: Ersilia Cities & Eyes 3: Baucis Cities & Names 2: Leandra Cities & the Dead 1: Melania

THIN CITIES: OCTAVIA Octavia = 8 + bios = refers to the spider It is the city-spider, ‘‘hanging on a bridge, built in a precipice between two mountains. It is located in a precipice

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in the void, above the clouds, where one walks on wooden beams. At its ends it is tied with ropes, chains and pedestrian bridges.’’ The base is recommended by a net and the houses are like sacks. The lives of the inhabitants are uncertain than in other cities because they know that the network will not last longer than it is intended and the city will be destroyed. The pictures of this city resemble today’s housing containers, which have not even foundations, and their residences are ephemeral constructions of limited duration which at any moment and time can be spoiled with an uncertain future. The network that forms the base is like that of the spider web. It is also caught by their edges in steep and steep spots. TRADING CITIES: ERSILLIA Relationships between houses are bounded by colored strings according to the type of interpersonal relationships. When the number of strings becomes bigger, then the inhabitants leave the city and what is left is their threads. Within this network of strings there is created a moody atmosphere of relationships. This city is the place for the inhabitants’ relations. Living significance occupies the grid of fibers, and not the incorruptible substructures of the material world. The conclusion is that what ultimately matters, remain in time and become the most important element of our lives, is interpersonal relationships that change, transform, increase and create a tissue in time that can be attributed to these formations in space. CITIES & EYES: BAUCIS ‘‘This particular city is resting on stilts that are lost in the clouds.’’ Access is achieved by stairs. But the inhabitants rarely descend to the land after everything they need is there. According to the narrative there are three versions for this treatment of the inhabitants to the earth (a peculiar relationship between human and nature). Their first version wants to hate the earth. The second to respect her very much to have some contact with her and the third to love her as she was before they appeared and they basically admired their absence. In all three cases, however, the message is the same: people must learn to respect and live in harmony with the environment that hosts them, without being overwhelmed, but without denying it. The structure reminds as of Zenobia as a whole, but Baucis seems to belong to the happy cities. CITIES & NAMES: LEANDRA The city’s protection is achieved by small, invisible and countless Gods, who are classified into two categories. The first is Penates. ‘‘Those who belong to it live in the doors, umbrella, hangers and follow the owners in every new place of residence.’’ So they are loyal to the owners who follow them everywhere. So they are the personal Gods. The second is the Lares, ‘‘who live in the kitchen, in the fireplace, in the warehouse, are part of the house and do not move.’’ So they are the heathen Gods who protect each new owner who lives in that house. The two groups of Gods sometimes plummet and sometimes they are united, but they always co-exist. The Gods, therefore, protect the two constituent elements of the city, the inhabitants and the houses.

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CITIES & THE DEAD: MELANIA Melania = melange = black, dark Here, the great truth of life is depicted and it refers to a city of the dead where the same cycle of life occurs. The conclusion is that the life and the inhabitants of such a peculiar city are extremely short to be realized by themselves.

CHAPTER VI This chapter could have the title Routes, since all the cities that are included into it, explore the different city’s routes and journeys. Calvino seeks to strike a direct relationship with the points and the routes of the city, in order to map clearly the city as a whole image. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Trading Cities 5: Esmeralda Cities & Eyes 4: Phyllis Cities & Names 3: Pyrrha Cities & the Dead 2: Adelma Cities & the Sky 1: Eudoxia

TRADING CITIES: ESMERALDA Esmeralda = refers to emerald stone Esmeralda is the city of water. ‘‘The canals and streets overlap and intersect.For transportation, the visitor chooses between a route through the land or using some floating means.’’ The shortest route is not the straight but a zig-zag in helical variations. Choices are not only two but more. Each different route reveals different parts of the city, so every resident enjoys it. It is difficult to map the city with so many different routes of all its users (network of journeys). CITIES & EYES: PHYLLIS Different bridges penetrate the city with different supports and the same applies to the variety of floors. ‘‘At every point the city reveals a surprise such as the statue of three queens.’’ When you spend there all your life, the city seems to lose its color and the paths are carved into points which are hanging in the void.

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The steps follow the path within the observer’s field of view. These points, which are now considered to be erased, retain their form only thanks to the memory of the past. With the help of vision, the splendor is seen in everyday life as something that was happening in the past, and all of them are portrayed as specific routes that define an erased city. CITIES & NAMES: PYRRHA Listening to the name Pyrrha, you think it’s a fortified city with towers and a square. ‘‘In fact, however, it has low houses in groups that are separated from each other by open lots with stacks of lumber and with sawmills.’’ But once we get our own knowledge of the real environment then we identify the name with it and the city of mind continues to exist, but now it has, no longer, a specific name. CITIES & THE DEAD: ADELMA Adelma = Adis + alma = road to the dead In life comes some time where among the people you met you realize that the dead are more than the living. Perhaps this is a route to death, a city where you get when you die and so find people you met. In other words, there are some supernatural issues. From another perspective, of course, the city could refer to the world in which we live and function as a positive-negative film. CITIES & THE SKY: EUDOXIA Eudoxia = eu + doxa = refers to the glory of a city The city extends up and down. ‘‘It has alleys, stairs, dead ends, trays and a carpet in which the real shape of the city is depicted linearly.’’ At first the shape is symmetrical and with repeating motifs. But if you observe carefully, you realize that every point of the carpet-design corresponds to a point in the city where things are placed in proportions that are distant from the confused look due to crowds and confusion. The carpet serves as a map where you can find what you are looking for through the representations of colors and each of them has to tell a story, provide memories, information and answers. So it is a picture of the whole city. There is, of course, a dilemma about whether the city is the reflection of something dreamy or whether it is the real map of the city.

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CHAPTER VII This chapter could have the title Copies & Twins, since all the cities that are included into it, are separated into two cities with opposite elements. The two sub-cities form the city as a whole structure. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Cities & Eyes 5: Moriana Cities & Names 4: Clarice Cities & the Dead 3: Eusapia Cities & the Sky 2: Beersheba Continuous Cities 1: Leonia

Cities & Eyes: MORIANA ‘‘Its gates are transparent to sunlight, alabaster gates, coral columns that support pediments, glass villas, silver scales under chandelier chandeliers.’’ Cities like this have their opposite. If in one there is the notion of transparency, delicacy, gloss, the opposite is dominated by roughness, misery, chaos. The author concludes that there is no thickness, likens the city with a sheet of paper with the two opposing sides that are not separated but are not looking. It looks like the two sides of the same coin. Cities & Names: CLARICE This city was ruined and repeated many times. It was the city of survival, where objects of the old have acquired different usability, and nothing has been lost since the first glow. The new city was far removed from the first, and it was more irrelevant than that of poverty with the tricks and mice. ‘‘The old objects are placed in add-ons, in shop windows to create a city for which no one knew anything.’’ Every new version displays as jewel that it remains from the ancient fragmented and dead Clarice. The city reminds of something like a puzzles where continuous pieces are moved in order to produce a result. One piece can fit into more than one point or none at all. It is a constant search and shift where no one remembers or knows what its original form was before it was fragmented. Cities & the Dead: EUSAPIA Eusapia = eu + sapios = rotten In order to make the passage from life to death less painful there is a copy of the normal city and never stop the commercial and professional activities of the city of the living. In the city of the dead the resident can look for a different destiny from what he has in his life. This underground town is constantly being renovated and becomes unrecognizable. Taking this information, the living people begin copying their underground copy. It is a twin city where no one can distinguish the living from the dead. There is a continuous reconciliation of the two worlds with common intermediaries (hooded brothers). Just the dead seem to make more prudent decisions about their city and without satisfy an instant desire. The positive thing is that their aliens are imitating,

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which embellishes their lives. This puts the question of destiny, the communication of alive-dead. These two cities coexist together. At this point, an early form of heterotopia, where life in a city was organized around the cemetery, was identified. Cities & the Sky: BEERSHEBA Beersheba = vers, across, through There is the belief in the existence of a celestial city that balances the virtues and the higher emotions and that if the earthly city takes its heavenly pattern as its model it will become one with it. The celestial city is characterized as a city-jewel. ‘‘The inhabitants of the earth collect noble metals, rare stones, deny the ephemeral pleasures.’’ But there is also a third city underground as the recipient of everything that is indecent and the inhabitants of the earth avoid relations with it. The image of the lower city reminds of rubbish, droppings, remnants. Summarizing there are two copies of a city, one is the celestial and the other is the underground. People, how live in the earth, make a mistake as to the status of two copies of cities. The basement is ultimately rich, well-built. The real treasure of Beersheba is the fallen things. The inhabitants do not know that their best moments are those in which they are self-absorbed by abandoning their obsessions. This city is connected with the perception of ideals. This particular city is largely a city of today, consumer and latent beliefs. It concerns a utopia that has always been hidden a dystopia. This example deals with life itself, where the inhabitants of a city create both their utopias and their dystopias. Continuous Cities: LEONIA It is a city that takes care of everyday life. Its wealth is measured on the basis of the things that are being thrown every day to give their place to the new ones. The profession of garbage has conquered everyone’s respect. Their loads carry them out of the city limits. Every year the city expands and its litter is rising. It has been noticed that as the art of producing new materials improves, the quality of the garbage can be improved and can withstand time, burns, etc. They reach a point where they are an indestructible fort from remnants. At some point the garbage will gradually conquer the world. The borders between the cities are rampant dirty where waste is confused. As their height increases, the greater the risk of landslides, which when it comes to going off every trace of the clean city. It represents the modern state of the cities, the spread of non-biodegradable waste.

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CHAPTER VIII This chapter could have the title Uniqueness & Perfection, since all the cities that are included into it, try to find the perfection and the ideal in the city’s structure. Most of them do not manage to achieve the ideal. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Cities & Names 5: Irene Cities & the Dead 4: Argia Cities & the Sky 3: Thekla Continuous Cities 2: Trude Hidden Cities 1: Olinda

CITIES & NAMES: IRENE Irene = refers to the piece ‘‘Where the windows are more concentrated, where it thins out in dimly lighted alleys, where it collects the shadows of gardens, where it raises towers with signal fires; and if the evening is misty, a hazy glow swells like a milky sponge at the foot of the gulleys.’’ It is the city that protrudes from the edge of a plateau. Those who see it and look at it from a long distance, talk about it. The wind carries the sounds of the city. Several thoughts pass through the minds of passers-by to get closer to it, but bad roads lead to the city. It is attractive to gaze it from high but also inaccessible. There are few times when the dream is fake, it is a fiction. Thoughts, that were born only when the name is heard, are due to the circumstances in which we find ourselves, to our surroundings, to our desires, and especially to our experiences. That is why when we make a visit we realize how different a part of what we had imagined is. CITIES & THE DEAD: ARGIA In this city, there is soil in place of wind. It is recommended by burrows of worms and slits. Darkness dominates everywhere and sometimes there is some noise. ‘‘The streets are completely filled with dirt, clay packs the rooms to the ceiling, on every stair another stairway is set in negative, over the roofs of the houses hang layers of rocky terrain like skies with clouds.’’ Residents need to remain stationary because otherwise their bodies will dissolve. It is an inhospitable space, for an invisible, underground city and mostly nightmarish. In the cities of the dead, the skeleton as a support and morphological body infrastructure is revealed after the decomposition. The city here, as in most dead cities, is a skeletal (modular) construction, an ethereal and not a terrestrial one. However, here the dead are in the land. CITIES & THE SKY: THEKLA Thekla = refers to the God of Christendom ‘‘Continuous building, scaffolding, skeletons, ropes, ladders, buckets, cranes, brushes, spirits form the structure.’’ The goal of the inhabitants is their daily engagement with continuous building in order for their lives to

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make sense. The buildings are surrounded and penetrated by their skeletal scaffolds, which bear the burden of their builders. Residents are afraid to finish building in order not to start the disaster. Their question is not that it will spoil the city but that it will cease to exist. It is also a city directly connected to the sky. The inhabitants live by aiming to reach the sky (freedom), a symbolic element that represents something distant and at the same time something ideal. Continuous effort is made without end. But there is no damage, no disaster. Perhaps these human beings have eventually achieved the ideal. CONTINUOUS CITIES: TRUDE The whole world has been covered by such a unique city that has neither beginning nor end, but only changes its name. When he arrives there, the visitor feels he has already experienced it, wherever he goes he recognizes everything. This could be a picture of globalization or a picture of the mass. Everything is the same (homogenization), without any multiplicity, no difference. Only the name differs. HIDDEN CITIES: OLINDA The city starts from a tiny size and ends up in a natural size where it encircles inside an earlier city and it pushes the new to open out. ‘‘If you look at it slightly enlarged, reveals within itself the roofs, the antennas, the skylights, the gardens, the pools, the streamers across the streets, the kiosks in the squares, the horse-racing track.’’ The old walls are widening by dragging the old quarters. The city grows in concentric circles. According to Kracauer the city is the living image of the urban structure and transforms into a pole of life. Here the city is likened to a tree (living organism), where it grows, regenerates, enriches, increases. Old quarters give way to the recent ones. Every new Olinda retains its features. But it is difficult to separate the future one and those that will then develop.

CHAPTER IX This chapter could have the title the Future, since all the cities that are included into it, explore the city’s future problems. Calvino seeks to strike a direct relationship between the present of a city, and the future of the city, which will be even worse if the inhabitants do not pay attention.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

THE NARRATIVE

Cities & the Dead 5: Laudomia Cities & the Sky 4: Perinthia Continuous Cities 3: Procopia Hidden Cities 2: Raissa Cities & the Sky 5: Andria Continuous Cities 4: Cecilia Hidden Cities 3: Marozia Continuous Cities 5: Penthesilea Hidden Cities 4: Theodora Hidden Cities 5: Berenice

CITIES & THE DEAD: LAUDOMIA Each city has another city next to it where residents have the same names. It is the city of the dead. It is the cemetery. The peculiarity of this city is that it includes a third structure that corresponds to those who were not yet born. The mapping of the city of the dead and the living is the same, except that there are no windows but there is the corresponding dense structure. This third city does not transmit security but panic and uncertainty to the living. This is the fear of the uncertain future that has not yet come. Generations will follow each other until they reach a certain number and then they will stop. Then the two worlds, unborn-dead, will take the form of an hourglass where the passage from birth to death will correspond to a grain of sand. It is a narrative that presents in a very brief way the cycle of human life. CITIES & THE SKY: PERINTHIA For the foundation of the city, astronomers have defined the place according to the location of the stars. The city would be able to reflect the harmony of the universe. The logic of nature and the grace of the Gods would form the destiny of the inhabitants. The first inhabitants of the city lived, grew up, made children. Today’s inhabitants are blatant, ugly, unethical, with children distorted. So there are two nuances, the calculations of astronomers were wrong, or the class of the Gods is mirrored in the city of monsters. CONTINUOUS CITIES: PROCOPIA In this city, there were, at the beginning, only trees and the sky. Each year it is added by someone. When the empty space was filled, the physical elements began to disappear and everything was covered by people . ‘‘Even in the room of a hotel there was not only one but twenty-seven.’’ Here is the idea of crowding and the lack of space due to population growth. HIDDEN CITIES: RAISSA ‘‘In Raissa, city of sadness, there runs an invisible thread that binds one living being to another for a moment, ... at every second the unhappy city contains a happy city unaware of its own existence.’’ It belongs to the category

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

of unhappy cities. But there is the impression that there is an invisible thread linking the figures at every moment so that at any moment the unhappy city includes a self-esteem that she does not suspect to exist. CITIES & THE SKY: ANDRIA Each road was built following the trajectory of a planet, while the buildings repeat the sequence of constellations and the location of the bright stars. The cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life rolls calm, mimicking the movement of the celestial bodies. It is a city that seems to be stationary in time, without the inhabitants making changes. Even if they do not create an imbalance in the urban fabric, since there is a perfect match between the city and the sky and therefore the stars change. Eventually the city and the sky never remain the same. The inhabitants are confident and wise. The interaction between the two sites is achieved after serious consideration of the dangers and the advantages for them, for the city, for the world. The people of Andria seem to come to a complete rupture with the residents of the Generic City (Rem Koolhaas, 1995), in which thinking is something that does not happen, while the rhythms of life seem completely frenetic and the city must constantly be renewed, without much criticism thought by its inhabitants.

CONTINUOUS CITIES: CECILIA Cities have no name, they are places without leaves separating the pastures. The parts in the world have now been mixed. Cecilia is a vast city, it is everywhere. This raises the question of the spread of cities. The cities have been transformed into an endless warhead where you can not get out. On the other hand, the destruction of the environment for the spreading of urban areas is also stressed. Cities are expanding by acquiring common features and leaving the natural landscapes that once exist in the outdoors. If man was to subdue nature in his own interest, then he would form an artificial environment but more friendly than natural. The modern man, who is destined to destroy the environment and the natural elements in order to build cities, tends to eventually create a continuous, repetitive artificial landscape, in which nature does not appear. We could compare this city with the New Babylon of Constant Nieuwenhuys, 1961. New Babylon is a plan for a city in which there are no borders, while it is completely extraordinary. It is a city that constantly changes according to the needs of its inhabitants.

THE NARRATIVE

HIDDEN CITIES: MAROZIA ‘‘It is structured in two cities, one in the mouse and one in the swallow.’’ The city began as a mouse with burrows and crumbs. Within it, a group of residents was preparing to end this season and the town of the swallow came. So the city changed for the better. It happens, though, that you can sometimes see pieces of the old city. Then you feel the city is transparent, crystal clear. In conclusion, the two forms of the city co-exist, but the second will always be born from the first as they evolve. Obviously it refers to political variations and differences in the policies of a society. So the mouse represents the dark and oppressive regimes, while the swallow is the liberals. Public space is an arena where ideologies and interests collide, so the space is shaped and produced by specific people, reflecting their visions and positions. CONTINUOUS CITIES: PENTHESILEA ‘‘Like a lake with low shores lost in swamps so Penthesilea spreads for miles around a soupy city diluted in the plain; pale buildings back to back in mangy fields among plank fences and corrugated-iron sheds. Every now and then at the edges of the street a cluster of constructions with shallow facades very tall or very low like a snaggle-toothed comb seems to indicate that from there the city’s texture will thicken.’’ The urban web stretches for miles around a city-porch that diffuses into the plain with pale folk dwellings. There are crafts, warehouses, amusement parks, shops. No one knows exactly where the city is, what is its core or whether there is an urban center. Here, the visitor gets a stressful question: Is he out of town or does he simply go from one situation to another equally uncertain without ever escaping? HIDDEN CITIES: THEODORA Theodora = theos + doro = refers to the gift of the God Many invasions have plagued the city. ‘‘The invasions were made of cones, termites, spiders, snakes, flies, mice, and serpents.’’ The city has been transformed into a mega cemetery of the animal kingdom. The inhabitants believed that there was no longer any kind of living thing that could challenge man’s dominance over nature. But they did not take into account that a forgotten animal would wake up and come through the basements of an important building, the library. Everything comes from some superior power. ‘‘The fauna refers to the sphinxes, the chimeras, the vultures, the dragons, the unicorns, etc.’’ And would regain the city they thought they had lost. Human, as supreme being, destroys the environment that dominates it. But nature is avenged, giving humans the understanding that they must co-exist together with the other species of the universe and not try to satisfy their vanity by causing disasters to them. HIDDEN CITIES: BERENICE ‘‘I should not tell you of Berenice, the unjust city, which crowns with triglyphs, abaci, metopes the gears of its

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

meat-grinding machines. Instead, I should tell you of the hidden Berenice, the city of the just, handling makeshift materials in the shadowy rooms behind the shops and beneath the stairs, linking a network of wires and pipes and pulleys and pistons and counterweights that infiltrates like a climbing plant among the great cogged wheels (when they jam, a subdued ticking gives warning that a new precision mechanism is governing the city).â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Berenice is the city of injustice and the city of the righteous. The unjust city always grows secretly in the hidden fair city. So one version comes from the other, they get entangled and one is slapped in the other. The true city is a sequence at the time of different cities. The future cities are already wrapped in one another, cramped and inseparable.

Ultimately, I want to point out that after a thorough research in Internet, in order to find out what other artists have depicted and illustrated as a reinterpretation of the Invisible Cities was, overall, very abstract and was very far from the city of Venice. Opposing to that, my aim will be to create something (more concrete) for the city of Venice, as the reference point for the explorer Marco Polo.

DESIGN APPROACH

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

DESIGN

APPROACH

1. METHODOLOGY After reading and analysing the book of Invisible Cities, I ended up with some diagrams. All these diagrams conclude my basic ideas for the 55 invisible cities, written by Italo Calvino. These sketches will be the cornestone for the design of the 3D vocabulary, I will use in my 3D virtual environment. My ambition was not to create the 55 invisible cities, in an abstract way, as they are depicted in the book, but to use the vocabulary of all these cities, in order for the user to have the possibility to create his own version of the city. In the end, a variety of multiple different cities and experiences will be created, by each user, inside the same plattform. This new imaginary 3d visual environment will call the player to live, to interact and to communicate with others, in order to build a vibrant city beyond the physical borders.

CHAPTER I

inspiration

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

inspiration

DESIGN APPROACH

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

inspiration

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

inspiration

DESIGN APPROACH

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DESIGN

APPROACH

2. THE ELEMENTS OF VENICE As the city of Venice is the reference point for the explorer Marco Polo (he reads every city he visits from Venice perspective), my intention was to create a vocabulary (3d assets) in order to connect my 3D scene with Venice. The book Elements of Venice (Foscari,2014) has helped me a lot in this direction. This book reveals, through the analysis of single architectural elements, the metamorphic nature of Venice, a city in which most buildings underwent throughout the centuries substantial volumetric and formal transformations informed by political and cultural shifts. The basic architectural elements compose the city of Venice are: balcony, bridge, coastline, door, pavement, rooftop, stair, window, carnival.

IM. 1 Elements of Venice

DESIGN APPROACH

CARNIVAL

The characters of the game are inspired from the carnival of Venice. There are colourful carnival costumes with different masks for both men and women.

The Characters are animated in Maya using a skeleton.

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

BALCONY

BRIDGE

COASTLINE

DOOR

DESIGN APPROACH

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PAVEMENT

ROOFTOP

STAIR

WINDOW

DESIGN APPROACH

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FACADES From all the above elements, I have created some Venetian facades, that I will use to create the cityscape.

DESIGN APPROACH

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DESIGN

APPROACH

3. CREATING ASSETS Looking throughout my scetches on the assets-elements of invisible cities. I started to create my 3d versions of these elements in order to achieve plurality and detail. Therefore, I design the following:

ANTENNA

ARCH

BALLOON

BOAT

CAMERA

CHIMNEY

CLOUD

COLUMN

DESIGN APPROACH

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

DOMES

FACTORY

FOUNTAIN

GLOBE

HILL

HOURGLASS

INSECT

LADDER

LAMP

LUNA PARK

DESIGN APPROACH

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MARKET

MIRROR

PIPE

PLANE

POOL

RAIL

SCREEN

SIDEWALK

DESIGN APPROACH

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SIGNS

SINK

SKELETON

STATUE

STAIRCASE

TANK

TELESCOPE

TOMB

TOWER

DESIGN APPROACH

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

TRASH

TREE

WELL

WINDMILL

FINAL RESULTS

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FINAL

RESULTS

1. GAME OUTLINE The next step was to produce some final results of how my game would it be. How it could be if different users immerse themselves in that game and create their own narratives, their different versions of the City of Venice? Perhaps an imaginative palimpsest of Venice will appear. By looking through the mechanisms that other plattforms (like the Sims and the Second life) used in order to design their own narratives, I realized what I need to do in order to create my own game. For instance, I looked through the tools that these games have to create the avatars and the environment. Besides that, I figured out that one of the main disadvantages of the above games is the complexity in the creation - building of the environment, by their users (that they are not designers or architects but just players). Therefore, my aim was to create a game that it is easy to play and to immerse inside it.

IM. 1 The Sims - Creating the Character

IM. 2 The Sims - Buiding the Environment

IM. 3 Second Life - Creating the Character

IM. 4 Second Life - Buiding the Environment

FINAL RESULTS

Αt this point, I want to mention an other game called “Overly Attached Cute” (Princeton project by Joanna Grant), which has become my reference point for the game that I want to do. This thesis project seeks to define a territory in which cuteness can operate in the discipline of architecture. Several existing buildings in need of preservation were selected, each representing a defunct architectural style: Brutalism, Metabolism, and Postmodernism. Rather than acting through redesign, the buildings were translated into paper dolls and a sticker book kit of parts was designed through which users are allowed to “renovate” the building. The interactive version available online is a game in which users become designers, actively applying stickers to renovate the façade. Over the course of a few minutes, the façade becomes dirty and designers must clean it. Stickers eventually fall off the façade to force users to actively design and redesign. The iterative process of renovation through the application of stickers engenders a familiarity with the image of the building, creating an audience of fans. Through the consumption and proliferation of the images produced by the game, the future of the individual projects is (in theory) preserved. Thus, the game mechanisms, that are used are very simple... just a library of assets. By easily using them in various ways, the player can create different versions of facades. Although, a 2d and not a 3d game (as what I want to do) it deals to create a very playful way of create something new easily and smart without using difficult and complex tools.

IM. 5 Overly Attached Cute - the Game

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

How this game will look like? Which are the main tools that a player need to use and which steps does he need in order to build his own environmet? The first step a player needs to do is the create his own Avatar. As I have mentioned before, all the avatars look like Venice costumes. Below you see how the window for the character creation would be. To begin with, the player have to write a name for his new avatar in the blue box, which exists on the right down side of the window. Also, there are some buttons on the left down side which are the “exit” for quit the game and the “before” for previous action. On the left side, the player can select the category he want to use. The theme of each category has to do with appearance matters, such as the skin color, the hair/eye color, the clothes, the mask e.t.c. Once one category turns to blue by click on it, it becomes active. Then a library of assets appears on the right side. By clicking on one or more items from the library the avatar which exists in the middle obtains this / these item(s) in his body.

FINAL RESULTS

Yoy can, also, have the possibility to colorize your asset as a paint pallette window will appear by clicking in each asset. This is an easy tool to create your own avatar. If you want a further modification in your asset, you can do a right click inside your asset. Then a window appears which allow you to transform an old existing item or to create a new one and then to add it in the library. For that purpose a new window opens with an empty white space and a tool bar. The toolbar has some useful tools, which are common in the “paint app” like pen, bucket, rectangular tool, eraser, gradient tool e.t.c. On the right side there is a cruciform button for adding the item. Therefore, by using the toolbar you can have the possibility to paint from scratch a new item or to paint something on an existing item and add it as a new asset. This window has the capability to transform easily your item from a 2d sketch to a 3d asset, ready to be used from the player or from other users. When you have finished with the creation of your character you have to click on to the “Apply” button, which gets you to the next step.

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

The next step is about the creation of buildings. You can create more than one building version by using the button on the right down side of the window which called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Add Newâ&#x20AC;?. In the blue box, which exists on the right down side of the window, the new building automatically obtains a new name like 001/ 002/ 003 and so on. On the left side, the player can select the category he want to use. The theme of each category has to do with Venice facades (elements of Venice), such as the balcony, the door, the window e.t.c. Once one category turns to blue by click on it, it becomes active. Then a library of assets appears on the right side. By clicking on one or more items from the library the box which exists in the middle obtains this / these item(s) in its facade. The assets that exist in the library, are the assets, I have discussed on C Chapter, and have to do with Venice Elements.

FINAL RESULTS

Yoy can, also, have the possibility to colorize your asset as a paint pallette window will appear by clicking in each asset. This is an easy tool to create your own asset - element of Venice. If you want a further modification in your asset, you can do a right click inside your asset. Then a window appears which allow you to transform an old existing item or to create a new one and then to add it in the library. For that purpose a new window opens with an empty white space and a tool bar. The toolbar has some useful tools, which are common in the “paint app” like pen, bucket, rectangular tool, eraser, gradient tool e.t.c. On the right side there is a cruciform button for adding the item. Therefore, by using the toolbar you can have the possibility to paint from scratch a new item or to paint something on an existing item and add it as a new asset. This window has the capability to transform easily your item from a 2d sketch to a 3d asset, ready to be used from the player or from other users. When you have finished with the creation of the buildings you have to click on to the “Apply” button, which gets you to the next step.

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

Then, a plan of Venice appears in your screen. What you need to do, is to select your area of intervention. The areas with the white stroke outlines are the sites, which are already used from other players. Thus, you have to select another area apart from the white ones. If you click inside an area and becomes blue, you will get the right to use that property. The player must also need to write a name for his new city in the blue box, which exists on the right down side of the window.

After that, the player need to place the buidlings (he had created, in previous step) in that area. Thus, a library of the buildings, the user had created, appears on the right side. By clicking, first, on an item from the library and then by using the tools which are on the middle-down side (like move, rotate, scale), the player can place the buildings in the site. Four windows exist, for that purpose. These interactive windows are four different views of the site (for example: top view, front view, perspective1, perspective 2). Like all the 3D engines such as maya, 3ds max, unity etc. these windows will help the player to view better his site in order to place correctly all the buildings he want to use. When you have finished with the placement of the buildings you have to click on to the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Applyâ&#x20AC;? button, which gets you to the next step.

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

The next step is about the creation of assets from the book. You can use more than one assets by using the button on the right down side of the window which called “Add New”. In the blue box, which exists on the right down side of the window, the new asset automatically obtains a new name like 001/ 002/ 003 and so on. On the left side, the player can select the category he want to use. The theme of each category has to do with the elements I have found from the book, such as antennas, ladders, domes e.t.c. By reading one chapter from the book, which is placed in the middle of the screen, you can choose what asset you want to use in your site. Once one category turns to blue by click on it, it becomes active. Then a library of assets appears on the right side.

Yoy can, also, have the possibility to colorize your asset as a paint pallette window will appear by clicking in each asset. This is an easy tool to create your own asset (like the way you did it in previous steps. When you have finished with the creation of the assets you have to click on to the “Apply” button, which gets you to the next step.

FINAL RESULTS

Finally, the player has set his environment and he is now ready to interact and communicate with other users. In the right-top side there is a map of Venice which help the player to navigate in the whole city. Four window appear again. This time, they are four different perspective views of different areas in Venice, designed either from the player or from other users. These four windows map the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s multiple experience in an imaginative way, created by the users.nt to use. Players have, also, the chance to interact and communicate with other users, by chat windows and video calls. Moreover, there is also the possibility to immerse themselve inside that plattform and live another life beyond the physical borders. It seems that this platform will be the central point to reveal the true cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image as a Palimpsest, as a whole of different imaginative fragments / experiences. In other words, through this virtual reality game users can escape from the real world and can create and live inide a virtual one, in order to explore all the hidden aspects of the urban fabric.

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

FINAL

RESULTS

2. VERSIONS OF CITIES Taking into consideration all the assets, I have been created, as well as the thorough analysis, I have made for each city, I started to create some different interactive versions of cities using properly some assets and characters each time. By using the plan of Venice, my aim was to build a 3D environment of different fragments of Venice in order all together to compose all the different aspects of the city, in an imaginative way. Unity Engine helped me to design the whole cities by putting some interactive elements inside them (SEE THE VIDEOS I HAVE INCLUDED IN SD CARD). Therefore, I selected 26 of the 55 cities described in the book, as the most representative ones. Starting from the first chapter, I have situated each city in the plan like the layout presented in the diagram of the book entitled ‘‘Choreographies: the architectural form of the meaning‘‘ (Peponis, 2003).

The Architectural Form of the meaning

The Venice Plan

FINAL RESULTS

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CITY 1 DIOMIRA The city during the night ‘‘A city with million domes, statues of all the gods, and towers situted in the squares. All these beauties will already be familiar to the visitor, who has seen them also in other cities. But the special quality of this city for the man who arrives there on a September evening, when the days are growing shorter and the multicolored lamps are lighted.’’ ASSETS USED: domes, lamps, statues, towers TECHNIQUES USED: lighting from lamps

CITY 2 DOROTHEA The Canals and the Smoke from Chimneys ‘‘There are two ways of describing the city of Dorothea: you can say that aluminum towers rise from its walls flanking seven gates with springoperated drawbridges that span the moat whose water feeds four green canals which cross the city, dividing it into nine quarters, each with three hundred houses and seven hundred chimneys.’’ ASSETS USED: bridges, holes, slidewalks, ports, towers, wells, chimneys TECHNIQUES USED: particle system from chimneys

FINAL RESULTS

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

CITY 3 ANASTASIA The City of Pools and Kites ‘‘At the end of three days, moving southward, you come upon Anastasia, a city with concentric canals watering it and kites flying over it. The city appears to you as a whole where no desire is lost and of which you are a part, and since it enjoys everything you do not enjoy, you can do nothing but inhabit this desire and be content.’’ ASSETS USED: balloons, fountains, planes, pools, windmills TECHNIQUES USED: windmills rotation, balloons and planes transportation

CITY 4 ZAIRA The Sound as the Memory of the City ‘‘As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands. A description of Zaira as it is today should contain all Zaira’s past. The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennas of the lightning rods, the poles of the Bags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls.’’ ASSETS USED: antennas, bridges, chimneys, pipes, well TECHNIQUES USED: sound system

pavement,

FINAL RESULTS

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CITY 5 TAMARA Τhe City of Signboards ‘‘Finally the journey leads to the city of Tamara. You penetrate it along streets thick with signboards jutting from the walls. The eye does not see things but images of things that mean other things. Other signals warn of what is forbidden in a given place (to enter the alley with wagons, to urinate behind the kiosk, to fish with your pole from the bridge) and what is allowed (watering zebras, playing bowls, burning relatives’ corpses). From the doors of the temples the gods’ statues are seen, each portrayed with his attributes-the cornucopia, the hourglass, the medusa-so that the worshiper can recognize them and address his prayers correctly.’’ ASSETS USED: mirrors, signboards TECHNIQUES USED: signboards coding

CITY 6 DESPINA Between the Sea and the Hills ‘‘Despina can be reached in two ways: by ship or by camel. The city displays one face to the traveler arriving overland and a different one to him who arrives by sea. In the coastline’s haze, the sailor discerns the form of a camel’s withers, an embroidered saddle with glittering fringe between two spotted humps, ad-‘ftncing and swaying.’’ ASSETS USED: boat, column, hill, mirror, port TECHNIQUES USED: boat transportation

FINAL RESULTS

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

CITY 7 MAURILLIA Card - Postals VS Factory ‘‘In Maurilia, the traveler is invited to visit the city and, at the same time, to examine some old post cards that show it as it used to be: the same identical square with a hen in the place of the bus station, a bandstand in the place of the overpass, two young ladies with white parasols in the place of the munitions factory.’’ ASSETS USED: cranes, screens TECHNIQUES USED: crane rotation, displaying screen (venetia events)

CITY 8 FEDORA Inside a crystal Globe ‘‘In the center of Fedora, that gray stone metropolis, stands a metal building with a crystal globe in every room. Looking into each globe, you see a blue city, the model of a different Fedora. These are the forms the city could have taken if, for one’ reason or another, it had not become what we see today.’’ ASSETS USED: globes, miniatures TECHNIQUES USED: globe rotation, lighting from globes

FINAL RESULTS

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

CITY 9 ZENOBIA Looking from a height ‘‘Now I shall tell of the city of Zenobia, which is wonderful in this fashion: though set on dry terrain it stands on high pilings, and the houses are of bamboo and zinc, with many platforms placed on stilts at various heights, crossing one another, linked by ladders and hanging sidewalks, surmounted by cone-roofed belvederes, barrels storing water, weather vanes, jutting pulleys, and fish poles, and cranes.’’ ASSETS USED: bridges, columns, cranes, ladders, slidewalks, tanks TECHNIQUES USED: moving through ladder and lift, particle system from the sky

CITY 10 EUPHEMIA The City of Merchants ‘‘You reach the city of Euphemia. where the merchants of seven nations gather at every solstice and equinox. The boat that lands there with a cargo of ginger and cotton will set sail again, its hold filled with pistachio nuts and poppy seeds, and the caravan that has just unloaded sacks of nutmegs and raisins is already cramming its saddlebags with bolts of golden muslin for the return journey.’’ ASSETS USED: bridges, market, pyramid TECHNIQUES USED: trolley transportation

FINAL RESULTS

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

CITY 11 ARMILLIA The Water City ‘‘Whether Armilla is like this because it is unfinished or because it has been demolished, whether the cause is some enchantment or only a whim, I do not know. A forest of pipes that end in taps, showers, spouts, overBows. Against the sky a lavabo’s white stands out, or a bathtub, or some., other porcelain. You would think the plumbers had finished their job and gone away before the bricklayers arrived; or else their hydraulic systems, indestructible, had survived a catastrophe, an earthquake, or the corrosion of termites.’’ ASSETS USED: pipes, pools, sinks, tanks, wells TECHNIQUES USED: water emission

CITY 12 VALDRADA The Surveillance ‘‘At times the mirror increases a thing’s value, at times denies it. Not everything that seems valuable above the mirror maintains its force when mirrored. The twin cities are not equal, because nothing that exists or happens in Valdrada is symmetrical: every face and gesture is answered, from the mirror, by a face and gesture inverted, point by point. The two Valdradas live for each other, their eyes interlocked; but there is no love between them.’’ ASSETS USED: cameras, mirrors, screens TECHNIQUES USED: displaying screen (from the existing site)

FINAL RESULTS

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

CITY 13 SOPHRONIA Luna park VS Factory ‘‘The city of Sophronia is made up of two half-cities. In one there is the great roller coaster with its steep humps, the carousel with its chain spokes, the Ferris wheel of spinning cages, the deathride with crouching motorcyclists, the big top with the clump of trapezes hanging in the middle. The other half-city is of stone and marble and cement, with the bank, the factories, the palaces, the slaughterhouse, the school, and all the rest.’’ ASSETS USED: balloons, cranes, ladders, luna park, mirrors, tanks TECHNIQUES USED: crane rotation, balloon transportation

CITY 14 EUTROPIA The Chessboard ‘‘Thus, the city repeats its life, identical, shifting up and down on its empty chessboard. The inhabitants repeat the same scenes, with the actors changed; they repeat the same speeches with variously combined accents; they open alternate mouths in identical yawns. Alone, among all the cities of the empire, Eutropia remains always the same.’’ ASSETS USED: domes, grid, towers TECHNIQUES USED: tower transportation

FINAL RESULTS

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

CITY 15 OCTAVIA The Spider City ‘‘Now I will tell how Octavia, the spider-web city, is made. There is a precipice between two steep mountains: the city is over the void, bound to the two crests with ropes and chains and catwalks. Below there is nothing for hundreds and hundreds of feet: a few clouds glide past; farther down you can glimpse the chasm’s bed.’’ ASSETS USED: web TECHNIQUES USED: web transportation, particle system from sky

CITY 16 ERSILLIA The Network ‘‘In Ersilia, to establish the relationships that sustain the city’s life, the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses, white or black or gray or black-and-white according to whether they mark a relationship of blood, of trade, authority, agency. When the strings become so numerous that you can no longer pass among them, the inhabitants leave: the houses are dismantled; only the strings and their supports remain.’’ ASSETS USED: bridge, network, colourful balconies TECHNIQUES USED: lighting network

FINAL RESULTS

DISCOVERING THE INVISIBLE

CITY 17 BAUCIS Human VS Nature ‘‘The slender stilts that rise from the ground at a great distance from one another and are lost above the clouds support the city. You climb them with ladders. On the ground the inhabitants rarely show themselves: having already everything they need up there, they prefer not to come down. Nothing of the city of Baucis touches the earth.’’ ASSETS USED: clouds, columns, cranes, tanks, tree TECHNIQUES USED: cloud transportation, crane and grass rotation, particle system from sky

CITY 18 MELANIA The City of the Deads ‘‘At Melania, every time you enter the square, you find yourself caught in a dialogue. You return to Melania after years and you find the same dialogue still going on; in the meanwhile the parasite has died, and so have the procuress and the miserly father; but the braggart soldier, the amorous daughter, the foolish servant have taken their places, being replaced in their turn by the hypocrite, the confidante, the astrologer.’’ ASSETS USED: bridges, holes, skeletons, tombs TECHNIQUES USED: particle system, black environment

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CITY 19 EUDOXIA Mapping the City ‘‘It is easy to get lost in Eudoxia: but when you concentrate and stare at the carpet, you recognize the street you were seeking in a crimson or indigo or magenta thread which, in a wide loop, brings you to the purple enclosure that is your real destination. Every inhabitant of Eudoxia compares the carpet’s immobile order with his own image of the city, an anguish of his own, and each can find, concealed among the arabesques, an answer, the stoty of his life, the twists of fate.’’ ASSETS USED: grid, pavement TECHNIQUES USED: grid transportation

CITY 20 CLARICE The Vitrines ‘‘And then the shards of the original splendor that had been saved, by adapting them to more obscure needs, were again shifted. They were now preserved under glass bells, locked in display cases, set on velvet cushions, and not because they might still be used for anything, but because people wanted to reconstruct through them a city of which no one knew anything now. Each new Clarice, compact as a living body with its smells and its breath, shows off, like a gem, what remains ~f the ancient Clarices, fragmentary and dead.’’ ASSETS USED: globes, vitrines TECHNIQUES USED: globe rotation, lighting

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CITY 21 LEONIA The City of Garbages ‘‘On the sidewalks, encased in spotless plastic bags, the remains of yesterday’s Leonia await the garbage truck. Not only squeezed tubes of toothpaste, blown-out light bulbs, newspapers, containers, wrappings, but also boilers, encyclopedias, pianos, procelain dinner services. It is not so much by the things that each day are manufactured, sold, bought that you can measure Leonia’s opulence, but rather by the things that each day are thrown out to make room for the new.’’ ASSETS USED: trashes, tree TECHNIQUES USED: trash transportation

CITY 22 IRENE The Soundscape ‘‘At times the wind brings a music of bass drums and trumpets, the bang of firecrackers in the lightdisplay of a festival; at times the rattle of guns, the explosion of a powder magazine in the sky yellow with the fires of civil war. Those who look down from the heights conjecture about what is happening in the city; they wonder if it would be pleasant or unpleasant to be in Irene that evening.’’ ASSETS USED: domes, hills, networks, stairs, towers TECHNIQUES USED: lighting network, sound system, walkable stairs

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CITY 23 LAUDOMIA Inversed City ‘‘Laudomia of the dead and that of the unborn are like the two bulbs of an hourglass which is not turned over; each passage between birth and death is a grain of sand that passes the neck, and there will be a last inhabitant of Laudomia born, a last grain to fill, which is now at the top of the pile, waiting.’’ ASSETS USED: hourglasses, skeletons, tombs TECHNIQUES USED: particle system from hourglass

CITY 24 PERINTHIA The City of Stars ‘‘Summoned to lay down the rules for the foundation of Perinthia, the astronomers established the place and the day according to the position of the stars; they drew the intersecting lines of the decumanus and the cardo, the first oriented to the passage of the sun and the other like the axis on which the heavens turn.’’ ASSETS USED: clouds, stars, telescopes TECHNIQUES USED: telescope rotation, cloud and star transportation, lighting

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CITY 25 CECILIA The Labyrinth ‘‘You reproach me because each of my stories takes you right into the heart of a city without telling you of the space that stretches between one city and the other, whether it is covered by seas, or fields of rye, larch forests, swamps. I will answer you with a story. In the streets of Cecilia, an illustrious city, I met once a goatherd, driving a tinkling flock along the walls.’’ ASSETS USED: antennas, bridges, chimneys, cranes, labyrinth, stairs TECHNIQUES USED: particle system from chimneys, walkable stairs

CITY 26 THEODORA The Destroyed City ‘‘Recurrent invasions racked the city of Theodora in the centuries of its history; no sooner was one enemy routed than another gained strength and threatened the survival of the inhabitants. When the sky was cleared of condors, they had to face the propagation of serpents; the spiders’ extermination allowed the flies to multiply into a black swarm; the victory over the termites left the city at the mercy of the woodworms.’’ ASSETS USED: insects, statues, towers, tree TECHNIQUES USED: insects transportation, destroyed buildings

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The Invisible Venice Plan

Different Views of Invisible Venice

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CONCLUSION Calvino chooses to finish his book with a special tone. It urges the reader to look for the ideal city in the simplest, the most ordinary, but at the same time the most essential way. And Polo said: «The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.» These are the last words of Polo, in which he gathers all the experiences of his travels. What he has taught him is that in each of place he traveled there are elements that resemble one another and that eventually in one and only city you can discover thousands of other hidden ones. It touches the main concerns of the city planners and asks what the city means today for us. Thus, it would be possible for the “invisible Cities” to be the starting point for reconsidering the real structure of the cities and the contemporaneous concerns that surround them today. And that is exactly what I have tried to do by illustrating as a part of a video game the book “Invisible Cities”. Inspired by other games, like Second Life and Sims, the purpose if this project was to create a 3d Virtual platform which is based in the “Invisible Cities”. There, by using the “vocabulary” of the book (a big collection of 3d assets inspired from the book), we would see a cobination of surreal images of the city of Venice. In addition, the players, who immerse in that world, can, also, create their own avatars, which are designed to resemble the famous carnival custumes of Venice, as an element of the local tradition of the cityzens. This 3d Virtual game, which aspires to become a playful way for the cityzens to re-read the city in a new playful context, becomes a puzzle of assets where the pieces can be placed in different and varied ways. From these combinations, we come up with, infinitely, unique results. Ideally, this plattform will be the cornerstone for revealing the true city’s image through the play. In other words, through this virtual reality game users can escape from the real world and live a virtual life while, at the same time, the player will have the chance to map the city’s multiple experiences and to explore the neglected and hidden aspects of the urban fabric.

Certainly, this study offers clear evidence of how Venice could it be, from the eye of “invisible Cities”, in a 3d digital context. However, one alternative approach would be to design a 2d and not a 3d version of the game, like it happens to other games like the “overly attached cute”. This version of the game might be easier for the player to use it, but probably less attractive and innovative than a 3d Version one. That’s why I decided to focus

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on the 3d Version. It was, for sure, a very interesting “journey” for me. Unfortunately, due to the big load of 3d objects, I have created and to the time I had for this thesis, it was very difficult for me to put all the scenes (26 cities) together in one Unity scene/file (as it is in the map of Venice). Therefore, I decided that it was better to do it one by one. At the end, I managed to produce 26 Unity scenes (with their .exe files) but in some of thems you have to be patient, in order to load and play them. For that reason, I have created 26 videos / screencasts of each scene-city, that I have put them in SD cards, for convenience. Moreover, further investigation could be done into adding more interactivity in the scenes. Adding narration by sound effects would also improve the experience of the player, as it would further evoke emotional content. Last but not least, I hope one day, by putting all my ideas across, to make this game functionable and playable but unfortunately, I need some computing and coding skills that I do not have yet.

To sum up, I will borrow the words of Silia Nikolaidou (The social organization of urban space, 1993) which I consider as representative for what we should get from this project: «Today, the role of those who need to build living spaces, is difficult, because apart from technical knowledge they must have intuition, sensitivity and imagination. They must be vibrating for the beautiful. They must have a memory. They want to make others wish. To dream and to make the others to dream. To live, in order to give life in forms that do not exist, and to live in the lives that will live within them. They can shut up life in four walls, let it fly freely. They need to learn to love, to be happy. They need to learn to watch, to learn to listen. It is a pity that we have not learned to see our homes as ships ready to travel. We surely secured the doors and windows. We wanted solids to resist in order to dominate the space, to hide the time. We made them shimmering in our fears, but we were naked to adorn them. We did not love them. It is a pity that we have not learned to build our homes like dreams. It’s a pity that we did not learn to live like hopeless.!»

REFERENCES

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 1

Archigram. (1999). Archigram. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press.

Balkin, J., and Noveck, B. (Eds.). (2006). The State of Play| Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds, New York, NY: New York University Press. pp. 13-54.

Calvino, I. (1978). Invisible Cities. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Calvino, I. (1988). Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Coyne, R., and Parker, M. (2009). Voice and space: The agency of the acousmêtre in spatial design. In P. Turner, S. Turner, and E. Davenport (Eds.), Exploration of Space, Technology and Spatiality: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. pp 5-19.

Crawford, Chris. (1982). Electronic Book: The Art of Computer Game Design. Vancouver: Washington State University. [3 October 2016] (www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html)

Eaton, R. (2002). Ideal Cities: utopianism and the (un)built environment, London, United Kingdom: Thames & Hudson.

Foscari, J. (2014). Elements of Venice, Zurich, Switzerland: Lars Muller Publishers.

Jenkins, H. (2004). ‘Game design as narrative architecture’. In K. Salen and E. Zimmerman (Eds), The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp 670-689.

Koolhas, R., and Mau, B. (1995). Small-Medium-Large-Extra Large. Rotterdam, Holland: 010 Publishers.

Modena, L. (2011). Italo Calvino’s Architecture of Lightness, New York, NY: Routledge editions.

Nikolaidou, S. (1993). Η κοινωνική οργάνωση του αστικού χώρου [The social organization of urban space]. Athens, Greece: Papazisis editions.

Peponis, G. (2003). Χωρογραφίες, ο αρχιτεκτονικός σχηματισμός του νοήματος [Choreographies: the architectural form of the meaning]. Athens, Greece: Alexandria editions.

Rabin, S. (2005). Introduction to Game Development. Hingham, Massachusetts: Charles River Media. pp 38-50.

Rossi, A., and Eisenman, P. (1982). The architecture of the city. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Soja, E. W. (1996). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other Real-and-Imagined Places. Boston, USA: Blackwell Publishers.

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Venturi, R. (1977). Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art.

Venturi, R., Brown, D. S., and Izenour, S. (1977). Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Wigley, M. (1998). Constantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New Babylon â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Hyper Architecture. New York, NY: Centre of Contemporary Art.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1068/a130117p

http://www.eutropiafestival.it/invisible-cities/

http://secondlife.com

https://www.thesims.com/store/mac-pc-download-base-game-standard-edition

http://overlyattachedcute.com/index.html

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L IST

OF ΙMAGES

INTRODUCTION 1

http://hopedragon.deviantart.com/art/Invisible-Cities-Book-Cover-design-420754841

CHAPTER Α 1 2 3 4 5

http://www.artnet.com/artists/wayne-thiebaud/ http://eosvector.deviantart.com/art/4-Horsemen-DEATH-106687007 https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/the-disappearing-act-italo-calvino-s-invisible-cities/ http://jayrcelasecondlifetechnologist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/inworldz-and-viewer-1441.html http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2015/11/second-life-gdp-totals-500-million/

CHAPTER Β 1 2

own work Peponis, G. (2003). Χωρογραφίες, ο αρχιτεκτονικός σχηματισμός του νοήματος [Choreographies: the architectural form of the meaning]. Athens, Greece: Alexandria editions, p 51. 3 - 57 http://www.eutropiafestival.it/invisible-cities/

CHAPTER C 1 2

Foscari, J. (2014). Elements of Venice, Zurich, Switzerland: Lars Muller Publishers. Peponis, G. (2003). Χωρογραφίες, ο αρχιτεκτονικός σχηματισμός του νοήματος [Choreographies: the architectural form of the meaning]. Athens, Greece: Alexandria editions, p 51.

CHAPTER D 1,2 3,4 5

https://www.thesims.com/store/mac-pc-download-base-game-standard-edition http://secondlife.com http://overlyattachedcute.com/index.html

SOFTWARE USED 1. Autodesk Maya 2. Autodesk 3ds Max 3. Adobe Photoshop 4. Unity 5. Autodesk Autocad 6. Adobe Premiere 7. Adobe InDesign

REFERENCES

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USED Î&#x2122;N GAME

IMAGES - TEXTURES USED 1

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.matrix&hl=el

https://sp.depositphotos.com/106929278/stock-illustration-source-code-screen.html

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-3905027-stock-footage-binary-codes-background-loopable.html

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-18285160-stock-footage-screen-with-fast-changing-blinkingand-scrolling-binary-codes-words-listing-red-error-fault.html?src=search:keyword/oc-ZK-qoIwl_OaCh 7vHXqA:1:7/gg

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-138262-stock-footage-laptop-flyby-with-code-on-screen-and -in-background-ntsc.html

https://sanejoker.info/2016/08/system-failure.html

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/science-futuristic-retro-high-computer-technology-186029102

http://videolar.co/s--cmd-matrix-code--1501385895

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-3808376-stock-footage-maths-equations-appearing-in-chalk -on-board-animation.html

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-1421233-stock-footage--d-mathematics-very-spectacular-colorful -animation-numbers-flying-in-d-space-and-arranging-in-a.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/galleries/fascinating-early-photographs-ofvenice/venice9/

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Venezia-_Ponte_di_Rialto-_1875_Carlo_Naya.jpg

https://www.canalettogallery.org/

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/destinations/navigating-venices-ancient-alleys-with-century -oldguidebooks/article35043758/

https://venipedia.it/it/archivio-fotografico-storico/chioggia-mercato-del-pesce-ii

http://www.anglistikdidaktikwiki.uni-jena.de/index.php?title=The_Merchant_of_Venice

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2daf2d/this_spooky_bridge_is_where_prisoners_in_old/

http://mikeandrewphotography.com/venice-collection/

http://www.getty.edu/art/mobile/center/eyewitness/list.php

http://barber.org.uk/francesco-guardi-1712-1793/

SOUNDS USED https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuAGGZNfUkU Hans Zimmer - Time NOTE: All the sounds used in the game were taken, by my own, from my travel in Venice last year.