a triptych on erotic ri(gh)t(e)s
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Three papers on erotic rights. That was the task. To begin, let’s define erotic. And define rights. Or is it rites? Erotic: the excess or suppression of human need which by nature is transgressive or taboo. Rights: principles of entitlement outlined in the social contract The first paper was written with chalk on the city. As we discovered the writing of Foucault, Bataille, and Tschumi, we transcribed their ideas onto architecture. In this act we explored transgression and right, identity and label. The erotic evaded us. The second paper was a film that asked what is erotic? act 1: excess act 2: transgression act 3: obsession Complete with footnotes and a bibliography, the film questioned the concept of essay. Stills are laid out on the following page.
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The third paper was a triptych. Loosely based on Bosch’s Garden of Earthly delights, it concentrates on Boston’s Copley Square. The triptych explores eroticism through excess, transgression, and obsession. It explores rights in utopia and the public square. On the left door is a plan of Copley Square, Trinity Church is cut out as a rose window. The right door is the facade of the Hancock Tower. The inner left door is a Garden of Eden scene, a story of transgression and a construct of society that has defined gender for centuries. The inner right door is a section perspective of the Hancock Tower. Barbie dolls in taboo dress and positions occupy the floors. The floor sections consist of icing. The central diorama is a depiction of utopia. The buildings consist of earlobes, nostrils, and outstretched hands. Utopia resides under a bridge, referencing the arch of heaven and common homeless resting places. A knob spins the background to change the characters in the windows and the sky from day to night. A miniature swing dangles amongst billboards. The box was finished. It raised more questioned than it had answered, like a true essay. It left me asking, what is erotic architecture? Tschumi says “Architecture seems to survive in its erotic capacity only wherever it negates itself.” It wasn’t until I stood in Barragan’s Tlalpan Chapel and momentarily forgot my hunger and thirst that I thought, maybe this is erotic. If a work of architecture can strip us of human need, then indulging in such acts become excesses. Now, what did this have to do with utopia? This required defining utopia. Utopia is less like an island and more like the weather: rebellious and intangible, evoking illusion and inviting fantasy. These facets of utopia arouse critiques of what is, and what could be. Fragments of utopia are cast all over the urban landscape: the Hancock Tower illustrates transience in its transmuting, chameleon-like facade, Diller, Scofidio + Renfro master illusion in the screen-like media lab window, snow takes the city under siege, overnight a blanket covers it in a new facade. The city is forced to change. Streets become battlegrounds as drifts transgress their borders.
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