S-I LAB_Mid sem_Group 1 Journal by Mingjie Zhang

S-I LAB ABPL90422

GROUP_1 JOURNAL

CONTENTS A. INTRODUCTION (P. 3–4) B. POINTS (P. 16-17) C. LINES (P. 20-31) D. SURFACES (P. 34-45) E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY (P. 48-59) P. 2

A. INTRODUCTION (PP. 3-4)

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B. POINT (PP. 6-17)

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B. POINT. GROUP_ 1. READING

Reading: Mario Carpo, Alberti’s media lab

‘Arberti’s Media Lab’ by Mario Carpo investigates the parallels between manuscript transmission technologies of the late Middle Ages and contemporary data compression algorithms. Foundationally, both systems share the same objective – minimize the quantity of data whilst preserving the fidelity of information. Pursuant to this, Alberti developed a primitive version of codified data which he used to mitigate the effect of ‘Mouvance’. He further investigated his algorithms by coupling them with mechanical tools such as the revolving instruments discussed in ‘De statua’ (figure a). Effectively, Alberti’s technique mimicked the generation of point clouds in modern 3D Lidar technologies.

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The idea of digitization and codification of information perhaps stems from Alberti’s pursuit of accuracy and authorship. Evidently, his obsession with ‘identicality’ is pervasive throughout his popular theory that ‘a building is an identical copy of the architect’s design’. However, Carpo suggests that the modern power of the identical came to an end with the rise of digital technologies. To Carpo, ‘The pursuit of identicality between a copy and an invisible original is per se a paradox’.

Today, the idea of an ‘invisible original’ has shifted from a physical unfamiliarity to digital entanglement. Advanced 3D scanning technologies allows for immaculate replications of the ‘original’ and modern software enables lossless data transfers. However, the problem of ‘invisibility’ remains as the complexity of information within specialized programs become incomprehensible to the average user/architect. This paradox of identicality is further explored in texts such as ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ by Jean Baudrillard. In his treatise, Baudrillard investigates the successive phases of ‘representation’ as it degrades from ‘profound reality’ towards ‘pure simulacrum’. This idea of degradation or misalignment is also discussed in Matthew Shaw and William Trossell’s ‘Digital Doppelgangers’. In their text, Shaw and Trossell investigates the significance of false information or ‘Noise’. They question whether these ‘shadows’ are telltales of the fact that digitized spaces cannot compete with the real. If the spirit of the ‘game’ is not to replicate identically but to improve upon, how could architects use 3D scanning technologies to improve the current architectural practice?

a°

(X,a,Z)

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B. POINT. GROUP_ 1. RESEARCH

The team experienced unprecedented access to some of the world’s most known treasures and most recent archaeological finds, guided by on-lieu experts and archeologists. Often access was complex but exciting - abseiling 20 meters down through a manhole cover into underground aqueduct in Athens or delicately picking our way in pitch black, solid rock tunnels in the Pyramids. The result is some of the most comprehensive scanning achieved for these structure, in an unprecedented level of colour, accuracy and detail.

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In Cairo we explore the pyramids, structures which have dominated the Nile landscape for thousands of years. We discover how the engineering and design skills of the ancient Egyptians developed and how in as little as 80 years they master the art of constructing one of the wonders of the ancient world. We look at how modern Cairo is founded and how Saladin’s defensive forts dug deep into the bedrock in search of a source of fresh water to last out Christian Crusader sieges. And we attempt to unravel the riddle of the Sphinx by scanning and comparing depictions of both Khufu and Khafre from the Egyptian Museum to look for a family resemblance.

B. POINT. GROUP_ 1. RESEARCH

Where East and West collide, Istanbul has been at the centre of trade and the heart of some of the ancient world’s most powerful empires. Commanded by the Greeks, Romans, Venetians and Ottomans, the city’s location on the peninsula and its defensive walls came to play an important role in the city’s history. An ambitious attempt to map the whole city and its walls is undertaken by the team using a helicopter and photogrammetric scanning technology, concluding in one of the most stunning and detailed city wide scans ever completed. The team also descended on the Hagia Sophia, one of the world oldest churches - now a mosque - to scan and inspect its wobbly looking dome. One of the oldest cities in the world, here we look at the birthplace of democracy. The Acropolis with its proportion, symmetry and architectural golden ratios are all put to the test by the scanner. Its accuracy and forensic detail are the perfect tools of unpicking the narratives woven into the design of the Erechtheion Temple. We pick up traces of Athens defensive walls and naval ship sheds, pivotal in repelling attacks by the Persians, Ottomans and Sparta. Outside Athens we trace the veins of silver ore with the scanner as the narrow tunnels disappear deep into the hillsides.

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1. VR immersive view in the Caryatids Porch of the Erechtheion 2. Ground LIDAR scan of the Great Pyramid, Giza, Egypt 3. Ground LIDAR scan of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul 4. Aerial and ground LIDAR scan of the Erechtheion Temple in the Athens Acropolis 5. Ground LIDAR scan of Khufu and Khafre with face recognition

B. POINT. GROUP_ 1.

Jingyi Liu 911702

B. POINT. GROUP_ 1.

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Jingyi Liu 911702

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ABOVE: ORTHOGRAPHIC - AXO BOTTOM: PERSPECTIVE

B. POINT. GROUP_ 1.

Shi Pan 904920

B. POINT. GROUP_ 1.

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Shi Pan 904920

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ABOVE: ORTHOGRAPHIC - SECTION BOTTOM: PERSPECTIVE

B. POINT. GROUP_ 1.

Minghi Park 921549

B. POINT. GROUP_ 1.

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Minghi Park 921549

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ABOVE: ORTHOGRAPHIC - SECTION BOTTOM: PERSPECTIVE

ABOVE: ORTHOGRAPHIC - AXO BOTTOM: PERSPECTIVE

B. POINT. GROUP_ 1.

Mingjie Zhang 910787

B. POINT. GROUP_ 1.

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Mingjie Zhang 910787

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ABOVE: ORTHOGRAPHIC - SECTION BOTTOM: PERSPECTIVE

ABOVE: ORTHOGRAPHIC - AXO BOTTOM: PERSPECTIVE

C. LINES (PP. 20-31)

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C. LINE. GROUP_ 1. READING

Reading: Antoine Picon, From tectonic to ornament: towards a different materiality

With the digitization of architectural design, ornamental practices, which have previously been regarded as supplementary, have perhaps been given a new opportunity to thrive; in the age of 3D printing and voxelization, decoration no longer entails a supplemental expense. As a result, ‘tectonic’ concerns are being increasingly overshared, outshone by the virtual. Antoine Picon labels this shifting content of materiality as ‘the crisis of tectonic’. He suggests that the representational authorship traditionally assigned to ‘objects’ have been shifted to the ‘abstract’. This new paradigm of fluidity could be reflective of the new organizational principles of computational technologies. Electronic components are no longer assembled according to geometric or mechanical schemes. Instead, they are layered ‘networks’ of hardware and software. This looser type of relation based on ‘interfacing’ is further actualized with the rise of information and ‘Big Data’. This ‘digital turn’ introduced a non-human and post-mechanical methodology that required architects to fundamentally P. 20 update their mindset. With this new digital mindset, architects must ‘search’ from a large archive of data, instead of ‘sorting’ through scientific induction.

This non-linear, fields-based methodology is manifested in the formal attributes of virtuality – smoothness and fractality. These new material qualities are indifferent to traditional hierarchies and scales, resulting in the blurring between infrastructure and superstructure. This organizational fluidity redefined the relationship between the natural-artificial and human-virtual. Architects must learn to navigate through this borderless and distributed technological landscape. Arguably, without ‘irreducible properties’, innovative design technology struggles to delineate its objective value. The ‘teleology of assemblage’, endorsed by Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, regulated the perception of architects to a strictly Newtonian scale. This allowed architecture to resonate with the human experience. Furthermore, as evident in Stereotomy, tectonics lead to the incorporation of contingent necessities into the composition. We must question whether digital technologies propel the expansion of the architectural field or if it’s a superficial pursuit of the ‘sensational’. P. 21

C. LINE. GROUP_ 1. RESEARCH

WATES HOUSE - 22 GORDON STREET

HAMPSTEAD ROAD

In early 2017, the Bartlett School of Architecture moved back into a transformed home at 22 Gordon Street (formerly Wates House) on UCL’s Bloomsbury Campus. The £30 million refurbishment and extension was carried out by architects Hawkins\Brown as part of UCL’s Bloomsbury Campus Refurbishments project.

During the renovation of Gordon Street, The Bartlett occupied a temporary home on Hampstead Road. The former warehouse buildings were an empty shell across 3 floors before the 2014 Hawkins Brown designed renovation took place. The renovated space contained digital fabrication suites, workshops, studios, offices, IT Labs, a cafe, lecture theatres and exhibition space.

The first scans of Wates House were taken in the final weeks before the 1building was vacated in 2014, and a further 900 scans were added during the 2017 Bartlett Summer Show in its newly refabricated home. The resulting data set was assembled and overlaid to create two digital pointcloud models. The dual phases of the film vividly reveal the substantial change in space and scale brought about by the refurbishment. Capturing these spaces before and after renovations and subsequent occupation by the Faculties with over 2500 scans, detailing every studio nook and corridor crany, the transformation animation overlays the past and the present day P. 22 school. HAMPSTEAD ROAD

The structure is scanned before and after renovation, complete with occupation. Key to the visualisation here is a technique of time swiping across the 3D data set as the camera moves. As the camera moves through space two versions of the building, from different times, are present and interchanged.

1. WATES House 2.Hampstead Road 3.Hampstead Road, 5 years later.

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4&5. Hampstead Road, scanned plan view 6. Here East, side by side comparison

C. LINE. GROUP_ 1.

Jingyi Liu 911702

C. LINE. GROUP_ 1.

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Jingyi Liu 911702

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ABOVE: ORTHOGRAPHIC - PLAN BOTTOM: ORTHOGRAPHIC - SECTION_APSE

DETAIL: ORTHOGRAPHIC - SECTION_APSE

C. LINE. GROUP_ 1.

Shi Pan 904920

C. LINE. GROUP_ 1.

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Shi Pan 904920

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ABOVE: ORTHOGRAPHIC - PLAN BOTTOM: ORTHOGRAPHIC - SECTION

DETAIL: ORTHOGRAPHIC - AXO_TRANSEPT

C. LINE. GROUP_ 1.

Minghi Park 921549

C. LINE. GROUP_ 1.

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Minghi Park 921549

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ABOVE: ORTHOGRAPHIC - PLAN_NAVE BOTTOM: ORTHOGRAPHIC - SECTION_TRANSEPT

DETAIL: ORTHOGRAPHIC - SECTION_NAVE ISLE

C. LINE. GROUP_ 1.

Mingjie Zhang 910787

C. LINE. GROUP_ 1.

Mingjie Zhang 910787

2000

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P. 31 9000

ABOVE: ORTHOGRAPHIC - PLAN BOTTOM: ORTHOGRAPHIC - SECTION_APSE

DETAIL: ORTHOGRAPHIC - SECTION_NARTHEX

D. SURFACE (PP. 34-45)

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D. SURFACE. GROUP_ 1. READING

Reading: John May, Everything is already an image

In the article ‘Everything is already an image’, John May investigates the tectonic differences between image, drawing and photography. Furthermore, he uncovers how these fundamental differences have informed the status of computational images in architectural theory and works. His investigation is conducted through technical and ‘literal’ examination of three categories of visual depiction: drawings, photographs and images. According to May, the fundamental parameters that define the three categories are the mechanical, mathematical, chemical, ways these depictions are signalized. Most noteworthy of May’s definitions is his categorization of Images as data. He defines an image as a quantified and mathematized storage of real-time ‘presentation’ of the world. The idea of ‘image as data’ is explored by Richard Mosse who utilizes a multispectral

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camera to capture environmental damage in the amazon. The multispectral camera allowed him to capture bandwidths of reflected light which are beyond the perception of the human eye. Within these spectral bands were environmental data that carried traces of environmental damage and degradation. Mosse than visualized this information through a GIS software, creating vivid topographies. Using this logic of real-time modeling, Mosse considers a novel imaginative framework that differs from conventional orthographic imagination. Mosse’s depiction of environmental degradation in the amazon perhaps occupies an area between photographs and images. Although originally captured through a mechanical-chemical instrument, his final depictions function as photo-detections of real-time data.

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D. SURFACE. GROUP_ 1. RESEARCH

Ancient Roman Church - Wire Mesh Reconstruction Italian artist Edoardo Tresoldi who specializes in creating wire mesh sculptures. has used wire to recreate an early Christian church on an archaeological site in Siponto, a port town in southern Italy. The huge installation is located on the site of a church built in the Roman settlement between the 11th and 12th centuries, but deserted following earthquakes in the 13th century. The uncertainty of structural elements has given Edoardo the freedom to imagine and recreate the form, the resulting structure is porous and also resemblant of the original.

“The work of Edoardo Tresoldi appears as a majestic architecture sculpture able to tell the volumes of existing early Christian church and at the same time able to vivify, updating it, the relationship between the ancient and the contemporary,” said curator Simone Pallotta.

When examining the sculptural architecture, one can draw significant parallels between its visual properties and that of point clouds. As both mediums can be perceived as simulacra of the real, giving the freedom to artists for recreation and imagination.

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1-4. Ancient Roman Church - Wire Mesh Reconstruction 5. Artist: Edoardo Tresoldi

D. SURFACE. GROUP_ 1

Jingyi Liu 911702

D. SURFACE. GROUP_ 1

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Jingyi Liu 911702

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FRAGMENT DETAIL RENDER_ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

FRAGMENT DETAIL RENDER_MSD OLD FACADE

D. SURFACE. GROUP_ 1

Shi Pan 904920

D. SURFACE. GROUP_ 1

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Shi Pan 904920

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FRAGMENT DETAIL RENDER_ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

FRAGMENT DETAIL RENDER_BRANDENBURG GATE

D. SURFACE. GROUP_ 1

Minghi Park 921549

D. SURFACE. GROUP_ 1

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Minghi Park 921549

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FRAGMENT DETAIL RENDER_ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

FRAGMENT DETAIL RENDER_MSD OLD FACADE

D. SURFACE. GROUP_ 1

Mingjie Zhang 910787

D. SURFACE. GROUP_ 1

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Mingjie Zhang 910787

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FRAGMENT DETAIL RENDER_ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

FRAGMENT DETAIL RENDER_MSD OLD FACADE

E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY (PP. 48-59)

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E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP_ 1. RESEARCH

SIMULACRA BENJAMIN BARDOUR We have only bits and pieces of information but what we know for certain is that we know nothing about the initial event.

Others evoke a planned global attack similar to the massive bombing by the Versailles troops carried out on Paris on May 1st, 1871.

Some talk about the result of pure and simple accident. An insignificant clumsiness resulting in an unstoppable chain reaction that would have led to a generalized catastrophe.

Others think that it is a slow natural collapse linked to the death instinct of each civilization. Be that as it may, Paris, as we knew it at the beginning of the twenty-first century, has totally disappeared. Only palaces and ruined streets remain.

DISSOLVING REALITIES RUBENFRO

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“An exploration of real-time photogrammetry as a medium to document reality in the VR/AR/XR era. Slices of street life, captured with 360 cameras in only a couple of seconds, and brought to life by a proprietary Unity shader in real time, specifically created to render point clouds in a cinematic and immersive way. “ The technic tends to pause the captured reality in a static time-space continuum and re-experience the scenery in a subjective cinematic way.

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THE END BENJAMIN BARDOUR It seems these rustling leaves, this silence vast Blend into one. Eternity draws nigh. The present sounds and seasons, those long past Become one sea of endless lives and deaths. My thought is drowned, and yet it does not die: It plunges into sweet, refreshing depths. »

E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP_ 1. RESEARCH

Conventional mesh modelling

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Photogrammetry + point cloud

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CYBERPUNK 2077 BRAIN DANCE 2077 adopts the point cloud aesthetic and made it an important aspect of the game. In the developer’s interpretation, data are extracted from recording devices and combined into a virtual space for exploration. Not only spatial data is recorded, but also sound and heat signatures, which can be toggled as separate layers to display key informations are may not be perceived by the recorder at the time of events.

HOLOVERSE EUCLIDEON POINT CLOUD & GEOVERSE Applying scanned data to the video game industry - point cloud is able to match a similar, if not higher level of detail compared to traditional mesh models with a lower resource consumption. The transition from triangle to points may become more prominent in the upcoming years, in gaming, movies and VRs.

E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP_ 1

Jingyi Liu 911702

E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP_ 1

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Jingyi Liu 911702

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SCAN OF GARDEN ELEMENTS

ABOVE: BEST DOG IN THE UNIVERSE SCAN OF ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS_BEDROOM

E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP_ 1

Shi Pan 904920

E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP_ 1

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Shi Pan 904920

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SCAN OF ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS_OLD QUAD

SCAN OF GARDEN ELEMENTS_TEMPLE OF WINDS

E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP_ 1

Minghi Park 921549

E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP_ 1

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Minghi Park 921549

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SCAN OF GARDEN ELEMENTS

SCAN OF ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS_M PAVILION

E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP_ 1

Mingjie Zhang 910787

E. PHOTOGRAMMETRY. GROUP_ 1

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Mingjie Zhang 910787

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SCAN OF ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS_FOUNTAIN

SCAN OF GARDEN ELEMENTS

F. TELEMATIC GARDEN PROPOSAL (PP. 62-64)

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F. TELEMATIC GARDEN PROPOSAL. GROUP_ 1

MARCEL DUCHAMP 1887 - 1968 Nude Descending a Staircase No.2 1912

Marcel Duchamp was a French painter, sculptor, artist, whose works are associated with Cubism and Dada. One of his main influence in the art world is the concept of art being felt intellectually, not visually. Most prominently, the idea of “readymades”, which is a series of artistic installations made by combining multiple utilitarian, mass-produced objects. The intention was usually to subvert the expectation of what art should be. P. 62

The fact that, by merely choosing the objects and giving it a name/concept was enough to validate “art”. This idea deviates wildly from the conventional notion which stresses for the visual beauty.

‘In 1912 ... the idea of describing the movement of a nude coming downstairs while still retaining static visual means to do this, particularly interested me. The fact that I had seen chronophotographs of fencers in action and horse galloping gave me the idea for the Nude. It doesn’t mean that I copied these photographs. The Futurists were also interested in somewhat the same idea, though I was never a Futurist. And of course the motion picture with its cinematic techniques was developing then too. The whole idea of movement, of speed, was in the air.’

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F. TELEMATIC GARDEN PROPOSAL. GROUP_ 1

Étant donnés 1946 - 1966

• “A realistically constructed simulacrum of a naked woman lying spread-eagle on a bed of dead twigs and fallen leaves. “ • Producing a picture without a picture plane, or a painting without a canvas • Negation of the picture plane (picture plane being a dark wall) • The element that has been negated has turn to be the essense of the work • The ‘framing’ creates an illutional reality. Free it self from interpretation, produces more presentation than representation.

Bicycle Wheel 1913

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“An ordinary object [could be] elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.” The fact that, by merely choosing the objects and giving it a name/ concept was enough to validate “art”. This idea deviates wildly from the conventional notion which stresses for the visual beauty. This piece is aimed at shifting viewers’ engagement with works of art from what Duchamp called the “retinal” (pleasing to the eye) to the “intellectual” (in “the service of the mind”)

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