(RE)COLLECTION: SHADOWS OF OUR FUTURE Study Center for Japanese Art and Culture Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“THE BRIDGE GATHERS TO ITSELF IN ITS OWN WAY EARTH AND SKY, DIVINITIES AND MORTALS.” - Martin Heidegger, “Building, Dwelling, Thinking” Poetry, Language, Thought
Histories run parallel, but memories intersect. Examining the scales of a global history and architecture, the project investigation seeks to demonstrate the elastic relationship between architectural artifacts and memory. Furthermore, it aims to reveal the complexity and richness of the intersection of time, space, and place. This phenomenon creates opportunities for spaces that are voids for contemplation and frames for observation allowing for a dynamic dialogue between the artifacts within and beyond. Boston’s new artifact is a monster that is constantly (r)evolving. The unique relationship to the viewer produces a transformative state, which demonstrates the struggle between cultural traditions and modern tendencies. Reconsidering the museum expansion, spatially and programmatically, transforms its narrative and leads to the development of a new myth; a myth that begins both at the scale of the body and the city, simultaneously carving through time towards the constructed center.
Happily, I have tethered the Treasure Ship, My dream on the first night of New Year Beneath the floating bridge. Translation
Utagawa Kunisada Floating Bridge of Dreams (Yume no ukihashi), 1854. Published by Sanoki. Color woodblock print, ch没ban, 10 in. x 7 1/2 in.
“The Atomic Age is here to stay - but are we?� Bennett Cerf
The mushroom cloud rising over Nagasaki, Japan.
Illustration showing Astro Boy’s inner machinary
Mighty Atom being disowned by his creator as seen in the orginal comic by Osamu Tezuka
Monoprint and watercolor
MONSTERS AND METABOLISM
This investigation seeks to demonstrate the capacity of a cultural artifact to inform the making of space both two and three dimensionally. Astro Boy originated in a post-war Japan that promised a positive future through robotics. Astro Boy’s personal narrative demonstrates the struggle between cultural traditions and modern tendencies. The byproduct of this investigation is a monster. It is an artifact, but not a dated product of circumstances that exist solely in a given time period, but an artifact that is ever changing.
ZOOM: CITY TO SITE
Our histories run parallel, but somewhere our memories intersect
How will the search affect us?
Maybe we will meet in the center?
MUSEUM SCHEMA
Through varying experimentation, the re-representation of the artifact through the point of view of time, space, and place will transform the conceptualization of a study center for contemporary Japanese art and culture that includes a gallery, library, restaurant, and office spaces.
A Bridge to the Floating World, 2 Graphite
A Bridge to the Floating World, 3 Graphite
(Opposite) A Bridge to the Floating World, 1 Graphite
Initial section of Propsal #1
Initial drawing of constructed Center
Early digital study of Center
WHAT ARTIFACT WOULD YOU LEAVE BEHIND FOR YOU, FOR ME, FOR US?
MATTHEW BOHNE Advanced Studio, Fall 2013 Transformer: A Japanese Pavilion for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Laura Briggs & Warren Schwartz Final Review, December 13, 2013