Converse / Construct by Patrick Brady

converse construct Patrick Brady

Architecture creates experience. It can condition its inhabitants to generate specific emotions. It can be provocative, questioned, cold, hot, subtle, simple, and complex but can it be conversational physically, visually, and intellectually. The act of conversation provides a unique base for the expression of interactive architecture - architecture that suggests conversation and breeds social realms for the interaction of people. Within architectural dialog their are various styles derived from specific periods and contexts yet all remain stale. Architecture must once again be experienced, discussed, critiqued, if it intends to be timeless; everlasting. There is an opportunity, a vacancy, untapped awaiting translation. Converse / Construct explores the art of conversation and its link to the Greek Agora, public space, and demos, the people. People define spaces attracting others while conditioning experience. They influence the democratic as people seek to connect. The transmission of thoughts and ideas from one to another is the purist form of interaction, it is undoubtatley human. It deliberately establishes personal connections presenting itself as the seed of public space. Without conversation there is no connection, no democratic, no common ground for people to interact. As a design student obsessed with conversation, I seek to be provocative, innovative, unconventional, and assertive. ________________________________________________ Influences: Rosalyn Deutsche, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Costas Varotsos, David Benjamin, Mark Wigley, Jeffrey Kipnis, Amy Cuddy, Julian Treasure, Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Jurgen Habermas, Douglass Darden, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Giroux. ________________________________________________ Acknowledgements: I would like to give a special thanks to Zenovia Toloudi for her enthusiastic support, drive, and appriciation for the unconventional. You taught me to question everything, explore anything, and experiment endlessly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Never Stopâ&#x20AC;? I would also like to thank the following professors for their support and guidance each challenging my ideas while offering input: Lora Kim, Michael Grogan, Marc Neveu, Ben Peterson, Jonathan Foote, and Carol Burns. Lastly I would like to thank my parents, Jeannine and Aaron Brady, who raised me to be the man that i am today. ________________________________________________ External Links: www.patrick-brady.com www.openthegarage.com

Table of Contents: Abstract Research Experiment / Explore Publish / Exhibit The Garage Conclusion Appendices

8 12 - 18 19 - 60 61 - 77 78 - 155 156 - 157 159 - 163

Public space is a site of enactment. It belongs to no one, yet we all are a part of it and can bring meaning to it. Krysztof Wodiczko

An Abstract

Public works not only allude to democracy as a form of government, but also to the general democratic spirit of egalitarianism: Do the works avoid elitism? Are they accessible? To resurface the nature of the ancient Greek Agora in a contemporary context, conversation must be understood as the seed of public space. This acknowledgment provides the framework for a new form of public architecture that is physical, dialogical, and critical. Where public works have failed curation, exhibitions, and publications have initiated public dialog. Concurrently the public sphere has evolved vacant as sociological interests have become digital with new technologies offering a platform for constant connection. Despite our ability to share and access information freely we have fallen victim to mediated interaction. Architectural experience has been sacrificed by the Internets vast accessibility. We have reached a moment where technology must be questioned considering its affects on society, our relationships, and our experiences. Public architecture must be understood in regards to atmosphere, the conditions of space, its experiential qualities, and its level of engagement rather than its contour. The critique, use, and understanding of spatial works are democratic qualities offering insight for the creation of a contemporary form of Agora found in publications and installations. Publications allow architecture to become textual, timeless, and provoking within conversations providing critical discourse while installations initiate physical engagement. Public space ultimately is no longer a plaza, square, or cafĂŠ; it instead redefines itself as a dialog asserted into the physical world with architectural journals and installations being their surrogate. To create conversation is to engage the public forcing their participatory criticism and dialogical response.

A Question

How can the act of conversation be integrated into an architectural dialog influencing our relationships?

Key Terms

Agora : (greek noun) Gathering place or assembly. Center of athletic, artistic, spiritual, and political life. Demos : (greek noun) The common people. Democratic society, democracy. Conversation : (noun) Progressional exchange of thoughts between participants. talk. Language : (noun) A system of formalized symbols, signs, sounds, and gestures used or conceived as a means of communication. Linguistics : (noun) The science of language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pargmatics. Phonetics : (noun) The study of speech sounds and their production, transmission, and reception, and their analysis, classification, and transcription. Relationship : (noun) Connection, association, or involvement between two. Often associated with emotional connections or ties amongst people. Public space : (noun) Accessible spaces for a collective. Associated with parks, plazas, and democratic spaces. Dialog : (noun) Conversation between two or more persons. Architectural : visual and spatial conversations within the built environment. Comparison between architectural styles and methods. Confrontation : (noun) An act of confronting, being faced with hostility or defiance; opposed. Construct : (verb) To build or form by putting together parts; frame; devise; to draw. Project : (verb) To assert ones thoughts, feelings, or actions onto another. Conjecture : (noun) The formation or expression of an opinion or theory without sufficient evidence for proof; guess; speculation; hypothesize. Aspirate : (verb) To articulate a beginning (typically associated with speech by emphasizing the beginning of a word or syllable)

What Relevance

Conversation is the seed of public space. In contemporary society the definition of public space has shifted into a virtual world in which people become overstimulated by constant connect. As a result they seek to share without commitment resulting in a failure to establish strong relationships. In a sense social media is the most accessible means to share ones ideas. These ideas, however, are abbreviated and diluted to emoticons and poor syntax without any strong voice. This virtual world continues to cater to the accessibility of connection preventing people from experiencing the dynamics that exist in actual conversation: stutters, pauses, and intensity. Why take the effort to go talk to someone when you can merely text? This action results in people using each other to feel connected. However it is more accurate that we are all alone together without an ability to identify ourselves without the influence of others. We are setting ourselves up to be connected without a cause. Do we really need smart phones, facebook, and social media? Are they creating false anxiety; can we be alone? Are we more comfortable knowing we have someone else at our fingertips and not in our lives? This thesis attempts to address these contemporary problems by understanding how we catalog experiences and communicate with others. If conversation feeds democracy and our relationships maybe it can influence the spaces we inhabit to establish a contemporary form of Agora. To do this we must converse and construct.

What is Converse / Construct ? It is a thesis, an idea, a working model, but more importantly an exploration of conversation and its effect on public space. The title is divided intentional to represent a fraction. Converse, the numerator (the top part of the fraction ultimately describing totality or portion), speaks to the act of communicating with an other; to project oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thoughts, emotions, and ideas translating them into a form of language - a process of dissemination, projection, or assertion. Construct, the denominator (bottom part of the fraction describing the number of units per whole), refers to the process of building or creating. This fraction highlights the process of creating public works in an attempt to establish a contemporary form of Agora.

Contemporary Conversation: A research paper

Conversation is the progression of exchanges among participants. Its process involves the transmission of intent from one to another. As a result, conversation defines the public realms we inhabit, establishing itself as the seed for public space. These conversations offer insight into personal connections with space and others, thus generating individual experiences. Within the urban realm architectural constructs create voids and awkward spaces with an opportunity to create spaces for the interaction of people. Though architects cannot prescribe experiences, they can target the emotions activated by our senses through conversation. These emotions can translate to an experience and further influence spatial creates to promote the act of conversation. Architecture creates both associative and cognitive experiences. Through various forms of dialogue, we develop diverse perspectives influencing our relationships with space. Through visualization, we develop descriptive understandings of space and are therefore able to communicate these qualities effectively. Through smell and sound, we catalog our experiences and subsequently associate them with the previously experienced. Ultimately, the methods we communicate are not the means by which we record them. This leaves users able to describe space quantitatively, while the quality and experience is associatively described. Despite the cognitive and sensual intent of spaces, however, the experience can never fully be prescribed.Variables and previous experience, inevitably, will always affect the current experience. Given the distinctive characteristics of space: smell, taste, scale, comfort, and value, inhabitants will always consider formalized space differently, as they associate with past familiarities making the feeling of space subjective. These elements formulate our perspectives, evoking a sense of conversation between users of space. These ideas are rooted in the public realm and can be linked to the ancient Greek terminology of Agora, or the democratic qualities of space. Agora, with etymology connected to aggregation and historically known as the birth of democracy, was the center of political, artistic, and commercial life.1 It represented itself as place for people to voice their opinions and come together. Agora, however, has been lost in contemporary contexts. Despite its elapsed intimacy, the Agora has been imposed onto computer screens since the virtual world has consumed the deep-seated richness of conversation. In its absence, people have been conditioned to constant connection without moments of solitude. People can no longer identify themselves apart from a connected collective. In modern society, public architecture provides the strongest framework 1. Xenia Kalpaktsogloug, Poka - Yio. Agora. Athens, Greece: Xenia Kalpaktsogloug, Poka - Yio, 2013. Print. 10

for constructs designed for the interaction of people specifically those influenced by personalized conversations and dialogue. In utilizing conversation as the driver for a new form of public space, democracy can once again surface and individuals can reestablish a voice, one without the use of a keyboard. Before we fully understand conversation, we must understand its processes and relevance within the architectural realm. With the development of technology, wireless devices, computers, and social media, people have created relationships dissonant from true reality. Sherry Turkle, author of Along Together, suggests that our constant connections create an illusion of companionship without friendship. 2These forms of companionship respond to, and perhaps enhance, our fear of solitude. As a result, relationships are no longer dynamic and the power of individual choice allows one to disregard any elements of conversation that appear irrelevant. This means that the power of choice obstructs our ability to appreciate the stutters in conversation and instead, nullifies intense dialogues. 3 This affects public space, then, as it is no longer democratic and instead, selective. As we become discriminatory, we remove the redundant and otherwise uninteresting portions of conversation. The valleys, which actually intensify the interesting mountainous elements of conversation, are rejected as insignificant. In a sense, one cannot understand black without white, sweet without salty, or large without small. With social media uprising as the strongest means of connecting with others, we are able to block, like, ignore, and delete everything selectively. The telephone removed face-to-face conversations, texting then removed the power of voice, and social media followed by destroying personal relationships. People tend to pursue the most efficient means of connection. We now text with abbreviations or emoticons, often replacing words with letters as our voices are lost. The value of handwritten letters has been overlooked, as they require more time and effort; they cannot be revised or reprinted. It seems as though passion as well as identity has been lost amongst overused fonts that replace our very own handwriting. Visually, we can no longer recognize oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity on paper. As language is repressed, the voice of a message can no longer be interpreted. Letters are now read on computer screens through email, showing no signs of use. Any sense of wear, age, or use is what truly defines a letterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience. And in many ways, these marks are more impressionable than the letterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s content itself. Seeing a coffee stain on a letter forces the reader to 2. Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic, 2011. Print. Pg 32. 3. Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic, 2011. Print. pg 37.

retrace their cognitive footprints. These qualities thus define our dynamic relationships and experiences. This experience similarly parallels the event of walking into a cabinetry-manufacturing center and being reminded of Grandpa’s woodshop. It is impossible for us experience a space without comparing it to another.Visually we can identify different architectural styles in the same way that we perceive handwriting. Ultimately, though, we cannot discuss the experience that architectural spaces evoke without accommodating for subjectivity. The presence of social media has impacted our relationships negatively. If we experience everything on a computer screen, our identities are left defined by Facebook profiles and trending feeds. People need to experience reality before they connect. Instead, they are experiencing through the connection of others. We are left experiencing space, life, through our connections, when it is hardly an experience at all. 4This illusion contributes to our inability to formulate individual perspectives from each experience. Does seeing a picture Yosemite shared by your best friend compare to experiencing it for yourself? Does watching a video from your favorite band’s live performance at the House of Blues equate to the experience of being present for the show? Or is it only be considered live in person— with the crowd cheering, drinks spilling, and the smell of 2,000 bodies in one concert hall?

by one’s experiences and further, their upbringing. Thio’s sociological descriptions can easily trace to our experiences with space. While sociology seeks to understand social behavior and the interaction of people, it seems the sociology of architecture seeks to understand peoples’ interaction with space and built form. Understanding how we interact with each other will formulate a stronger understanding of the interaction between people and space. If we begin to understand how perspectives and opinions are grown from the theory of transmission, we begin to understand the demographics of culture and space and further, public spaces’ democratic intent.

Alex Thio, author of Sociology: A Brief Introduction, blends selfhood and socialism together, thus providing insight into the actions that are influenced by peoples’ cognitive geography. Chapter 6, “Deviance and Control,” describes social dynamics within society and the extremist mentalities carried by those who violate social norms. The perspectives of functionalists, conflicted, and interactionists are labeled as social extremes. Thio describes the theory of transmission / differential associations including the control, labeling, anomie, subcultural, and medicalization processes in which individuals are conditioned by experiences with others and their environments. 5 The theory of transmission / differential associations, in sum, states that all behavior is learned and influenced by three basic variables: age of the learner, intensity of contact with the teacher, and the ratio of good to bad social contacts in the learner’s life. Thio suggests that children growing up in a crime intense environment may rationalize the act of stealing as a mild crime, while others more fortunate will find it terribly offensive. Though the crime does not change, its perception is influenced 4. Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic, 2011. Print. 5. Thio, Alex. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. New York, NY: HarperCollins College, 1994. Print.

Amy Cuddy - Positions of Power

Amy Cuddy, Associate Professor and Hellman Faculty fellow at the Harvard Business School, and Julian Treasure, chair of the Sound Agency, a firm that advises worldwide business’ how

to use sound to their benefit and author of Sound Business, explore the methods by which people communicate and respond to sensory stimulation visually and audibly. Cuddy, an expert on body linguistics, investigates how people judge both each other and themselves. Her research investigates how body language influences conversation. In her lecture, “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are,” she addresses body linguistics and how they affect our relationships. 6In a study, Cuddy gave participants specific body language positions prior to mock interviews. All participants shared similar backgrounds, experience, and credibility for the interview, but those who exhibited prior positions of dominance and openness demonstrated more confidence. This study was derived from her key phrase “fake it till you make it,” which was later evolved into the less subtle “fake it till you become it.” Cuddy believes the act of pretending to be significant within society leads to the development of actually becoming significant. Though Cuddy speaks to body language as it impacts one’s success socially, she establishes that body language does in fact influence our conversations. In a sense, it visualizes our voice carrying the emotive qualities of our verbal dialogue. Cuddy also describes the two extremes of body language: power and recessive positioning. Power positioning is the term applied to body linguistics that illustrate pride and confidence characterized by openness of the arms upwards and outward. We tend to spread ourselves out to appear larger as we feel confident. Recessive positioning is the opposite in which we close ourselves feeling defeated or depressed. These two forms of body language are the means by which we visually express our emotions. 7When people share a conversation, there is one dominant figure and recessive figure. The dominant figure opens themselves to conversation, while the recessive individual shuts down in fear of being criticized. Body language, therefore, exists as a spatial element of conversation. The proximity of the conversation can define its personalization or intimacy. Handshakes, high fives, hugs, and the subtle positioning of the arms or the fidgeting of hands ultimately define the relationships evolving in conversation. These qualities of body language can translate to the spatial conditions of architecture given the emotive response from users of space. Architectural scale can influence our emotions; this is why comfortable spaces tend to be smaller, holding a parallel relationship to human scale. The intimacy of space can be realized through the investigation of the height, width, 6. Cuddy, Amy. “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.” Lecture. TedGlobal. 1 Sept. 2013. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. 20 June 2012. Web. 1 Sept. 2013. 7. Cuddy, Amy. “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.” Lecture. TedGlobal. 1 Sept. 2013. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. 20 June 2012. Web. 1 Sept. 2013. 12

and even the material scale within space. Industrial buildings, often constructed for the manufacturing of subsequently larger objects like boats and cars, carry no relationship to human scale apart from thresholds like doors and stairs. Without a reference to the human body, architectural spaces begin to feel dissonant, even inconsiderate towards users of space. Understanding body language as it applies to conversation can therefore apply to architecture and the conversations people share with space itself. Julian Treasure, like Cuddy, discusses sensory stimulation, but instead within the context of sound. In his lecture “The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us,” he explores the way sound affects our emotions, suggesting that our ties to specific songs and tones, when surfaced, will influence the present. He claims that sound affects us in four different ways: physiologically, psychologically, cognitively, and behaviorally. These four outcomes result from drivers of sound, time, pitch, density, and dynamics that are then filtered by the function, environment, people, and values in which the sound occurs. 8 Treasure forces the audience to experience these claims as he begins the lecture by sounding an alarm bell—one that many may associate with a fire alarm. He explains that its intent was to raise listener’s blood pressure while simultaneously gaining their attention, showcasing the physiological effects of sound. As the lecture develops, he describes the methods in which sound connects to our memories. Not only does he geographically show the sound receptors in the brain being neighbors to our memory receptors, but continues to prove this by playing a one second sound bite from the band Queen. As everyone hears the sound, their brains are able to remember the remaining chorus. Treasure proves song is the most powerful form of sound primarily because it can be recognized and associated quickly. Further, song tends to influence us psychologically by stimulating specific emotions. One of Treasure’s major points highlights the idea that sound’s cognitive effects are due to our inability to process more than one sound at once. For example, chaotic working environments that harbor sound overloads decrease productivity. He suggests that open floor plan offices tend to distract employees, even though they are intended to encourage collaboration. 9On the other hand, one-room offices keep employees focused. This leads to Treasure’s final point, as he suggests that sounds can undoubtedly influence our behavior. He compares this condition 8. Treasure, Julian. “The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.” Lecture. TedGlobal. http:// www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_affects_us.html?quote=570. 1 Oct. 2009. Web. 1 Sept. 2013. 9. Treasure, Julian. “The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.” Lecture. TedGlobal. http:// www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_affects_us.html?quote=570. 1 Oct. 2009. Web. 1 Sept. 2013.

to driving a car with aggressive music playing; the result being a speeding violation. When sound is often suppressed or ignored, it affects our subconscious specifically. Considering Cuddy and Treasure together, one can understand that the methods we use to communicate are dissonant from the ways by which we catalogue experience. Inversely, we are unable to describe sound, as it is associative. All the while, visual communication and body linguistics are a descriptive means of transcoding and receiving implied information. This acknowledgement translates to any architecture in that by relating to the human sensual conditions, a construct can more effectively offer an intensified conversation between space and its users.

relationship between space and its users. Aalto, fascinated by the idea of total design, Gaesamtkunstwerk, executed these qualities in his Paimio Sanatorium, a facility for patients with tuberculosis. The design, a total work of art, draws attention to the details of functional architecture. Door handles are developed so that tuberculosis patients with limited mobility could easily utilize them. Doorknobs are replaced with door handles that better understand the accessibility constraints of their users. Windows are also arranged so that patients bed-ridden by their illness can observe the outdoor landscape, ultimately aiding the healing process. Le Corbusier focuses more specifically on the scalar relationship between people and built form. He develops “le modular” to provide a universal instrument that can be used to rationalize the proportions of everything produced by man. Rasmussen touches upon the cognitive experiential aspects of architecture that cannot be quantified but rather, perceived. “The Architect is a sort of theatrical producer, the man who plans the setting for our lives. Innumerable circumstances are dependent on the way he arranges this setting for us.”10 Rasmussen describes the role of the architect as someone setting the scene for our experiences. Though architects cannot prescribe experience, they can target specific emotions activated by our senses as related to the functional intent of space. Rasmussen also addresses how architecture should be considered in the present, as it cannot and should not be compared to works from an entirely different era. Architecture should respond to time, location, and texture while still being attentive to detail and done so on a case-by-case basis in order to capture specific experiential qualities. He continues that materials and scale play an important role between the relationship of user and built form, while confirming that the memory of specific qualities may begin to strengthen that same relationship.

Alvar Aalto’s Door Handle

Experiencing Architecture, written by Steen Rasmussen, can relate to the work of Cuddy and Treasure as it alludes toward phenomenological entities associated with built form. Written in the late 1950’s, a period in which architectural discourse focused on user experiences with built form instead of form itself, Experiencing Architecture reflects the work of Alvar Aalto and Le Corbusier, architects especially interested in the

Attempting to resurface Agora in a contemporary context, while understanding conversation and its influence on space, provides the framework for a new form of public architecture. Its relevance in spatial politics employs an inherent quality parallel to interactive architecture. In “Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics,” renowned thinker Rosalyn Deusteche questions what it means for a space to be public. She realizes this question has provoked vigorous debates but ultimately, regardless of how we define it, public space is intimately connected with ideas about what it means to be human, about the nature of society, and lastly, about the kind of political community we want. Though there are several contrasting perspectives on 10. Rasmussen, Steen Eiler. Experiencing Architecture. Cambridge [Mass.: M.I.T., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1962. Print. pg 10.

how each idea is addressed, everyone supports the survival and extension of democratic culture. When the term ‘public’ is applied to both architecture and art, it questions its integrated role with people and their participation. Public works not only allude to democracy as a form of government, but also to the general democratic spirit of egalitarianism: Do the works avoid elitism? And are they accessible? 11Jerry Allen, Art Administrator at San Jose, California, as cited by Deustche, queries the integrity of the term in its entirety, stating that public art and architecture is a contradiction in itself. The term joins two words whose meanings are antithetical. Art is recognized as the individual inquiry of sculptor or painter, the epitome of self-assertion, selfhood. With that we join public— a reference to the collective, self-negation, and otherwise democracy. This terminology seems to impose public upon private in a singular work that we expect both coherence and integrity from. Alexander Calder’s “Flamingo”

In “Putting the Public in Public Art,” Allen again states that what is considered public art differs completely from art in public spaces. Artist’s inquiries, thrust into the public realm, are what most people identify as public, however, they are merely works placed into public spaces with no relevance to the true cultural context. Artist Alexander Calder’s Flamingo, placed into Federal Plazaa, Chicago, is an example of individual expression entering public space. Its spatial extremes cannot be contained between gallery walls, forcing its placement to an outdoor location. This work shares no connection to the public, who are ultimately the intended audience. Simply, it takes more than a public location to create public art. Successful methodology behind public art includes community involvement, some sense of collaboration between user, owner, and artist.

Public art has the potential to translate the audiences’ language—apart from the voice of a singular artist. Deustch expresses public space as a term that can be both imagined and defined. However, the individual and their relevance within society may begin to question the approach taken towards designing public space. Similar to the self-expression of an artist through their work, the use and experience of public space is varied between users on an intimate level, one dissonant from the collective.

11. Deutsche, Rosalyn. Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics. Chicago, IL: Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, 1996. Print. pg 256.

12. Deutsche, Rosalyn. Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics. Chicago, IL: Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, 1996. Print. pg 270.

“Power stems from the people but belongs to nobody. Democracy abolishes the external referent of power and refers power to society. But democratic power cannot appeal for its authority to a meaning immanent in the social. Instead the democratic invention invests something else: the public space.”12

Power stems from the people but belongs to nobody. Architects are capable of designing spaces for the people, but the true experiences from these spaces are never constant nor controlled, but instead, subjective. Designing for the public realm means designing for the collective, ultimately yielding a work with a nullified response from users. Art and architecture should not at all be diluted to consider everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspectives in its design process, for there is never a singular, premeditated response. Instead, public art and architecture should consider providing a dedicated space or piece where the interaction and relationship that one shares with the work can develop, thus engaging them to voice a reaction. The critique, use, and understanding of spatial works are democratic qualities that offer insight for the creation of a contemporary form of Agora. End

experiment explore 17

Learning From Athens

Agora, born from Ancient Greece and recognized as a gather space, represents itself as a cities democratic center. In contemporary contexts its identity has been lost, fragmented, by social media and democratic disconnect. As the ongoing crisis in Athens continues many look to find its existence in the present. The answer can be found in demos, the people. The Agora is no longer defined by space, instead characterized by our conversations.

The Surface

The seven works above, all 10â&#x20AC;? x 8,â&#x20AC;? represent my personal responses to the experiences i encountered in Athens during the Fall of 2013. They feature text clippings collaged with reclaimed materials: plaster, guesso, wax, canvas, cardboard, wire mesh, and artisian paper. The allude to provocaking while making fun of the overused color (rather lack of color) featured on exhibition walls, white - a blank slate, canvas, or wall. From this white the texts or textures surface representing ideas and thoughts lost in translation. Many of the texts are direct quotes from various magazines, publications, and newspapers obtained and later translated to english. Much of the text is not legable acknowledging people undeniable ability to misinterpret or filter conversations.

Voices from Athens

Athens is like a dying star, while other countries are growing, Athens is shrinking with a black hold in the center. decaArchitecture

Voices from Athens

You cannot solve the problem of Athens or this area by cleaning up or getting rid of crim but to provide areas with mixed use that can boost the economy so the problems fix themselves. Dimitris Papanikolaou

Voices from Athens

You give a community a public space and they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want it anymore. Thanassis Manis

Voices from Athens

Architecture enables us to perceive and understand the dialects of permanence and change, to settle ourselves in the world and to place ourselves in the continuum of culture. Yannis Aesopos

Voices from Athens

Athens is dead. It might be as simple as painting a building to bring a space back to life. Just hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been done yet. Thanassis Manis

Voices from Athens

You pretend to be a soldier, but you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe in hurting a fly. Stavros Martinos

Voices from Athens

We do not respect public space. Rena Sakellaridou

Void to Destination

The city of Athens, troubled by economic crisis and development, features several voids. Many of these voids are the spaces between politikiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, residential buildings, that are surrounded by four decaying walls and limited access. Several of these spaces have been transformed for the public offering provocative precedents for the transformation of Boston.These include Six Dogs and ReMap. Six Dogs, originally 5 separate businesses, transformed their facade using only paint. A grey scale was applied to represent each businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; use throughout the day. White for gallery spaces and black for bars and night life. A courtyard in the back was transformed into a cafe / bar that has become a destination for many locals. Re-Map is a network of artist works featured in formally, Brothels. The project is an attempt to bring high culture into a region of Athens that exists problematic. 37

Of place and Home: Unpacking Boston

Converse / Construct thrives within an urban context and more specifically the public realm. After living in Boston as both a student and resident i felt it necessary to break unpack Boston’s social realm. Some of this research exists based from pure personal assumption while most draws from a critical digestion of places in proximity to my “home.” Understanding a cities existing conditions allows incite into creating more effective public spaces for the interaction of people. Studying the demographics of existing social arenas, density, circulation, and the growth of a city informs potential sites and program influenced directly by the people in these areas collectively.

Bostonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Social Realm

The diagram, above, highlights Bostonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existing social arenas: public spaces, parks, bars, cafes, fast food, and dining as they exist in current proximity. Social arenaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s are places thriving with conversation, engagement, and interaction. While public spaces are completely accessible, restaurants, cafes, and bars tend to be common destinations and a stronger demonstration of people interacting. Public spaces and parks while open have faded socially as many tend to navigate towards these spaces to take a breathe apart from the city. These social arenas illustrate themselves quantitatively as destinations with no strong understanding of their successful nature publicly.

Accesibility

Considering public space and its success, an evaluation of accessibility must be considered. While bars, cafes, and restaurants appear public they are elitist in regards to economics and affordibility. They are selective and not truly public. Instead they represent only spatial hosts for conversation. Realizing this, Boston has a limited amount of public spaces, far less than the other five categories.

Spatial Voids

Using diagrams to visual describe the spatial relationships of built form to spatial voids an understanding of Bostonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban fabric surfaces. Figure ground drawings capture this comparison showing the vast potential for development.These voids represent the spaces between buildings, often awkward, and occasionally disregarded as a functional space.These spaces have the potential to be inhabited while contributing the conversation of Bostonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existing fabric.

Considering Site

Governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Center City Hall Avenue

MassAve Bridge

Ring Road Christian Science Center

The plan, above, shows the locations of four potential sites. Influenced by Re-Map and its networking concept I plan to create a series of conversational spaces, each reflecting elements of site and its demographics.

Perspective Overlays: Provocation of Site

Christian Science Center Plaza ^ Situated Between the Prudential tower and the Christian Science Center sits the Reflecting Pool and plaza. This spaces currently offers a break amongst the city as one transitions from surrounding residential areas towards commercialized Boston. This space exists as an urban renewal and despite is cultural life during the spring and summer remains dormant through the winter season. Using this space a series of pavilions, installations, and constructs on site could begin to engage the public through all seasons.

Ring Road ^ Situated between the Prudential Mall and a Lord & Taylor store this street exists as an awkward pathway from Boylston streetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s night life to the residential portion of Backbay. Being a primary circulation path this space has the potential to engage visitors while providing a new public space that links visitors of the existing mall to pedestrians on the street.

City Hall Avenue ^ Tightly situated between two street walls existing in Downtown, Boston this avenue connects the commercial center of Downtown Crossing with City Hall. The pathway is treated as the back area for many of the surrounding buildings.This space has the potential to engage the public through sectional layers that speak to bring the public to alternative views currently wasted by void.

Massachusetts Avenue Bridge ^ MassAve exists as a primary connection between the Back Bay area of Boston and Cambridge. This bridge features side walks and two lanes of trafic. Many run and bike along its sidewalks but there are no spaces addressing the bridgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s engagement with the Charles River below. Using the bridge as a path of connection and structure, spaces can be constructed to offer a new program adjacent to the bridge. The space offers a great view of Boston that could influence the quality of such spaces.

Boston City Hall Plaza ^ Among one of the most controversial spaces in Boston, City Hall Plaza, exists as an urban wasteland, hotspot, and desert. Though the space is often transformed by seasonal events its this plug-in form of engagement that proves the spaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inability to function as a public space. While its important to consider the role of the existing Boston City Hall building and its engagement with the public perspective it withdraws itself from a potential democratic connection. The spaces large plaza could considerably be broken up to provide green spaces and small gardens giving it a relationship to Bostonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existing Emerald Necklace. Scale is also important to maintain a similar relationship to the strength that is Boston City Hall.

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Converse / Construct, a two part video series, and social experiement was organized around two questions: can conversation be tactile? Can it be silent? A series of modular pieces and components were designed and produced prior to experimentation from a variety of materials including cement, foam core, chipboard, museum board, acrylic, and plaster. The first modular series, Converse / Constuct 1, was made by laser cutting museum board. It produced 29 blocks measuring 2.25” x 2.25” x 2” high. These blocks had material on four sides and featured channels for other pieces to be integrated. They were small, playful, and engaging with a an implied constructive method. Though they were blocks, stacable in essense, they were structual suggestive to interlock together creating one unit (the blocks aimed to capture the developing nature of conversation as contributors exchange thoughts and ideas through a series of common connections). These blocks were then used in paired conversations between several M.Arch students. Participants were instructed simply to have a conversation together with the availible blocks (14 per person, 1 featured as conversational ice breaker at the tables center). I mentioned they could be both additive and subtractive but could not verbally speak. In a sense they had to act using their bodies emotions, facial expressions, and further their constructive inginutiy. Few rules were given so that the conversations could roam free representing only the participants intentions. A second series, Converse / Construct 2.0, was constructed as an entirely new unit. The new blocks became stackable as four materials were used each attempting to influence the conversation from a curatorial stand point. Cement was used to represent the weight within the conversation offering structural integrity. Only 12 of these units were constructed emphasizing the implied cement weight. Acrylic was used for its transparency and durability, its pieces were arranged from the material extracted to create form work for the cement). Foam core was used for its moderate strength upon being laminated and for its ability to be laser cut and assembled efficiently.The final material chipboard was asselbed to be hallow allowing for magnets to be placed offering a new structural language. The chipboard pieces were also designed slightly different from the other three units making their ability to engage with each other difficult (this helped urge participants to use the contained magnets). Following these videos and experiments an evaluation of each individual conversation was conducted. Though no quantifiable data was collected through assumption and research of body language I was able to recognize the dynamics of conversation. To answer my question, conversation can be tactile and it can be silent.

Body language / Kinesic / Physiognomy : Facial features and expressions which interpretively indicate the person’s character or nature, or ethnic origin - the art of judging ones character Proxemics : The space between people as they interact; personal space. _______________________________________________ How do we communicate? How do we connect? Body language defines first impressions. Opinions of others are formed in seconds. Peoples perception is formulated by their existing feeligns and their visual persumptions of others. 50 - 80% of conversational meaning is derived from body language. As little as 20% of meaning is actually absorbed from what is vocalized. Body language involves more than bodily movements: positions of our bodies, facial expressions, proxemity to each other, eye movements and focus, touching others or self, connection to nonbodily “things” [pens, cigarettes, coffee cups, books, food] vitals, breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure, persperation. Body language does not include elements of voice, pace, pitch, intonation, variation, or pauses.

Making Conversation: Converse / Construct 1

Converse / Construct captures the visual conversations of 4 partnerships as they attempt to construct. Some collaborate while others impose. Each pairing was prompted to converse using 14 individual blocks with one centralized as the icebreaker. They could be additive or subtractive until the final block was placed therefore ending the conversation. The final constructs represent the social dynamic expressions of March students attending Wentworth Institute of Technology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLTsgKl1vEE

Making Conversation: Converse / Construct 2.0

Converse / Construct 2.0 seeks to further explore the conversations shared amongst 18 MArch students. Modular units were constructed with a clear intent of stacking. Cement, Acrylic, Chipboard, Foam Core, and magnets were applied to create a modular system with a variety of languages and playability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_NLYKJGS7I

Making Conversation: Converse / Construct Conclusions

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Dominance / Leader (Fig 1) In many of the conversations constructs seemed additive and singular per partnership. In this situation Cam (left) directs the conversation out of the initial construct by choosing not to add his piece to the previously collaborative construct. He represents himself the leader of the conversation while Erick is caught off guard choosing to contribute to the new conversation or continue with the original. This moment in conversation allows for evolution and the arrival of new thoughts and ideas formally absent. Methodology (Fig 2) In this situation Matt (right) intrudes a new method of conversational application.Though the modular pieces had an implied methodology he decides to angle the piece placing it into the void of another. This new form allows for a unique conversation that was not expressed in the first partnership.

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Collaborators (Fig 3) This second image from Matt and Nickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (left) conversation iterates their collaborate efforts to construct.While most of the conversations were collaborative, as conversation rightly requires collaboration, they exhibit an extreme in which one hold the construct while the other attaches more modules. Conflict (Fig 4) Nate and Ciro share a conversation in which one overlooks the others addition. The conversation starts begins similar to that of playing chess with them taking turns to place modules. As it develops Nate begins to ignore Ciroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attempt to construct upwards. He then attaches his 5 piece construct offsetting the weight of the collaborative piece causing it to fall over. Fig 8

Selfhood (Fig 5) Lauren and JT, tired grad students, pay no attention to the other as they build independent constructs. They end their nullified conversation by placing their constructs together in the center. Though I had instructed them to have a conversation instead they chose not to have one. Though each of them were expressing themselves through construct the other payed no mind. Conflict / Niavety (Fig 6) Within this group of 5, Nate (left) again found himself ignoring the others efforts at construct as his additions carried negative implications. Joeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (right) frustrations are implied on his face as Nate places his stacked construct knocking over others contributions to the conversation.

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Collaborators (Fig 7) Mike (right) and Tyler (left) represent

team work as they cantilever a few of the modules together. Throughout their conversation collaboration and “teamwork” was used several times to influence the conversation. The Remains (Fig 8) Many of the groups chose to use all the modules while the last left some pieces. Interestingly it was the chipboard pieces that were designed to work on all modules but could not be worked on themselves.These remains exist because they were designed as the most frustrating modules to use. Methodology (Fig 9) Matt again bends the rules of the study using modules in a provocative manor. Though the conversation was intended to be hosted on the transparent table he assumes the supporting ropes fair game to apply conversation. Methodology (Fig 10) Kevin (not pictured) pushes the boundaries of the module to hang from the table instead of resting on top.

Reflection: I observed several roles carried by those partaking in the conversations. Many were additive while few were subtractive. Conversation seemed to be represented as a constructive growth. Though the members were not able to communicate through verbal methods that they are accustomed to they did respond to the actions induced on the construct from others. Its interesting to see those that were dominant and others that carried no weight in the conversation and instead followed. Dynamics in Conversation: There were five key dynamics present in all conversations: dominance, unique methodology, collaboration, conflict, and self hood. Each of these elements speaks to specific moments in the conversations representing highs, lows, and extremes marked by silence, movements, use, and response between participants. Dominance can be recognized by those directing conversation. Unique methodology can be seen when individuals use the moduals apart from their tectonic intent. Collaboration shows multiple participants jointly holding parts of the constructs to benefit its entirety. Conflict is seen as a result of niavity from one member who doesn’t consider the impact their placement imposes on another’s. Self hood represents the opposite of conversation where individuals construct separately. All five dynamics provide a general understanding of conversation and how it evolves.

Conversation is the seed of public space. From the eyes of a Barista: Two people enter a coffee shop with conditioned assumptions. They expect the smell of espresso, foamed milk, maybe fresh crescents as they waltz into a homey atmosphere. However their experience can never be prescribed. Despite expectations no experience can exist outside its present state. The quality of their cappuccino or the freshness of their pastry can affect their emotions as well as the conversation to follow within the small cafe at table number three. Paper cups containing two skinny vanilla lattesprovide a tasteful experience, warmth, and sweet bitterness on the tongue. The cups provide a lose funnel into conversation that is both interactive, up, down, and further adventurous; they are indeed a visual connection, an ice breaker . . .

A theatrical sip represents a momentary break amid the conversation. She sips her latte as he continues telling her about his plans for the day. Caffine kicks in and a conversation evolves into discrete social dynamics about their sex lives. The cafe cultivates experience. The conversation transcends experiences, and reflection following the conversation provides makes it public. People attract people. Their is an undinability to want to be with someone, to share, to be cared for, and to experience the moments of life. If people cannot share their thoughts and ideas, if they cannot project their hidden emotions, they are lost, reserved, and further forgotten.

Preliminary Conclusions

Converse / Construct look towards a contemporary form of conversation within an architectural realm - a return to formal interaction apart from a virtual world of computer screens and texting. A network of interventions, installations, and pavilions provide the framework to integrative vacancies within the urban realm. A further investigation of spatial interaction and studies geared towards quantitative results informed from site demographics will lead to the creation of conversational spaces. Linking these constructs will begin to map the cities vacancies surfacing Agora to a contemporary context. An investigation of accessibility, destination, and the ephemeral qualities of sites man help influence stronger site analysis as well. Finally Converse / Construct must present itself as an evolving element within the city to capture the nature of conversation within a city.

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An Exhibition: Finding Agora

Responding to our experiences in Greece, the Agora special topics studio created an exhibition showcasing our work while attempting to create a contemporary from of agora (From Athens to Boston). The exhibition emphasized three formats for projecting work: publication, installation, display. As curator, editor and participant I developed and interactive vertical display system to hold 36 triangular, movable, units on which students could place drawings and images. The displays represented the exhibitions core, a form of Agora within the space from which all other elements orbited. The system allowed visitors to engage directly with the drawings comparing process work with final work. The publication captures the ideas and thoughts of all students offering a textual explanation of the work. The installation prompted experience.

Curatorial Mission Statement: This exhibition, despite its removal from the time and place of Ancient Greece, is a direct expression of Agora. Not to be taken as a replica, for replicating simply mimics and does not comprehend, rather this display aims to re-invent the possibility of public space. One cannot take an idea from a specific time and simply insert it into a new context, but one can understand its meaning, significance, and composition. This expression of Agora aims to encompasses the qualities inherent in a strong public space. It represents the successes of community in a modern context, interventions that understand the people and place of a relevant society. The design of this exhibition focuses on three media; textual, visual, and experiential. Through the corresponding publication, a documentation of theory and inspiration come together to form new perspectives on the desires of public space in Athens. Subtle squares, plazas, and streets transform to provide utility, scale, and life for the very people that inhabit them. Accordingly, the collected graphics are a portrayal of these very transformations; displays of site, tectonic, and interactive potentials. Ranging from built structures and operability to spacial alteration and playful participation, these transformations highlight the very qualities necessary in public venue. Finally, as a link between theory, text, and architectural installation, this exhibition is an experience. The design utilizes the very interventions to be implemented in Athens and recreates them here in Boston. We have distorted a typical space to become more; a space to hold gatherings of individuals passionate about a common topic. We will first take you out of your surrounding and guide you through a process of interactions. This process will unfold a public core, an axis of information and transformation that has something for everybody, something to converse over, and finally, something worth finding.

To Make Public / Personal Project with Finding Agora

To Make Public / Personal Project: Agora, born from Ancient Greece and recognized as a gathering space, represents itself as a cities democratic center. In contemporary context its identity has been lost, fragmented, by social media and democratic disconnect. As the ongoing crisis in Athens continues many look to find its existence in the present. the answer can be found in demos, the people. The Agora is no longer defined by space, instead characterized by our conversations. The conversations we share define the spaces we inhabit. From intimate discussions in coffee shops to the nature of political debates, all forms of conversation influence the built environment. These conversations parallel our spatial experiences offering incite into the development of a contemporary Agora. Responding to the unique cafes, bars, and social conditions of Athens Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve chosen to address these topics locally in Boston, specifically the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge between Cambridge and Bostonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Back Bay area. This bridge exists as primary circulation path with the potential to connect more than just the Charles River banks but people as well.

Finding Agora: A Reflection

Curatorial Reflection: What started as a direct interest in the intimate conversations shared amongst people within space developed into an urban understanding of a city’s voids. These voids can be recognized as moments between built forms, often unrecognized, hidden spaces between construct, a metaphor to the stutters experienced in our own conversations. These spaces can be seen under bridges, between buildings, in basements, attacks, everything that exists between what’s built and already experienced. My initial studies focused on the experience of space and how inhabitants interpret it whether it is digested visually, audibly, or more discretely through our cognitive associations. I concluded that space cannot be prescribed despite our efforts. Inevitably spaces are experienced differently by all demographics. There are simply to many variables to generate an architectural methodology to force specific experiences on inhabitants. These studies attempted to generate a conclusive understanding on designing spaces to host conversation, influenced by a level of interactive architecture: architecture that promotes the interaction of people. Instead they pushed me to return to conversation and investigate its dynamics leading to a two part video series titled Converse / Construct. These videos featured participants holding a conversation through construct in an act of creation. I found that the most interesting moments had nothing to do with the constructs themselves but the spatial language between participants, their reactions to each other, and further how they influenced conversations to change. These dynamics illustrate conversation’s progression from intent to response between participants. I then asked myself how these dynamics exist within an architectural dialog. While Boston as a whole contains several voids, featured in my prospectus, the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge seemed more approachable. It presents itself as a connection between Boston’s Back Bay Area and Cambridge, two notable areas within the Greater Boston community. Cambridge is the heart of education not only within the state of Massachusetts but is home to some of the most prestigious colleges in the World. The Back Bay area however, is one of the most desired residential areas in Boston with beautiful views over the Charles river and walking distance from the commons and Newbury street. The qualities of these areas make the MassAve bridge an appropriate site for the development of social spaces turning it into more than a four lane bridge with two pedestrian pathways. Considering this site I chose to develop a series of spaces, three, which can be attached to the bridge’s unique structure. These spaces offer various dialogs embedded in the city visually and sociologically. The first space presents itself similarly to the esplanade offering a 74

space beneath the bridge and away from traffic. It offers a unique view of the bridge’s structure providing space that prior could only be experienced by boat. This new experience connects pedestrians, both strollers and runners, to the kinetic boat life dancing across the Charles. This space is collective and could be used for public artworks of any form and vendors. The second space is more intimate offering a moment of pause centralized on the bridge. The space is smaller with a few seating elements to influence pedestrians to sit and observe the intense views of Boston. The final is less about views and social connections and instead focuses on self-awareness. It is a space for reflection. This space like the collective space lives bellow the bridges infrastructure and focuses on providing intimate spaces touching the water. Modifications to the bridge’s surrounding structure reflect the sounds created by the collision of water against the bridges footprint.This captures the sounds of footsteps and noises created by users of space while isolating them from the sounds of traffic and others above. Each of these spaces represents the dynamics of conversation on both public and intimate levels. It is important to consider the conversations with ourselves before we consider the conversations we share with others. Moments of reflection help us to identify ourselves free from the influence of others. Anticipating the exhibition I chose to create a series of framed vignettes paired with some text (bellow). “An individuals perception and experience connects one with space, but it is the critique and conversational responses born from experience that engage the public.” These vignettes captured various views and experiences generated by relief perspectives. The two views choses focused on the approach and created experiences of the proposed constructs. While they were perspectives in essence they were constructional through a series of layers making them somewhere sectional. The forth frame was a podium intended to alter the perception of people within the exhibition. Even though your horizon was heightened by a mere 6 inches you were able to view others differently in a subtle manner. Each frame was arranged on the floor. This methodology allowed viewers to experience the frames intimately while not obstructing views through the exhibition space. The pieces were arranged as a linear experience as follows (next column) on both the right and left side of visitors.

Text > Videos < Perspective < Model > Podium < Perspective > This progression influenced the experience by visitors. The suggestive text intends to invoke curiosity while the perspectives offer a glimpse at potential design proposals.The video and model provide incite into the studies and investigations. The podium offers a break to reflect upon the entire exhibition and the final perspective (most captivating and questionable) pulls visitors into an imagined space where the view appears flat requiring further explanation done so by the collective displays. Though my walk through was brief with little feedback from the critics I felt the experiential responses from visitors proved supportive of the overall layout of the exhibition. The displays proved to be more interactive than many of the installations themselves, which seemed to lack and understanding of materiality. Many didn’t respond to the materials existing in the displays nor their own language apart from availability issues. I found that several seemed more thought provoking in the texts and did not explore the potential of built form or even consider the experience of visitors. Why Caitlin’s bench got a lot of use being positioned in the foreground it didn’t explore the interesting juxtaposing of demographics she described in her text. Matt’s visual engagement of the word Agora seemed provocative yet it in essence was not engaged entirely. It seemed being in Watson set the tone for many within the space preventing them from actually using the squirt guns. Overall I believe the exhibition was a success but in critiquing myself I feel the individual installations seemed fragmented. I will say however the experience reminded me of several of the spaces we saw in Athens considering their arrangement and unique presentation methods.The display provided unity as well as the publication but do to our individualistic approach to installation we prevented ourselves from creating strong individual works (here group projects may have been more successful).

The Garage is a canvas for the cultivation of ideas, research, and experimentation. The Garage, created by Tom McCormack and myself, was born from thesis research and our interests in publications, public architecture, discourse, identity, and agency.The garage was created as a platform for questioning, researching, and experimenting. It evolved into a mentality or method for designers to project onto challenging the schools boundaries physically and bureaucratically through installations, publications, and social media. We challenged ourselves, pushed our boundaries, and recieved critical responses both positive and negative from our peers and teachers. It was our grounds to write, make, and talk about everything architecture while reflecting on our educational experiences at Wentworth Institute of Technology.

There is a hunger, there is a sacrifice, yet there is freedom because, until you open the garage, no one realizes there is anything going on in here. David Benjamin

Pat Brady / I am a passionate designer with a lot to say and more to question. I think through making and enjoy having a good conversation.

Tom McCormack / A designer, educated as an architect, consider myself a generalist, driven by curiosity to design the best products and experiences possible.

A garage represents itself as a place for innovation, a starting point, to collaborate freely upon new projects without the pressures of professional practices. It however, is more than a space; it is a mentality, a method of designing, experimenting, and exploring ideas without fear of failure. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a means to question all the bureaucratic shit suppressive in nature - remaining in a constant state of awareness. Existing as a suburban icon and scaled from the automobile, the garage offers grounds for the germination of ideas apprehensive to conventional thought processes. Design studios while spatial different from a garage capture its spiritual nature. Despite studios dynamic culture, students leave behind a legacy of ideas and projects, unpublished, as theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re tucked into closets and unseen portfolios. The Garage, a curated open source archive, aims to capture these forgotten ideas, publish them independently, while providing a platform for unprecedented collaboration. Comprised of physical and digital entities the Garage offers a canvas for the dispersion and expression of knowledge, ideas, and research. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgNkNkhN_Xc

www.openthegarage.net

www.facebook.com/openthegarage

Installation One: Impulse

Let the making begin / Impulse was created using a fifty foot roll of ram board (commonly used to protect floors during construction). The roll was cut into 4 inch strips and used to create an interpolated ceiling surface. The work saught to be provacative and represents our first, - impulsive - installation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuRzo0JT_Kk

The only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. Alan Watts, Philospher

Installation Two: 1.G.3

The second Installation, 1.G.3, was made in the stairwell that connects Wentworth's three studios. Using 2,250 feet of the least expensive type of rope we could find, twine, we created a continuous form influenced by the stairs handrails to connect these levels. At the top of the stairwell we realized the lighting outside of the doorway had blown. Intending to use lighting as part of the installation we chose to put it at the top of the stairwell to replace these lights. Three 250 watt halogen lights were used and colored yellow, red, and blue. Each color references a specific level and are activated with motion sensors as people circulate.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al1ezGcbXp4

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Installation Three: Dipole

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Dipole was created over 5 days using recycled masonite, fiberglass mesh, zinc hardware, woodglue, 6 1'x1' square mirrors, and 64' of 1/2" aluminum angle rod. This installation was inspired by the relationship between stalagmites and stalactites commonly found in limestone caves. These two forms are created from the deposition of calcium carbonate (mineral deposits) as water drips from the caves ceiling. Dipole, a term used when describing electromagnetic currents and the spatial separation created between charges, refers to the mirrors visual polarity and spatial inversion. The opposing forms mirror each other literally, figuratively, and conceptually. At specific moments the mirrors

obscure reality projecting the floor as ceiling and the ceiling as floor. When looking into the mirrors directly one obstructs the recursive perspective created between the mirrors that is both self referential and self representational. This obstruction occurs concurrently with the participation of the viewer as they attempt to observe the recursive projection. The experience of this view can never be perceived but instead suggested as one can only observe the perspectives infinite margins and not its focul point. Simply, the viewer must participate as the view in order to perceive the view at which point they destroy any attempt of observing the views entirety.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX951Y9yNws

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Installation Four: 42.33557 / Doorstop Project

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42.33557 is a number referencing the latitude at which Wentworthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s architectual deparment is located. This number was used to name the project for its rarety in search engines offering a chance to hijack the web interfaces but uploading hundreds of process photos to flickr, instagram, and our blog.This number was used to tag every post containing anything of relevance whether it be text or image. It was the first project in which a video was not taken.The project was inspired after our previous installation, Dipole, hit the ceiling literly triggering a negative response from an educator within the architecture department (Dipole was asked to be taken down 9.5 hours after its installation; ironically it was not asked to be relocated but instead â&#x20AC;&#x153;destroyedâ&#x20AC;? - A project that had taken two weeks of careful fabrication). Dissapointed but not defeated we whipped our shoulders off and descided to question ourselves further acknowleging this conflict would benifit us later. So we asked ourselve, what does it really mean to make an installation? 109

A Blog Post / 42.33557 March 4th 2014: The forth installation is underway and is expected to appear by the end of the week. Subtlety will be embraced as this installation seeks to prove itself pragmatically. Questioning the nature of installation design and its conventional means of provocation this utilitarian work will be less invasive and entirely purposeful. The atmosphere or qualities associated with installation design have conventionally appeared distant from architecture. It positions its self between permanence and ephemerality with close proximity to art. It seems installations commonly seek novelty as a means of creating unique experiences with no grounds pragmatically. However, installations appear sited, grounded by context, and reference the places in which they are installed as seen in the work of Richard Serraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tilted Arc.

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While art remains entirely experiential, architecture begins to apply purpose to experience with functionality. Installations somehow remain undefined in need of question. At what point does an installation become an artwork or a product of resourceful engineering? Given conventional standpoints must installation work prove itself novel or can it become entirely utilitarian? What are the grounds for installation work? Are installations meant to be temporal? Must a removal process be considered? This topic exists as a grey area between architecture and art that requires investigation. What do you think? Can a series of doorstops become an installation?

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All of the doorstops were handmade and sculpted using a bandsaw, tablesaw, alongside excessive sanding. They were constructed from maple and oak woods and remain unfinished. Over 12 doorstops were designed through prototypical experimentation exploring various methods of propping, holding, and forcing doors open. Nylon chords were attached so doorstops could be hung on doorhandles when they were not being used. Each doorstop is tagged “Doorstop Project, 42.33557.” Though they intended to be subtle and appear utilitarian, as if they’d always meant to be there, users found them interesting knowing they were a product created by the Garage. The project challenged conventional installation design becoming pragmatic. They also challenge the departments obsession to keep doors shut making hallways more accessible while enhancing Wentworth’s culture. These doorstops will remain at Wentworth as an installation for use rather provaction.To answer my question - an installation can be utilitarian and it can serve pragmatic. 119

It is the rule with drunkards to fall upon each other, to quarrel, become violent, and make a scene. The lover is even worse than a drunkard. I will tell you what love is: to enter a mine of gold. And what is that gold? The lover is a king above all 120

kings, unafraid of death, not at all interested in a golden crown. The dervish has a pearl concealed under his patched cloak. Why should he go begging door to door? Last night that moon came along, 121

drunk, dropping clothes in the street. “Get up,” I told my heart, “Give the soul a glass of wine. The moment has come to join the nightingale in the garden, to taste sugar with the soulparrot.” I have fallen, with my heart shattered 122

where else but on your path? And I broke your bowl, drunk, my idol, so drunk, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let me be harmed, take my hand. A new rule a new law has been born: break all the glasses and fall toward the glassblower. Rumi, A New Rule

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Installation Five: April Fools / A Crime Scene

Following the creation of 42.33557, an otherwise utilitarian installation, Tom and I decided it was time to go back to our provacative roots playfully. With only two weeks until our publication release we decided to create a promt for members invited to our upcoming “Radical Pedagogy” discussion (I’ll explain this project later). Considering the opression we’d recieved from various members within the administration regarding our earlier installations, Dipole specifically, we decided to re-install everything we’d created throughout the semester in the form of a crime scene. As curators to our own projects we decided to take over the space in front of the architectural department. We felt this space would force the interaction of every professor walking into work the following morning. Using chalk to tag each project we explained their cause of death while adding a piece from Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi’s poem “A New Rule.” Various faculty members enjoyed the space for its inherent “humor” while others became frustrated for its lack of order refusing to see it for its conceptual value. The exhibition, crime scene, made a statement directed to everything beaurocratic within Wentworth that had limited our abilities as designers to experiment. As graduate students we took charge, did not ask for permission, and claimed a space we believed was rightfully ours. To return to my experiences in Greece quoting Yannis Aesopas, “Common space, If it belongs to all, no one uses it.” Instead of considering the democratic, gathering their opinion, and using their perception to shape our reality we claimed a space that is assumed common asirting our very own conceptulizations into the public realm.

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The Garage: Volume 1 / Project

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A project is a reflection of its creator, a glimpse into their methods, their craftsmanship, their style.They are guided by ideas, aspirations inserted into the physical world looking for some form of reconciliation. Born from inspiration, geared by intent, and tuned through refinement they require unpacking. Understanding a projects history, its birth, development, and completion, offers incite into a creators processes. However we are left questioning. What does it mean to complete a project? How does one project. What does it mean to fail, or succeed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZuujDT4XV4 _______________________________________________ An Illusion A Project is an illusion; a conventional frame for methods to be exploited. It exists standardized, often translating ideas without question. The transitive property of the term, projection, highlights ones assertion into the public realm, to democratize ones conjecture, to intentionally cast one’s own feelings, thoughts, or attitudes towards others. It’s actions fall into the hands of those who perceive, lost in translation, and reinterpreted through a lens of ignorant assumption. Designers, artist, and writers merely attempt to embed their aspirations into recognizable experiences both textual and representational as a means of projection. However despite intent, projects are recognized for their rendered finale with complete disregard for the metaphysical. A projection is then left stagnant in a field of ambiguity compelling its counter, reflection, to validate its provocation. Project without this validation is nothing more than a conjecture failing to aspirate.

The Garage: Volume 1 / Project was prompted in early February to fellow students, peers, friends, family, artists, and others from various disciplines. The term project or the act of projecting was used as a prompt calling questioning the creation of projects and how one asserts themselves into the public realm. The prompt defined the term supporting its etymology while searching for clarity believe that people project with purpose.A conclusion was drawn that a reflection or critique must always exist symbiotically with a projection. Tom and myself edited the publication and later presented it along side our discussion revolving the topic of radical pedagogy. The curation of the publication expressed the need to project offering a change for people to observe its entirety collectively. Various works within the publication were related and referenced. The publication was unbound and formated to fit on cream cardstack 6.5” x 9.5.” Volume is the inaugural working of several publications to follow as Tom and I continue to explore and experiment.

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As part of our publication release Tom and I decided to paint the walls with chalk board paint, black. This enhanced the quality of the space while allowing the publication to appear floating against the wall. This piece of the exhibition was intended to be left permanent (unfortunately we were forced to to paint it back). It was our attempt to give the Junior studio a common space for expression that otherwise remains unused.

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Editorial Statement: Project is a publication curated by The Garage. It challenges the conventional nature of publications forcing itself into the public realm physically. It removes the individualized experience of reading projecting itself into a collective realm while prompting conversation. It is arranged chronologically left to right snaking from column to column, each divided by steel support cables. The structure appears minimalistic, camouflaged against the black wall behind forcefully drawing attention to the publication and all its content.

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Opening the Garage! Project Release

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A Final Discussion

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Dear _______, “Architectural pedagogy has become stale. Schools spin old wheels as if something is happening but so little is going on. Students wait for a sense of activist engagement with a rapidly evolving world but graduate before it happens. The fact that they wait for instruction is already the problem. Teachers likewise worry too much about their place in the institutional hierarchies. Curricular structures have hardly changed in recent decades, despite the major transformations that have taken place with the growth of globalization, new technologies, and information culture. As schools appear to increasingly favor professionalisation, they seem to drown in self-imposed bureaucratic oversight, suffocating any possibility for the emergence of experimental practices and failures. There are few attempts to wake things up here and there but it’s all so timid in the end. There is no real innovation.”

The Garage invites you to participate in a table discussion during the release of its inaugural open source, self-printed journal framed around the term project and the act of projecting. This discussion aims to curate dialog while questioning the role of students, teachers, and critics as applied to Radical Pedagogy, a dormant beast that must be awakened. The table discussion will be provided with an underlying prompt and series of questions put forth by the Garage yet all participants are welcome to question the nature of the discussion concurrently. This conversation will replace the conventional format of a final review encouraging participation and projection of the public sphere while bringing textual discourse to an interactive and live format. It will be held on Tuesday, April 8th in crit room ? @ 3:00pm (Food and beverages will be provided). A follow up email will be sent Monday, March 31st with a prompt and series of questions to initiate some critical thinking in preparation for the discussion.

Beatriz Colomina, Esther Choi, Ignacio Gonzalez Galan, and Anna-Maria Meister. Radical Pedagogies in Architectural Education. The Architectural Review. Septemeber 28, 2012.

Yours Truly, The Garage Tom McCormack and Pat Brady

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After all of the work was done: editing, building, making, thinking, we decided to hold a discussion to replace the convention format of a final review.The publication and its curation appeared provocative as students, professors, and friends gathered to talk about architecture and education. It was a chance for the Garage to reflect on its very own education. The discussion prompted the topic of Radical Pedagogy, an idea inspired by members at Princeton who coined the term in relation to critical pedagogy. Though I personally would not have grown into the individual I am today without Wentworth and its faculty I felt my year as a graduate student had been hindered. This discussion was a way for us to wake the beast that could fight back. As students we must be conscious of our own educational processes, to be aware of our roles as students, to question all the bureaucratic shit associated with institutions.The discussion was recorded and streamed across the web on our homepage allowing members outside of Wentworth’s direct network to listen in. Six members were selected to be part of the discussion helping to generate dialog while providing multiple perspectives. Members included were: Jonathan Foote, Graduate Program Director; Carol Burns, Associate Professor and Principal @ Taylor and Burns Architects; Stephen DeMayo, M.Arch Candidate; Giuseppi Podany, M.Arch Candidate; Panharith Ean, BS in Architecture, WAr; and Jackie Mignone, BS in Architecture,WAr. The discussion proved succesful as as many as 50+ floated in an our of the conversations margins observing and occasionally contributing. As a creator of the Garage, a talker, and passionate designer I’m leaving Wentworth with stiff footprints. I believe Wentworth is changing. I believe it can change, but more importantly i belive it should change. As students and teachers we must questions everything while experimenting without fear of failure. Wentworth is currently geared towards the professionalization of architects limiting itself from developing designers passionate about their creations. For four years of my life I spend countless nights, days, and weekends fine tuning my representational techniques: sections, plans, perspectives, diagrams, concept, models. At the end of the day, after four years of school thats what I learned, how to represent something that i’m passionate about. Coming into graduate school I wanted to experience architecture, my creations, all while creating a dialog amongst my peers.

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How do you teach an architect? - you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t.

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From Black to White

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Following our panel discussion and publication release we received critical responses from the department and administrative bodies threatening several consequences. Painting the walls was considered vandalistic; to them we had defaced the school. In our eyes we feel the school lacks this face; identity. Walking into the architecture department it appears as an office, a business office; not an office of designers and creative thinkers. While the wall may have not be democratic throughout the design process it was however used by several of the undergraduates. We imaged the walls being used to sketch ideas, to place quotes, and further expression. The following Monday we were forced to destroy something we had given to the students, a voice now being painted white, lost in translation.

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Converse / Construct explored several realms of architecture, its discourse, and people themselves. It tested, exaggerated, pushed, and defined itself as a relevant means for creating public works. Being public requires risks, pushing boundaries, and challenging yourself as an individual. Who am I? Why am I here? The preliminary components of this thesis: research, experimentation, and exploration, influenced the making of the Garage; my thesis realized in tune with Tom McCormack’s obsession with agency. We established a recognizable identity, forcefully demanding attention as we questioned everything. Looking around studio, its vacancy, people distant and entirely “checked-out,” I realize thesis is ‘over’. However, I believe it is only the beginning for the Garage. While many questioned its relevance uncertain of our non stop installations, tweets, and posts I believe footprints have been left on the campus I’ve walked for five years. To challenge, to project, to be active is to be public.The Garage was a success; its projects appreciated as experiments rather finished workings allows it to continue developing; evolve. The Garage positions as one to provoke. It inserts itself in the physical realm as a method for a contemporary form of Agora. I consider it to be a recipe. It is a series of steps and metaphysical processes cultivated into a giant stew, set to simmer, boil, or cool. For those who eat the stew their palettes evolve allowing for improvements, modifications, and ultimate evolution. Architecture is this stew. It has evolved each generation stepping on the toes of its father. Despite our drive to be novel, and our goal of being provocative, public architecture appears timeless, archived amongst various texts, and hidden in the minds by those who have experienced it. Conversation is the seed of public space. The cultivation of experience paired with conversation allows for the provocation of critical space up for interpretation and driven by dissemination.

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Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. Henry David Thoreau

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appendices

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Annotated Bibliography

Barbara, Anna, and Anthony Perliss. Invisible Architecture: Experiencing Places through the Sense of Smell. Milano: Skira, 2006. Print. Anna Barbard and Anthony Perliss explore the unidentified invisible qualities of architecture. They label smell as a ghost forgotten in many architectural works despite its incredible influence our experiences. They claim architectural places have an identity linked to our olfactory and this notion has been imagined since the ancient Egyptians pyramids. They later discuss the evolution of building technologies and their impact on the aromas from building materials. As the 20th century turned places were sterilized and the need for clean air in spaces eliminated odors. Spaces without out distinctive smells were perceived desirable environments. This forgotten quality of spatial smell has now been realized as an important, invisible quality that can transform the perceived atmosphere within spaces. This source provides a strong understanding of the cognitive links between memories, experiences, and smells helping to support my initial thoughts regarding memory perception and the ways by which we catalogue experience. It also provides successful examples by which smell is prevalent within space including Peter Zumthor’s Swiss Sound Pavilion whose fragrance presents a depth of woody aromas. Cuddy, Amy. “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.” Lecture. TedGlobal. 1 Sept. 2013. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. 20 June 2012. Web. 1 Sept. 2013. Amy Cuddy’s lecture regarding body linguistics discusses visual expression as a language affecting the relationships between people. She begins the lecture discussing the common expression of pride and its implications on our general well being. The main claim throughout the presentation is “fake it till you make it” which later evolves into the less subtle “fake it till you become it.” This method represents recessive, defeated, or diffident individuals seeking to become confident or otherwise dominate figures within society. Her research discovers that applied positive body expression can affect the quality of our lives and the impressions others receive from us. This lecture proves first impressions and body language impact the way by which we communicate. Her research as well as her thought process influenced my initial interests in social interaction and through more investigation proved we are hardcore visual communicators. Rasmussen, Steen Eiler. Experiencing Architecture. Cambridge [Mass.: M.I.T., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1962. Print. Experiencing Architecture focuses on the phenomenological entities associated with built form. It was written in 1959, a period in which architectural discourse focused on the experiences associated 158

with built form instead of the built form itself. The text discusses a removal from the aesthetics, structure, and otherwise formal qualities into a more cognitive experiential architecture that cannot be realized and instead perceived. The notable quote from the text, “The Architect is as sort of theatrical producer, the man who plans the setting for our lives. Innumerable circumstances are dependent on the way he arranges this setting for us.” Is a clear example of Rasmussen’s thoughts on architecture. It describes the role of the architecture as someone setting the scene for our experiences. Though architects cannot prescribe experiences directly they can begin to target specific emotions activated by our senses. This reading was required by all incoming sophomores as an attempt to set the scene for our first studio. It began to influence our means of conceptualizing architecture while becoming familiar with the discourse that describe experiences both big and small. In many ways Rasmussen simplifies the notion that architects are designers for the scenes in which we lead our lives. Thio, Alex. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. New York, NY: HarperCollins College, 1994. Print. This general text blends the relevance of sociology with selfhood. Though it provides a basic understanding of sociology and the weight it carries within society it also places itself as a cornerstone within my thesis. Chapter 6, Deviance and Control, describes social dynamics within society and the extremists mentalities carried by those violating social norms. The chapter explains functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives as they apply to social extremes. The association theory or differential association section describes the process by which an individual is conditioned by experiences with others and their environments. As a result their perspectives can be influenced as they develop into individuals. A child growing up in a crime intense environment may rationalize the act of stealing as a mild crime while others more fortunate may find it terribly wrong. Many of the discussed theories and concepts can be converted to architectural experience proving helpful. Treasure, Julian. “The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.” Lecture. TedGlobal. http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_affects_ us.html?quote=570. 1 Oct. 2009. Web. 1 Sept. 2013. Julian treasure describes in his short but powerful lecture the ways by which sound affects us while forcing his audience to experience these claims throughout the presentation. He begins his lecture sounding an alarm bell which many of us associate with the transition between class periods in school or even a fire alarm. Regardless of how we associate the sound he explains its intent to raise our blood

pressure and gain our attention to the sounds that will soon be radiated from his mouth. As the lecture develops he describes the weight in which sound connects to our cognitive memory maps. Not only does he geographically show the sound receptors in the brain being neighbors to our memory receptors but he also proves this point by playing a 1 second sound bit from the band Queen. As everyone hears the 1 second sound their brains are able to surface the remaining chorus while being reminded of a specific time in their lives. Treasures lecture proves the ways by which we experience sound is linked directly to memories and therefore our experiences. This lecture applies directly to my developing research providing a jumping off point into the realm of our cognitive and its associative instincts with experience. Deutsche, Rosalyn. Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics. Chicago, IL: Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, 1996. Print. Rosalyn Deutsche speaks to public space and public art and its relevance in contemporary contexts. She constructs a definition of what it means for a work of art to be truly be public. Claiming public art is often misinterpreted as art in a public space she suggests it is instead a work that considers the voice of the community and site context. Further she discusses the democratic of space, which contrasts the artist’s process of self-assertion. Xenia Kalpaktsogloug, Poka - Yio. Agora. Athens, Greece: Xenia Kalpaktsogloug, Poka - Yio, 2013. Print. This journal and publication from Agora, an exhibition featured for the 4th biennale in Athens, Greece speaks to the work of several artists and their thoughts regarding the on going process. The publication defines Agora in contemporary context while offering perspectives from each artist and their methodologies. It effectively describes Agora in Greek contexts from which it is rooted. Blum, Andrew. Here but Not Here. Metropolis Magazine. April 2011. This brief article discusses social media and its impact on the public realm while applying it to an architectural discourse. Andrew Blum discusses the work of Diller Scofidio in the late 90’s, specifically their redesign of Brasserie, a restaurant in the basement of the Seagram building. He suggests their use of cameras within the project was an early attempt to connect social media and technology with architecture. This bridge is often considered a means to advertise by several firms. Andrew suggests social media may begin to connect users of space with their designers after the project has been completed.

Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic, 2011. Print. Sherry Turkle suggests we are searching for companionship without friendship. Responding to social media, and our nature to remain connected to anything and everything, she suggests our lack of solitude impacts our ability to identify ourselves, think for ourselves, or establish real relationships outside of a compute screen. Further she discusses our fear of being alone when it is necessary to reflect. ____________________________________________________ Barbara, Anna, and Anthony Perliss. Invisible Architecture: Experiencing Places through the Sense of Smell. Milano: Skira, 2006. Print. Blum, Andrew. Here but Not Here. Metropolis Magazine. April 2011. Cuddy, Amy. “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.” Lecture. TedGlobal. 1 Sept. 2013. TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. 20 June 2012. Web. 1 Sept. 2013. Deutsche, Rosalyn. Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics. Chicago, IL: Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, 1996. Print. Rasmussen, Steen Eiler. Experiencing Architecture. Cambridge [Mass.: M.I.T., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1962. Print. Thio, Alex. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. New York, NY: HarperCollins College, 1994. Print. Treasure, Julian.“The 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.” Lecture.TedGlobal. http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_ affects_us.html?quote=570. 1 Oct. 2009. Web. 1 Sept. 2013. Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic, 2011. Print. Xenia Kalpaktsogloug, Poka - Yio. Agora. Athens, Greece: Xenia Kalpaktsogloug, Poka - Yio, 2013. Print.

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The Garage: Volume 2 / ??????

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to be continued 161