Love of Justice and a Poisonous Mushroom
© Sijie Chen 2014
Contents List of images
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Acknowledgements
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Abstract
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Introduction
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Chapter 1
A love letter
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Chapter 2
Bulin and His Life
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Chapter 3
Dream
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Chapter 4
Dancing, Waving, Swaying, Folding
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Chapter 5
Mushroom Church & Justice Center
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Interlude
Oh My Little Tasty Creatures
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Chapter 6
Reptile & Veiling Tower
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Chapter 7
Tower of Truth &Theater of Paradox
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(a missing) Chapter
Anther Love Letter
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References
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4
Mushroom Troop
David, I can not imagine a better teacher than you. You always stood at a spot that was slightly higher than my position, waving towards me, until I found my own way to lift my feet, take the step, and finally find the place that belongs to me. Your voice has always echoed in my head, hovering around, lightening my world. You are the earth for the mushroom. Tom, your visit to the world was a miracle. Your advice and comments washed the world, like a storm washing away the dust. You are a mysterious companion that the mushroom will never see through, even though he is so curious. We are Mushroom Troop! Thank you, And I love you.
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Abstract
Based on the original question of how architecture responds to its doubled condition as a way to utter its own voices instead of being a superficial product, my thesis project is an exploration of a possible world of fantasies in its own independent presence, but coincides our world at certain moments. In this world, certain spaces, the creation of architectural whims, are inhabited by certain characters which are idiosyncratic in terms of form, material, structure and spatial relationship in different scales, at the same time they speak and intertwine into a cohesive language. Different pieces, from smallest elements to architecture as a whole, evolve from themselves and talk to each other in their own voices which is embodied in their forms, materials and programs, to create a world that has its own logic, spirit and memory. The project has both drawings and narrative, which echo to each other, creating the space of the drawing, of the architecture in the drawing, and the in the narrative itself.
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Introduction
It is a world that can stand , walk, and stagger, like a pendulum . I grew up with it, learned from it. We evolved together, intertwining
It is a work that does not lie, but will die. We will die together. We have been suffering, tortured by unknown force, the work is a sanctuary, a nest, and a breaking out. Through the fracture you will see a shimmering quivering mushroom, like you, like me. Please never expect the mushroom to be explicable. Because everything he uttered will become foggy- foggy smoke. Now this page is ready full of smoke.
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Have you ever seen a book that looks like a mushroom?
A mushroom wearing leather shoes, with one hair erected,
winding
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Chapter 1 A Love Letter mushroom (with eyes) justice (has eyes but blind) moon lake
antenna forest
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leaf
I am going to leave tomorrow.
Though you have stripped all my clothes, Cigarettes that I smoke live
in the monkeys and skeletons;
I live under the crust of a mushroom.
You love me because you said I’m like a lake.
Moon Lake
I love you because you have rigid edges; You wanted to grind me
I can see stars, I can dive into lakes, I have eyes.
Your eyes are fixed on me
But you can’t see me.
You will rise to heaven after you die; I will fall before I die,
Fall into the twisted root,
I will melt, becoming a leaf.
You will crack, I will disappear; Your stomach is a square,
I’m a mushroom with eyes
You imprisoned light in columns, I cried by the moon lake. I saw stars,
Stars of purple rings
You locked my ash (a leaf)
Into the prison
Everybody sees me:
A leaf,
A t r e e. 14
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“Name the mushroom doesn’t need a ceremony.” “Just needs a pink suit, a chimney hat, and a pair of leather shoes.”
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Chapter 2 Bulin and His Life
bulin (mushroom that has a name) poet artist (incense man)
Justice Pincer (has three fingers) Prison Politician Helpers who have firm belief in hand (researchers)
floating leaf
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Reflections, reflections of reflections, millions of millions of reflections, are hovering around the self, which is so vulnerable just like a tiny mushroom in the forest. I have always been very frightened by these double, triple or multi-fold of reflections of myself, hereby my guilty arises. 28
cross: blue foggy prison 29
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Chapter 3 Dream
two walls ( with wavy hair)
mushroom (gigantic) justice (struggling) poet artist farmer
politician (hanged) accountant (shrank)
a group of small smiling creatures: pawn man, candy machine, barn, drug seller, book seller, postal man
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cross: a pink speckle
“Grandma’s house became a desert palace, the floor of which
was covered with thick sand.
I opened the door of my aunt’s bedroom, there appeared a bed, covered with white blanket with scattering yellow stains. Frightened, how I wish to run away!
I could not find my way. The corridor was turned into a dilapidated theater.
Buried in the sand, I saw hundreds of stone dolls.”
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It is a party, a parade, a carnival A play inside a bubble, floating with wind Just like the rampaging elevator, flying everywhere in my dream! A rose became the nose of an elephant Bulin won!
Everyone celebrated like nuts It is the triumph of mushroom.
above: fallen watcher 37
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Chapter 4 Dancing, Waving, Swaying, Folding
mushroom church justice center reptile paradox theater truth tower two buckets four back-to-back companions confronting warriors group of little creatures (smiling)
lonely rose bud (flying)
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“It would never be too late to walk into the crowd where memory began
just as hundreds of drops of water merge into stream. Bulin became a statue washed by rain.
he was remembered by everyone,
a leaf, a door hinge, a brick, a shadow, a move, a twist, a sigh, a pair of leather shoes, a speckle...
some of which made sound,
some of which were silent;
some of which raised their hands,
some of which fell, sinking down as if tears fell.
A mushroom died
becoming smoke
wriggling from every fracture a smell of mushroom�
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Farmer died. with his grass hat on head,
Silk grower died, with his white curtain in hand,
Drug dealer died, with his delusion in head, Leaf died, with his cloudy smoke.
Four Guards were like four statues, They winded, twisted, They scream in silence like huge brown stones I have to confess, Just as I have to love to die.
Two roses The upward is whispering The downward is wiping.
I’m stuck, frozen, falling, creeping
The blossoming rose is soaring high You can never reach the sky.
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Chapter 5 Mushroom Church and Justice Tower
four priests (farmer, drug dealer, silk grower, leaf ) four guards (politician, bank teller, teacher, doctor) researchers rose blossom tadpole mushroom lights (always changing colors)
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I have to confess I am a drop of cold water But will never turn into ice
If I pass by you Please don’t, don’t turn your head I am a ugly looking dust
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cross: bubbles & balls 49
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Mushroom church was a place in secret. A giant mushroom surrounded by four mouths Smoke came out; always a thick white cloud of smoke. Two entrances were at the corners Like mirrored ribbons.
Four confession booths stuck out from a reflective glass surface, though which I saw an archive that has many shelves and books. Four priests were standing or sitting in four confession booths. One priest used to be a farmer He was wearing a thin grass hat. One priest used to be a silk grower. His suit was white curtain. One priest used to be a drug dealer. He looked like a wine bottle, with a light spot. One priest used to be a leaf. He was burned in the incense burner. Secret ear is the place to connect heaven
Two pincers (the computer controlling wing) were swimming at the opposite corners. At the end of them two small mushroom lights were always on with seven changing colors. Two metal rose blossoms, one towards the sky, one downwards to the earth Were stuck on the flat roof.
Giant mushroom nave (the nearest place to sky) It used to a mushroom. A mushroom with long wavy rigid hair. Smoke was always there, sometimes white, sometimes green.
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Justice Center is a glass tower with a floating rose blossom. It is surrounded by a brick maze. Five entrances connect to four rooms: two cubes, two prisms, two half spheres. Cube: clinic Two prisms: bank room
cube: classroom two half spheres: accountant room
Everyday the doctor, as well as the teacher, bank teller and accountant go through a long corridor to get to his room where there is a tiny opening to the politician atrium. The four rooms with tails are pricking to a concrete base where works the politician. Everything is wrapped by a glass box. Translucent. At the center stands a 7-storey tower where works the scientists and researchers. Each floor is the office for a scientist or researcher specialized in one profession. From bottom to above are Language, Sales Statistics, Gun, Bread Development, Medicine, and Film Studio which is inside of the rose blossom.
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Interlude Oh My Tasty Little Creature
flying, stagering, wobbling, shimerring, quiving inspector secret cocoon TV robot wall hotel justice robot cloud tower candy shop glass prison of tree
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Bulinisiseverything, everything,aadrop dropof ofwater, water,aagrass, grass,aasole, sole,aamove, move,aalight, light,aajump, jump,aaturn, turn,aasecond; second;Bulin Bulinisisthe theuniuniBulin verse. verse. Thetruth truthcan cannot notbe befound, found,doesn’t doesn’texist. exist.The Thetruth truthisiswhat whatwe wesee, see,what whatwe wesmell, smell,what whatwe wetouch, touch,what whatwe we The stomp, what we sense. Those born to be free. stomp, what we sense. Those born to be free.
above:tasty tastybirds birds above: 65 59
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Chapter 6 Veiling Tower Reptile
(farmer’s, drug dealer’s, silk grower’s, leaf’s) urn poet (couldn’t find home) record keeper library doorman
the paranoid (sound-maker) medical students the man (who knows my name)
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It is an archive, a place of veiling.
An enormous cemetery palace is beneath the ground. Four ash burners that have long chimneys are at the central room. One for farmer, one for silk grower, one for drug dealer, And one is for the leaf. Poet lives in the ear, behind the ribbon entrance. Two incense burners are at the corners, with long and wavy tails. The rose bud facing downwards, is the elevator hall for the library.
Another rose bud is connected, the f l o a t i n g rising one, covering the speech hall that has a glass roof is the only opening to the sky. Stars fell down Two inverse mushrooms in the middle, one solid, one void, are the collection rooms for cigarettes and leaves.
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Reptile has four wings: all connected to a central dome, wrapped around by a concrete box. Two wings are hospital wards. At one end is the space for the man who knows my name; at the other is floating performance island;
The other two wings contain the study units for medical students and researchers; at the end there are two triangular rooms for storing machine for scanning the brain and recording the heartbeat. At the center of the entrance hall there is erected a prism that imprisons the paranoid schizophrenia patient who is making sound all the time: screaming, scratching, stomping, bumping, isolated from the busy-passing people of the hall. Another prism is connected, that has a glass top:
Blinking
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A upside down stool with antennas and a green cushion
Wobbling ,
twisting
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Chapter 7 Truth Tower Paradox Theater two wine bottles (hanged; buried) rose blossom (floating horizontally) two elephant nose (mirrored)
two
Linguistic Nihilist
tadpoles
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Paradox theater is a two-fold theater that has its rising and falling, rights and wrongs, ups and downs. It’s a space at its opposite.
Paradox theater has two mirrored entrances as well, in between the marble performance hall that has four columns, two upwards, two downwards. Two wine bottles, one being buried, one being hanged,
space for secret keeper, space of telling
On top The standing mushroom is a shell while the falling mushroom is a collector. The ears, the noses of incense burners, are both at their inverse position, Towards the sky or toward the earth. The central column of the hall opens up the underground space that has two floating islands facing each other; In the glass falling mushroom of Truth Tower, there floats two facing islands as well.
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Truth Tower
Folding and unfolding A twin tower of inversion One transparent
One solid
layers of enclosure
Rising mushroom
folded entrance
straight entrance with an arc
falling reflective mushroom (with confronting islands)
Falling mushroom is the entry for nihilism
RISING mushroom is the escape of linguistics.
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LINGUIST
NIHILISTIC
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In my dream, I became a monkey A monkey just needed to a tree to climb
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cross: flesh 79
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(A Missing) Chapter Another Love Letter puppet the murderer poet’s lover hat pillow Anther love letter ( written with blood, in seven languages)
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References
Foucault, Michel (1988). Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Vintage. Foucault, Michel (1994). The Birth of Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. Vintage. Foucault, Michel (1995). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison. Vintage.
Baudrillard, Jean (1995). Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press. Nietzsche, Friedrich (1996). On the Genealogy of Morals. New York, Oxford University Press.
Schwitters, Kurt (2009). Lucky Hans and other merz fairy tales. New Jersey. Princeton University Press. Artaud, Antonin (1994). Theater and its double. Grove Press Lionni, Leo (1978). Parallel Botany. Random House Inc.
Colonna, Francesco (2005). Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream. Thames & Hudson Deleuze, Gilles (1989). Cinema 2: The Time-Image. Univ Of Minnesota Press
Benjamin, Walter (2010). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
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