Re-thinking Borders Through Migrants Connections To The Land by William Martyn

WILLIAM MARTYN Re-Thinking Borders Through Migrants Connections To The Land

Re-Thinking Borders Through Migrants Connections To The Land

WILLIAM MARTYN

Re-T hinking Border s T hrough Mig rants Connections to T he Land William Martyn 106617650 HTCC501 2019/20 Word count: 2991 All images are my own unless they are Referenced 2

Abstract Analysing the way in which migration is demonstrating the need to re-think borders, this essay uses the Shoah as a case study to be analysed through Vilem Flusser’s theories on being a migrant. These theories are then explored using Martin Heidegger’s ideology of the land and our interpretation of it, which fostered his understandings of existentialism. The Shoah acts as an example of what Heidegger would denote ‘absorbed’ by everyday life: whilst absorbed meaningfully in our activities we do not tend to question their meaning, and thus we would never consider that of past atrocities. It is hoped the exploration of these suggests the necessity to rethink borders, as genocides continue, and entire regions have their structures devastated by war.

Contents Introduction 5 F lusser, T he Exile, T he Refugee, T he Mig rant 6 Heideg ger, T he Existentialist, T he Nazi, T he Moderator 8 Under standing connections through the Shoah 10 Conclusion 15 Bibliog raphy 16 A ppendix, supporting film And profor mas 20

Introduction This essay will be analysing the relationship between borders and migration, in particular, the way in which migration is demonstrating the need to re-think borders. I will analyse the Shoah through a theoretical lens, looking at the cultural perception of people and land that they exist on - specifically the idea ‘Diaspora of the Jews’ (describing the ‘dispersion’ or ‘scattering’1). Historically, there have been many cultural variations of Diasporas, as suggested by Tobias Brinkman. However, he also states that the Jewish Diasporas are the most diverse, longstanding, and prominent in the 21st Century. As a result of their presence, and similar displacements to the Jewish Diasporas in many cultures, Brinkman believes that the redistribution of social power is the root of conflicts that arise from ‘the Established and the Outsiders’2, outsiders being these Diasporas. This will be done with consideration of the lens Vilem Flusser used writing the ‘The Freedom of the Migrant, Objections to Nationalism’. Flusser ‘focused on things all around him’3 such as ‘the ground we tread’4, and used the works of philosopher Martin Heidegger. Heidegger inspired much of Flusser’s (as he did many Jewish philosophers) thinking with his perspectives on the idea of people, land, and language in ‘Being and Time’5, despite Flusser being born to an ‘affluent Jewish family’ that left him the only survivor of Nazi persecution6 (In his family), and Heidegger’s public support of the Nazi regime.

1 Ages, A. (1973). The Diaspora Dimension. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, p.3. 2 Brinkman, Tobias, “Jewish Migration — EGO”, EGO | Europäische Geschichte Online, 2010 <http:// ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/europe-on-the-road/jewish-migration/tobias-brinkmann-jewish-migration> [Accessed 28 November 2019] 3 Flusser, Vilém, The freedom of the migrant, objections to nationalism, 2nd edn (Oxfordshire: Marston book services Limited, 2003), p. XI 4 Flusser, Vilém, Rodrigo Maltez Novaes, and Siegfried Zielinski, Post-History, 1st edn (Minneapolis: Univocal publishing), p. 3 5 Heidegger, Martin, Being and Time, 1st edn (oxford: Blackwell Publishers ltd, 1962) 6 Flusser, Vilém, The freedom of the migrant, objections to nationalism, 2nd edn (Oxfordshire: Marston book services Limited, 2003), p. X, XI

Image 1. ‘The Established debating the Outsiders’ F lusser, T he Exile, T he Refugee, T he Mig rant Throughout Flusser’s life, he moved around the world for various reasons. The Nazi regime marked the first of many international relocations Flusser would make throughout his life. Although ‘the Freedom of the Migrant’ doesn’t address the root of Flusser’s lifelong obsession with the study of language and communication; but does suggest that due to Flusser traveling to a great degree, he was enticed by the fluctuating chances of dialogue defined by globalization7 which contains the Diasporas. This led him to want to expand his and other’s knowledge8 as simply it was not only Jews who partook in systems of globalization. What he would come to teach in his literature is how cultures express themselves, and what this means for those hidden behind borders’9. Flusser was described as an intellectual nomad by Anke k Finger10, moving between borders, documenting what he saw all around him based on his theoretical studies. To be a ‘nomad’ means to have no permanent home as stated in most dictionaries however, it misses why people choose to have no permanent home like Flusser for example. An intellectual nomad would be seen to be a smart or curious individual without a permanent home, however, Flusser was also seen by Rolf Kaluweit who was a German linguist, to be a nomad, but a nomad that existed as part of a 7 Flusser, Vilém, The freedom of the migrant, objections to nationalism, 2nd edn (Oxfordshire: Marston book services Limited, 2003), p.IX 8 Flusser, p.IX 9 Flusser, p.IX 10 Flusser, p.IX

global village11. Kaluweit’s understanding of what it meant to be a nomad was to achieve a set of goals such as gathering mushrooms or killing animals12, and once completed they continue moving on their journey to their new goal and adapting to the land that they exist on, therefor the nomads’ curiosities and wanderings will not come to an end. This suggests that Flusser’s beliefs will always be to achieve the goal of understanding the ground we tread. For Flusser, being a global citizen (a member of this previously mentioned global village) was crucial to this understanding, as he believed ‘the more languages we speak the more we live’ yet by him being a global citizen he became homeless, as many homelands made their home in him13.

Image 2. ‘A figure of great depth’ The idea of homeland and Flusser’s connections to any one particular homeland (or the entirety) was generated through the thinking of Heidegger and existentialism (this will be delved into later on in this essay) which led him to his writings of identity and being: ‘Who am I? Where am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?’. Flusser describes this as self-identification, which means to ‘differentiate oneself from others’ which is to ‘discriminate against others’14. The idea of self-identifying suggests one was once settled or had a sense of belonging, or 11 Kaluweit, Rolf. “Postmodern nomadism and the beginnings of a global village.” Flusser Studies 7 (2008): 1-18 12 Kaluweit, Rolf. “Postmodern nomadism and the beginnings of a global village.” Flusser Studies 7 (2008): 1-18 13 Flusser, Vilém, Erik Eisel, and Andreas Ströhl, Writings, 1st edn (Minneapolis, Minn.[u.a.]: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), p. 91 14 Flusser, Vilém, The freedom of the migrant, objections to nationalism, 2nd edn (Oxfordshire: Marston book services Limited, 2003), p.16

a culture of some kind. For Flusser, this was to be a Jew; his belonging was the religion, the religion that migrated and resettled over and over again. To outsiders of Judaism, this could be seen as being constantly unsettled and disruptive to their stability of their lives. In order for the Diasporas to function, they need to learn the language of the land to become at one with the immediate surroundings (in this context, those occupying the land prior to the Diaspora’s arrival), informing Flusser’s theories on translation. It echoes his own experience, that he describes as ‘abysmal’ or ‘groundless’ , which then becomes multi-dimensional; both being a tool to act along a liminal plane to allow for travel, but also a way in which to express what has been experienced in a post-history lens. The post-history world that we exist in is both a product of culture and a culture itself, which Flusser is describing in the chapter ‘The Ground We tread’ that is a condemned manifestation of human existence. Therefore, it is understood that the ground we tread will be articulated through the cultures we express through means of language, therefore the more cultures we experience the more manifestations of history will appear in addition to generating new cultures and societal norms for people to adopt thus furthering humans’ ability to progress in ways such as communicating to others, broaden understandings towards situations and knowing how to deal with them. Proven in his analysis of Western culture, often history is manipulated into a seamless function to disguise unfavourable evidence and invert the past, objectifying humans and their existence – suggesting western culture has developed an anti-culture15. In order to not be amorphous objects existing as functions of cultures, Flusser believes that humans shouldn’t adopt the religion of Judaism or any religion in particular but that we should adopt some ideologies of them (as well as being mindful not get caught in the spectacle of the story of the religion) and that is to be open-minded towards the things that make them the most diverse and that is to be in some essence… a migrant (outsider).

Heideg ger, T he Existentialist, T he Nazi, T he Moderator In Flusser’s eyes, to have the greatest fulfilment of life for himself and others would entail being a migrant, to have experienced many homelands, fostering a deeper understanding of other cultures and to be the acting, feeling, living individual that has a sense of belonging to the previously mentioned global village. This instance of the acting, feeling and the individual are rooted in the inquires of existentialism put forward by Martin Heidegger. Heidegger was deeply attached to ‘provincial life of southern Germany, to its small towns and rugged landscape’16 something that 15 Flusser, Vilém, Rodrigo Maltez Novaes, and Siegfried Zielinski, Post-History, 1st edn (Minneapolis: Univocal Publishing, 2013) 16 Inwood, Michael, Heidegger, 1st edn (Oxford: University, 1997), p3

he would call familiar. This is essential to understanding the thoughts the thoughts he refined into studies of being and translation, which entailed his brief support of National socialism. Heidegger’s understanding of existentialism and ontology was unparalleled, though arguably lead to his downfall as a result of Nazi association, after believing it inclusive of Germany’s people. – a movement that aligned itself with Heidegger’s ideas and affirmed the sacred soil on which Germans stood. Heidegger believed that life was about having experiences in the aspect of being till death where thinking could be free and spiritual. As Heidegger was studying, he often referred back to Fredrich Nietzsche who once quoted “One must not eye oneself while having an experience; else the eye becomes an evil eye.”17 which deeply resonates in a Heideggerian lens - to squint would mean to have a deep focus on an insufficient observation but obscures the bigger picture and thus obscures the whole experience. Furthermore, he knew that people were aware the experiences that were happening all around them but argued that we are absorbed by a particular theme or subject matter of concern and have lost all attunement, involvement, relationship, and awareness itself as described by Steven Segal18. ‘Much is monstrous. But nothing more monstrous than the man’ Opening of the choral ode, a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin19 Heidegger thinks of man’s ‘essential’ uncanniness based on what he calls the laws of history. This law is thought of as ‘the altercation of that which is foreign and that which is one’s own’20. For Heidegger, essence consists of ‘coming to be at home’21; this mutually implicates ‘not being at home’22. Not being at home would imply being homeless, being homeless is existing in the unfamiliar. Heidegger interprets this as being monstrous, a thought generated through the poet Fredrich Hölderlin. That is, man goes out and seeks his home in beings. To be human, it is to seek the unfamiliar; and the unfamiliar of most is the essence of being (human); the familiar is the intimate, the home. The monstrous is not at home 23. The monstrous was not, however, thought first of by Hölderlin, but by the Greeks at the time of Sophocles. Heidegger knew this and understood that these people appear as pure as the national socialist such as Hitler who was seen to be a relatable man loving his pets and considerate towards wildlife in the country side in the south 17 Segal, Steven, “The Existential Conditions of Explicitness: An Heideggerian Perspective”, Studies In Continuing Education, 21 (1999), p.76 <https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037990210105> 18 Segal, p76 19 Warminski, Andrzej, “Monstrous History: Heidegger Reading Hölderlin”, Yale French Studies, 1990, p.200<https://doi.org/10.2307/2930154> 20 Warminski, p.194 21 Warminski, p.200 22 Warminski, p.200 23 Warminski, p.200

of Germany as he stated in ‘Der Ister’24 but with their efforts placed in academia and not politics. Heidegger has continually made ambiguous comments towards his political standpoint but has said he became disillusioned with Nazism after the Röhm putsch25 in 1934. However not for ethical reasons but the sheer element of the Nazi’s solution to gaining power and what he called a way of Overcoming Metaphysics26, but his understanding the ontology of near all political movements was next to non-existent, as described by Mark Blitz27. For someone so focused on theory and ideologies, it is strange for him to be disconnected on a deep level to the political activities of his homeland. By doing this he was able to focus on being where he existed and what impacted him as an individual despite his interpretative translations of Polis, Americanism, and Nazism28 and others too numerous to mention. However, when we had to make the decision of siding with a political movement, he left it to his ontological understanding, leading him to the most politically inclusive community. Blitz labelled Heidegger’s understanding as moderating a totality of arts, philosophy, and poetry29 with necessary cosmopolitan30 attitudes towards the affirmed German land, something Flusser would adopt on an international scale. Under standing connections through the Shoah The Shoah was the genocide of 6 million European Jewish people during the period of the Second World War. It was at the hand of the Nazis and coined as the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”31 the persecution of the Jewish people was radically enforced with violence during Nazi Germany following the Kristallnacht, however persecution of the Jews started as early as 193332 when Adolf Hitler first rose to power. Many other minorities were targeted, such as the Roma, the Slavs, and those with disabilities, in pursuit of the perfect Aryan race33. The perfect Aryan race, as envisioned by Hitler, was that free from people who he deemed subhuman and detrimental to that goal. This entailed Pan-Germanism which was originally sought of to unify all the German and possibly also Germanic-speaking peoples in a single nation-state known as Großdeutschland34. 24 Heidegger, Martin, Holderlins Hymne “Der Ister” (Frankfurt am Main: V. Klostermann, 1984), p. 80 25 Inwood, Michael, Heidegger, 1st edn (Oxford: University, 1997), p4 26 Blitz, Mark, “Heidegger And the Political”, Political Theory, 28 (2000), 167-196 <https://doi.org/10.1 177/0090591700028002003>, p.191 27 Blitz p.191 28 Blitz p.191 29 Blitz p.191 30 Blitz p.191 31 Bergen, Doris L, War and Genocide, 2nd edn (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009) 32 Bergen, p.2-11 33 Bergen, p.2-11 34 Kirk, Tim, Nazism And the Working Class in Austria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)

Anti-Semitic propaganda from Nazi Germany. Articulating topics such as Begging, corruption, Communism, and greediness.

The Jewish people were seen, by Hitler, to be the downfall of Germany. Heidegger’s terms of the unfamiliar36 give reason to why these people were possibly despised so much; after all, they have their own language and laws within the religion, which could be seen as undermining the state. Not only this, many Jewish families were affluent and had drive to further their intellectual understanding, Much like Vilem Flusser’s family or Hannah Ardent (a former mature pupil and lover of Heidegger). This could put pressure on the intellectuals of the state, as it did to Heidegger who made anti-Semitic remarks in his private ‘black notebooks’37. Segal recognised in Heidegger’s work that he understood many perspectives; for example, for those who migrate, simple activities from the perspective of the locals ‘can be a source of confusion and uncertainty for the migrant’38 not to mention the locals who may have little to no information that may now exist in close proximity to them. Following this Segal explores the idea of being thrown into the existentially unfamiliar, where disturbances of any kind cause us to question our involvement with the world39. An example of this would be when migrants arrive on our homeland, we question ourselves, what we mean to the land, or what is means to us. Heidegger’s thoughts towards this may have been stirred by the propaganda against Jewish people and felt for his dearly beloved black forest in the south of Germany (a provincial area Hitler also loved). However, this moment of being in the provincial land and the way he interpreted it was through his own language (German), and 35 Qureshi, Hamzah, “Cartoons Then and Now – Jews In Germany And Muslims In Australia”, Hizb Ut-Tahrir Australia, 2019 <http://www.hizb-australia.org/2017/06/cartoons-then-and-now-jews-in-germany-and-muslims-in-australia/> [Accessed 23 December 2019] 36 Segal, Steven, “The Existential Conditions of Explicitness: An Heideggerian Perspective”, Studies In Continuing Education, 21 (1999), p.76 https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037990210105 37 Farin, Ingo, and Jeff E Malpas, Reading Heidegger’s Black Notebooks 1931-1941(Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2016), pp. 145-195 38 Segal, p76 39 Segal, p8

the product of western culture that he despised. German nationalists, you could say, were obsessed with this language, this western culture/philosophy. Heidegger believed that we are much too concerned with objects and the functions of objects, and what we subject these functions to, rather than the context of these. Situated in something Nazi Germany came to define, both overcame metaphysics by stretching it to the furthest possible extent during the Shoah’40 something that Nazi Germany came to define by overcoming metaphysics indirectly by pushing metaphysics it to its highest degree with the Shoah. The Shoah could be thought of as a product of western culture that ruptured the external, unconnected world’s emotional state as the most extreme manifestation of western functionality, that completely abandoned the understanding of others and opted to scapegoating ‘the migrant [Jew] with the strange accent and the unpronounceable name’41 as Segal would articulate it. Flusser called the Shoah at Auschwitz “the ultimate reification of people into amorphous objects’42 through functions of western culture. We are condemned to the cultures we exist in; they are the ground we tread; the western world is creating a system of functionality that objectifies humans and their existence. This example of western culture has created an anti-cultural approach as man has created a function to take the man out the functions. This is demonstrated through ‘The ultimate objectification of the Jews into ashes is the ultimate victory of the spirit of the west’43. The questioning of others is easier than the questioning of ourselves, when we question ourselves, we must consider that what we have not before the context of our being and what we mean to the land and our interpretation of it. Segal says through a Heideggerian perspective it is the role of the mood and emotion in critical thought may generate defensive and reflective responses which cause one’s self to rupture from his day to day activities44 – this would cause oneself to be pulled in a tangent to that activity and thus an ulterior culture of some sort of attentivity towards one’s being. Heidegger believes those though who become ruptured in mood or emotion are ‘inauthentic’45 and tranquillise themselves in the face of a critical incident, as it is easier to avoid themselves of such emotions. The western culture created Nazism and Nazism put western culture to the test, Flusser described it as the highest of western values. However, Flusser also believed that we all share the responsibility for Nazism46 as 40 Segal, Steven, “The Existential Conditions of Explicitness: An Heideggerian Perspective”, Studies In Continuing Education, 21 (1999), p.85 https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037990210105 41 Segal p.86 42 Flusser, Vilém, Rodrigo Maltez Novaes, and Siegfried Zielinski, Post-History, 1st edn (Minneapolis: Univocal Publishing, 2013) p.5 43 Flusser, p.9 44 Segal p.86 45 Segal p.87 46 Batličková, Eva, “Unto the Third and Fourth Generation: The Experience Of The Holocaust As Basis For Vilém Flusser’s Theories”, Flusser Studies, 23

we are informed by the same trends that also informed the Nazis47 meaning that in some respectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modern society dynamics, closely allied with functional language and communication, are able to deprive people of the moral responsibility for their acts thus along them to become further disconnected with their own attunement of their mood, emotions and most importantly the culture they exist apart of.

47 BatliÄ?kovĂĄ, p.2

We are still holding skeletons now, as we did in the aftermath of the Shoah, we must become more accepting of other ways of life. 14

Conclusion Flusser refused to accept the role of the victim48 and Heidegger left his involvement with the Nazi party ambiguous49, maybe because they both knew that they too had been passive entities in the atrocities that came about from western cultures that they both actively criticised. Only thoughts towards the Shoah were said with weight when it was too late. It made us reflect on our cultures across the world asking what the Jews really did to deserve that treatment in the west. This example of the Jewish Diasporas and their persecution in the Shoah causes us to rethink that their connection to many different homelands was the issue or is it our perspective on the land that we personally call home. By allowing ourselves to become familiar with people of different homelands we become accepting and understanding of one another. The freedom to explore beyond our homelands, akin to Flusser’s existential existence, allows us to further our own intellectual abilities. He felt that ‘the more languages we speak the more we live’50 On the contrary, we are still needing to rethink borders as genocides continue and entire regions have their structures devastated by war. It remains clear that Shoah is another example of what Heidegger would call ‘absorbed’ 51 by everyday life. Whilst absorbed meaningfully in our activities we do not tend to question their meaning, and thus why would we ever consider that of atrocities that have happened. This has led to the avoidance of critical reflection and interpretation in ones being, being a part of a culture, being on the land, and interpreting other beings of shared borders and ones beyond.

48 Batličková, p.12 49 Inwood, Michael, Heidegger, 1st edn (Oxford: University, 1997), p3 50 van Loyen, Clemens. “Translation as an Act of Freedom–Vilém Flusser’s Philosophy of Translation.” (2016). 51 Segal 87

Bibliography Ages, A. (1973). The Diaspora Dimension. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands Batličková, Eva, “Unto the Third And Fourth Generation: The Experience Of The Holocaust As Basis For Vilém Flusser’s Theories”, Flusser Studies, 23 Bergen, Doris L, War and Genocide, 2nd edn (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009) Blitz, Mark, “Heidegger And the Political”, Political Theory, 28 (2000), 167-196 https://doi.org/10.1177/0090591700028002003 Brinkman, Tobias, “Jewish Migration — EGO”, EGO | Europäische Geschichte Online, 2010 <http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/europe-on-the-road/jewish-migration/tobias-brinkmann-jewish-migration> [Accessed 28 November 2019] Farin, Ingo, and Jeff E Malpas, Reading Heidegger’s Black Notebooks 1931-1941(Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2016), p. 145-195 Flusser, Vilém, Erik Eisel, and Andreas Ströhl, Writings, 1st edn (Minneapolis, Minn.[u.a.]: University of Minnesota Press, 2008) Flusser, Vilém, Rodrigo Maltez Novaes, and Siegfried Zielinski, Post-History, 1st edn (Minneapolis: Univocal publishing) Heidegger, Martin, Being and Time, 1st edn (oxford: Blackwell Publishers ltd, 1962) Heidegger, Martin, Holderlins Hymne “Der Ister” (Frankfurt am Main: V. Klostermann, 1984) Inwood, Michael, Heidegger, 1st edn (Oxford: University, 1997) Kaluweit, Rolf. “Postmodern nomadism and the beginnings of a global village.” Flusser Studies 7 (2008): 1-18 Kirk, Tim, Nazism And the Working Class In Austria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) Qureshi, Hamzah, “Cartoons Then and Now – Jews In Germany And Muslims In Australia”, Hizb Ut-Tahrir Australia, 2019 <http://www.hizb-australia. org/2017/06/cartoons-then-and-now-jews-in-germany-and-muslims-in-australia/> [Accessed 23 December 2019]

Segal, Steven, “The Existential Conditions of Explicitness: An Heideggerian Perspective”, Studies In Continuing Education, 21 (1999), p.76 https://doi. org/10.1080/0158037990210105 The freedom of the migrant, objections to nationalism Flusser, Vilém, The Freedom of The Migrant, 2nd edn (Oxfordshire: Marston book services Limited, 2003) Van Loyen, Clemens. “Translation as an Act of Freedom–Vilém Flusser’s Philosophy of Translation.” (2016). Warminski, Andrzej, “Monstrous History: Heidegger Reading Hölderlin”, Yale French Studies, 1990, https://doi.org/10.2307/2930154

A ppendix Supporting film can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va3sLj1GVRE PROFORMAS: HTCC501: History, Theory and Critical Context 5.1 17/09/2019 Till, J. (2012) “Is Doing Architecture Doing Research?”, 4th International Meeting on Architectural and Urbanism Research,1-9. The concern of this text is looking at a balanced argument of what sort of research is required with in the field of architecture and all that it encompasses along the line it is stretched upon between art and science. This is done so by identifying the values of good research for any field and then applying it to architecture. These were mentioned to be ‘originality, rigour, and significance’ however, Till debates these with other ideas that supplement the research and how the research is conducted. Such as if it is communicated clearly and is the appropriate method of researching for our chosen Field. People choose to carry out the right method for what they are hoping to achieve. This text explored ways in which people view architectural research and then proposed its culmination of these with values that they seemed to have missed. The initial positions were ‘architecture is just architecture’ suggesting that this is a unique field in which only architects understand therefore the research is only available to those in the field, as those outsides simply don’t know how we work. A good point due to the collective and chaotic nature but has downfalls such as what research is good if it cannot be communicated with rigour significance and originality. The next position being ‘architecture is not architecture’ and that we should turn to people not in the field but those outsides to validate our research a good test of communication of the research, but does lack significance potentially it suggests. The next position is ‘Building a Building to research’ something that architectural knowledge resides in and every building is ultimately unique and thus original but can you suggest this is evidence of new knowledge? This was the foundation in which it argues cases for the methods of research and downfalls of academia and in practice research for architecture.

I believe Jeremy Till takes a democratic standpoint on the ideas of research and should be shared. Till is also very understanding to why some forms are not and some are simply just lost in the system through the busyness of practice and the intellectual property of academics but that also has led me to the idea of research is mainly based out of need within practice or curiosity to understand what can be, but often researchers and those wishing to learn mis-reads these messages in the field we work in and that is through the building. Therefore Till argues that we need to make architecture speak, to satisfy Bruce Archer’s definition of research (that it is “systematic inquiry whose goal is communicable knowledge”) Debord, Guy (1970) The Society of the Spectacle, Detroit: Black and Red, 1-35. In this text, Guy Debord was exploring the society of spectacle and how it developed alongside political movements developing a ‘commodity fetishism’. He first outlines spectacle and analyses it through a Marxist lens and articulates how we become more and more distracted by our products of society being consumable materials (such as mass media). Being a Marxist, he was critiquing how this fetishism of having more and more was detrimental to the society that first manifested the fetishism. As the mass media was owned by private investors, naturally it was controlled by these also. It pushes you towards why this is bad and makes you interpret co-operative ownership would be the solution, and to not be divulged by the spectacle. This is suggested throughout in examples of ‘world of the autotomized image, where the liar has lied to himself.’ The people who are controlling the mass media are so invested by their products that they have to keep pushing it, pushing it to the point where they lie to themselves and thus the many who consume it. Debord uses a few supporting theorists throughout this extract such as Hegel, Marx, and Søren Kierkegaard. He uses historical case studies such as the Greek philosophical period to argue what is going on in his present. This was framed in political philosophy primarily and took elements of sociology. Debord says ‘What ties the spectators together is no more than an irreversible relation at the very centre which maintains their isolation. The spectacle reunites the separate but reunites it as separate.’ Meaning that we are separated by our investment to the spectacle, with each investment to these spectacles being different we form more disagreements. This theme of ‘isolation’ carries throughout articulating isolation occurs through different agendas within a political philosophy such as conservatism these agendas were the ownership of commodities, this he called commodity fetishism where people were driven to other people with the drive of acquiring more wealth .

The context of this extract was primarily set in a post-second world war world, with elements of the 19th century too. The reason for this was the rise of Marxism which was happening in Russia under Stalin. Debord supported Marxism and his studies took a Marxist lens to the topic, this caused some bias towards his findings that undermined things such as Americanism, Capitalism and other Political ways of the west. He believed that the Spectacle was driven by western culture of consumerism and that generated a ‘false consciousness’ towards the people we surround ourselves in causing ourselves to use languages that only supported our commodity fetishism. This language was construed via the media, though, the people who were opposed to this political way thought the government-controlled it Lefebvre, H (1991) The Production of Space, Blackwell, Oxford, 401-423. The concern of Lefebvre in this text is ‘what is the mode of existence of social relations?’ This develops into criticisms of people’s approaches to understand the social and the city and the space in which societies exist. Like Debord, he considers ‘subject’ and ‘object’ and how our isolation in life respective to our societies with a Marxist lens. Lefebvre here is striving to get to the bottom of what is underpinning materials such as forms, functions and structure and how they are all connected. This to me shares thinking with Jean Paul Sartre, we are taking our eye away from the keyhole and understanding the greater picture of ourselves and what we are doing there looking through the keyhole and what we mean to the person who has caught us looking through the keyhole. Lefebvre has started to understand that through looking at the underpinning the subject and object in a more existential way as he says ‘there can be no thought, no reflection, without language, and no language without a material underpinning’ Like Debord, Lefebvre was a French Marxist philosopher, so his theories also referred to Marx, Hegel and Nietzsche however this looked at more of the sociology of space. This he broke down into ‘subject’ and ‘object’ respectively. Lefebvre looks at the production in space and how this contends with the production of space which affects spatial practices and perceptions. Lefebvre said that the production in space dictates the new production of space where every mode of production produces a certain space, its own space. Lefebvre criticized Soviet urban planners, as a socialist space had not been produced, just a reproduction of modern urban planning. It was not an appropriate space and therefore suggest that this could undermine the soviet movement, as the modern design was mostly being fronted by architects who disapproved of its authoritarian tendencies. Lefebvre here is understanding geographical space, landscape, and property as a culture of all kinds which left him open to the thoughts of many political move22

ments however in this and generally, he criticises Stalinism and the soviet era following the second world war and a history of change. Instead of debating the theory of social space, he analysed the difficulties over the meaning of space and considered how relations across territories began to give meaning into how production of space is dependent on the society that uses it, for example in America the production of space, in Debord terms, would fetishize spatial elements that supported commodity culture such as shops where people could keep up with the trends such as modernism. Lefebvre says, ‘The period through which modernity struggles to make its way is headed towards another non-labour- that non-labour which is the goal of labour and the ultimate significance of the accumulation of means (technology, knowledge, machinery)’ suggesting that modernity was producing spaces which are a direct need of a society and disregards its functions thereafter or how it would exist after the society developed a new need. Foucault, M. (2008) “Of Other Spaces (1967)” in Heterotopia and the city: Public Space in a Post-civil Society, edited by Michiel Dehanene and Lieven De Cauter, London: Routledge, 13-29. The central concern of this extract is understanding what heterotopias are in our societies as well as exploring the function of heterotopia in the network society (and beyond). Foucault broke down the heterotopias to five principles these are 1.) All cultures constitute heterotopias; 2.) Heterotopias can change function within a single society; 3.) They may take the form of contradictory sites, such as the representation of a sacred garden as a microcosm of the world in the patterns of a Persian rug; 4.) They are linked with a break in traditional time, identifying spaces that represent either a quasi-eternity, like museums, or are temporal, like fairgrounds; 5.) Heterotopias are not freely accessible, they are entered either by compulsory means, such as jail, or their entry is based on ritual or purification, like Scandinavian saunas, and Moslem hammams. This is exploring fragmented places in our society where things don’t work but they also function as we wish them to when we need the too also meaning they are temporal for the location and the users. As Foucault believes that heterotopias exist in broken time, he looked at locations within cities that have changed over a period of time with their location and people’s thoughts to them but also keep their function. An example of this is people’s attitudes towards graveyards. He finishes this section with ‘The cemeteries then no longer constitute the sacred and immortal belly of the city, but the ‘other city’, where each family possesses its dark dwelling’ suggesting that there is city that has freedom to exist where ever as long as it stays as the same function of keeping families together in a distant way. However, much of this text also considers the middle ages by critiquing Galileo’s understanding of the world we live in by giving 23

examples of what he missed, and what he missed, is somehow a place of other in the eyes of Foucault. Due to this text being a series of examples of how heterotopias come to be and what they make us do he choose to opt towards a middle ages view on what he is describing and how it led to where we are now. Foucault uses the idea of a brothel at one stage ‘The latter unfolds between two extreme poles. Either their role is to create a space of illusion that exposes all real space, all the emplacements in the interior of which human life is enclosed and partitioned, as even more illusory.’ This suggests that people are the creators of heterotopias and shows the discursive nature of our being, therefore meaning the context is set in societies, and are all subjective supposedly. 28/09/2019 Woods, L. (1997) Radical Reconstruction, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 13-32. The Primary concern of Woods in Radical Reconstruction is break down the connection of the destructive nature of war and then secondly the destruction of space through other causes. He does this by proposing three principles which are; Restore what has been lost to its pre-war condition. Suggesting that the war was more of an interruption of the flow of normal. The next principle is to Demolish the damaged and destroyed buildings and build something entirely new. This principle is much more radical than the first. It would be either an update or something entirely new however is very expensive. The final principle is the post-war city must create the new from the damaged old. This principle salvages the buildings that haven’t been destroyed to the extent of disrepair, thus making it more financially viable than the previous method. It serves as a memory of what happened in a scar sort of form, a symbol of moving forward and a scary reminder. Woods challenged the way in which we naturally approach the subject of reconstruction as we approach it to be hierarchal towards our needs, whereas he is suggesting that it could be done in a much more existential way. We are not considering when we form walls what these walls are doing to the spaces that were here before the destruction, and what it might mean to whatever is to come after the building’s function changes. Cities are formed of multidimensional layers says woods woven over centuries, these layers form living tissue that must be respected to the highest degree by doing something radical to consider all three principles.

The context was broken down into three parts these being San Francisco, the only city not to be destroyed in part by natural forces. San Francisco is by far the most interesting analysis as it allows us to say that humans were not at fault in this destruction however Woods is suggesting this is a lie, we are telling ourselves. The truth, in fact, is that if we had built our buildings in a more intelligible way, they could survive that natural disasters such as earthquakes. All space we create we are responsible for and through destruction it allows us to move forward and adapt to extreme conditions. The other two cities were Sarajevo, a symbol of ‘despair and warning’ and Havana at the end of the communist revolution, which had both been affected by human conflicts. These allow us to frame a time-line in which we naturally approach destruction looking buildings which are still habitual that we can put ‘scab’ on allowing us to plan and reconstruct. Foucault, M. (2002) The Archaeology of Knowledge, London: Routledge, 23-33. The primary concern in the chapter Unities of Discourse is Foucault’s description of his theories on historical analysis. To do this, he first outlines the issues that occur when a historical analysis is undertaken these being ‘discontinuity, rupture, threshold, limit, series, and transformation’. Foucault believes that every book ever is united through their discourse and arguments and contradictories between each other, therefore they should become to be a part of the larger conversation. He suggests we might be able to achieve this if we were to ‘rid ourselves of the notions of tradition, influence, development, evolution, spirit, familiar divisions and groupings, the book, and the oeuvre’ as everything is seemingly connected the natural discourse of the world however some events are louder than others suggesting these are interruptions however this is merely everything that is formulated in discourse and has already been articulated in that semi-silence that precedes it suggesting this could even ‘undermine’ it if it is ‘not said’. Foucault’s analysis of historical theory and the way we approach this subject is in a set of rules that most are too afraid to take on the burdens of looking deeper. Not following these frequentative actions of focus on continuities will allow an understanding totality of all effective statements. Foucault asks for statements within and across different books and authors to see what categories emerge from within the discourse by articulating that there should be a ‘pure description of discursive events.’ The context appears to be in a post-history setting, essentially attacking the way we have documented histories up till now saying that we must not allow history to begin from a position of taking these artificial divisions for granted. Similarly, what he calls the ‘book’ and ‘oeuvre’ that are a collection of statements that have 25

been collated together in a book does not mean they go together. However, is ironic simply as this understanding can be applied to this book also as Foucault may have changed over time making his oeuvre discontinuous. He proves this by throwing together authors and settings and arguing that they do not work calling them fragmented. This fragmented pattern is discursive at is neither linear rhythmic, but this fragmentation is, in essence, the only rhythm to occur when looking back on writings. They are united by their steppingstone formation forcing those who look back through the accounts to take a certain direction. Dear, M. (2002) “Los Angeles and the Chicago School: Invitation to a Debate”, City & Community, 1:1 March, 5-32. Michael Dear’s aim in this essay ‘was to map the intellectual terrain surrounding a long-overdue revision of our perspective on 21st-century cities’. It takes on the city of Los Angeles in a post-modern lens understanding its ‘edge cities’ and how culturally diverse the city. However, is a prime example of the spaces in this area are becoming controlled spaces forming a panopticon like spatial arrangement. This essay primarily adopts the viewpoints of the scholars at the Los Angeles School who were described to be mavericks, approaching topics with fresh eyes as Los Angeles is a relatively new city. And had clear deviations from the existing metropolis of the great American cities such as Detroit. Dear breaks down his understanding into various sections these being his understanding of the school he is a member of, fort his he needs to come together with his colleagues and break this understanding flipping the preconceived ideas of school on its head as like the city the school was to be, a little out of the ordinary. This was seen to be how the school was to emerge. The next way he tackled these notions of the context he was working and his understanding of it was by comparing it to the Chicago school. When he did this, he came to the understanding that the complexities of real-world urbanism were to have a multiple nuclei system The main context of this essay is the Los Angeles school, in southern California, this has then been compared to the wider context of America more concisely Chicago. Since the second world war, Los Angeles has started to flourish, being based around a freeway structure it was one of the first cities not to be supported solely by the network of railways that supplied cities such as Chicago, and Detroit, which was a part of Fordism. However, because of this city coming into existence in later parts of the 20th century, it has developed a theme park-like simulation where nothing is entirely ‘Real’ where levels of surveillance, manipulation, and segregation, are rising to generate a cybernetic suburbia.

Bevan, Robert (2006) The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War, London: Reaktion Books, 7-24. The Destruction of memory’s introduction brings forward many historical examples of destruction of the built space. It is not articulating what it meant for the people did devastating but what it meant for the people it was detrimental too most. These accounts all start to make us realize what the built space had embodied through memories and how it is the provoking element to make us feel something. But it’s not merely the walls that are the memories but what they contain. For example, historical artefacts and art of the region can aid to show what this space has gone through to reach this point here and through the destruction of this, it undermines their pride towards any other challenges going forward suggesting that architecture is ‘a cache of historical memory’ and through destruction of the built environment you can rewrite history to an extent and repress cultures in the future. Throughout the introduction, there were many examples of case studies that can further be explored, alongside many theorists also, such as Adrian forty and Aldo Rossi. These accounts are all historical and take on a lens of anthropology sociology and architecture which results in which allow for ‘instant memory jerkers’. Furthermore, Robert Bevan is clear to note that ‘memories do not magically attach themselves to buildings’ and is more a notion of collective memories that exist between people and they attach them to the building, therefore, the building becomes merely a prompt. Pierre Nora is mentioned in detail however, attached to his statement of ‘modern memory is, above all, archival.’ Where memory is nothing without material which allows us to understand why architecture is targeted during conflicts of various kinds. In this modern history, people who have been enveloped by this industrial society through bureaucratic systems that have been imposed recently live day to day in their pasts as their requirements of life now are artificial and prescribed. The Context of this intro to the destruction of memory is set across many points in history looking at modern history such as the conflicts in former Yugoslavia which stretched from 1991 to 200l, and went right back to the period of the Roman Empire of 141 AD where it accounts the destruction of Carthage where a complete act of Urbicide took place erasing from history what an ‘ economic powerhouse was of its age’. Throughout time it picks up on Political conflicts such as the Spanish Conquest to reach the eastern trade via the Pacific Ocean by occupying Mexico, as well as religious too, such as destruction of rival religions architectural heritage or the repurposing of the buildings. Adding to this he hints at a conspiracy for the pattern of mass devastation happening occurring on 9/11.

7/10/2019 Cuff, D. (1992). Architecture: The Story of Practice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1-16. The key point that is made in the first part of this book is that architectural practice is not solely architects, they are not the only people involved with architecture but more of the body that connects all the different disciplines of spatial understanding. It tries to highlight that architects are faced with a series of issues and frustrations within the field, but the practice is glamourized with only the success stories and the failures never really make themselves present There havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been any texts mentioned but the task of this essay is to bring you up to date on the types of research that Cuff explored throughout the writing of the book. This has been done primarily in the first-hand principles of observing and getting involved with three firms initially in San Francisco in the 1980s. This included taking notes throughout meetings, noting down the goings-on of the day to day activities and also getting involved with it herself with things such as making models and attending site inspections. This, however, was supplemented by these companies valuing her presence and work and furthered her research by extending out the field of architecture into the nonprofessional world where there were informal get-togethers. This was all collated in the book. The backdrop of the text was that Dana felt as if architecture had been misrepresented in some form and that architecture was governed by some form of invisible system that governed it behaviour and growth in the real world. She felt that even the words that architects use like practice had even needing reconfirming to what they were this being â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;routine knowledgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and that architecture is now just a social construct that people to buy into to somehow make themselves seem more privileged. Grinceri, D. (2017). Architecture as cultural and political discourse: case studies of conceptual norms and aesthetic practices. London: Routledge, 1-22. Daniel Grinceri is in the introduction setting up his book by outlining and making us aware of the issues of the connections we hold to architecture such as cultural and political connections. This he breaks down into three parts the first an overview of the discourse that we see these connections the next is culture, a deeper 28

investigation of how culture gives meaning to space, and on the contrary the exact opposite also where cultural freedom might be expressed in an area however it is not directly linked to a building in close vicinity that has this instance of liberty however so many more factors, such as the people who gather there, or the climate or the privilege of even being able to communicate within a community by knowing the language. And the last is a study of l perceptions of political spaces such as the Reichstag, and the concept of concentration camps at the most basic level of buildings actively forming a sense of entrapments, becoming an apparatus for the political entity. This connection we hold to buildings these governments play upon and use symbolic buildings to preserve their identity, for good and bad reasons. Grinceri continually referrers to Michael Foucault and how we perceive these panopticon-like spaces, causing us to conduct ourselves in a certain way but continually misinterpret the bigger picture. This is explored in terms of a ‘Sphere’ which is naturally existing in every ethical culture but are comprised of problematizing elements such as shared borders between things such as ‘subcategories within and across cultures that cause conflicts such as ‘abortion, sexuality, single parents, euthanasia, stem cell research, criminals and asylum seekers, to name a few’, but ‘are composed within the limits of this ethical sphere’ to understand the aesthetic of a culture is to test the acceptable boundaries within the confines of an ethical practice, to see how people analyse this demonstration of testing social conduct. Several buildings were mentioned in this text such as The Guggenheim, and Sydney Opera house in use of understanding if buildings change the identities of cities through symbolizing certain objectives in the right context others are only good for bringing in money through tourism. However, this calls into question does all architecture have power. This is where each context allows the building to be explored as it calls in to question the people that consume these ideas of the buildings and what they stand for, the social relationships they have to each other and how architecture of other contexts can be used to make people conduct themselves in similar ways. However, it is not the goal of this text to analyse the power of buildings but to give the reader a tool kit to understanding why design is conducted in such a way and that is the people, for example, Grinceri explores martin Fosters redevelopment of the Reichstag with a glass dome. To preserve the history of the nation but to also give safety to the people inside and out of the building that there is a sense of transparency with this democratic government. Hirst, P. (2005) Space and Power. Cambridge: Polity, 5-26. In the chapter ‘Cities, Globalization and Governance’ of space and power Paul Hirst ‘considers the future of the city as a political entity’. He does this by looking 29

at modes of governance through city and state. Hirst argues that the ‘city’ is merely a concept and should be seen as a political institution formed by the west and adopted by those striving for its order through ways of controlling markets and social encounters, the concept of a self-governing community was scaled up to form a state. The self-governing state was to be perfect for emerging dense urban areas that had low access to surrounding markets and communications as it was up until the 19th century when the idea of a political entity located as a city was faced with challenges. Hirst outlines them as; ‘the communications revolution; exurbanization the merger of city and countryside; cultural pluralism; globalization; a self-destructive flight to the cities in the developing world Hirst explored the concept of the city from the dominant legacies of political forms that spread further afield. This was done through a historical account of the concept of ‘city as a political model’. The possibilities of governance were set in the Greek ideals of Polis Hirst says, mentioning Aristotle’s understandings of the Greek community which were ‘the citizens govern and are governed in turn’ which meant the city was identified with freedom. This was then developed (much later however than Aristotle’s existence) after the 16th century. The west formed an idea of a political homogeneity which carried well making representative cities that contributed to the state, this was followed by Hirst with the issues that it carried such as people who did not live in cities were represented for, which led a desire for some to be a member of the city and led to their expansion. Thus, led to those who were more affluent to be more politically active. To further this exploration more however he explored the modern downfalls that city and state have been experiencing which were the previously mentioned 5 reasons why this start to fail. The context of this chapter primarily looked at cities as a political entity in western Europe and America, however, it analyses different cities outside these regions too, this is to show that how well the cities have developed into a system compared to those that have not. On the other hand, however, it uses these to show they will fall also due to the concept being so desirable. It takes a look at how rural areas are being fled as there are less ‘opportunities’ than what it seems to be in the city, causing them to grow rapidly. The rapid expansion of cities primarily in developing countries fail as their governance becomes overburdened, this makes the ‘force for order’ unstable in the context of developing worlds that may spill over to our the already developed countries also. This would threaten the west’s model for order and thus their affluence to making them disturbed by the aspect of globalization. To me, this is clear as many states are making borders hard to cross with immigration laws such as in Americas states like Texas and North Carolina. 12/10/2019 30

Auge, M. (1995) Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, New York: Verso, 116-120. The central concern of this text is understanding of people’s reflection of themselves through other things such as their relation to space and how it differs from the space they have been in or will be in. It considers the idea of merely being attracted to a set of images that differ from each other. This stages society for its difference in locational cultures and conducts by travelling to a different place it reflects an inversion of ourselves. In the west, it is our consumption of objects that reference a point in the form of culture and drive to become or appear more affluent. The idea of reflection on modern society exists in a few ways but the primary way that is used here is ethnology, which is to essentially compare to characteristics between people and the relationships that exist between them. To do this Marc Auge explored how people react with things such as identity, primarily it appears he associates this to a location, which turns into a non-place as it is embodied through the interpretations of the individual, idealizing the place making it more attractive than it potentially is. An inversion but still coherent with space. There are three elements to this extract, however, all relate in an international level of travel, it starts with an example of intrusion of space through flying over Saudi Arabia, one that has little to no effect on the land but does to those who are passing through as they now have to conduct themselves in a different way which might make them uncomfortable this sets up the next few pages and ends with a note of anonymity in a non-place which allows for solitude and misunderstanding. Koolhaas, R. et al. (2001) “Shopping (Harvard Project on the City)” in Rem Koolhaas, Mutations, New York: Actar Press, 124-184. Shopping (Harvard Project on the City) is articulating what shopping has done to architecture and society. This analysis is concerned with what made shopping so enjoyable and how we got addicted to it, and not so addicted to it in architecture. The text brings up the idea of being comfortable and take advantage of the culture that was naturally starting to brew in America of consumerism. This is started with the exploration of what made this extended interior space habitable. A place without windows or drafts and natural lighting, which made this possible, Koolhaas suggests that it was the revelation of air condition a system that manufactured clean and cool air, to make us comfortable. Elevators and escalators also made moving effortless, making this space habitable without actually having to do much at all. He 31

called this the most radical addition to architecture but the least noticed. A way to move people around a building prompting them to purchase essentially meaningless products furthering an economy that disregard the outside world that constantly had to be added to or maintained to keep people engaged. Shopping, Koolhaas explored this though the product of the classic American mall which challenges the way we think we exist subconsciously, therefore; it is an anthropological study. This study is based on people how people act or maybe the inverse of that and how they do need to act and just be. Koolhaas says that a model for Malls was to have more circulation which meant more shopping. Thus, shopping meant Movement â&#x20AC;&#x201C; movement allows for people to interact with each other and experience public activity. However, this was only the start to the realization in this study where he like Guy Debord understood the commodity fetishes that the US and many other places were adopting, meaning that the way people made money was through people purchasing products this took hold in places like airports, where this phenomenon was even more successful, perhaps as it was an addition to what the people who were going to airports had access too, literally by chance thus making them need to do even less activity with the outside world. Rem Koolhaas opted to primarily base this text in America, a country synonymous with consumerism which was blooming in the 20th century with the outburst of shopping malls. It suggested that these shopping malls humiliate the cities of all favouring the suburbs destroying downtown business districts. And taking the parks and garden features synthetically indoors. These places were traditionally the places of free speech and public ownership but now that these locations are all accessible in one place it makes it counter-intuitive to go to them. This has taken free speech and put it in a privately-owned location with rues and modes of conduct. Deleuze, G. (1993) â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pleats of matterâ&#x20AC;? in The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 3-13. Deleuze begins by stating that Baroque is a function, not a trait, a function of folding matter in complex and never-ending ways. It is a concept of living through the concept of a Baroque house with two stories, the lower story, with windows, aligning to the pleats of matter, whereas the upper story, the windowless story contains folded drapes hanging from the wall, these relate to the folds of the soul. Thus, the Cartesian separation between mind and body as two separate substances is here misconstrued by the idea that all matter, living and non-living, is composed of matter that is variously folded. The soul is a matter that has been infinitely folded into unimaginable complexities, producing interiority that creates a non-linear labyrinth. There is no distinction between mind and matter, as the mind is infinitely 32

folded matter. A series of thoughts or something to generate those thoughts. The concern is explored through the understanding of what a fold means at various stages, for example, Deleuze says a fold is always folded within a fold and the smallest unit of matter is not the atom but a fold. Thus, the model for the sciences of matter is the most intricate art of them all, origami, the art of folding paper in Japan. This means that to unfold is to grow, whereas to fold is to reduce. The soul is localized to a part of the body, but the soul is living and building is not, this is where the mimicking of space is acted out In Baroque, the soul entertains a complex relationship with the body where the soul can rise up and change needing more levels and a great complexity of folds is created. This is driven with the 3 principles of Leibniz which are; ‘The fluidity of matter; A flexible or an elastic body still has cohering parts that form a fold, such that they are not separated into parts of parts but are rather divided to infinity in smaller and smaller folds that always retain a certain cohesion; The motivating force’. The context of this chapter is set in the study of Baroque buildings which gives the relation to the complexity of the human soul. This form of architecture has a rich history and culture that emerged in the late 16th century. Its task was to heighten feelings of motion and sensuality, this gives sense to Unity of movement is an affair of the soul

Cache, B. (1995) Earth Moves. The Furnishing of Territories, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 88-98. Cache in this chapter ‘Subjectile/Objectile’ realises the object is in a state of constant transformation pushed by the complexities of human nature and also pulls us along through our fetishism of the object. However, he is also saying that it is becoming autonomous with the invention of computer-assisted conception and fabrication. This aid in the production of an object is perhaps making us lose our identity with the object that we once had when we were forced to make products by hand. Objects represent a moment of densification through addition in the folds of our behaviour adding to our subjectivity and relation to the outside space.

The concept of the object is explored through subject and what we do with it. For Cache to create an object we need to apply a framework to it, this framework is not a physical embodiment such as a structure but a set of parameters to create an object. But what is this object cache is asking, something he proposes to be something that has use effects. Cache mentioned Leibniz’s principles of numerical manipulation where we have somehow embodied human functions to amorphous objects that can be infinitely made over and over again, but all it takes to change the entire identity and the new make of object is to change the numerical pattern. This new mode of production in the physical realm can create the most complex things cache argues suggesting it to be a series of possibilities but also stating that the ‘modern object no longer has anything to do with the visual or auditory restitution that realizes their concrete function.’ The context of this chapter appears to be taking forward basic well-known principles of production of objects and what they mean to us from up until the late 19th century through to the modern era where production was coming into the realms of mass production along with space. ‘The modernist movement has only accen tuated this mode of objectivity.’ This era was focussed on only things that were useful to us and didn’t express who we are internally, ‘it wished to eliminate everything that didn’t contribute directly to usage or function and to build using a minimum of materials’ suggesting that this era was very focused on money, and the act of not spending it thus gives reasons to the act and benefit of the time with ‘Computer-Assisted Conception and Fabrication (CFAO)’. 04/11/1019 Heidegger, M. (1993) “Building Dwelling Thinking” in Basic Writings, London: Routledge, 343-363. Heidegger’s main task in this writing is to understand what it means ‘to dwell’ and how the dwelling is connected to or belong to ‘building’. This is put forward by understanding that language is the master of man therefore we should first understand the etymology of the words that we associate with ‘being’. For Heidegger, this is understanding his mother tongue of German where he puts forward the word ‘Bauen’ where his understanding consists of to build, dwell, also to care for, cherish, protect, preserve, nurture Heidegger describes the removal of dwelling as the basic character of Being which through his understanding of language leads to these three principles which he explore further later on in this chapter; in a human state Building is really dwelling; Dwelling is the manner in which mortals are on earth; Building as dwelling unfolds into the building that cultivates growing things and the building that erects buildings. This is then giving a sense of respect to something Heidegger calls the Fourfold consisting the earth, sky, mortals, and divinities. 34

This concern of how and why we dwell is explored through the connections of the fourfold to building and dwelling, that he proposes it is more an action that should be considered in order to dwell and thus we can exist peacefully can be. Through being aware, we come to acknowledge the fourfold Heidegger says, this exposes that there is a finite relationship of being and what we do to do so, therefore we come to living in a state of proper dwelling. There are a series complex thoughts that arise to this understanding one primary on is set the ‘Locales relation to space’ suggesting that space contains places these places are then connected through human interaction through either a form of movement of an inanimate object, the example here that Heidegger used was a bridge. The spaces we physically go through daily are given by these locales, meaning that the essence of these spaces is grounded in things like buildings, physical manifestations to free, and nurture ourselves. The context for Heidegger was almost always the way he interpreted his homeland, the black forest in southern provincial Germany. This area was littered with valleys where he would cross bridges to get to the other buildings or places he wanted to visit. Not only this he had a small hut in the hills of the black forest where he seemed to produce much of his work and also lived. This meant that he tended to use his own surroundings to explain complex ideas such as the one explored in this chapter and gave meaning to his work of existentialism, he understood his surroundings and that allowed him to have thoughts towards what we really are doing by dwelling which is what he explores here where it was his unity with the Fourfold, for example, he had a roof over his head to preserve him from the sky at times where there were heavy amounts of snowfall. Pallasmaa, J. (2005) “Vision and Knowledge” in The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 14-37. The writing ‘Critics of Ocularcentrism’ and ‘The Narcissistic and Nihilistic Eye’ in Vision and knowledge by Pallasmaa is making the point that the modern era as seen by many philosophers to be cancerous to the sense of sight. He is calling this Ocularcentrism and suggests it’s been over fetishized in the modern world where mass-produced imagery is in everything from Architecture, to television to magazines and newspapers. He argues through other philosophers beliefs such as Heidegger, he even writes ‘the modern age is the conquest of the world as a picture’ to understand everything simply through sigh, leading to the eyes of people to be moulded through this era to be both Narcissistic and nihilistic towards nearly all that they come across. This criticism is relayed through a few other views such as Jean Paul Sartre. This is all even suggested to be changing the way we experience time. This concern of the eye becoming a meaningless tool that we might need to 35

question more is explored through philosophers. Some of the philosophers were Sartre, his views were considered to be at the point of ocular-phobic and that ‘He was concerned with ‘the objectifying look of the other, and the “Medusa glance” [which] “petrifies” everything that it comes in contact with’.’ Thus, stopping time indefinitely as it becomes non-fluid and solid and might lead to issues when critically analysing the past or the physical element of life. However, Pallasmaa is careful to create a balanced analysis by reflecting on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s work where he mentions ‘Our body is both an object among objects and that which sees and touches them.’ He realises that the eyes are important however indirectly he has used the sense of touch also meaning that no sense should be used without another or you may get a warped perspective of the world. The context of these writings is set in modern history with the ‘development of the modern vision-centred culture through such diverse fields as the invention of the printing press, artificial illumination, photography, visual poetry and the new experience of time.’ Primarily in France with but wider connections to Europe and America, trying to understand the world for its imagery, Guy Debord might call these ideas being presented for the act of going blind in the face of the spectacle that is coming to be with what is presented to us without even having to do anything at all thus creating a supposedly hedonistic journey through time but essentially a meaningless journey. Jencks, C.A. (2000) “Post-Modern Architecture” in Michael K. Hays (ed), Architecture Theory Since 1968, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 308-316.\ There is an overriding concern in this text of the importance that should be placed on multivalent architecture if we are wishing to leave the modernist era or any era in that respect. This is done by understanding ‘recent departures’ from what could be considered the norms of the time that the buildings were conceived. This idea of recent departures looks into radical eclecticism as ‘it is only this group which is really free enough to try their hand at any possible style-ancient, modern, or hybrid’. Jencks suggested that if we are not coming up with any new styles, we must incorporate multiple styles into one, by calling for an inclusive architecture to emerge. This brings new life to architecture by exploring forms deemed not convention thus making space more exciting, complex and rich, but no to mention ‘an inclusive architecture brings much more of our personality and behaviour into focus’ for the architect.

Jencks explored his theories of inclusive architecture in three stages, a Japanese stage (brief but diverse) the next was looking into Lucien Kroll’s student housing, and the final stage looked into the compositional elements of Antonio Gaudi’s Casa Battló. This appeared to be none other architectural analysis of spatial entities that are designed and should be fostered going forward, however, they are mentions of anthropology, but this is more of a tag line to the root cause of this text of considering our education to have deep understanding of multitude of different styles allowing them to harmonise, as people do with conflicting ideas that often get resolved which was the case of Lucien Kroll’s design team, and students. Adding to this, Kroll’s approach was inclusive of many different styles, materials and people, to mention a few variables, this supported what Jencks is trying to make the reader understand that the way in which we go forward is by adding to what we already have, something that could be considered as pluralism. I previously mentioned that this extract looked at the idea of multivalent architecture in order to depart the realms of architectural movements such as modernism in three stages of examples. All the examples mentioned were built in the 20th century across the globe the Japanese architects were, Kurokawa, Kikutake and Isozaki, these three architects combined principles of modern architecture with their traditional architectural language of their homeland with elegance. Jencks seems to battle with his understanding of these people’s buildings suggesting multiple reasons why their buildings were so well composed with this statement: ‘it is due to the Japanese sophistication towards signs: they have traditionally absorbed alien cultures’. The final stage was set in Barcelona a place that has rich and diverse culture not to mention history, Jencks consider these factors alongside the worlds nature and many other respectable infusions with the world to start to understand the complex integrations of Antonio Gaudi’ casa Battló. Lyotard, J.F. (1984) The Post-modern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, UK: Manchester University Press, 3-13. The concern of this text is understanding how information technologies are changing the way in which we operate and interpret the world. This considers ‘industrial and commercial strategies on the one hand and political and military strategies on the other’ concerning who governs what knowledge and the speed at which we can communicate it at as well as the power that which it can grant us to do thing such as operate in places where states supposedly have no power such as in space. this all accumulates into a rapidly transforming time where people of all kinds in developed worlds have access to knowledge pushing their states forward whereas the developing countries are still just getting to the bottleneck of information via digital form Lyotard describes it, where the world is in a state of ‘Transformation in the 37

nature of knowledge’ and suggest we are possibly not ready for it. Lyotard explores modern history from the ‘1950s, for Europe marks the completion of reconstruction.’. He uses a lens that is guided towards computerized societies, which studied language (communications), which means that information is made accessible to people; however, much of his attention is placed on the problems in which came with translating knowledge in an emerging digital world such as ‘compatibility, information storage, and data banks, telematic and the perfection of intelligent terminals.’. Lyotard adds to this by challenging the notion of information and what we supposedly use it and what it will probably be used for in the future as he states ‘Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold, it is and will be consumed in order to be valorised in a new production’ this makes knowledge a commodity, or even a currency, where it then may lose its ‘use-value’. Guy Debord could interpret this turning information into a commodity as the ways of Americanism, leading to those with most market power selling their knowledge, this knowledge may be consumed by people who will misuse it, or it may be wrong information altogether simply just to turn a profit. This chapter is set in the post-industrial world of spatial ownership of an inanimate subject, knowledge. Lyotard is making us aware to this through our communication of knowledge in a digital format. We have come to feel as a society that it is a real thing that can be handled whereas it is a lot more subjective than that, it comes down to the lines which information travels, even this description of how it is ‘handled’ makes it seem to be own-able, whereas Lyotard is arising questions of a problematic nature to the world as we have potentially misinterpreted the very construct through digital communications of knowledge.