My virtual imprint is telling of my physical self.

Busted:

Sketch of Fountain in Gmaps @ 542 North Bishop in Chicago

In all seriousness, the photoshop is a bit heavy for me, but I think it somehow fits the idea of this being an “architectural modeling.” More on space and rhetoric during the holidays.

this is straight tacky

Since starting to get more into questioning the efficacy of rhetorical similarities between newMedia and architecture I decided that more research could help inform this ongoing practice/exploration. While searching I came across Daniel Libeskind’s sketches and architectural drawings. Their controlled chaos resonated with me immediately and after looking closer I realized that the shapes, forms, and spacial relationships appeared to be conventional architectural tools. In a statement I found with the drafts Libeskind said, “There is a historical tradition in architecture, whereby drawings (as well a other forms of communication) signify more than can be embodied in stabilized frameworks of objectifiable data.” In attempting to translate this, I am drawn back to ideas of semiotics and the importance/power of symbols in our visual language immersion culture.

Libeskind here seems to be playing with this saturation in order to create hybridized blankets of forms and shapes. Upon more subtle examination, there clearly are “rooms” and “chambers.” Sure, these spaces are amorphous, or at least intersecting and overlapping. However, I’d argue that their density seems to be call and response to the necessity of shaping space through abuse and noise. When looking at his constructions one can see that these structures exists as symbiotic (almost tumor-like) extensions of already provided space.

The weight of architectural history here forces explosions. Space can only be understood and designed through shards. The broken mirror that these spaces represent are apropos to the fractured nature of our symbolism. Frameworks and data are obsolete for space to be formed around. Their corruption (or their false representation) has manifested itself physically through collapse. Perhaps instead of thinking of these sites as explosions, one could consider them implosions or data space, creating hard edged vacuums, clustered together like a three dimensional asymmetrical snow flake. Time – being the only way in which space measurement can occur – is manifested through density. Our conception of our personal space is now a fragile bombardment of material and broken forms.