May 2008 Archives
My friend Simon helped me with a script for sweeping the curves. It doesn't sort out the edges so I will have to go back re-sweep but it does allow me to get a quick preview of what the model will look like. I have to re-project some of the curves because they are crashing into other curves in an undesirable way and I have to work out where I am going to thicken the curves so that they meet the layer above, creating both another (super-glam) inflection point and provide the structural support necessary for the model/building to stand (it also creates a hiearchy of inflection). I also have to make a suface for the floor level.
I have an announcement to make...I figured out how to get that perfect sweep over the profiles so that the joint remains smooth and the profile is always perpendicular to the curve! YAY! Sadly, its gonna take forever to do all of them :(
This is the final plan of the profiles that define the body of the Church. Each color designates an aspect of the function of the space. The plan has been cut at approx. halfway up the volume and the profiles above that point have all been dotted in.
The truth is, in these troubled times, the Catholic Church is like a desperate 36 year old single woman, willing to settle for anything that it can get.
-Carrie Bradshaw
Here is a detail from the plate that describes the concept of the project. I really wanted to used ovals and inflecting curves to organize and make connections between the different ideas, but so far I have not been able to make it work. Will keep massaging this one...
La Chiesa del Sacro
Fascino seeks to bring back glamour, a persuasive device that was employed throughout
the Church before the Reformation to emphasize the wealth, power, importance and
otherworldliness of the institution. By recalling the function of glamour in pre-Reformation
Churches, the glamorous church seeks to renew faith.
Glamour in the Church was used during the Baroque period to
dislocate people, by suspending the ordinary routine of their lives. Feudal
peasants were tied to the land and were immersed in nature. For them, entry into
the space of the Church allowed for the experience of opulence and supernatural
beauty, which resulted in the consolidation of religious belief. The
Enlightenment and Reformation saw a transformation of Church conventions in
terms of glamour. The proliferation of the printed word and Biblical translation
allowed individuals to access the word of God and encouraged personal
interpretations of the Bible and the world around them. These factors coupled
with the rise of capitalism and industrialization planted the seeds of modern individualism.
The Enlightenment promoted secularization and championed a belief in science, thereby
further contributing to the decline of religious faith and the rise of the
state. Contemporary capitalism has emphasized the individual and eroded social
ties including those that bind religious communities. The power of the church
is diminished. We are isolated, atomized individuals in contemporary society. As
people struggle for meaning against this historical backdrop, religious
identity will likely play an important role in constructing collective identity.
