November 2011 Archives
From Boite en Vaise to the AA Box
The notion of collecting in a box from
Duchamp's Boite en Valise is re-appropriated into the AA Box, where different
elements and spaces of the school are fragmented, removed form their original
context and sequence; then re-packed.
Within the box, the spaces are re-sequenced in order to curate a spatial
experience defined by predictability and surprise. For example, there are enfilade of doors that
lead to nowhere; abrupt shifting in scale inside the library bookshelf; space
slippage from stairs in 39 Bedford Sq to terrace door in 36, and then to stairs
in 33; window in the unit space suddenly has a view looking at Kyoto, etc. The elements and spaces are like different
episodes within a sequence. They
juxtapose each other and thus create new readings, which are completely
different from their original meaning within their original context.
From the AA Box to the comic strips
The AA Box is about sequence. A comic strip (which itself is a form of
sequential representation) is thus used as a tool to extract items from the
box, and more importantly, to extract or distill the very idea of sequence. The comic strip becomes a testing ground to
construct a context from sequence; to explore the role sequence plays in the
design and to understand its relationship with architectural form as well as
the narrative. Operating similarly in
the Box, the doors and windows become points of entry/ exit in the comic strip,
which allow the branching out of narrative from the main sequence, and form
many other "sub-stories". The network of
comic strips can then allow the collection of different elements into the
project, and at the same time create relationships (predictable or as a kind of
surprise) between each of them.
The comic strips and the prison: the Great
Escape
The comic strip is then developed into a
kind of prison narrative. The prison and
the comic strip operate in the same way in certain sense: each individual frame/
panel in the comic strip is a form of isolation from the other frames, while
still remaining as a part of the larger story sequence; the notion of
imprisonment can be seen as a kind of absolute cut/ isolation from the
trajectory of one's life. At the same
time, the cells for prisoners can also be seen as individual frames, but are
also at the same time part of a larger sequence, which is the prison. Within the prison narrative, there are 4
threads of sequences: the prisoner (who are also the architect of the prison,
and are planning to escape from the prison), the guard, the warden and the
visitor. The 4 sequences all have
different forms of surprises as they begin to talk about entry and exit. At some point, the sequences may overlap, and
may operate in a foreground/ background relationship. Similar to the AA Box, doors and windows in
the prison become points of entry/ exit that allow the escape from the prison
narrative towards a larger message/ argument.
The room is the AA
Box, where different spaces of the School are captured in their idealized view,
fragmentized, decontextualized and packed into the box. Within the AA Box, the
collected spaces are re-sequenced in order to curate a spatial experience. The fragments of the School are packed in
different layers, in which they look at the notion of spatial experience as
different episodes within a sequence. Each
episode talks about different types of space.
They are circulation; working spaces; exterior spaces within the
building; members' room; doors and windows.
The sequence of episodes can be re-arranged.
The fragments
collected are meant to be spaces, not objects.
This is why they are perspectival.
In fact, some of
them are thresholds of different spaces within the School (doors, windows,
framed views, etc.). Thresholds act as
hinges / anchor points of re-arrangeable spatial experience.
They are also
captured as the idealized views of the School, where the essence/ fragment
replaces the unnoticed/ whole. This
challenges the role of generalized/ stereotypical view of spaces in spatial
experience.
The decontextualization within the Box in fact provides a new context that allows the conversation of essence of space. (Since it is about the essence, the rest of the context can then be omitted.) By putting spaces with close relationships together (within the same layer/ episode), the sequence begins to suggest the re-knitting of spaces using the essence collected.
The Universe
It is like a
universe of tourism souvenirs (postcards, miniature of iconic tourist spots
etc.), where different spaces are depicted in its "essence", i.e. the
generalized/ stereotypical view of places.
Souvenirs with close relationship are arranged together. This may happen in the form of non-sequitur
within the sequence. When applying the
idea of sidedness from the Box, the "back side" can become non-sequiturs within
the sequence that shows the non-stereotypical/ non-touristic view of the same
space.
In yesterday's tutorial, the conversation was that it is currently pre-mature to focus on the idea of non-sequtur, as there is at the moment no sequence to be interrupted or disrupted. Thus, I will be focusing on finding and developing the sequence, or the "out-of-sequence" sequence.
some important and interesting points from yesterday (thanks Natasha, Amandine, Alex, Shaelena, and all those who joined the conversation and helped me out of the confusion):
- have a main project / narrative/ agenda; then there is something else as non-sequiturs, which the non-sequiturs can form their own sequence themselves. They can then interrupt the main project to create weird disjoints or mis-readings of the main project.
- TS as non-sequitur !
- non-sequitur can be used as a device to make spatial changes, shift in scale...
- my argument can be constructed around the idea of sequence, in a way that I can play with the sequence and non-sequitur
- maybe I can start with re-configuring the AA by using the spaces that I collected in the Box
and here are the room and universe paragraphs:
The room
The room is the AA Box, where different
elements and spaces of the School are captured in their idealized view,
miniaturized and packed into the box. Contrasting
Duchamp's Boite en Valise, in which is most of his miniature replicas are not
arranged in a particular way; the AA Box is highly curated, while still allow
for re-arrangements. Everytime the boxes
are re-arranged, a new sequence of spatial experience is revealed. The Boxes allow the co-existing of spaces
that do not naturally exist together.
The universe
It is a universe that tells a story about a
single space through multiple perspectives. Or (maybe more interestingly), multiple
different stories tell the story of one single space. It is about the interplay between SEQUENCE
and SPACES, where the idea of DOUBLE-SIDEDNESS plays an important role.
Box as Presentation Device
Duchamp questioned the notion of modern museum using his Boite en Valise as a portable miniature museum. The AA Box brings this query further by fundamentally changing the way of display (i.e. no longer simulation of museum surfaces).
The AA-box is not only a holder of objects, but somehow it has meaning. Through different arrangement, the box provides a certain sequence of viewing of the objects, which the viewer will start linking the relationships between each individual objects and create a narrative. Each element within the box works in combination toward the creation of a new whole that is the context of the box itself. Each individual element also depends on the box as an infrastructure not just for framing, but more importantly, for hiding and revealing through rearranging and flipping/ turning of the boxes owing to their double-sidedness. Here, the display and the displayed no longer has a dichotomy relationship.
Therefore, the sequence of displaying the
contents as well as the way of display is fundamentally different from that of
Duchamp's Boite en Valise - that the AA-Box is no longer a usual simulation of
museum surfaces that carries a displayed object. This opens up the possibility of seeing the
boxes as enfilade of frames or archive-like spaces.
Box as a Form of Collection (Miniature,
Non-sequitors)
The collection and the collected are highly
dependent on each other in order to from a sequence of reading / fictional
spatial experience.
The miniature souvenirs are captured as fragments rather than reduced in scale as a whole. This distinguishes the souvenirs from architectural model, which only define and delimit a building. The souvenirs here are allusion and not models. They are meant to be remained partial to and more expansive than the original building.
Miniatures in the AA Box has a very different nature from those in Duchamp's Boite. Duchamp's miniatures represent the lived experience/ legacy of its maker. However, miniatures in the AA Box instead represent the "secondhand" experience of its possessor/ owner, since the idealized spatial experience of the School only exist through the invention of narrative by the viewer.
It is exactly such mechanism of miniature that allows the introduction of non-sequiturs. They can easily be smuggled into the collection during the invention of narrative by the viewer. This may lead to the creation of completely different narrative and thus generates different reading of the box.
For the miniature of the view / space, it is exactly the change in scale that allows for collection. Such shift in scale also creates a distance from reality, where the ideal is no way touchable or reachable. The view / space becomes a product that can only consumed through eye, just like the picturesque view that lie far beyond the window of the country house.
Box as Spatial Device
The double-sidedness of the AA Box allows
for the slippage and thus the revealing/ hiding of contents. This can be further developed into spatial
device in my project, where the non-sequitur can remain hidden and un-noticed
or reveal itself.
To further understand the notion of
collection and exhibition, Duchamp's Boite en Valise is re-appropriated to be
the AA Box: different elements and spaces of the School are captured in their
idealized view, miniaturized and packed into the Box.
Curating/ arrangement
Contrasting to Duchamp's Boite en Valise,
where most of his miniature replicas are not arranged in a particular way, the
AA Box is highly curated within each layer of the Box; while the many layers of
the Box still allow for re-arrangement and lead to different reading sequence
of the content of the box.
Miniatures
The miniatures within the Box are NOT
merely fragmental depiction/ representation of the School, but captures of the
view from the fictional tour of the idealized School. They become souvenirs from the fictional
tour.
Audience
Here I would argue that every collection's
intended audience is exclusive: that one
has to fulfill certain requirement to see the collection (e.g. you may have to
pay the ticket fee in order to get into a museum). In a way Duchamp's Box has exclusive audience
too: his Box is only intended to those who know Duchamp and his work (because
those who doesn't will not know how to appreciate it, in which case the Box
become redundant). Only because he was
so well known, the vast majority becomes his audience.
The AA Box's intended audience is the AA
Community. More specifically, for those who have worked and lived in the AA
premise in Bedford Square.
Non-sequitur
Jury feedback:
The boxes were bit of a surprise for
everyone since no one has seen it before...but this is exactly the problem: that
the jurors think the jury is bit too early for me. My direction and argument is still not too
clear. There is a general feeling that I
am still not fully utilising my boxes.
Thus, one very important thing that I will need to do is to examine and
make myself fully aware of the potential of the boxes. Javier feels that I am too removed from the
box, which Duchamp would not do so; and that the non-sequitur are always
related to someone else (Belinda and Brett etc.) but not myself. Charles suggests me to look at not just the
visual aspect, but also the non-visual aspects such as the sound of the space,
the conversations that happens within the school (e.g. Box with the Sound of
Its Own Making by Robert Morris). Maria
concerns about the full utilization of the boxes: that the double sided-ness of
the frames collapse not only physical space, but also space of representation;
and at the same time allows re-arrangeable sequences. She thinks the departure from the usual
simulation of museum surfaces that carry displayed artwork is interesting. The boxes for instance can become enfilade of
frames, or archive-like frames. The
notion of miniature souvenirs should be explored. (who's the audience? What type of souvenir I am collecting? A form
of representation?) Ann-Sofi sees the
boxes as town houses, which they look all the same no matter what class the
owner belongs to. The box is similar to
town house in a way that it can take/ contain all the elements without changing
its exterior appearance.
Here's some direction that I can take on
board:
the use of perspective;
the use of models (2D VS 3D);
the idea of artefact;
the notion of spatial (miniature)
souvenirs;
the notion of representation;
the notion of miniaturization;
the order of the boxes; the reading between
boxes;
the slippage between spaces as spatial
non-sequiturs;
the box itself as a kind of conversation.
I would like to continue with exploring the
possibility of the boxes, both as a device for presentation, representation and
design process. I am thinking if the
boxes all look the same in the next jury, and that the jurors are to randomly
pick a box to start with. In this way
the sequence of presentation can be completely rearranged. It will be very interesting to see how a
project can be presented in this way, and how this may or may not change the
understanding of the project. Currently
I see each box as a miniature universe. I
will start to look at the relationship between each universe. I am thinking about creating a narrative that
can start addressing some of the questions from the jury, and that the
narrative can start shaping my project. It
is still very vague at the moment. Will
discuss about it tomorrow. Hope it won't
sound too lame.
