April 2009 Archives
I am doing some quarry designs to find out a set of properties on which i can base the design on.
This is one of the designs.
Started to produce the last 1:1 model, should be finished in about a week if i work on it 2-3 hours a day.
MANIFESTO
Volume8
April 28th, 2008
We condemn the ICON;
We condemn ALL ICONIC ARCHITECTURE;
And cannot be silent anymore!
We have no other choice then to finally stop the frivolous use of the icon.
Iconic brands, iconic images, iconic objects, iconic people, iconic events, iconic buildings, iconic cities, iconic everything.
To forever stop this misuse of the Icon and define what actually IS A TRUE ICON and what IS NOT, there is no other way then to go back to its origin.
An EIKON is the visual manifestation of what is not there anymore.
Its presence is a medium that enables the veneration towards the absent, not towards the object itself.
It is referential towards a belief, towards ideas, feelings, memories which it evokes in us.
It rewards its veneration.
Our contemporary, commercially infested ICON completely turns its meaning around:
An ICON is the visual manifestation of what is there.
Its presence enables the veneration of itself; it is the pure manifestation of commercial desire towards the object that has no meaning beyond itself.
It is always impermanent, just a passing fad, a new ICON will replace the prior one as if the former never existed.
We condemn the ICON;
We condemn ALL ICONIC ARCHITECTURE;
The Eikon is our new dogma;
And therefore the architectural Eikon is what we want.
To become an Eikon a building has to go through the state of being an IDOL.
To have the possibility of becoming an IDOL, the architecture has to offer a fresh, exiting, program to the city, that has the potential of becoming popular and host a spectacular event that makes you become part of a unique collective experience.
An event that engenders an altered state, the unfamiliar, the unexpected, the extraordinary, the impressive, the exuberant.
The building successfully became an Idol when it is respected and admired for the collective emotions that it is offering to the inhabitants of the city.
The IDOLs destiny is to be impermanent; its impermanence is a direct consequence of its own success.
It becomes so commercially successful that it starts to attract tourists that pilgrimage to it in masses.
This has the consequence that the inhabitants of the city loose their popular event.
Its success also makes the Idol become a new type in the city, that is open to be copied and stylistically varied in which ever way is fashionable.
Since the form of the event was not conceived to provide a spectacle for tourist masses and the possible profits from its touristic success are obvious by now, the form of the event has to change to encompass its new status.
The IDOL can either mutate in itself or be copied with the newly required formal features, which will give birth to ICONS.
If the IDOL doesn’t mutate its form the ICONS will force the IDOL in a state of obsoleteness for its unwillingness to become an ICON as well and that will finally allow the IDOL to become an EIKON.
The form will enable the veneration of the event that is no longer there.
The EIKON will refer and evoke the spectacular event and reward for its veneration.
Stories about the EIKON’s lifecycle will be told, later written, and supported by the amount of pictures, drawings, paintings, and videos that were taken.
The EIKON will slowly become the Myth of what once was.
The Myth is presented here as a wall of Eikons, an Iconostasis, showing important events in its lifetime.
We condemn the Icon;
We condemn ALL ICONIC ARCHITECTURE;
We praise the spectacular event.
We praise the ephemeral emotions.
We praise the Idols decision to become an Eikon.
We praise obsoleteness.
We praise absence.
We praise form as representation of the event.
We praise the arrival of the Eikon.
We praise the Myth that the Eikon became.
