November 2011 Archives
"...enables the body to be most directly affected by, but also protected from, the chaos of every outside: "For our most intimate or most abstract endeavours, whether they occur in bed or on a chair, furniture supplies the immediate physical environment in which our bodies act and react: for us, urban animals, furniture is thus our primary territory."
I think it was Deleuze.
So the idea of this map evolved from the notion of 'diffused city' whereby an individual impose upon herself sets of limits which, through this 3D map, creates a territory of her own city. To some extent she is confined into the interiority of the domicile, the mobile, and the commercial - a city as fragments of limits that constantly expanding and contracting. I still, however, do not know what I'm questioning or critiquing.
Another quote on map vs. experience of a space:
"...the point is a simple one that is now echoed in a critical literature on cartography -that hegemonic types of mapping represent space as a 'completed horizontality' - in which the dynamism of change is exorcised in favour of a totality of connections. Mapping is one of a number of ways in which the disruptiveness of space is tamed"
So perhaps I could explore this 'disruptiveness' through the idea of 'confinement' instead of connectivity.
Scenography and interface
Looking into the construction of scenic environment. Different from traditional set design, scenography is capable of evolving in its impact and meaning as the performance unfold. The effect is multi-sensory for both audience and the performance. Broadly speaking, elements of scenic environment are objects, costumes, light and sound. I would start into these elements at theatre scale and will blow up the scale possibly to architecture or a city.
For the time being looking at theatre scale:
Costume as scenic device
Scenic device at architectural scale??
I find the jury was very
productive and useful as the jurors were responding to both my verbal
presentation as well as their reading of my (less than rudimentary) model. Barbara suggested looking at 'what doesn't fit'
and the 'shelf life'- this comment perhaps came from the reading of the model.
What I had with me are fragments that when assembled formed a single space. The
question is what if there are elements that does not fit and therefore implies
some sort of shelf life or time limit. Tobias mentioned scenography, as well as the importance of the stage
as interface. Goswin suggested a closer study of the context outside the room
of Cabaret Voltaire: the quiet street, the unassuming building, the 'neutral'
Switzerland, the art scene at the time period.
From the comments I singled out several topics that I'm interested in taking on board:
1. Limit and
space of confinement:
Exploring the physical parameters of space. Cabaret Voltaire exemplifies an archetype of space that provided isolation and boundary needed for freedom of creation. This inversion of an idea of confinement is what I would be interested in exploring as a thesis.
2. Stage and interface
The
stage in Cabaret Voltaire provided not just a limit but also an interface or a
device. Scenography uses the space as the artefact, or 'scenic object' that
actualize the performance. Mark Cousin used Diller Scofidio's blur building as
one example (although he said there are better ones) of this inversion of space
and scape/scene. There a scene, the atmospheric fog, is created from within the
building and therefore is an imperative component of the architecture. I would
like to research a bit more into this and if possible have a discussion with
Mark Cousin. I think this idea of interface could be applied to different scales.
At the moment they look ok bare as it is but its pretty plain.
It looks messy now but the elements will not appear at the same time. Also hopefully better composition will come out once traced in rhino.
I still haven't made up my mind whether or not:
1. the characters are the same material as the room
2. what is the material??
3. if parts of the room slots into the character OR
4. the character pivots into the room and vice versa
Any suggestions?
The sequence roughly will be:
1. the character plates (they're freestanding) will start out scattered or roughly on their original location in the continent
2. Ball and hennings will form the first corner of the room and the stage - the room fragments will either be inserted or connected with a pivot to the character plates
3. the rest of characters come in, and form the full room
4. the sides of the room will have slots to insert their 'transformation'
5. when the members disbanded, they will take parts of the room with them
6. the fragment they take with them will form a new 'room' somewhere else (this will be a collage-y abstract looking rooms in Berlin, NY, Paris, Zurich, Romania
More to come. Will definitely start cutting tomorrow otherwise im doomed.
I keep on changing my mind about the choice of material, graphically I feel very limited if I cut and paste into cardboard - it might risk looking a bit dodge.
From the image below the character changed a bit, I added the ones that were active during and after Cabaret Voltaire and started Dada movement in different country.
So now they are:
Ball + Hennings : DE (munich)----CH----DE
Tzara: RO----CH----FR
Janco: RO----CH----RO
Taeuber: CH----CH
Picabia: FR---CH---NY
Huelsenbeck: DE (Berlin) ----CH---DE(Berlin)
