Thursday, February 7, 2008

21: substrate















































































The substrate is a simple investigation into a static system. The purpose of this investigation is to learn about an existing phenomenon so that it might be re-tooled, re-examined, exposed, and re-interpreted. Some questions regarding the structural condition of the substrate came out of a discussion with architect/engineer Lancelot Coar.

1. Believing in the unknown: There is an ubiquitous phenomenon that is being discussed, which is the motion of moving up and down. This phenomenon happens within living systems. How do things flow up? Grow up? What forces are acting on this motion?

2. How does the substrate/skin respond to itself: How is the structure effected by what is happening within it? Is it deformed, strained, uneffected. What are the variables at play? How does the interior condition effect the exterior condition? What is the position of the interior in relation to the exterior--does this remain constant?

3. What is the experience?: What is our spatial awareness of this system? Architecture is in the activation, in the revealing of the space between.

Haruki Murakami ------> Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1987)

"The elevator continued its impossible slow ascent. Or at least I imagined it was ascent. There was no telling for sure: it was too slow that all sense of direction simply vanished. It could have been going down for all I knew, or maybe it wasn't moving at all. But let's just assume it was going up. Merely a guess. Maybe I'd gone up twelve stories, then down three? Maybe I'd circled the globe. How would I know?

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