Graffiti Art Center. Austin, TX

Texas A&M University Department of Architecture. Spring 2014
XU Teng Graduate Thesis

Critics: Gabriel Esquivel, Gabriela Campagnol, Ergun Akleman.

Drawing Without Paper. The Raw and The Synthetic

 

Texas A&M University. Department of Architecture. T4T LAB Spring 2014.
"Reticulation of the Synthetic"
Invited Professor: Bruno Juricic.

With Gabriel Esquivel.
Team: Drew Busmire, Adam Wells, Justin Zumel, Kathleen Sobzak.
Video Link: Drawing Without Paper.

http://vimeo.com/92535793

Drawing Without Paper

In our project we began with the desire to remove anthopocentrism in architecture by means of the Eisenmanian challenge of scale. This argument formed the basis for the design and progression of the object. This progression led to the development of the notion of the Raw and Synthetic. For the purposes of our presentation we will discuss these terms as proto-synthetic and synthetic. From this interpretation we then needed to frame the relationship in the Eisenman argument of Arrows, Eros and other Errors where we discuss discontinuity, recursivity and self-similarity. As a result of the architecturalization of the proto-synthetic to synthetic we produced the scientific image and the estranged object of desire.

We begin by arguing Self-Similarity, which in the original Eisenman argument “confronts representation and the esthetic object”. Self-Similarity in our case can be argued in its relation to the proto-synthetic and synthetic through Confrontation and Counter Figuration. The confrontation begins with the fragmentation of the object in its various zoomed states, and the relation of the finer reticulation to the overall massing. Counter figuration in thi­­s sense is in relation to the massing of the object and to the view in which it is seen. The views being represented with the top boards have been chosen to display the object as if it were one large mass. Upon closer observation, we can see that there is a stacking effect causing a collage of multiple different masses. These smaller masses retain their independence through the harder edge lines that denote layers of depth creating separation within the object. At the same time, because of the hyper design and the reticulation of the surface, these edge lines displaying separation get lost within the view. This means that the views shown create different moments that begin to fluctuate between the two extremes of one single mass and of the multiple.   

Next we can move to discontinuity which in origin confronts metaphysics of presence. In our argument it allows a new frame of representation through translations of the medium and manipulations of scale, to create a perspectival Hi-Fi/Lo-Fi. These manipulations of scale also lend themselves towards the notion of the rendering as a drawing machine. With this, we argue that the rendering can be controlled to such a degree that we can surpass authorship, in the typical Eisenman sense, and create a drawing. The drawing highlights the reticular qualities of the object. One sense of this reticular quality would be in the argument of part-to-whole, where there is a comparison of the zoomed detailed of the object to the massing of the form. A state of change that we should recognize is the point of translation from manipulation to reticulation. 

This type of representation becomes prevalent with the texture of the object’s interior. As the reticulation works with the object in this sense, it simultaneously disregards the object by dismissing the form following no specific recognizable pattern. This creates a Hybrid Reticulation. This Hybrid Reticulation can be seen as a state of flux where the reticular qualities at any specific moment are neither entirely working with, or against the object.

We can now begin to look at Reticulation as it calls itself towards recursivity. In the Eisenman argument recursivity confronts origin. In our project origin is questioned through the defamiliarization and hyper association to the object. Through this, it estranges the original proto-synthetic object and creates the synthetic Object of desire. To begin we can define hyper-association in two specific ways. One is through the Confrontation of the sinuous qualities and the sinuous objects. Where we begin to look at the object and contrast its finer details and reticulation with the posture and mass of the over all object. Secondly the Allure creates an appellation difference in the Derridian sense where a collection of words can be created to describe the object, however no singular term fully captures the reality of the object. 

Defamiliarization can also argue this through material instability, which can cause hyper association by categorizing based on “familiar” objects. There are inherent similarities in the object to many recognizable objects we currently see and understand, however it is not any of these objects. It utilizes hyper association in the notion of estrangement.

We then can come to the notion of the medium. This project does not rest entirely on one medium, but rather different mediums which can be used to view the object in a multiplicity of ways defining it as synthetic, or proto-synthetic. It is important to note that text and image are dependent on each other in order to form the true object of desire.

In one sense we can look at the Para-fictional scenario by which medium is manipulated to change representation. In our scenario, it comes into relevance with recursivity through the nature of the origin. When we look at the image before us it is not one singular image, but rather a combination of many digitally manipulated images layered and collaged. We perceive this as one image and its origin cannot be traced.

This led to the production of the Scientific Image, which we have defined as being devoid of anthropocentrism. It is devoid in the sense that it was produced from the manipulations of scale in the Eisenman argument directly used to remove the anthropocentrism.

We can from this understand that the proto-synthetic was self-manifested and omnipresent from the synthetic. When discussing these terms we allow the raw to be viewed as a direction rather than a destination and from this the notion of the medium can be further questioned. We can look at the video which we will see later as a direct combination of proto-synthetic and synthetic video clips being displayed entirely synthetically on a large format screen. It has elements of the Eisenman scaling and of the Para-Fictional scenario in that we have collaged the footage of our video playing in the HVS room with the original video. The video also becomes another connection of text to image. When looking at the three-dimensional models we can see that the synthetic object moves in the direction of the raw and lands at the proto-synthetic. The 3D print which we have renamed the “3D drawing” is a series of drawings, which through an additive process of layering has formed the proto-synthetic representation of the synthetic object. When looking at the CNC model it has been formed through a series of corroding steps which remove and reticulate the object to form another proto-synthetic representation. We can also look to the rendering again as it is used as a drawing machine where the meta-drawing are the controls we use for the rendering. When viewing the section, the poche is implemented as a mediator forming neither ground nor figure. It is intentionally left as a black and white to blend the proto-synthetic drawing with the synthetic rendering as drawing. Even the overall layout of the boards is grafted and arranged in such a way as to create a rhythm as well as further the Para-fictional scenario in the collaging and overlapping of images in part to whole relations.

Synthetic Proto-Image. The Raw and The Synthetic

Texas A&M University. Department of Architecture. T4T LAB Spring 2014.
"Synthetic Proto-Image"
Invited Professor: Bruno Juricic.

With Gabriel Esquivel.
Team: Zach Hoffmann, Braden Scott, Cody Clancy, Alyssa Johnston .
Video Link:  

https://vimeo.com/92740227

Synthetic Proto-Image

One of the interests of the studio has been to use the normative rendering engine as a machine to produce a drawing and in that sense capture the essence of craft in architecture through the use of linework. The raw linework, made up of a series of splines, which are considered to be the pinnacle of the modernist line, was the basis for the three-dimensional formation of the object. In its development, the object has retained the spline’s presence and sectional legibility. However, the final iteration of the object has exhibited a mutation in the quality of the spline, morphing the retained linework into a messier, more turbulent aesthetic that retains no notion of the modern.

In our earliest studies, we were interested in the idea of solarization, which is defined as a self-curating, light deterioration surface of an image when exposed to the environment. In this way, it creates a turbulent linework rendering that establishes an ambiguity of figure and ground, as well as between the surface and interior.

A non-indexical relationship is established between the two through the use of hi-fi articulation on the object and low-fi articulation on the ground. The two retain a similar figural language but no indexical relation. The form is established as a diagrammatic cavity with surrounding active surfaces. The surfaces are composed of an agglomeration of layers that are articulated at multiple levels, establishing a hierarchy that in turn establishes the nemat and holey spaces. The holey spaces are the porous spaces that share the closest proximity to the surface, while the nemat spaces have a larger proximity.

The formative timeline is created through these processes and establishes the raw proto-image, which retains a notion of the ingredients and all formal qualities from which the raw drawing is composed of. At that point, we have observed what we refer to as the escaping character: the behavioral autonomy of the object. This establishes the vertical synthetic timeline and through that, the synthetic proto-image.  (VIDEO)

The synthetic proto-image is the re-appropriation of the scientific image as an aesthetic to directly transgress the notion of the scientific classification of an object. It retains a notion of duration from the primitive to the synthesized and through its curation has begun to note not only the ontological shift defined by the mutation of the modernist spline to the turbulent aesthetic, but the epistemological shift from the object to object of interest.

The object and its relation with the ground can be perceived as nomadic in the Hegelian sense of beauty; the turbulent, high-fidelity articulation of the surface creates no identifiable resting place for the perceiver. This geometry perturbs the low-fidelity ground, creating a constant irritation between the two. Although formal irritation between the object and the ground exists, the covalent bond between the two is one of shared origin, the spline. Sharing this bloodline so to speak, the two retain a constant reliance on each other. While the argument and text describe the object as existing purely in fluctuating nomadicity, the object exhibits pseudo-stasis only when drawings are produced and in turn creates an ambiguous notion of duration. This produces the peripatetic condition: the discussion of the object of interest.