"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.
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.
