T4T LAB Spring 2018. Rough and Saturated
Invited Professor: Nate Hume
Team: Luis Fernando Munoz, Stephanie Maddamma, Sephora Belizor, Brazoz Pinto.
This project is an
exploration of graphics and their interpretations and possibilities. We define
“the graphic” as two-dimensional figures that overlay or project over objects.
The graphic is no longer a representational vehicle but is now used as a means
to unroll an object and connect or disband parts, constantly oscillating
between being fixed and becoming. We take the notion of the architectural
billboard and unroll it, using the graphics as a way to exploit the spatial
latency that lies within them.
The billboard has
historically acted in many different ways but mainly as 2-dimensional imagery
used to promote specific values of any given subject. It is as well a cultural
icon that yields attention yet denies interaction. However, in this project, the
billboard becomes an architectural object that develops into habitable graphic
space through giving volumetric qualities to 2-dimensional figures. The
binding of dissimilar yet congruent figures though the application of the
graphic projections, that at times unroll over the surfaces and generate
phenomenal objects, and at other moments transpose though dimensions to flatten
spaces. We move away from an application of a super graphic, and materials no
longer only slip from floor to wall to ceiling but they also cross boundaries
and thresholds beyond dimensions to create their own graphic space that
trespasses and unrolls the building, the objects, and spaces. This unrolling,
as opposed to an unfolding poses an object that is always in the state of
trying to know itself, in a point of self-reflectivity.
The project operates in
terms of Triple-O as outlined by Mark Foster Gage in his essay, Killing
Simplicity. Acting as objects themselves, the graphics exist within the
building in a three-dimensional state, allowing other objects to inhabit them.
These objects which are inhabiting graphic space are unaware of the qualities
of the graphics themselves, causing the building to never be fully knowable at
any point in time. Through the use of graphic as an object we question the
subject and destabilize their relationships. Objects inhabiting graphic
space are unaware of their placement within, however the graphic as an object
is aware of its placement and of that which inhabit it.
We further destabilize
the subject by denying a privilege to plan or section, as the architectural
billboard unrolls in many different orientations and does not solely revert to
one. The ability of 2-dimensional representation to imply a 3-dimensional
object contributes to the ungrounding of architecture by removing the privilege
of verticality and horizontality through section and plan opposing Colin Rowe’s
argument in Transparency, literal and phenomenal. In the essay, the
privileging of verticality and horizontality is argued by its necessity in
achieving phenomenal transparency since a subject must perceive a widely
accepted given reality that, through its ability to be recognized, allows a
subject to determine the ontological and orientational properties of that which
is unseen. In this project, the reality provided has orientational qualities
not widely accepted, causing a disconnection between object orientation and
ontology, enforcing object to object relationships. The interior and
exterior are no longer elements which allude to each other in their design, but
the material logic and surface phenomena of the exterior inserts itself within,
generating breakages, folds, and slippages that imply new phenomenal objects
within that diffuse boundaries of interior and exterior that exist in through
multiple dimensions.
We place implications on
reality and unground the monocular subject. This is not done by removing
gravity, instead it is done by the behavior of the surface and material logic
that does not respond to its intrinsic placement. Through this, the subject
becomes a meandering object. Subject/object relationships are developed as
object to object relationships. We now see the subject as a non-centralized
entity existing as human, object, or machine that occupies graphic space. Graphic
Space presents itself as a non-physical redefinition of interior and exterior
spatial conditions, using bleeding material to extend spaces past their
volumetric containers and scale down space within each volume. This overlapping
spatial condition then develops a new volumetric system that uses graphics as
means to bind or disband space.
The strange project
lends itself to cultural familiarity through its materiality, combining banal,
monochromatic material such as brick, concrete and scalloped shingles with
bright, saturated colors. With the multiplicity of material and spatial
conditions, the project finds itself as a graphic object, constantly
oscillating between 2, 2.5, and 3 dimensions. Working within the canons and
what is fixed in architecture. The billboard now gains volume and is inhabited.
Graphics become volumetric and no longer solely representational, and material
unrolls the Architectural billboard. It’s constant state of unrolling and
self-reflectivity decentralizes ontology and allows for the co-inhabitation of
graphic space.
