Reading 53 – Dec 9 – Cities and Nations

Cities and Nations

Synopsis:

In his writing Delanda adopts the concept of assemblage from Deleuze and Guatarri and attempts to use it as a tool to understand the networks contained within a society. Delanada focuses on how the technological assemblage create “defining linkages” between areas and how these formal positions are in fact interconnected via the paradigm of the assemblage. The notion of the assemblage and its importance in explaining a larger context than mere organization is brought up by Delanda and he explains this by articulating the history of small Greek towns where during periods of economic hardship, people would return to their rural homes. This in turn affects the area by crating neighbourhoods of people with particular interests, background, or similarities. Almost, a way of delineating loyalty geographically (106).

Musings:

While board and overarching in context, I feel that the notion of describing place and culture by assemblage theory is an ambitious, though successful use of the Deleuze concept. What seems to be present and relevant in the theory relating to urban context is how like minded and similar people often organize themselves into heterogeneous contexts. This in turn creates a demographic within a particular area, which is in turn an assemblage.

What I find intriguing is the idea of the assemblage of assemblages. At what scale do we stop and recognize an assemblage at just that. In the urban context for example, a case could be made for Harlem being an independent assemblage, tough when we zoom out slightly further, Manhattan too is an assemblage, so then is New York City, and New York state. The idea of assemblages seems to be an ever increasing and exponentially complex grouping of hierarchies, and the idea of how we categorize them is incredibly intriguing.

Reading 52 – Dec 9 – Assemblage

Assemblage – J. Macgregor Wise

Synopsis:

In his writing Macgregor Wise focuses on the concept of the assemblage brought up in Deleuze and Guattari’s work. Macgregor states that this notion is not simply the arrangement or organization, but the “process of arranging, organizing, and fitting together” (77). Wise goes on to elaborate this concept by applying it to various contexts. In the application of geology, we see how assemblage is more than simply a grouping or classification of items. It is inherently and organizational hierarchy that speaks to a specific amalgamation. In the fossil analogy, wise states how the fossils constitute a group that expresses a particular character, time, period, habitat, etc, and is not simply a collection of individuals.

Wise goes on to elaborate the notion of the assemblage and demonstrates how it is more than simply  group. An assemblage may be a collection of diverse things that together tell a story, that is an assemblage is a “collection of heterogeneous elements” (78). Wise illustrates this by giving us the example of an archaeological dig sit. A bowl, cup, tile, etc is a collection of things and their relationship express something, but the assemblage is not just what it is but what it can do – almost the story behind the grouping. An important form created by assemblages are territories, these are not only the places crated, but its encompassing history and affect. In a sense, these territories are continually growing, changing, and deterritorializing.

The second part of Wise’s writing focuses on technological assemblages, and how communication technologies, when used by the person, become a new assemblage unto themselves. Wise examines this and expresses the idea that while spate, human and technology begin to merge, either humans are becoming more technological, or technology is becoming more human (81). To close Wise stats how the concept of assemblages creates territories of meaning, and a new way of analyzing the world in which we inhabit, and that very assemblages must be analyses to create a firmer understanding of relationships and dependencies.

Musings:

The notion of assemblage theory is a fascinating on as it really teaches us to examine in a  broader context. What I feel wise is articulating, as expressed by Deleuze and Guattari, is the overarching similarities in a  grouping of things tells us much more than the individual pieces, or even the collection of them. The time, space, meaning, and orientation when combined create a much larger picture.

This, applied to the technological metaphor is even more engaging. How we interact and interface with technology is – especially robotic and electrical, seems new and radical. However, the possible assemblages that this can create sets a paradigm for a new and over encompassing view of the world.

COMPILED – Building Case Study: Kunsthaus

Nathaniel_Dekens_Case_Study_Kunsthaus_Compiled

SPACE assignment – Building Case Study: Kunsthaus

Nathaniel_Dekens_Space_Assignment_Case_Study_Kunsthaus

Reading 51 – Dec 6 – On the Integrative Program

On the Integrative Program – J. Taron

Synopsis:

Taron begins his brief essay by introducing the ideas of Bernard Tschumi and how violence is intrinsic in architecture. This metaphor points to the programmatic violence in which the use, action, events, and program of a building are destructive and intrusive. As Taron states, what this leads to is a reflexive articulation of bodies in space and describes a fundamental ambition of the integrative program (22). The 2011 ACADIA conference that Taron is writing for stands as the latest attempt in architectural research toward the integrative program. Taron goes on to explain the idea of the integrative project through the lens of Grosz and her ideology of the architecture of the in-between. As Taron states, y inhabiting the non-space architecture becomes specifically capable of forming a relationship with the world as an integrative and reflexive project.

The question of how decisions are made in the integrative project is brought up next an Taron investigates this by examining the theories of Schmitt in his Political Theology. This explains architecture tendency to seek answers from nature. To conclude Taron return to his initial investigation of Tschumi. Revisiting the idea of programmatic violence it can now be understood as an expanded condition from an extensive spatial condition to an intensive design-process. Secondly, the informationalizatin of bodies in space has expanded technologies making the use of connecting information with one another the virtualization of programmatic violence (25).

Musings:

The integrative program seems to essentially be the exploration of integrative techniques that have merged through computation and design. This technique seems possible by advanced technologies and the continuing expansion of computer power. The areas that seem the most intriguing is how this technology can me merged through the biomimeticism that seems to be a dominant design stream in the recent past.

Reading 50 – Dec 6 – Post Digital Architecture: Towards Integrative Design

Post Digital Architecture: Towards Integrative Design– B. Kolarevic

Synopsis:

Branko begins his essay by introducing the concept of integrated design and its importance in architecture. Integrated design is most easily summarized as the multidisciplinary process by which architecture is combined with other fields (engineering for example) to produce higher quality work that is more cost effective and efficient. In recent years this has come to the forefront of architecture thanks to the increase in digital technology, with the onset of BIM (building information modelling) at the forefront. BIM is an integrated design technology that allows all forms of engineering and architecture to be based around the same platform for ease of readability, access, and change by all involved parties. Branko states that this is a necessary development due to the prior gap or lack of integration that architecture has had with engineering and building in particular; especially when compared to the origins of architecture in which the architect was master builder, designer and engineer simultaneously.

Branko goes further to states that while this integration is necessary, it has varying levels and methods of compatibility. What holds constant is that architects will increasingly find themselves working in an environment of multidirectional digitally mediated exchange (153). Branko concludes his paper by stating that while the trend of integration is a necessary and productive one, this paradigm must be take further. Integration of architecture should branch out into other areas, especially mathematic and the sciences, in order to be more realized, and as such, more encompassing field .

Musings:

Brankos brief essay is engaging as it brings up relevant issues pertaining to architecture. The historical analysis he provides is accurate, though disturbing nonetheless as it seem s that by giving away more and more responsibility, architecture has somewhat diminished itself and the demand and allure it once possessed. The relevance of BIM was interesting and a noteworthy footnote as I believe that future of architecture will rely heavily on this development and the ever increasing reliance of a multidisciplinary format for design and construction. This however has troubling implications: will the ever increasing reliance on digital technology diminish the role of the architect even further – or perhaps the role of the engineer? Is this a good or bad thing? Can we see software eventually a point when the structural analysis is done on the fly, negating the need for a civil consultation? In an ever increasing digital world, will the role of the architect recede or grow?

Reading 49 – Dec 6 – The Actualization of the Virtual in Space

The Actualization of the Virtual in Space – M. Delanda

Synopsis:

Delanda’s rather intensive writing begins as an overview of evolutionary processes and the differences that extensive metric features have over intensive ones. Delanda articulates the differences between individual organisms and species, and the varying delineations that these distinctions create. What the discussion of embryogenesis leads to in relation to the actualization of virtual space is that intensive processes posses non-metric properties in subtle and complex ways. This can be exemplified by the spatial continuity and indivisibility of properties such as temperature and pressure or density. Delanda also states that the final product of an intensive process is not just metric geometry.

The corollary argument is that extensive properties include some geometric patterning, but which expand the concept from structure to function . This relationship between the metric and the non-metric is then a process of individuation (68). Delanda further articulates this distinction by stating that intensive properties then can be expanded to include the properties of assemblages while extensive ones may be enlarged to refer to the properties  of processes (73).

Musings:

Delanda brings up an interesting notion, that being the distinction between the intensive and the extensive. I feel the suitability of this argument (essentially stemming from Deluze?) is somewhat lost due to the reliance on metaphor to the natural world with which Delanda writes so prolifically. Interesting notions that emerge from the Delanda reading however are how can the differences between intensive and extensive processes be understood in the veil of architecture? What manifestation can articulate these issues?