110220 - (un)grounding

…one might say that the concept of “program” may dispose us to an overly operational view of the space through which our bodies acquire their trajectivity, which another less programmatic, more affective diagram might allow us to see. A new question arises: What kinds of spaces or constructions might accommodate, show, facilitate, release these ungrounded sorts of movement, encounter, connection, for example in urban spaces, and the ways in which we fill them out? What would an architecture of such trajectories and movements look like…

- John Rajchman
Grounds, 1998

In the next phase of the semester, you will be analyzing landscapes of effect and affect. Effective potentials of a landscape are grounding; they suggest a level of stability in the earth. Effect will be studied in shadows moving across the landscape. Affective potentials of a landscape are ungrounding; they suggest open-ended trajectories of bodies in space. Affect will be studied in a text mapping exercise. The aim of these analyses will be to unpack unique qualities of landscape in your project.

Day-long shadow study, top view – 

Ashish Kulkarni 

Conjugative Mass (detail) – 

Daniel Zeller, 2004

SHADOW ANALYSIS

Build a Rhino model of the new smoother, more ‘surfaced’ landscape. Reflect all modifications to profiles, units and strands in the transition from wood to foam. The digital model must correspond as closely as possible to the physical model, but do not expect it to be an exact replica.

When the digital model is complete, use Rhino’s ‘One-Day Sun Study’ tool or the sun path model provided on the blog to track shadows moving across the landscape. Locate the landscape at 40 degrees north latitude, the approximate latitude of New York City. Orient the model to north and to gravity, then render shadows in selected view(s) for every 20 minutes of the winter solstice (shortest day), summer solstice (longest day) and equinox (equal day and night). Create a vertical filmstrip of small (approx. 2” high) still images for each of the three days.

TEXT MAPPPING

Refine and expand branching sentences from the first writing workshop: consider how branching organizes space and time, consider how branches converge and diverge, generate multiple alternatives for each sentence, work quickly by hand in your sketchbook, and scan selected branching sentences when complete.

Select one of the following Octavio Paz poems: As One Listens to the Rain, Axis, Spaces, The Street (find a link to Paz’s work on the blog). Using this poem as a pool of language, map text onto the river-scape. Strands of the river-scape will structure strands of text. Devise rules for relating text with notations in the map. Graphics and scale of text will be modified to reflect transforming characteristics of the river-scape. Create a high-density field of text. Text may be overlapping, but it must be legible in particular moments.  

110211 - limit / surface

A move away from ameliorative and scenographic designs toward more productive, engendering strategies necessitates a parallel shift from appearances and meanings to more prosaic concerns for how things work, what they do, how they interact, and what agency or effects they might exercise over time. A return to complex and instrumental landscape issues involves more organizational and strategic skills than those of formal composition per se, more programmatic and metrical practices than solely representational.

- James Corner 
Eidetic Operations and New Landscapes, 1999

Whether natural or artificial, landscapes come into being through transformational processes (such as farming, town planning, weather and plate tectonics) unfolding on their surfaces and in their depths. Though these processes may occur on time scales too long to be humanly perceptible, a landscape must be considered more a process of becoming than a fixed condition. Now working individually, you will continue transforming the landscape, testing its limits to produce surface.    

 gobi desert - image via google earth

the netherlands - image via google earth

GROUP LANDSCAPE

Before beginning individual landscapes, the group landscape and material analysis must be complete. The landscape model must be spray-painted with Krylon indoor/outdoor primer in All-Purpose Gray. This is available at Janovic and other paint/art stores around the city. Call ahead for availability.

INDIVIDUAL LANDSCAPE

Choose an 18” wide x 36” long zone of the group landscape that features at least three strand crossings and significant quantities of horizontal surface. Rebuild this portion of the landscape in foam. Modify procedures for building units and strands to produce larger amounts of smoother surface. Selectively increase the resolution of molding profile parts to increase smoothness of strands. Selectively modify (stretch) molding profiles to increase horizontally oriented surface areas. Carefully maintain transformative and combinatorial logics of the material system though all modifications.

Begin constructing your own Rhino model of this modified landscape. Reflect modifications to the material system in your own version of the group material analysis diagrams.