MANIFESTO

'Everyone needs reason'

Reason seems to be important thing in our life. People try to find reason for everything by using science , psychology or any theory that can explain why things happened. It becomes the lesson for us to study and understand such as biology, physics , history , mathematics , psychology and etc. I think the reason why people try to understand everything because they try to be different from animals or any creature on this planet. Human thinks they are special , differ from others , smarter , think rationally and have problem solving skill. If you notice I use the words 'reason' , 'why' , and 'because'. I think this is one effect from educating kids to think rationally. I have been taught to think that doing something with no reason mak it meaningless. I didn't say that it's not good or not right but I wonder why couldn't we appreciate things without judging by rational thinking.

In term of design , the architecture also has the rational process behind it even it looks very good , non-sense ,or so commercial. People even find the reason for beauty such as golden ratio , the most beautiful proportion. People try to give reason to abstract word like 'beauty' by mathematics , the very logical way of thinking. The architect also use this technique in designing. This golden ratio appeared since the classical period. For example , Parthenon also has golden proportion and people say it is beautiful.

In different period , people use different reason in designing. In modernism , designing is base on the geometric shape and symmetry because they try to simplify and clarify the structure from the idea of transparency. After that , in post modernism , the idea has changed. Architects and designers forced their designs in different ways. They do not separate people into unit as modernism did , everything is connected , related to each other. They concerned about the importance of surrounding and context. Moreover , form is not the representation of structure or any function. These are the reason behind this period work. As you can see that reason is all around us and also inside us. There are reasons behind every product you use , every place you walk in , everything you eat or every situation you face.

Most people always question what they do not know or even what they have known to understand more and more. Although there are millions of reasons in our life , but it's still not enough , people need more. They need to understand , even it's useful or not. Some do nothing , some use it for developing. People think that the value of something is up to the rational behind it , I do not totally agree because I can realize the aesthetic of those things without rational ideas behind it. For example , a flower , it is beautiful , high aesthetic sense. You can appreciate it without knowing where it is from , what type it is , why it looks like this , what it is for or how it is growth. In the same way of architecture , just appreciate the space , the form , and atmosphere can be enough to perceive the aesthetic of architecture and know the value of it.

For all of my presentation , I do not mean that finding reason is not good , I just want you to try perceiving things without reason or any logic in your head , to absorb and appreciate the real value of the things around you. The value that didn't create by human. In designing , sometimes I don't want to be framed by being reasonable , that everyone said that can increase the value of design. I just want to do what I want to but we are still in the rational world.

Technology changed , architecture changed

Since the industrial revolution , technology develop further and further. Architecture has changed due to the technology in each period , until now , the computer age. Architect also use the computer software to create their design , to generate form or to simulate the architecture.

Like Zaha Hadid work , most of them are generated from computer with the organic and fluid form. It changes the way contractor work and challenge the engineer. But from 'Incomplete manifesto' by Bruce Mau , he said ' Avoid software. The problem with software is that everyone has it.' , I agree with this idea. But we also can be differ from others although we use same software , that is our creativity and thinking.

Another idea for this week block is junkspace. I never realize how the building in my daily life can be junkspace. From the lecture , technology makes the space to become junkspace by air-conditioning system and elevator. I agree with this idea but this kind of space can be useful in some context that no need the connection between interior and exterior. The context realization is ignored in this kind of space. This kind of space is spreading , this make me think about junk food. Even we know that it's not good , we still consume it.

'I=WE' and 'Form & Perception'

Firstly , I'll write about "I=WE" from the lecture. I really like this equation and its meaning. It means that the way we see ourselves is from recognizing what others see , so 'I' can't be cut from the context as separated unit like in modernism. 'I' is formed by context around. I totally agree with it and realize that the way I see myself is from the way others see me. Sometimes this becomes the frame for me , I have to maintain what's good that others can see in me and then it becomes the expectation that pressures on me. I found that it's hard to break this frame out because I still care people around me , my context. I think It's like the idea of how UNstudio work with context. They use it but may be in different ways. Sometimes the context of the site is the limitation of the project , but if we use it wisely , it can be really interesting.

Another idea is about form and perception , after the modernism , the form took the different role. It's not necessary to represent the structure as in modernism , like the quote ' Forget the reference, just play with form'. I think this may be another good way to perceive things. Human try to find every reason of everything , but I think sometimes we just don't need those reasons , just experience it and perceive it as it is. This way of perceiving world can make everything easier, but in reality people do need reasons. May be they want to understand mostly everything in their life although it's not useful at all. I think that be reasonable in something and be not in something can make me live and perceive this world happily.

Modernity & Metropolis

Lecture this week is about modernity and modernism , one is still alive and one is dead. We can still see modernity nowadays , while the modernism is dead , through many things such as architecture , government , and etc. At the end of the class , we watched the movie called 'Metropolis' which is silence movie with the sentences or words as the conversation instead. This scene of this film really show the modernity in term of architecture , high rise building and skyscraper. It also shown in the story about the industrial part of the city at the underground city. This make me think about the transparency. The people on ground seem not to know what happen underground with the faceless labor , who are named by numbers like really not important person. It contrasts with the very modern setting that everyone should be the equal unit , it is for every underground guys but it's not if compare with people above. Where is the equality? Another thing is the government of the city do not tell the process , what's going on underground , to the public , so how it is call transparent according to the idea of modernity. This movie makes me realize that what others tell you is not always true and what you saw with your eyes is not always true also. Where is the truth??

Lecture & 'Borat'

This week , I'm gonna write about the linkage between the lecture and 'Borat' , the movie that we watched in the class. The lecture is about simulation , what is real and what is simulated. The boundary of these two words is presently vanishing , people can't figure out what is real and what is not. First , when I watch the movie , I can't understand how these two things , simulation and Borat , are related. But when I watch it further , there is one seen , the weather guy scene , he is talking with empty screen different from the on air one , that's the map and moving graphic on. Borat can't understand what that weather guy is doing because he is looking at the different view from the audience. The audience see the representation of the geography , map , with the simulation of the weather on it. That's all I can see at the first time. When I rethink about it , I found that the movie itself is the simulation of the real situation that can be happen or can't be. In this case , I think it is hardly happen but the film maker try to make us get into it and make us believe that it's happened. The way they make this film , not intently frame our perception for a beautiful scene , makes the audience easily believe that it's happened and blurs the boundary between the truth and fiction. The last thing , in my opinion , I do not like this film , it's not my taste, but at least it makes me realize something , the world is the big scene of endless drama.

Representation of representation

From last week lecture , we discussed about the representation of representation. The quote , "Everytimes people say word , they have image in their head and construct it to be more real." I agree with this quote and have some questions. Why these words represent those things? Is there any relationship , or people just make them up. Where is it from and who control it to be this way? In my opinion , people made a lots of things up , even their language, to communicate and represent something. Further development , the complexity in linguistics field increases , so people use these language , or words , to represent other words. This becomes representation of representation in my opinion. Another question pops up , from the beginning , people made all these things up until repeat the process again , so what is the true word to represent word? May be it's no right answer , I still don't know.

From previous discussion , the representation of representation also relates to the architecture , modern architecture. S.R. Crown Hall , at IIT by Mies van der Rohe, is one of modern architecture that use the representation of the real structure , as the concept of modernism, by the attached elements outside the building. The concept of modernism "All lines of the structure make building stand up" is represented by the structural ornamentation , so this quote , for me , is not really true because all lines is the representation of the structure inside , They don't take the load , the real function of it.

I will end this journal with the quote "Everything is nothing" . Nothing is the truth , they are all construct by human. Do not believe in everything people say.

Manufactured Landscape 2

From last journal , I wrote somethings about Manufactured Landscape , and this week we are assigned to write about what is Non-manufactured landscape , but what I thought is changed from this week lecture. This ,Why Manufactured and Non-manufactured landscape? ,becomes the topic I'm interested in and will write about. Another topic is 'Is our perception framed by political statement?'.

'Why manufactured and non-manufactured landscape?'

First , I thought that manufactured landscape is the landscape that created from any result of manufacture processes and non-manufactured landscape is somethings opposite, but after the last lecture , I found that there are some factors that frame our perception of the nature. Therefore , what I think about manufactured landscape may be wrong , and the following question is 'why we have to follow the definition of something from others and call it as others call?'. This question make the boundary between manufactured and non-manufactured landscape in my thinking disappear because the definition of nature is not the same , so it effects to the definition of the landscape that I mentioned that they are related to each other. It can be different , it can be the same , or it can be anything. Until now , I just can't create my own definition of manufactured and non-manufactured landscape regardless of the framed 'nature' that I was forced to understand.

'Is our perception framed by political statement?'

From the lecture , there is the linkage between political status and the establishment of national park , the framed definition of nature. Nature in government's definition seems to be pure , without human or any artificial things but the real thing is 'not see it doesn't mean it's not there'. This idea controls the way we perceive the world and judge what is nature , what is not and what it should be. As we are designer , the way we perceive nature and use it in our design is important. Just copy , do what others do , or just using the natural material to create the natural sense in the space can make the space meaningless if there is not the strong and real meaning of nature from the designer behind , so the way we perceive the world effects on our design.

Khao Yai National park

MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPE

Manufactured landscape is the documentary film about working of photographer , Edward Burtynsky. In my opinion , its name sounds interesting for me because this name compounds of two words that seem to be opposite, manufacture and landscape. Manufacture is the word about industrial process or producing something by machine , opposite to landscape that seems to be about nature. From the film , two quote I am interested in are :

'landscape from industry' and

'aesthetic or environmental crisis'

'Landscape from industry' is my first focus topic because this film is all about taking photos of landscape from industrial process , recycle process , employees , industrial waste and environmental effect. I think that these photos show the way industry form the new definition of landscape. This kind of landscape is not necessary to be created from nature. It can be indoor or outdoor. It can be created by humans or objects. It can be systematic or unpredictable. It can be good or bad. It can even be construction or destruction. The process of creating manufactured landscape is various and the result is also various.

'Aesthetic or environmental crisis' is my second topic. The photos of manufactured landscape are all beautiful , but I think at the same time , it can warn us about the environmental crisis that we are facing. It makes me think about the way we spend natural resource , the way we do with industrial waste and recycling system , the way our lifestyle change because of industry. There are a lot of warning behind the beautiful picture. I think Burtynsk's photos are more than the photos , more than the art project , they are something that can reflect our surrounding situation and also ourselves.

reference :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufactured_Landscapes

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/edward_burtynsky_on_manufactured_landscapes.html