voussoirs: THE ART OF MANY – THE DANISH BIENNALE IN BRIEF

Monday, 20 March 2017

THE ART OF MANY – THE DANISH BIENNALE IN BRIEF

It was a pleasant, autumn evening. The unrelenting heat of a long, dry Australian summer that left ninety percent of Queensland in drought, had only recently given way to refreshing, cooler nights enlivened with some light drizzle. Were the rains finally arriving? The sun was setting on arrival at Bond University; the harsh light of a warm, dry day was easing into the soft, amber twilight; a slight breeze moved the high pine branches nearby. The air movement must have been sufficient to have been bothersome for the matching pair of entry doors, as one approach was locked, and one leaf of the other more sheltered doorway was propped open with a cloth-wrapped ‘brickish’ bundle to indicate the preferred, well, the only access. Why two pair of double doors? A welcoming champagne stood at the bar now relocated to a more convenient position, with cheese platters distributed trough the foyer/entry area. Groups had gathered around these locations and nearby, chatting generally, or just perusing the place - Sir (Saint?) Peter’s masterpiece, the Abedian School of Architecture, a world of total design: everything had been shaped by the master, not only building parts, but also chairs, tables, cupboards, shelving, and more; everything.

Boris Brorman Jensen and Kristoffer Lindhardt Weiss

The Book

It wasn’t long before the visitors were asked to take their seats as the audience for the talk. These evenings were now starting on time. After everyone had settled down, Professor Adrian Carter introduced his Danish colleagues, one an architect/educator; the other a philosopher. Both had undertaken the joint task of curating the Danish exhibit at the 2016 Venice International Architecture Biennale: Boris Brorman Jensen, architect (BBJ); and Kristoffer Lindhardt Weiss, philosopher (KLW). The theme of the exhibit was Art of Many: The Right to Space. The talk was to be about this experience and a selection of fifteen from the 130 exhibits that had been taken from those submitted for the exhibition. This limited number was all that the time allocated for the talk allowed. The title of the talk was Five Agendas for Contemporary Danish Architecture - see: Invitation to Attend https://bond.edu.au/files/2238/LectureSeries2_Boris%26amp%3BKristoff.pdf Had the Danish Government sponsored the travel of these curators to promote Danish architecture in the same way as Spektrum Arkitekter had been? - see: http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/catalysts-connections-and-interventions.html It was commented upon on several occasions during the evening that “Denmark was a wealthy country.” It could apparently afford these gestures as well as the commitment to social and affordable housing, ‘the brand new Nordic welfare state’ - see: http://utzoncenter.dk/en/exhibition/art-of-many-the-right-to-space-6621

The talk started by explaining its subject, the Danish exhibits at the 2016 Venice International Architecture Biennale that had the general theme: Reporting from the Front: see – http://www.archdaily.com/772776/venice-biennale-announces-theme-for-2016-event-reporting-from-the-front. BBJ elaborated on the title of both the exhibit and the talk. Art of Many: The Right to Space was simply descriptive of the fact, as well as being a metaphor for matters social. The title of the talk referred to the five agendas that had been identified from the projects selected to be exhibited at the Biennale, as a set of organisational themes developed from their specific characteristics. These were the sub-sections of the very thick publication, (520 pages – one hopes quality has not been gauged on quantity), written by the curators, that accompanied the exhibition. A copy of this tome was on a nearby seat. It was indeed weighty. The agendas were itemised as: Exit Utopia; Designing Life; Pro Community; Beyond Luxury; and Claiming Spaces.

KLW began the evening’s presentation by introducing the various themes. He had written detailed explanatory introductions to each agenda, almost as philosophical treatises, and these were projected onto the screen; but they were far too detailed to read in full. Only pieces could be glimpsed. Projecting texts onto screens while some other conversation is continuing creates a tension in perception and concentration that inevitably means that one aspect of the talk has to be shut out, forfeited: see – http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/the-shetland-boat-history-folklore.html It is an unfortunate situation when both the texts and the spoken words are of interest. To overcome this situation, it seems that the text should be condensed so that it can be readily read while attention is being given to the verbal presentation of the talk. A PowerPoint presentation that actually reads the projected text as if others cannot, should be avoided. The success of the situation revolves around a very fine line. One needs to understand the effectiveness of various techniques of communication, as well as the mechanics of perception.

Danish exhibition used models of buildings for the display

The general gist of the direction of things Danish was social equity and fairness: building more responsibly; more cheaply; more inclusively. The formal Danish Architectural Policy was ‘Putting people first,’ a strategy referencing the quote from the Icelandic Poetic Edda, a collection of ancient Norse poems: “Man is man’s greatest joy” - see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetic_Edda A latent idea in this direction promoted by the government is that people’s behaviour could be influenced by caring, quality design. This concept is almost a cliché in architectural circles; everyone in the profession would like this to be so.# It is a complex matter that becomes the argument for supporting architectural effort but it unfortunately involves the suggestion that there is a spiritual, mystical or similar ephemeral link between the creator/designer and the client/user. This latter position becomes the problem in this argument, one that is difficult to support as it delves deeply into personal feelings and emotions, pushing the possibility of parallels, coherence in mind managing matter, and matter mind – if only!

DCM Architects Australian Pavilion

Section through Australian Pavilion

Pavilion on canal

KPA’s Marc Spadaccini Heading for Venice Architecture Biennale – Australian Exhibition; see -

http://kpa-architects.com/kpas-marc-spadaccini-heading-for-venice-architecture-biennale-australian-exhibition/

Is this 'Australian"? It looks very Danish: see Copenhagen Harbour Bath below

BBJ took over to begin the more architectural side of things. He explained how the exhibits were selected and exhibited. Images of the Australian pavilion (DCM Architects) and its interior exhibit ( KPA Architects) were shown, as if to touch base, followed by those of the older Danish pavilion, that was really two buildings, one 1970s structure, the other an older classical form facing a courtyard. The pattern for the evening had begun: each agenda would be introduced and three projects in each section would be presented, broadly described to illustrate the fit to the categorisation. After a couple of projects it seemed that things had been watered down to suit time. Very little information on each project was discussed, just the important notes of a broad overview of each were included. The approach was not varied, modified or adapted, such appeared to be the Danish rigour. The overall summary was that there was no Danish style. Was this an explanatory strategy to accommodate the ad hoc diversity in the mix of exhibited work?

Danish Pavilion

Courtyard of Danish Pavilion

Harbour Houses

Brick House interior

Dokk1

Tietgen Student Dormitory

DANISH DIVERSITY

At this point a loud noise from above, the third level of the school, interrupted the concentration of the speaker who exclaimed with some genuine surprise and alarm: “What’s happening?” This was the first speaker to comment, through this reaction, on the poor design of the space used for the talks, the Forum Area that was open to the adjacent studio levels, the main entry foyer, and, through large glass walls, to the exterior spaces too. The idea might appear avant-garde on paper, by literally promoting an educational ‘openness,’ (here one thinks of Murcutt's 'transparent' mosque see: http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2017/01/murcutts-mosque-meanings-sources.html ), but this interconnection does allow for an array of unwanted distractions in a space where presenters and audience have to concentrate on the material being shared. After another loud interruption, and another cry from the speaker, the noises stopped and the evening continued with its explanations of the theme of how Danish architecture and design were serving human beings. It was pointed out that the inspiration had been taken from Jane Jacobs: architecture and planning should be about serving the community; they must do more than 'solve problems.'

Nord Vest Park

Superkilen Park (BIG)

Vester Voldgade, Copenhagen

Copenhagen Harbour Bath

Copenhagen Harbour Bath - in use

Exit Utopia: this agenda involved the idea of repairing the damage that modernity had inflicted on the world by re-imagining the future as a more open scenario. The idea was to create a better world with new public spaces concealing old impacts. Ideas included the concealment of drains and services while changing the streets of Copenhagen with new urban, mixed-use places – Nord Vest Park, Copenhagen by SLA. An image of bathers on a boardwalk – Copenhagen Harbour Bath by BIG + JDS - was shown as an example of a new use, with the apology that “This was not a professional photograph.” The statement was a concern as it had been heard before in another talk (Drew Heath: see - http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/drew-heath-bespoke-details-practise.html). There seemed to be an intent to choose only ‘special’ images for the promotion of ideas, ones that framed the subject in a self-consciously selective manner appropriate to the desired or preferred message. As property prices increased, it had become obvious that new strategies were required to enable this agenda to achieve realistic outcomes. New ideas were needed. The innovative work of BIG was shown – VM Mountain Dwellings, Copenhagen.

Mountain Dwellings (c.f. Habitat 67 below)

Centre for Cancer and Health

Centre for Cancer and Health - public space

Nuuk Correctional Centre

Nuuk Correctional Centre interior

Designing Life: this agenda used the model of shopping centre design that manipulated human behaviour for improved sales. If this was indeed possible, as it appeared to be, then the idea could be used as a design rule for schools and kindergartens, and similar institutions. Nord Architect’s Centre for Cancer and Health, Copenhagen; Nuuk Correctional Centre, Greenland by Friis & Moltke; and SXN’s Ørestad College by 3XN Architects were the projects shown as examples of institutions that treated people differently, humanely: patients with more care; offenders in a helpful way; and students with ‘student orientated teaching.’

Ørestad College

Ørestad College interior

Fjelstervang Recreational Community House

Fjelstervang Recreational Community House interior

Fjelstervang Recreational Community House

Pro Community: this agenda was self-evident. Spektrum Arkitekter’s Fjelstervang Recreational Community House and the Tietgen Student Dormitory by Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects were shown to illustrate the possibilities that included car parking auditoriums and other multifunction possibilities. The schemes seemed to use a lot of plywood. Maybe one could argue that Danish architecture was ‘plywood architecture’? EFFEKT’s Regen Village showed how glass houses could be incorporated into housing developments to grow food and promote social good. One was left wondering if the actual food production might be more than what might look good and sound impressive in a talk: see - http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/earthships-and-bananas.html

Tietgen Student Dormitory - public space

Tietgen Student Dormitory

Tietgen Student Dormitory - public space

Regen Village

Regen Village - public space

Harbour Houses glasshouses

Harbour Houses

Urban Rigger

. . . see below for geometry

Urban Rigger interior

Beyond Luxury: this agenda promoted a new understanding in wealthy consumption that concentrated on well-being and the quality of life. The idea was not to take trees and resources willy-nilly for simple indulgence, but to act responsibly, to renew – ‘to stop the cancer.’ ADEPT’s Harbour Houses, luxury apartments with glass houses on the roofs, was shown as an example of how this ambition can be achieved; along with BIG’s Urban Rigger floating student housing that had sets of containers offering cheap accommodation and services. It was a concept developed in consultation with Tesla. Leth & Gori’s Brick House showed how simple materials (plywood) could provide economical, quality habitation. Strangely the exterior of this project was not illustrated in the talk. Was it too 'ordinary' - not 'architectural' enough?

Brick House

Brick House interior

Brick House - detail

Cleaning Facilities Centre interior

Cleaning Facilities Centre

Cleaning Facilities Centre plan

Cleaning Facilities Centre - the public space

Park 'N' Play

Park 'N' Play rooftop play area

Twenty-four hour access

Claiming Spaces: this agenda spoke about allowing the taxpayer to use schools, hospitals and other public places, by opening up spaces in these facilities to the public instead of keeping them as exclusive zones. Polyform’s Cleaning Facilities Centre was one example of a courtyard being developed as a cleaners’ canteen with a public space above. Park ‘N’ Play by JALA Architects showed how a rooftop could become a playground with twenty-four hour access. SHL’s Dokk1, a place to renew passports, health cards, etc., showed a generous, twenty-four hour plaza space available for public and private events.

Dokk1 interior

Dokk1

True to Danish rigour, the talk concluded at 7:45pm. Questions were taken. Yes, the work was market-driven, but was successful. Novel forms of housing were being explored by developers. It was a conservative market that had to comply with the 25% public housing rule in any new housing development. One problem was the massive increase in land values in the inner-city. This pushed families out, forcing them to commute. Stresses increased and resulted in more family breakdowns. Questions like “What is a house in the city?” are being asked. New typologies are being explored (BIG are trailblazers). New work is matching the cost of public housing; architects are creating new scenarios. The Danish Architectural Policy is a good guide, a good reference to reinforce arguments to gain support for new directions. The policy is a tool used by the State to demand difference from developers, to get them to offer something for the city: spaces to move in; to relax in; to play in.

Mountain Dwellings

. . . compare Moshe Safdie's Habitat 67, Montreal

Mountain Dwellings

The new strategies are coming from the bottom up with a “Welcome to my backyard” approach rather than NIMBY. Architects are seen, (rather flatteringly by the philosopher KLW), as ‘magicians,’ offering cheap solutions and new ways of living. The developers are happy too. An agenda has been created to promote discussion, to allow bold ideas to be developed and debated. Politicians are becoming receptive and now advocate for new town planning initiatives. The demand is for liberal housing with fewer regulations; to commit to the social agenda: the human ideal. Yes, there are some architects who just don’t care, and these chose not to submit projects for the Biennale. Does this skew the perception? No, Denmark is not Marxist; it is an unusually cohesive society with five million people.

Urban Rigger interior

Nuuk Correctional Centre site plan

The evening closed. The audience dispersed out into the cool dark of the street-lit night with much to ponder. Denmark was indeed an unusual place; but what had happened to the 1960’s design entity, identity, that became Internationally known and appreciated as ‘Danish design,’ promoting quality items that are still admired, and remain in production today; indeed, that are still being used by Danish architects in their projects today - the Jacobsen chairs; the Poulsen lights. Why is Denmark apparently now happy to both acknowledge and declare a lack of cohesion in design output and expression? Were we shown only a very selective slice of Denmark today: a snippet of Danish life and design that seems random, chaotic, less in control of its choices? Are things Danish now more experimental? What is the real Danish city sense; the social experience? Is it really so very caring of people and place, or does the humanist concept merely offer interesting and different occasional interventions to be published in magazines? After all, the evening was really just a brief overview of a very few selected schemes drawn from a catalogue scheduling the projects in the Danish exhibition. The talk was illusory in that it appeared to hold substance and depth, but was really sketchy, somewhat ephemeral; very skimpy on detail. One hoped that the book was better than this, and did not rely on size alone to impress.

The Book - published by the Danish Architectural Press

At least the talk gave a few references to be Googled: good luck! - see the text above for the details and explore..

Urban Rigger geometry

For more on the event, see: http://www.arcspace.com/articles/art-of-many-the-danish-pavilion-at-the-15th-venice-biennale/

Art of Many: The Danish Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale
2 May 26, 2016 /

#
NOTE:

Gropius himself taught cabinetmaking, believing that good design across a broad spectrum of goods would improve the quality of life of the worker. Gropius took a self-consciously sociological view of architecture.

Hugh Howard Architecture’s Odd Couple Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson Bloomsbury Press New York 2016 p.49

No comments:

ON GARDENING

I am strongly of the opinion that the possession of a quantity of plants, however good the plants may be themselves and however ample their number, does not make a garden; it only makes a collection. Having got the plants, the great thing is to use them with careful selection and definite intention. Merely having them, or having them planted unassorted in garden spaces, is only like having a box of paints from the best colourman, or, to go one step further, it is like having portions of these paints set out upon a palette. This does not constitute a picture; and it seems to me that the duty we owe our gardens and to our own bettering in our gardens is so to use plants that they shall form beautiful pictures; that, while delighting our eyes, they should be always training those eyes to a more exulted criticism; to a state of mind and artistic conscience that will not tolerate bad or careless combination or any sort of misuse of plants, but in which it becomes a point of honour to be always striving for the best. Gertrude Jekyll Colour in the Flower Garden Mitchell Beazley London 1998 – Introduction (first published 1908)

MORE IS LESS

Significantly, in the era of the ‘information revolution’, the same process is now affecting disinformation: whereas in the past it was lack of information and censorship which characterized the denial of democracy by the totalitarian state, the opposite is now the case. Disinformation is achieved by flooding TV viewers with information, with apparently contradictory data. The truth of the facts is censured by over-information, as we have seen from the press and television discussing the Balkans. The globalitarian state, built out of economic-strategic alliances, is no longer old ‘Anastasia’ with her scissors: it is Babel. Now more is less. And in some cases, less than nothing. Deliberate manipulation and unintentional accidents have become indistinguishable.

Paul Virilio Strategy of Deception Verso 2007 p.48

(first published Editions Galilee 1999)

‘That which precedes the event is not necessarily its cause,’ claims the wisdom of the ancients. p.76

As Negroponte has rightly remarked, with the ‘liberation of information’ on the Web, what is most lacking is meaning or, in other words, a context into which Internet users could put the facts and hence distinguish truth from falsehood. On the Web, where, as everyone knows, the terrorist temptation is constant and where depredations of hackers are committed with impunity in a strange state of legal indeterminacy, the difference between (true) information and (false) deception fades a little more each day. In entering the looking-glass worlds of television and home computers, we are in the end left in the position of Kinglake’s old ‘English soldiery’. As they saw it,

insofar as the battlefield presented itself to the bare eyesight of men, it had no entirety, no length, no breadth, no size, no shape and was made up of nothing . . . In such conditions, each separate gathering . . . went on fighting its own little battle in happy and advantageous ignorance of the general state of the action; nay, even very often in ignorance of the fact that any great conflict was raging.

As Albert Camus asserted: ‘When we are all guilty, that will be true democracy.’ p.78

ENCOUNTERING CONRAD

Ryszard Kapuściński The Other Verso London 2018, p. 92

At the end of his book, Kapuściński asks whether, in our encounters with others in the future:

Will we jointly wish to refer to what – as Conrad puts it - ‘speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation – and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts: to the solidarity of dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hope, in fear, which binds men to each other, which binds together all humanity – the dead to the living and the living to the unborn.’?*

* J. Conrad, Preface to The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’: A Tale of the Sea, New York: W.W.Norton, 1979.

Architecture stands in between of all of these circumstances of encounter, but how does it explain itself beyond being a bespoke ‘grand design’ of a potential genius?

ON THE CULTURE OF OTHERS

Herodotus . . . wanted to know them because he understood that to know ourselves we have to know Others, who act as a mirror in which we see ourselves reflected; he knew that to understand ourselves better we have to understand Others, to compare ourselves with them, to measure ourselves against them. As a citizen of the world, he did not believe that we should isolate ourselves from Others, or slam the gates in their faces. Xenophobia, Herodotus implied, is a sickness of people who are scared, suffering an inferiority complex, terrified by the prospect of seeing themselves in the mirror of the culture of Others.

Ryszard Kapuściński The Other Verso London 2018, p. 19

CLEVER PEOPLE SELF-DOUBT

I last met him when Philomena came out back in 2013. Back then, Coogan was a bracing, combative interviewee. He saw every question as a potential ambush and moved to thwart any perceived journalistic angle. Today, though, he seems more comfortable with the process, more at ease with himself. It used to be that he felt he always had to have his guard up. Now he accepts that he can sometimes afford to let it drop. He’s middle aged and a mass of insecurity and contradictions. He suspects that, on balance, that’s not such a terrible thing to be.

“And actually I think acknowledging your own fallibility makes you a better artist and a better person,” he says in a rush. “It’s fairly obvious to me that the real wisdom lies in seeing people’s failings and trying to understand them. Because the alternative is that very childlike, Donald Trump thing of believing that admitting any weakness is fatal. What was it Bukowski said? All the clever people are full of self-doubt and all the stupid people are very confident. That’s the era we’re living in now. That’s the era I don’t want to be a part of. So all you can do is try to go about things differently. Do interesting work and don’t be a cunt.”

Coogan gulps for breath. His eyes widen and then he rocks with laughter. “There you go, that’s my big artistic statement,” he says. “Do interesting work and don’t be a cunt. Took me the best part of an hour. Got there in the end.”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/04/steve-coogan-interview-stan-and-ollie

HILLS

The hills bespeak a healing power and closeness to unseen help now lost in the security of modern welfare. Those who befriend the silent peaks in a lifetime's work know well their embracing strength. (p.91)

For only once is it given to man to lie in the arms of the eternal forces which give all matter form. (p.98)

Iain R Thomson Isolation Shepherd Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2007

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

Psalm 121 King James Version (KJV)

SPAN

17 August 2012

This blog began as a co-operative concept. While the idea and the stimulus was generated through discussion, the blog has turned out to be an individual enterprise. SPAN stands for ‘Spence and’ in the context of others. As a word, it fitted in nicely with the idea of voussoirs - parts and pieces, complete with keystones, that could ‘span’ the gaps in understanding and communication. The word SPAN also allowed for a shared input into a blog.

Spence Jamieson is an architect and the author of these articles. The blogs show the scope of his interests.

THE IDEA

chapters and verses as architectural commentary:

the wedge to isolate, array and shape ideas; the keystone to highlight core, supporting issues. voussoirs is a concept to start an architectural discussion to span the large gap in the debate on things architectural; a bridging of the void in architectural issues by exploring considered bits and pieces. The state of the profession today is highlighted by silence and self. It is introvert and protective. Educational centres remain isolated within their own constructs, being run primarily as businesses. They put very little back into the community. They indulge themselves in their own interests and exclude contrary and different ideas and ideals. They constantly avoid any challenge on concepts or strategies that might change the plotted course. Rarely does comment ever come from this academic world into the public or any arena. Very few publications help direct the public interest. Rarely do newspapers grasp the issues and explore them. One aspect may be given space in the popular press, but architectural debates and concerns are rarely given attention. The professional institutes are doing much the same as the educational institutions. Private practice is doing likewise, offering, if anything, only its own pushy propaganda to the public. Yet there is a discussion and debate in these silences that needs a larger and more open platform. Discussion is alive and well amongst a few in at least one curry house, but the debate needs to be a broadened. voussoirs is the place for this discussion. It is a site for ideas, comment, articles, and critiques on things architectural and associated issues. It is here that matters can be aired and ideas discussed and debated without fear of the neglect and disdain that institutions and private groups and publishers give to open speaking and differing ideas.

There can be no true understanding of any idea if discussion and debate are curtailed in favour of a preferred position.

ON COMMUNICATION

. . . there has been a growing feeling of concern to solve what is now commonly called “the problem of communication.” But if one observes efforts to solve this problem, he will notice that different groups who are trying to do this are not actually able to listen to each other. As a result, the very attempt to improve communication leads frequently to yet more confusion, and the consequent sense of frustration inclines people ever further toward aggression and violence, rather than toward mutual understanding and trust.

David Bohm On Dialogue Routledge, Oxon, 1996 (2004) p.2

ON ART & METHOD

Even in relationships with inanimate objects and with nature in general, something very like communication is involved. Consider, for example, the work of an artist. Can it be properly said that the artist is expressing himself, i.e., literally “pushing outward” something that is already formed inside him? Such a description is not in fact generally accurate or adequate. Rather, what usually happens is that the first thing the artist does is only similar in certain ways to what he may have in mind. As in a conversation between two people, he sees the similarity and the difference, and from this perception something further emerges in his next action. Thus, something new is continually created that is common to the artist and the material on which he is working.

David Bohm On Dialogue Routledge, Oxon, 1996 (2004) p.4

THE NECESSITY OF THE INCOMPLETE

The early 50's and 60's is a period that is gaining interest in architectural ideas. Perhaps this is why Princeton chose to republish The Tao of Architecture. It is a beautiful little book that discusses the implications of traditional wisdom in architecture. Given the astonishing lack of direction in current architectural theory, the publication is very timely.

Amos Ih Tiao Chang, The Tao of Architecture, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1956, reprinted 2017.

p.26

Laotzu's idea of formation is heavily concerned with emptiness or non-existence. To him who regards nothing as persistent, what is essentially important in things is the possibility of becoming something, not the opportunity of remaining as something confronting deterioration. Consequently, meaningful incompletion is taken as the most desirable state of tangible being.

p.22

. . . the full meaning of existence is beyond the power of any manifestation. What appears tangible, architectural or natural, is only a means to suggest that which is lacking in appearance and existing in man's intangible understanding and aesthetic feeling.

LIVING IN IMPERMANENCE

Maybe it is a good thing for us to keep a few dreams of a house that we shall live in later, always later, so much later, in fact, that we shall not have time to achieve it. For a house that was final, one that stood in symmetrical relation to the house we were born in, would lead to thoughts – serious, sad thoughts – and not to dreams. It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality.

Gaston Bachelard The Poetics of Space

see: THE NECESSITY OF THE INCOMPLETE in the sidebar

THE REAL AND THE IMAGINARY

I prefer, by far, real islands to imaginary islands, just as I prefer prime documents to novelistic remakes. That's because the real is richer than the imagination. The real demands investigation and is an invitation to sensitive knowledge, whereas the imaginary is more often than not just a collection of stereotypes, a soup of clichés offering an infantile kind of satisfaction. Then, a relationship to the real and its resistance requires changes in thought, in ways of being, in ways of saying, it leads to a transformation of the self. Whereas imagination is nothing but compensation. There's even something horribly autistic about sitting in one spot and spinning out invention by the yard. How much more interesting an open and poetic process involving contemplation, study, movement, meditation and composition.

Kenneth White Across The Territories Travels from Orkney to Rangiroa Polygon Edinburgh 2004 p.86

VISION, CIVILIZATION & SPIRIT

The architect who combines in his being the powers of vision, of imagination, of intellect, of sympathy with human need and the power to interpret them in a language vernacular and time - - - is he who shall create poems in stone.

When you look on one of your contemporary 'good copies' of historical remains, ask yourself the question: Not what style, but what civilization is this building? And the absurdity, vulgarity, anachronism and solecism of the modern structure will be revealed to you in a most startling fashion.

It cannot for a moment be doubted that an art work to be alive, to awaken us to life, to inspire us sooner or later with its purpose, must indeed be animate with a soul, must have been breathed upon by the spirit and must breathe in turn that spirit.

Louis Sullivan

AN UNCHANGING PROFESSION

ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE

. . . no one can relieve (the architect) from the need to rely on his own discretion, for that discretion is linked to a responsibility which belongs to no one but (the architect). It is the exercise of discretion hampered by considerations of cost, of risk, of exact justice, of conflicting interests, of uncertainty as to facts, of misunderstandings and of diverse individualities and dishonest or incapable agents, which is the chief care and preoccupation of architectural practice. To design a building, to draw and specify every part of it, and to direct its construction and see it completed with no other anxieties and dilemmas than belong to the exercise of those duties, is unknown.

H.B.Creswell The Honeywood Settlement Faber and Faber Limited London 1967 (fourth edition: first edition 1930 Architectural Press) p.128

MENDING WALL

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Robert Frost

CATHEDRALS and SYMBOLISM

Everything is the symbolical representation of an idea. p.28

The same artists, who had to follow a strict rule when treating the history of God, could use all of their imagination when treating the ornamental: whence the blossoming of the grotesque and the original. p.38

In those days religion, drama, and art had the same aim and sought to provoke the same thoughts. They did not pretend to amuse the people; they endeavoured to teach them. p.51

This way of thinking and reasoning takes sometimes a very subtle turn. p.53

Hélène Fouré The French Cathedrals Their Symbolic Significance Bruce Humphries Inc. Publishers, Boston, 1931

THE COMPLIMENT & THE CRITIC 2

ON DEMOLISHING BUILDINGS

Nothing appears to me much more wonderful, than the remorseless way in which the educated ignorance, even of the present day, will sweep away an ancient monument, if its preservation be not absolutely consistent with immediate convenience or economy. Putting aside all antiquarian considerations, and all artistical ones, I wish that people would only consider the steps, and the weight of the following very simple argument. You allow that it is wrong to waste time, that is, your own time; but then it must be still more wrong to waste other people’s; for you have some right to your own time, but none to their’s. Well, then, if it is thus wrong to waste the time of the living, it must be still more wrong to waste the time of the dead; for the living can redeem their time, the dead cannot. But you waste the best of the time of the dead when you destroy the works they have left you; for those works they gave the best of their time, intending them for immortality.

John Ruskin Lectures on Architecture George Routledge & Sons Limited, London p.109

THE COMPLIMENT & THE CRITIC 1

How to avoid insult

But how much of nature have you in your Greek buildings? I will show you, taking for an example the best you have lately built; and, in doing so, I trust that nothing that I say will be thought to have any personal purpose, and that the architect of the building in question will forgive me; for it is just because it is a good example of the style that I think it more fair to use it for an example. If the building were a bad one of the kind, it would not be a fair instance; and I hope, therefore, that in speaking of the institution on the mound, just in progress, I shall be understood as meaning rather a compliment to its architect than otherwise. It is not his fault that we force him to build in the Greek manner.

John Ruskin Lectures on Architecture and Painting George Routledge & Sons Limited; New York: F.P.Dutton & CO - p.64-65

ON EDUCATION

'. . those who are responsible for giving instruction in the theory of architecture should be practising architects. The warning is necessary because, strange though it may seem, English schools of architecture to-day tend to be run by men who either do not practise at all, or whose practices are for them a very subsidiary spare-time occupation. Often a teaching appointment is a means by which a clever student avoids the humiliation of entering an office as a junior assistant, thus depriving himself of the only opportunity he will ever have of learning something of the practical side of his profession from the bottom upwards. There can be no doubt whatever that the teaching of theory has suffered severely as a result of this habit: and this leads me to the conclusion that no man should be permitted to teach until he is recognized by his Faculty as a Master of Theory and Practice. In other words, he should be not only a practising architect but also, what is unfortunately a much rarer specimen, a good architect.'

W.A. Eden, The Process of Architectural Tradition, Macmillian & Co. Ltd, London, 1942, p.p. 86-87

ETHICS

Thus Pugin laid the foundation stones of that strange system which dominates the nineteenth-century art criticism and is immortalised in the Seven Lamps of Architecture: the value of a building depends on the moral worth of its creator; and a building has a moral value independent of, and more important than, its esthetic value. We must not consider this emphasis on morality peculiarly Victorian. Whenever esthetic standards are lost, ethical standards rush in to fill the vacuum; for the interest in esthetics dwindles and vanishes, but the interest in ethics is eternal.

Kenneth Clark The Gothic Revival - An Essay in the History of Taste, (1^st edition Constable 1928); third edition John Murray 1962, reprinted 1974, p.149.

MODERNITY

The everyday is covered by a surface: that of modernity. News stories and the turbulent affectations of art, fashion, and event veil without ever eradicating the everyday blahs. Images, the cinema and television divert the everyday by at times offering up to its own spectacle, or sometimes the spectacle of the distinctly noneveryday; violence, death, catastrophe, the lives of kings and stars – those who we are led to believe defy everydayness. Modernity and everydayness constitute a deep structure that a critical analysis can work to uncover.

Henri Lefebvre, The Everyday and Everydayness, in Stephen Harris and Deborah Berke, Architecture of the Everyday, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1997, p.37.

NAMING

The simplest act of substitution is to put the name of a maker in the place of his or her work, which amounts to a paraphrase in itself. . . . All paraphrase sets aside the original: To put the name in place of the painting is to remove it from immediate consciousness; to narrate the life of an individual is an act profoundly different from looking into a painting and one that cannot be conducted simultaneously with it. To substitute a temporal narrative, already present in a name, for the physical work of art is to give up those features of the thing that were transient and unrepeatable, bound to a moment that is irrevocably ended; the unique insistence is, for the moment at least, sacrificed on the altar of continuity.

Thomas Crow, The Intelligence of Art, The University of North Carolina Press, 1999, p.1.

ON BRANDING

Branding is now the art of getting people to think what something might be rather than what it necessarily is. It's about the manipulation of the virtual reality in which so many live. The manipulators include anyone with an interest in what we might think of them - not just big companies with products to sell but political parties with votes to win, design gurus with clients to attract - anyone, in other words, acting in some kind of market. They all have an interest in controlling their appearance to make us believe it is the reality.

John Humphrys Beyond Words How Language Reveals The Way We Live Now Hodder and Stoughton. Great Britain 2006, p. 86-87

see:

http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/faking-provenance-misuse-of-meaning.html

PRECONCEPTION

Leone Huntsman Sand in Our Souls The Beach in Australian History Melbourne University Press 2001, p.16:

Thus first impressions were filtered through existing preconceptions, starkly revealed in Sir Joseph Banks's description of the people seen from Captain James Cook's Endeavour when it first touched on the Australian continent in 1770:

In the morn we . . . [discerned] 5 people who appeared through our glasses to be enormously black: so far did the prejudices which we had built on Dampier's account influence us that we fancied we could see their Colour when we could scarce distinguish whether or not they were men.

Here Banks refers to William Dampier's unfavourable accounts of the West Australian aboriginal people in published accounts of his landings in 1688 and 1699, and reveals his own awareness of the extent to which perception was influenced by expectation.

see: http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/seeing-what-we-believe-idyllic-visions.html

THE MUSE - GETTING IT RIGHT

"It can be in the morning, any old time, I wake up with an idea and it starts following you around.

"You go, 'Ah that's good' because you know when it's going to work, it's going to be fruitful.

"Other times you'll get the edge of an idea and maybe it fades away or there's just no way it can be made to serve, you know?

"Then you just, it takes its time and you work on it and if necessary you work on it more than once. I'm known to work on it two or three times before you get it right."

Les Murray

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-02/les-murray-latest-volume-reflects-on-bunyah/6816714

http://www.lesmurray.org/

JARGON

The world seems to find it necessary to use more and more jargon in general reporting and conversation. It is especially noticed in accounts and discussions on the arts. The ABC TV arts programme presented on 7 January 2017 at 6:15pm had more jargon than usual; indeed, had more unusual expressions than previously encountered, ones that had not been heard before:

"unpicking the tapestry" of one's life;

and

looking at "the fan deck of what you do."

These reminded one of other popular fashionable expressions:

“to unpack an issue,” meaning to analyse it in some detail;

and

“to segue,” meaning to shift to a new topic or activity.

This last term is a favourite of radio announcers. The Italian word is often misspelt as ‘segway’ because of the similar phonetic sounding that is more commonly understood as Segway, the brand of a human transporter.

The parallel is interesting, as the idea of being ‘transported’ is common to both words, but it seems to hold little interest to the radio voices that appear just too cleverly happy with the use of this different, interesting expression.

Monday, 20 March 2017

THE ART OF MANY – THE DANISH BIENNALE IN BRIEF

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