Subject: unlearning, etc.
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2001 03:47:56 -0700
From: Mitsu Hadeishi
To: tait@five movements, circa@jump.net

Samantha and Tait,
re: unlearning

We were just discussing this very idea at the Kira Institute event I attended last year. I believe there is, in fact, something that one could call "going back" or "unlearning" --- it isn't often discussed in Western thought, but in the East it is a fundamental idea. The Taoists like to call this "returning to the source"; Buddhists employ this "direction" as well by talking about how, when one meditates, the point is not to accumulate, but to become less and less --- the Zen people like to use the term "beginner's mind". When, at Kira, I mentioned this to the philosopher Brian Cantwell Smith, he said "isn't it interesting that we have a word for moving away from the ground, 'abstract', but there is no word for going back?" (or something to this effect)

In mathematical terms, you could describe this as a sort of "relaxation" of the fitting process that one engages in by learning; that is, when learning, we accumulate information and thereby also accumulate bias, to some extent; we expect things to be a certain way. This can lead to "overfitting" --- overgeneralization and other systematic errors. The Buddhists call this "conditioned perception" --- it is a conditioning process. (Note that this conditioning may be biological: i.e., we have a certain amount of conditioning hardwired into our genetic code, in terms of edge detection and various other factors! It's not just learning).

I think there can be, to some extent, a sort of "unlearning" --- not so much forgetting but a relaxation of habits of perception. One can see with fresh eyes --- meditative practices used by some of these traditions in fact are aimed at exactly this --- they literally cause changes in the way the neurochemistry works to some extent, I believe. I've experienced this to some extent myself, i.e., relaxing the "object identification" layer of visual perception, so I don't see an objectified tree, but rather I see a blast of color and light, greens and blues and so forth. So I believe it is possible to really get in there to very deep layers of the perceptual system. Interestingly, my dad, an abstract expressionist painter, has told me that he has experienced similar things, but in his case it was via the practice of painting, rather than through meditation.

Mitsu
http://www.syntheticzero.com

Subject: Re: lecture
Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 23:15:43 EDT
From: Bill Randall.....................(my dad!)
To: circa@jump.net

....Your ideas remind me immediately of the Medieval/Renaissance notions of combined opposites. My vocabulary really fails me here--haven't thought or spoken of such things for a long time. The Latin phrase will come back to me, but the essence is that of the oxymoron, which was applied to philosophy, literature, art. Thomas Jefferson embodied it in the Lawn of the University of Virginia, which was detailed and near at one end but open to the horizon at the other (now no longer true, however). The idea was to be at once one with the near and the far, the one and the many. He constructed the architecture of the Rotunda and the actual lawn, as you know, to eliminate perspective, thus eliminating difference between items the paradigm of the intellect clearly labelled different but perception could no longer distinguish. His purpose was didactic--it was a university, after all--yet his accomplishment, although effective mechanism on the one hand, stands on its own as art, as "good design" as you call it, and perfectly creates that moment of sublimity in the observer as the realization hits home.

I have always been fascinated by the moment of sublimity myself, as you know. Numbers do it for me. I cannot ever forget, not the circumstances, but the emotion (?) of the epiphany when I first heard it said that one needed no numbers beyond 3 because 3 meant multiplicity and therefore included all higher numbers. Space disappeared and time stopped for me as I read that sentence. How clear, how truthful, how simple, how--efficient was the idea. Do you know how some sentences/expressions one realizes take far longer to say anything, sort of like a mouthful of bubbles or cotton candy, or a 10-lb bag of packing material with only a small item inside. But this sentence matched container with contents perfectly--the perfect expressive analog for the substance of the idea, hence immensely powerful because instantly revealing. Concepts of writing as a "clear window" or a pure mechanism come to mind--not the thing itself but the enabler of the thing. Stanley Fish's work of literary criticism says it best. Milton uses it in "darkness visible" of book three of Paradise Lost, describing the burning lake in Hell on which the fallen angels find themselves after the fall.

Well, enough for now, but oxymoron is certainly at the heart of your concept. Its essence of opposites together, each required yet insufficient, is the essential paradox that has long fascinated humanity. And precisely because it makes no "sense"! We want (need?) (self-created/educated/evangelistically imposed?) one thing to be true; we want the framework, yet must have the dynamic to perceive/understand life--more to actually be alive. Death is static, a framework for the dynamic of living. Yet neither is sufficient, and each is defined by the absence of the other! Is dying your ultimate example of the paradox of your dynamic/static set? And I almost said "continuum"--now there's an expansion of your theory, perhaps. Why is does your set seem to not allow for any dimension of the infrathin? Why either "not yet" or "no longer"? If one allows dimension, then the artist could perhaps explore the points thereon? Of course, that implies two following constructs: 1) that the dimension would have a mid-point--which would recall the infrathin as without dimension and give the lie to my argument (after all, how could I define the point at which I was out of "not yet" and into the dimension of the infrathin), and 2) if infrathin has dimension, then that dimension must include not yet and no longer. This last either once again begs my question, by removing the very difference I proposed, or makes any artistic choice on the continuum legitimate, just closer or further from the midpoint, the "threshold" (another concept long favored, as you know. Conrad's Heart of Darkness gave me a lot of material for that with my lit students at West Point. Then again, so did the Sistine Chapel (one as many and vice-versa). I would bring together for the students the Sistine Chapel and liturgical singing that started with a monotone that grew to a chord but remained as one sound, one definition. How does music depend on sublimity to "work"? How does taste? Etc. Your "Kiss" is, as you say, the best example, perhaps.

Tickle me more. I need it. Love. D

Subject: Re: lecture
Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 12:29:34 -0500
From: sam
To: Bill Randall
References: 1

Hi there - glad you were able to access the site... and thanks for such a thoughtful response! You don't seem out of practice at all with regard to being "far away...from educated commentary." I especially appreciated your picking up on the idea of the oxymoron, or paradox, and you're quite on the mark with the observations of Jefferson's scheme for University of Virginia. Many of the references I have found regarding the sublime and the "uncanny" involve landscape and nature. It is our most immediate framework of reference, I suppose, and the one that all of the others build off of. I am very taken with one term you used - "combined opposites" - and must look into that further.

Regarding mathematical sublimity - so strange (sublime?), I just recently read something about the "not needing numbers beyond 3" notion. I think it was, perhaps Duchamp (of course). Yes, here it is:

"The addition of a ninth bachelor (in 9 Malic Moulds) reflected Duchamp's inclination to do things in threes. "For me this is a kind of a magic number," he said, "but not magic in the ordinary sense. As I said once, number one is unity, number two is the couple, and three is the crowd. In other words, twenty million or three is the same for me." Threes or multiples of three recur throughout The Large Glass...."

Duchamp's work is difficult to access for many, but what he seems to have been after is the possibility of an object or phrase being a direct analog for an idea - not a representation of a thing, but a manifestation of it. As in manifest: to reveal...to be evidence of, to prove. I love your sentence: "Concepts of writing as a "clear window" or a pure mechanism come to mind--not the thing itself but the enabler of the thing." Exactly! Duchamp saw his works not as art, but as machines - mechanisms - whether in visual or linguistic form. If you would like to read more, the biography by Calvin Tomkins (listed on my side bar) is one of the more "accessible" approaches to his life and work, for which he saw no dividing line, and for which mathematics and science were both the frame and the object:

"Duchamp's working methods were marked by an almost mathematical precision, and one of the things he loved about chess was that its most brilliant innovations took place within a framework of strict and unbendable rules. "Chess is a marvelous piece of Cartesianism," he once told me, "and so imaginative that it doesn't even look cartesian at first. The beautiful combinations that chess players invent - you don't see them coming, but afterward there is no mystery - it's a pure logical conclusion.""

Again, the presence of the oxymoron...

The life/death paradox you mentioned is a particularly elegant example - especially in how each is defined by the absence of the other. I would like to investigate that further. As well as the further implications in literature that you have mentioned. I would love it if you could point me towards some specific readings????

Regarding the issue of dimension, or continuum... my investigation of the dynamic/static paradigm has the infrathin as one of its (many) roots. What fascinated me about that notion was the idea that a moment COULD have a dimension, despite being no longer and not yet, that it DOES have a thickness, but not in the tangible terms of measure that we normally consider. This also leads into a notion of the "continuous present" which is the dynamic here-and-now-ness that is so difficult to conceptualize, although we understand it all the same. What happened, for me, was the discovery of a connection between the infrathin, perception and intuition. This is what enabled the (dynamic) leap toward thinking about the sublime in terms of concrete moments of perception (in design, art, experience, what-have-you). The sublime, for me, is the larger set, and certainly encompasses a continuum of experience. THRESHOLD is actually an enormously important concept for this, and one I have been investigating in some other writing that I will try to pull together for you. I am very curious about the relationship to this in Conrad's Heart of Darkness that you mention. I need to dig it out again before I can elucidate my own reading of that text. Can you elaborate on yours?

Oh, and music and sublimity! I am actually chomping at the bit to get started on that, a staggering thesis in its own right. And taste! touch! all of the senses. all of the frameworks. My task is to quietly and deliberately work through the myriad of woven threads that this work implicates. But now - to work. thanks for writing. please send more (dig out your book boxes!). I am eager for a continuing discussion to push this further. If it's ok, I'll be posting relevent parts on the site under the "dialogues."

love you
sam

Subject: Re: lecture
Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 19:36:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tait
To: circa@jump.net

Hi Sam,
I was thinking about responding to your lecture, but found myself with many questions about the notion of the "preconceptual" that you refer to and rely on. Some thoughts were as follows:

(1) Trying to find a preconceptual would be somewhat of a fiction, right, in the sense that there's no going back or unlearning -- or is there?

(2) Should the use of the preconceptual be strictly limited to the field of aesthetics? What are the ethical/ramifications -- in the sense that a preconceptual ethical practice might leave us worse off than now?

(3) If one can only unlearn so much, what should one concentrate upon in encountering a design to reach a perspective that might approach the preconceptual?

I need to read it again, too. I will definitely have more thoughts then. Hope you had a nice holiday.

--Tait

Subject: Re: lecture
Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 22:59:37 -0500
From: sam
To: Tait
References: 1

hi Tait -
as I suspected.... you've asked some very astute (astute???!) questions regarding this slippery notion of the pre-conceptual. Before I attempt to address them, I need to say that the lecture, as noted, is very much a work in process, and evolving even still. I haven't really had a chance to address it since giving the lecture last fall; posting it this weekend opened up some new lines of thought and revisions already. My biggest challenge with it is that it covers so much ground. My current task is to focus on each section and expand/explore them further.

Your questions are a good starting point for some of that.

(1) I personally believe that a sort of "unlearning" can take place, although I think that term is not the correct one. What I think you are picking up on is the implication that to experience the preconceptual we have to "forget" what we know so that we can see again as children do. I don't think it is possible to "unlearn" in that sense. I think it is more a matter of learning, perhaps for the first time, or perhaps again, how to see with all of our faculties. Designers, especially, often rely on analysis and rationalization, which can obscure the potential essence of a project. As we cannot truly "unlearn" something, however, what I propose in the lecture is a possible method to help us to see "as if we just opened our eyes," to open up a larger capacity for wonder. By applying the components that Sam Keen suggest enable a child to syncretize - to view things as immediate, concrete and intimate, and putting aside necessity, one can open oneself up again to "pre-conceptual" discovery. I think I was able to elaborate on these components and their application a little more in the actual lecture.

Am I proposing that we abandon reflection and analysis? Absolutely not. One of the strengths of being a "grown up" is the ability to reason and draw conclusions. But adults rely heavily on those faculties and often ignore the understanding we have through intuition, and do not recognize the benefits of allowing ourselves to speculate, "to put forth an idea, uncertain of the outcome." Additionally, we lose touch with our abilities to be intimate with the world, the way a child can be intimate and immediate with their own reflection or with the way water acts when it spills on a surface.

(2) ...application in other fields outside of aesthetics? This is a great question. The thinking on the pre-conceptual, for me, extends beyond my work as a designer, although that is its primary referent. This lecture was put together specifically as an address to art + design students, and I deliberately tried to keep it in the realm of design process. Here are some notes a friend sent after reading an initial draft :

"It occurred to me that you could have also been describing positive human qualities when you wrote about what constitutes a successful project. It's hard to describe what a building that is comfortable with itself is (like). one knows it when it is there, however. Funny how, on the one hand, the intuitive aspect can be such a powerful, valid force in our lives (i.e. who you choose to be with as friends, lovers, etc.) while, on the other hand, as a means of describing an approach to creating architecture, the intuit-sublim territory seems forbidden... or risky." (thanks R.B.)

The subject of the pre-conceptual is difficult, at best, to seriously study, for obvious reasons. At the very least, I run the risk of contradicting my own theorem. The task, however, does lie in grounding the ideas with tangible examples to illuminate the frameworks, while showing how the illuminations are actually simple, everyday occurances. Possibly the most important point I try to make, and the issue that everything leads up to, is the notion that "good" design seems to be in a state of suspension between the framework and moment, the static and the dynamic....
- The dynamic moment allows framework to evolve
- the static framework allows moment to have a structure, a reference point.

"bad" design often (a) attempts too much, and so erodes the structure, or (b) does not allow enough life, and so becomes stale and oppressive.

Now, imagine applying that previous sentence in fields outside of aesthetics.

Your question has prompted me to want to really look at this. I am interested in finding out who has addressed this sort of philosophy in other fields and what the fallacies are.

Certainly, I am not advocating an unrealistic "perfect balance" of the static and dynamic. The sentence is not so much prescriptive as it is descriptive; that is, it helps one to understand why something does not work, in the hopes that one may then learn what does.

The notion of the "pre-conceptual," especially, is ripe for question, as you noted, regarding ethics and accountability. The parallel in aesthetics is the tendency, esp. for students, to have all kinds of reasons, intuitive and otherwise, for their "actions" and to feel that they do not have to defend them as they are "subjective" and therefore inscrutable. Welcome to the land of the arbitrary. I think it is important to address that issue, which I haven't in those notes as of yet. I am having vague memories of issues raised in my PHIL501 Aesthetics class - I will have to dig out my old texts. Any thought on who I might look at for further reading?

(3) regarding "what to concentrate on" - I'm not sure if I completely understand this question. Are you wondering "how the heck does one actually apply any of this in practice?" That is, definitely, the most common question from students as well. I'm still sorting some of that out for myself... it took ten years to pull together the many different aspects of my work and find the threads that weave them together, previously invisible. I am interested in exploring how this will bear weight and measure and will try to expand on that soon.

Hopefully this clarifies some of my thinking???? Your comments are extremely useful - I haven't actually been able to reflect much on the work since I presented it, and I especially welcome a non-design viewpoint as I feel there are larger implications in all of these issues.

my pizza is now officially cold.
sam

LECTURE NOTES

Samantha L. Randall
Design Division: Visiting Lecture Series 2000-2001
Department of Art + Art History, University of Texas at Austin

...is it possible to describe the distance between the two sides of a piece of paper? When is it one side and when does it become the other? There must be a place where/when it switches? Perhaps this is the space of Duchamp’s infrathin... the inherent sensuality “in-between” things as we understand them, not scientifically, but materially... perceptually. Like the implications contained in the sound of courderoy pants - we can perceive the dimensions of the space between the pant and thigh, the movement of fabric against the leg. It is this understanding that catches our breath and makes our skin tingle...




slides are noted in capitals (L) left screen (R) right screen



(L) THE SECRET TO THE UNIVERSE (R) IN FIVE EASY STEPS

(R) ROLLER COASTER
(R) MOMENT OF TOUCH
(R) CIVIC SPACE
(R) DELIVERY OF LETTER
(R) VIEW THROUGH WINDOW

maybe not the secret to the universe
....form a rough model for thinking....
....walk you through this model,
but have to begin at the beginning with a series of questions I've been asking over the past 10 years

this is a work in progress, and will cover a lot of territory
in some cases I have had to invent my own language to talk about these ideas - remember
....language is only an armature for thinking
....only one of many different ways to understand things

.......................................................PART 1

(L) BLACK
I begin with a basic question:
....what makes good design? what makes a good building? a good work of art?
interested in the intuitive aspects,
we all know good design, but wanted to figure out why
...."what's good about it?"
an exercise in thinking - don't allow use of any adjectives
only words that relate to a direct perception, rather than a conclusion, a judgement

look at intuition as a concrete phenomenon of perception.
a response from within the body, knowledge that we have...often doesn't make rational sense....hard to conceptualize.
how our body knows things before our brain gets a word in.



(R) VISUAL PERCEPTION
Perception defined :
the "awareness of the elements of environment through physical sensation"
most often thought of as visual perception

(R) FOCUSING EYE
in fact involves all senses of the entire body
(R) NERVE BRANCHES
(R) NERVE HEAD
(R) NERVE GAP
Through perception we form "percepts", impressions of things,
combination of these senses and systems.
then form"concepts" - conscious frameworks and abstractions

(R) SENSE/BRAIN RELATIONS DIAGRAM
Scientists examined this process
and located three perceptual "brains" nested within each other -
.....inner "reptilian brain" - consciousness, attention and arousal,
.....the "old mammalian brain" - emotion,
.....outer, "new mammalian brain" - abstraction and reasoning.

Electrical activity circulates -creating our conscious understanding
based on nuances between fragments of stimulus physical stimulus, memory, desire
so percepts are forming impressions before concepts are really in place.



.....This is the notion that I call the "pre-conceptual,"
looking/understanding unfiltered, intuitive, based in the present moment of perception.

(R) MERCE CUNNINGHAM + CHAIR
Dancers work with this in improvisation
.....listen and react, speak with their bodies without knowing what they will say

theater and peformance artists work with this as well,
learn how each other's bodies react and anticipate each other
to approach the world with an innocence that allows these moments to be unfiltered,

.....so, to how to engage the pre-conceptual, the intuitive moment?

.......................................................PART 2

(R) CHILD+TV
Children operate primarily from the pre-conceptual

they have a capacity for wonder, that only diminishes as concepts gradually put filters in place

....."An Apology for Wonder," Sam Keen
suggests - logic of the child - trans-ductive
juxtapose ideas that an adult wouldn't - they don't have any filters, perceptions take on equal value.

Through this juxtaposition, they - syncretize ideas,
defined by Jean Piaget as
"...to take things in by means of a comprehensive act of perception instead of by the detection of details ..it is the tendency to connect everything with everything else."
So perceptions are experienced simultaneously - associated in child's mind
Keen - "The child does not sense the discontinuity or nonsense of this world. On the contrary, he FEELS that everything is connected with everything else... a superfluidity."

Syncretism - feel the percepts more fully
insufficient attention to individual items, details
"the child lacks an understanding of the general laws of nature and reason... so is able to make juxtapositions to create an ordering framework based on subjective experience."

(R) SWIMMING IN WATER
Keen - components that allow for the capacity of wonder :
.....immediacy, concreteness, intimacy, and a lack of necessity.

(R) MIRROR GRIMACE
Childhood and learning are enabled by these qualities
ongoing process of wonder, discovery, and mastery, followed by the desire for yet more discovery., depending on the framework the child is exploring

where does this capacity for discovery and delight go?
adult experience often teaches that novelty is either to be feared (risky)
or is inconsequential (because it is useless).
novelty - connotations in our society of something trivial, "novelty value"
"It seems sensible and useful to wonder HOW a bear finds a honey tree, for it explains the natural world, but it seems useless to wonder that a bear likes honey to begin with. To wonder that there are such things as honey and bears seems strange and unproductive in a utilitarian world.

To the child, "novelty" is ever-present, takes the form of different things and experiences as the child explores different frameworks to gains mastery
(R) CARDBOARD BOX
this is why pokemon will lose its novelty over time,
but a cardboard box can be rediscovered depending on framework to be investigated

.....Looking at the world as a child does - one might think of it as looking with an element of speculation.
.....To speculate, to "put forth an idea, uncertain of the outcome."

(R) GIRL JUMPING
To be in the immediate, concrete world, ignoring necessity -
Wim Wenders - looking at something "the way you just open your eyes."

so, perhaps the question is: how to expand this moment of perception and therefore invite discovery?

.......................................................PART 3

(R) MAREY MOVEMENT IMAGE
.....introduce an idea of a continuous present.
.....moment has its duration, dimension, certain shape, color, and weight
unlike the shape, color and weight of any other moment.

Late 1800's new ways of thinking about time and space
enormous technological advances
scientist and artists - try to describe the true nature of things -
as perceived - as experienced.



French scientist Etienne-Jules Marey, chronophotographic camera -
attempt to isolate movement
arrive at a visual description of human movement, and the forces of movement

Eadweard James Muybridge was doing a similar thing, with multiple cameras.
Marey was trying to look at the fluidity of movement
a process that enabled him to make multiple images onto a single plate,
nuances of continuous movement.

(R) MAREY PIDGEON
this led to the beginning of the moving picture.

.....new way of thinking about our bodies/ time/space,
representation and image and figure
.....Cubists and the Futurists
how to express the perception of movement - the way it feels to move - and spatial simultaneity

.....Space and objects no longer fixed and static,
dynamic and inseparable from the influence of time and perception.
artists over the past century examining a moment as eternity:
.....Gertrude Stein
repetition not as repetition but as exactitude
The same word, phrases, repeated over and again,
not actually for emphasis, but for precision - the words were new and present to her each time
.....James Joyce
use rhythm and repetition and nonsense to more precisely convey the sensations of a moment
.....Jorge Luis Borges
the dog at 3:00 is not the same as the dog at 3:05



(R) MAREY GOAT
Marey's images caused a revolution in understanding of perception
eventually artists began to challenge the perceptions,
questioning the frameworks of our scientific understanding.

.....Marcel Duchamp
(R) 3 STANDARD STOPPAGES
three strings one meter long in length - dropped from spec. height
mounted each string as it lay to a piece of plexglass
carved three pieces of wood to match the profiles of the line of the strings.

.....this was how he proposed we think about this thing called measure.
(R) STOPPAGES DETAIL
meter stick only a stoppage in one aspect of its being,
infinite number of stoppages, and weren't they all somehow different?
if only we would look a little closer, we could see the meter stick more accurately.

.....J.H. van den Berg "Things"
proposed two structures for the way we know a thing:
1. scientific manifestation of a thing -
"it's cellular structure, the refraction frequency of the light waves induced by its surface, its specific weight and measure."

2. actual understanding of things
our perceptions at the moment of experiencing a thing as it is actually manifest,
at this moment, which is unlike any other moment.

.....Duchamp seemed to be implying his own version of this perceptual understanding
.....based on an idea he called the "infra-mince" or infra-thin of objects.
poetic, but deceptively simple phrase
the inherent sensuality "in-between" things.
....."the difference between two objects cast from the same mold"
(R) MIES VAN DER ROHE DOUBLE PHOTO
....."the sound courderoy pants make when walking."


these examples have scientific manifestations
.....the two objects from the same mold are physically different
But the infrathin is the sensuality contained in our perception of the relationship between these two objects,
.....the sensuality contained in the implications of the sound of courderoy pants

we can percieve the dimensions of the space between pant and thigh,
the fabric and the leg. this is what makes our breath catch, and our skin tingle.
.....grounded in concrete perceptions
Gets tricky.

.....I am proposing that we can feel ideas with our bodies.
Remember the perceptual nestings of the brain.
Our body is reacting to the physical sensations, and is simultaneously engaged in feedback loops

what is the distance between the two sides of a single piece of paper?
we feel this space and understand it with our bodies, even when we cannot comprehend it.



(L) NO LONGER (R) NOT YET
like the feeling caused by this phrase - an idea that can't be described, but you feel it nonetheless, you feel the dimension of that present moment.

.......................................................PART 4

NOW - WHERE AM I GOING WITH ALL OF THIS???? If you remember, I began thinking about perception and bodies and moments in an attempt to perhaps discover some more concrete ideas about intuition and what makes good spaces and good design. So let me move out of the pre-conceptual and begin to form some concepts out of all of this.

(L) SUBLIME DIAGRAM (R) BLACK
this is a diagram I have been working with. Thought I would just put this up....

started to gather examples of what I thought the infrathin could be
objects, places or experiences that isolate a moment, yank me out of my normal state
.....call this "evidence of the sublime"
sublime as something that causes a transformation of understanding.

.....The sublime (sublimation) derives from a scientific term for TRANSFORMATION - process of causing a solid to pass to the vapor state and then again condensing to a solid form.
.....common example of the sublime: being in glass house, edge of ocean, during storm
"uncanny", the sublime can be both exaltation or horror, inspiring some sort of awe. we are transformed, removed from ourselves, our common rational reality

I think the subliime also includes the smaller moments in-between
moments that give pause and perhaps create a greater understanding
a subjective experience

- seeing a heavy material used in an unexpected way,
(R) MARBLE CUBES

- a glance from a stranger across room
(R) MIRROR FACES KISS

- undisguised frustrations of a little boy
(R) I WILL NOT HIT GIRLS

- unexpected juxtapositions can create irony and humor
(R) HAND CARTOON



why are these moments sublime?
and how to apply this understanding in concrete terms to art/design.
.....what was transformed?
.....what was the solid state, what was the gas,
.....how was the solid state different after the transformation?

each moment had a primary conceptual framework that seemed to be at stake
- heavy material/transparency : physics and chemistry.
- glance of intimacy : the social facade to be broken
(closeness even in a crowd)
- humor : challenges our expectations/assumptions/knowledge of the world



....so I played lowest common denominator game
determine a basic set of conceptual frameworks
that moments of the sublime seemed to affect:
(R) FRAMEWORKS
- PHYSICS
- BODY
- SOCIETY
- REASON
- CONSCIOUSNESS


.....was also reading "Lila," by Robert Persig, also author of "Zen + the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence."
takes a journey, involves some characters, slightly autobiographical
In Lila, he sets forth 5 systems
each system sort of overlaps the others,
each system is dependent upon the system prior to it. These systems are:
(L) SYSTEMS
- INANIMATE
- BIOLOGY
- COMMUNITY
- INTELLECT
- ART

I compared my evidence and my frameworks with his systems and realized there was a pretty direct correlation.
SYSTEMS + FRAMEWORKS
- INANIMATE - PHYSICS
- BIOLOGY - BODY
- COMMUNITY - SOCIETY
- INTELLECT - REASON
- ART - CONSCIOUSNESS



Interestingly enough, these also corresponded to dictionary definitions of human consciousness.

So with this as a working hypothesis, my premise is now to :
1. open up the preconceptual capacity - the capacity for wonder
immediate, concrete, intimate, lack necessity
2. discover moments with evidence of the sublime
3. identify what the perceptions are of those moments
4. identify what frameworks are at stake



....at this point, I am realizing that good design seems to be in state of suspension between framework and moment, the static and the dynamic.
- The dynamic moment allows framework to evolve
- the static framework allows moment to have a structure, a reference point.

could not function without the structure, and would stagnate without the leap.
VEIL (framework) + RUPTURE (moment of the sublime)

the "rupture" allows the "veil" to have some TRANSPARENCY, otherwise, the everyday reality (veil, framework) would be OPAQUE, heavy and overwhelming

but work that relies too heavily on the "rupture" will disintegrate, be chaotic, lose its reference in the structures that we need to provide understanding.


Wim Wenders
- we all need stories as a way to understand things.
- that's all that these frameworks are - stories.
"the story is a lie, but we need the story"

.......................................................PART 5

so, I diagrammed stories: moments that, in my perception, were sublime and the frameworks that were at stake.
- frameworks overlap, often experiences deal with multiple layers
- certainly not a formula
- a tool to attempt to answer the question "what makes this good" or "why does this work?"

so, once again, the frameworks:
PHYSICS - laws, gravity, perception, sensation (materiality)
BODY - desire, orientation, proximity, will, emotion (instinct)
SOCIETY - community, design, volition (civility)
REASON - pattern, language, wisdom, intellect, thought (knowledge)
CONSCIOUSNESS - art, dreaming, understanding, (intuition)



Walk you through moments of art, design and experience that seem to create a rupture in the understanding of each framework:
remember - they do overlap - and build on each other -

(L) PHYSICS - laws, gravity, perception, sensation (materiality)
(R) EXAMPLES
- rollercoaster
people seek out ways of breaking the laws of physics - "a rush"
Materiality
- Alvaro Siza- paint with mat'ls, with marble, use in such a fluid way, reveal/conceal
- Stone Residence - M/A light imbedded, materiality, mystical hidden source
Structure
- William Wegman - often play with laws of physics and what we think things are
Scale
- Japanese - Katsura Palace (where) juxtapose hard and soft materials, solid/void
Light
- Stone Residence - quality of light and how forms can be shaped to catch it in diff. ways



(L) body - orientation, proximity, desire, will, emotion (instinct)
(R) EXAMPLES
- nerve branches
- touch - Dan Graham/Cranbrook (what)
- Dance steps, show other sorts of touching, intimacy - catch the eye, involuntary ways that we respond- builds off of physics we have certain emotions about our bodies relat'ship to spaces
Body-landscape
- horizon installation (what) belong with reason, but put here to demonstrate how our body has a relationship with the horizontal, founded in the inner ear
- Pierre Koening Case Study house
knowledge of body-horizon-fear of falling-sense of safety
Body-structures
- Dan Flavin - also physics framework, but involves body relat'ship with the horizontal
remove us from our understanding of room, creates an object
Body-Body
- mirror woman - actual body and recognition
- fragmented mirror bar
Body-things
- chair/dancers
- bikini shadow - also plays into intellect, humor



(L) SOCIETY - community, design, volition (civility)
(R) EXAMPLES
- people - social rules, accepted behavior, status quo, evolved for a reason
Social Rules/institutions
- Campidoglio in Rome redesigned by Michelangelo (when)
tell story
- Dan Graham - lecture piece - play with ideas of audience/speaker/visual contact
Social blindess
- Lost Comb - just found at coop east, debris in public realm, not visible
public/private
- Katsura Palace (where) -show ideas about public/private/porches/layers/screening
- Wegman (what) - office store w/ diff. lighting - public/private (also materiality)
Herzog + deMeuron Swiss



(L) REASON - pattern, language, intellect, thought (knowledge)
(R) EXAMPLES
- flowchart - categorize, come to know something, understand it
- letter - moment where understanding might be changed, world turned upside down
Communication
- music drawing - musical structure, real meaning of whole note + rest note
Implication
- shakers - aesthetic is built around reason and necessity, to the point where it becomes sublime because we intuitively recognize the directness of their ornamentation.
- casa del fascio - terragni - typ. modernist building, show structure, truth
doors w/ mechanism 17 ranks of italian army ? intuitively recognize meaning
Expectation
- man/child/sign - pattern recognition - humor in juxtap. w/ reality



(L) CONSCIOUSNESS - art, dreaming, understanding, (intuition)
(R) EXAMPLES
- inside eye - pantheon - place for the mind to go/release/imagination
- window - small shack in wood, daydreaming, faced east, story of antenna?
- Donald Judd - aluminum boxes in artillery sheds - satisfies all levels
reflection, materiality, gaze, body, others around, structure repeated
- Pina Bausch dancetheater - Nelken - red carnations - meadow - eye level of audience
frolic and play, let down defenses, make us children again, make us wonder
- empty theater seats - charged void, body response to empty space missing subject
railroad tracks? doll box?
- Rachel Whiteread - opposite of previous, but still charged void.
cast concrete within space, retains residue, door frame, baseboards - bathtub





.....again, not proposing a formula
- these moments of perception are activated by our presence
- the sublime exists is in the relationship of our bodies to these spaces, objects and other bodies, and in our perceptions of those relationships.
- cannot create the sublime, but can create the opportunity for the sublime

.......................................................CLOSE

.....come back to end with the image of our kissing couple again:

(R) MIRROR FACES KISS
how simple it can be -
no great gyration of architectural bells and whistles.

this image shows a concrete application of fundamental physical properties:
reflection, proximity, privacy

that create an opportunity for wonder within all of the different frameworks:
physical
biological
social
intellectual
consciousness

it is an experience loaded with a physical and intellectual sensuality that we as human beings can't help but respond to

in the immediate, concrete, and intimate moment of perception.





Samantha L. Randall
17 October 2000