Weak Architecture (Sola-Morales)

Ignasi de Sola-Morales argues that the trajectory of Modern Architecture through the 20th century can no longer be read in one straight line. The presentation of an ideal society no longer exists, "On the contrary, it presents itself to us as a plural, multiform, complex experience in which it is legitimate to cut trajectories that run not only from top to bottom, beginning to end, but also transversely, obliquely, and diagonally. In some sense, it is only by way of approximations of this kind that the diverse, plural experience of the twentieth-century architecture allows us to unstitch and unravel the intrinsic complexity of the modern experience." (Sola-Morales, "Weak Architecture")

For Sola-Morales the reading of history in this manner undermines any idea that there is a ultimate and upright moral outcome, what Nietzsche called "the death of God"; "...that is to say the disappearance of any kind absolute reference that might in some way coordinate or "close" the system of our knowledge and our values at the point at which we articulate these in a global vision of reality." (ibid)

It brings about the end of Illusion, the ground on which we now produce architecture is no longer stable "...contemporary architecture, in conjunction with the other arts, is confronted with the need to build on air, to build in the void."(ibid)

For Sola-Morales the periphery is the place from which all design and life is in this case approached. As a result the aesthetic experience becomes the most substantial, "Art is understood as being a space in which the fatigue of contemporary subject can be salved away"(ibid)

hyper-marketing

a taste of illusion

What happens when marketing and product development goes too far? With all of the information and presentations that we are exposed to today how are we suppose to know how much substance or quality lies in a product?

We are really purchasing a lifestyle or image associated with a product, and it is these medias of the virtual that the lifestyle/image is shown to use.

the means and message to the masses

The Russian Metro system was set up to bring art to the masses.  At this point in time the Russian politicians saw the train as a medium of which to express and educate the people in thought and ideology.

At the same time that these stations were being built trains were going into the country with recorded messages so that the illiterate population was bought out of ignorance. (image source unknown)

Habit in the virtual world

One of the most useful tools that I have utilized is Amazon.com's recommendation tool.  Based upon your purchasing and rating history it can effectively suggest other books that you might like to purchase.

In this system the dumb analysis of your purchasing history compared with all other peoples can suggest common material.  The potential for this system to be incorporated into a larger system for social activity remains unexplored (more to follow in later blogs).

Questions of the Virtual (Baudrillard)

An investigation of the virtual world is an important undertaking for urban theorist today.  We now negotiate our lives with the aid of the many forms and mediums that make up the "information superhighway" ie mobile phones, facebook, internet sites and services.  One of the main focuses of interest here, given that these technologies change the way in which we experience the world, is presented by the question how does the virtual world in turn affect the way in which we need to design the spaces we use.

To consider the "virtual world", however you may define it, as a reflection of the real is perhaps an outdated concept.  Now the virtual world is an entity onto itself.   

"The virtual coincides with the notion of hyper-reality.  Virtual Reality, the reality that might be said to be perfectly homogenized, digitized and "operartionlized", substitutes for the other because it is perfect, verifiable and non-contradictory. ... 

We no longer have the good old philosophical sense of the term, where the virtual was what was destined to become actual, or where the dialectic was established between the two notions." (Baudrillard, Jean - "The Virtual")

Can the virtual present a dialectical or ideal version of our own will? If so, what are the driving forces? and what do they expose about our current value system?  I am not sure at the moment, but I have a few ideas, (more to come in later posts)

One other important element raised by Baudrillard is of a much more fundamental question... 

"...the peculiar irony there is in the fact that these technologies, which we associate with inhumanity and annihilation, will in the end, perhaps, be what frees us from the world of value, the world of judgement. ...

At the stage we are at, we do not know whether technology, having reached a point of extreme sophistication, will liberate us from technology itself - the optimistic viewpoint - or whether in fact we are heading for catastrophe.  Even though catastrophes ... assume happy or unhappy forms." (ibid)

For me this closing statement highlights an important questions that as far as I know is not yet addressed properly in contemporary discourse of technology, and the is the simple question of whether or not we can sustain the rate at which technology is produced, utilized and understood.  For me the real question of investigation should be two things, 

1. What is the value of technology, or; what is the aim of technology production and utilization? and;

2. Do we really understand the implications of what we are employing, or perhaps more fundamentally; do we know where we want to go?

Welcome

Welcome to SUPERSEDED.

This new blog is will centre around the changing role and perception of technology in contemporary society.  Whilst the focus is primarily on our experience in the urban environment we are open to discussion of any nature.

We look forward to having onboard and welcome comments.