Theoretical framework  |  Thousand Plateaus -Rhizome   |  Deleuze- Guattari

Architectural Project | Blur Building  |  Diller Scofidio – Renfro

Concept | Evolution towards a rhizomatic society / difuminating the preconceived limits

As a group, we agreed to explore the Rhizome concept and present it in an interactive way, so that people can experience by themselves the effects of being in a rhizomatic scene. By utilizing  a UNITY software created game, with a few clicks the user will discover  its own paths and connections while discovering different keywords behind Deleuze’s and Guattari’s concepts. The user, acting in a free, non-linear and non-hierarchical way, will be always in the middle, not at the beginning or the end. We have related and used the Blur Building as a support to the game scene which in itself represents a non-container building, a multi-senses fog-mass,  open to new encounters and possibilities, which can be interpreted as an attempt of difuminating the limits.

A Thousand Plateaus :Capitalism and Schizophrenia, by Deleuze and Guattari, was written in 1980 in a non-linear way which allows the reader to move among plateaus  in any specific order. Plateaus propose self vibrating regions of intensities. A Rhizome is made of  Plateaus. We can say that the Rhizome is inherently multiple, it has no center, its horizontal (avoiding vertical or linear connections) , it just proliferates, it is not genetical, all within a Nomadic non-territorial approach which opens endless possibilities.

Some of the principles behind the rhizome concept are:

- Principles of connection and heterogeneity: any point of a rhizome can be connected to anything other, and must be.

- Principle of multiplicity:Multiplicities are rhizomatic

- Principle of asignifying rupture: A rhizome may be broken..against the over-signifying breaks separating structures or cutting across a single structure.

- Principle of cartography and decalcomania: a rhizome is not amenable to any structural or generative model. It is a stranger to any idea of genetic axis or deep structure.

The rhizome is altogether different, a map and not a tracing…..

The Blur building:

….”Upon entering the fog mass, visual and acoustic references is erased, leaving only an optical white-out and the white-noise of pulsing nozzles. Blur is an anti-spectacle. Contrary to immersive environments that strive for high-definition visual fidelity with ever-greater technical virtuosity, Blur is decidedly low-definition: there is nothing to see but our dependence on vision itself.” Diller Scofidio

It is an architecture of atmosphere, an ephemeral non-built construction that interacts with the users and the context, investigating the concept of evanescence. The building as a sensorial experience. In fact, within its cloud,  the public could feel and “drink” the architecture in a media installation that involved all the human senses.

THE RHIZOME GAME 

Please click on the following link to download and play the game:

https://drive.google.com/a/iaac.net/folderview?id=0B5wfKFZT_YEUanM4VE1lWi1OQ1U&usp=sharing

Game instructions: There are NO instructions (structures), just click on the texts and discover your path connections. Enjoy!

Key  words to be discovered by the player related to the Rhizomatic:

NON-LINEAR

HORIZONTAL

ACENTERED

NETWORK

MULTIPLICITY

NOMADIC

POSSIBILITIES

NON-TERRITORIAL

INTERCONNECTED

UNORTHODOX………………..ENDLESS KEY WORDS COMING FROM ALL DIRECTIONS….

Image credits for Academic Assignment : TV and Internet images in the game, source: internet

The Digital Water Pavilion (DWP) image in the game | Author : Carlo Ratti associati

Reading:   Thousand Plateaus -Rhizome   |  Deleuze- Guattari

Case study:  Blur Building  |  Diller Scofidio – Renfro

Image collage for academic assignment: Javier F. Ponce

Difuminating the limits

A Thousand Plateaus :Capitalism and Schizophrenia, by Deleuze and Guattari, was written in 1980 in a non-linear way which allows the reader to move among plateaus  in any specific order. Plateaus propose self vibrating regions of intensities. A Plateau is always in the middle, not at the beginning or the end.

The authors describe some types of logics, like the tree-thinker / central trunk logic (vertical, territorial, hierarchical), the Radicle system (fascicular root, indefinite multiplicity of secondary roots, but the root’s unity subsists) and the Rhizome. The latter can be illustrated as a vegetable which propagates, an acentered system which spawns and proliferates. A Rhizome is made of  Plateaus. We can say that the Rhizome is inherently multiple, it has no center, its horizontal (avoiding vertical or linear connections) , it just proliferates, it is not genetical, all within a Nomadic non-territorial approach which opens endless possibilities.

They also talked about the following principles:

- Principles of connection and heterogeneity: any point of a rhizome can be connected to anything other, and must be.

- Principle of multiplicity:Multiplicities are rhizomatic

- Principle of asignifying rupture: A rhizome may be broken..against the oversignifying breaks separating structures or cutting across a single structure.

- Principle of cartography and decalcomania: a rhizome is not amenable to any structural or generative model. It is a stranger to any idea of genetic axis or deep structure.

As in the example of the Orchid and the Wasp, the orchid forms an image and the wasp reterritorializes on that image, they form a Rhizome.

While discussing the case study and the reading in class, a few analogies came to my mind: Just as the Blur building difuminate the limits of  “the container” , allowing the mist (fog-mass)  to expand in the context , the Rhizome proliferates, it has no limits and it is not contained within a linear structure. When entering the Blur building, the person experience a lack of all visual and  acoustical references, the visitor is not sure what to expect. The same happens  in a rhizomatic system, in which different unexpected inputs from different sources can emerge from any direction, allowing for new relationships and multiplicities. Internet can be a good example of a rhizomatic system where information can be shared form endless different sources.

Regarding my personal research or line of inquiry, I’ve been attracted by self-sufficiency, de-centralized systems and non hierarchical structures related to the way people interact and how  architecture can play a significant role in this type of logics. As an example, a decentralized energy network based on the contribution of the neighbors to the energy system can be far more efficient and sustainable, if managed properly,  than the current centralized scheme, where someone produces and others consume, at almost any price…I’ll like to kep on exploring the Self-sufficient agenda and the way our profession can be a major input.

RELATIONAL LOGICS    |  Assignment   |  T3

BETWEEN INTANGIBILITY AND WILL

Case study:  VIEW HOUSE – Johnston Marklee Arraigada

Author website: http://www.diegoarraigada.com/view_01.htm

Image collage for academic assignment: Javier F. Ponce

Reading:  MARK WIGLEY – Arch Atmosphere

There exist a series of intangible elements surrounding  the architectural object  that we as architects aim to control in an endless effort. The View house, located in Rosario Argentina,  is an attempt to produce an architectural  object in which its design is driven by the surrounding views and by introduction of the privacy element. Even dough an interesting  mass- subtraction process approach and an aesthetic success,the views in time can change, the distance between neighbors cannot be controlled,  it shows how uncontrollable  the context can be, surpassing the architect’s will.

Wigley’s text  examines the relation between the architect’s will of control and the atmosphere. We experienced the atmosphere, not the object itself. In a way, architect’s are surrounded by  the illusion that atmosphere can be controlled. During architectural history, architects have tried to capture the less tangible effects of a construction. From weather conditions to light flows. Behind Lloyd’s virtual extension of horizontal or organic sky-lines, Ando’s light penetration in the interior, Portoghesis  extending geometries beyond buildings, Debord’s radical potential of atmosphere, Corbusier’s line dominance or Constant’s New Babylon, there is a will to produce atmospheres. Architects create a scenery & effects, but it is about the creation of human interaction , responsive contexts and social activity which enables us to produce human atmospheres. Maybe technology will help us to further control the atmosphere and it’s intangible parameters , in order to better understand the Relational Logics behind architecture.

Regarding the possible topic of my personal research , I’m intrigued and at the same time attracted by the Self-Sufficient agenda, truly a vast topic. Since starting the career and  after reading Rifkin’s “The hydrogen Economy” , among others,  I wish to deepen further in the potential of introducing Real time city data & technology in order to create responsive and more efficient  Cities (social, food, energy, water, etc) , to help transform from an  importer/consumer city model into a Self-sufficient model and contribute to switch from a pure formalist approach in architecture into a more responsive and performative one.