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The Cleaving of House and Home: a Lacanian Analysis of Architectural Aesthetics

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The Cleaving of House and Home: a Lacanian Analysis of Architectural Aesthetics Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 9-27-2012 12:00 AM The Cleaving of House and Home: A Lacanian Analysis of Architectural Aesthetics Sarah E. Thorne The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Joel Faflak The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Theory and Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Arts © Sarah E. Thorne 2012 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Other English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Thorne, Sarah E., "The Cleaving of House and Home: A Lacanian Analysis of Architectural Aesthetics" (2012). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1014. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1014 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Cleaving of House and Home: A Lacanian Analysis of Architectural Aesthetics (Spine title: The Cleaving of House and Home) (Thesis format: Monograph) by Sarah Thorne Graduate Program in Theory and Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Sarah Thorne 2012 THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION Supervisor Examiners ______________________________ ______________________________ Dr. Joel Faflak Dr. Allan Pero ______________________________ Dr. Sharon Sliwinski ______________________________ Dr. Janelle Blankenship The thesis by Sarah Elizabeth Thorne entitled: The Cleaving of House and Home: A Lacanian Analysis of Architectural Aesthetics is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts ______________________ _______________________________ Date Chair of the Thesis Examination Board ii Abstract Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis and digital media studies, this thesis explores the radical disconnect between the home as a fantasmatic object of desire and the house as the space in which the fantasy of home is staged. By analyzing the house as a prosthetic replacement for our originary home (the womb), the aim is to uncover how architectural aesthetics of the Victorian, modern, and postmodern house respond to this irreconcilable gap, and why each aesthetic necessarily fails to create a more homely home. Considering recent trends in architecture, the thesis then examines the coincidence of the “small house” movement with the transformation of the house into a “media centre.” New digital media technologies have opened up a new virtual world to explore that radically defies and blurs our conventional understanding of interior and exterior spaces. While such technologies open up new possibilities for reimagining our relation to the house, they are also potentially disruptive and dystopic. Keywords Psychoanalysis, Architecture, Technology, Freud, Lacan, Home, House, Uncanny, Digital Media, Small House Movement, Prostheses. iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Joel Faflak, for his support and direction throughout this process. As well, many thanks to the faculty at the Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism for their truly unique and inspirational courses. iv Table of Contents CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION ........................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1 – Home ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 2 1.2 The Lost Object ........................................................................................................ 5 1.3 The Real Home ........................................................................................................ 7 Chapter 2 – Das Ding About Architectural Aesthetics ..................................................... 13 2.1 Prosthetics .............................................................................................................. 13 2.2 Pro(ae)sthetics ........................................................................................................ 16 2.3 The Return of the Repressed .................................................................................. 29 Chapter 3 – A (Re)Turn to the Uncanny Home ................................................................ 34 3.1 The Prosthetic and the Dorsal ................................................................................ 34 3.2 Cleanliness and (Dis)Order .................................................................................... 40 3.3 ( )holey Spaces ....................................................................................................... 43 Chapter 4 – Open Enclosures ............................................................................................ 52 4.1 Real Memories of Virtual Experiences .................................................................. 52 4.2 Beyond Small Spaces ............................................................................................. 55 4.3 HomeOS and the House of the Future ................................................................... 62 4.4 The End of Analysis ............................................................................................... 66 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 74 Curriculum Vitae .............................................................................................................. 82 v List of Figures Figure 1: Le Corbusier's “Villa Savoye” (1931) ............................................................... 25 Figure 2: Robert Venturi's “Vanna Venturi House” (1964) ............................................. 30 Figure 3: Frank Gehry's “The Dancing House” (1996) .................................................... 31 Figure 4: Frank Lloyd Wright's “John D. Haynes House” (1952) .................................... 57 Figure 5: Florian Busche Architects’ “The House in Takadanobaba” (2011) .................. 59 vi 1 Chapter 1 – Home In common usage, the terms house and home are nearly always interchangeable. Yet, there exists a hostility underpinning the relationship between the two that emerges when one attempts to manifest the house as home. This thesis examines the irreconcilable gap between home as a fantasmatic object of desire and the house as the stage on which this fantasy is enacted. By considering the architectural aesthetics of the Victorian, modernist, and postmodernist eras, the intention is to reveal not only how each of these movements both respond and attempt to mask the fundamental disconnect between house and home, but also why each architectural aesthetic necessarily fails. This failure is further examined by drawing on several literary representations of the house, as they provide a unique insight into our (uncanny) experience of architecture and its aesthetics, and how we psychologically inhabit these spaces. Recent trends in architecture and technology, however, are radically altering our relation to the house. New digital media technologies have created a virtual world to explore that radically defies our traditional thinking about the boundary between interior and exterior spaces. The integration of these technologies into our domestic space has transformed the house into a “media centre.” Likewise, the revival of the small house movement has incited a reconsideration of our understanding of the house as an enclosure, and consequently exposed the illusory nature of the boundaries between inside and outside. This approach to the problem of home signals a departure from our previous attempt to manifest the home at the level of the Imaginary, and suggests that is may be possible to form a more productive relation to the house in a manner that (uncannily) imitates analytic process itself. 2 1.1 Introduction In Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media (1996), Beatriz Colomina proposes that “[t]he house is now a media centre, a reality that will forever transform our understanding of both public and private” (210). As new digital media technologies increasingly saturate the home, the necessity of analyzing the impact of these technologies becomes all the more urgent. Earlier media, such as television and radio, naturalized the permeation of the outside (the public) into the home, which prompted concerns about the possible negative effects of extended exposure to these media. Although these concerns still resonate today, more recent
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