The Architecture of Colonísatíon: the CONCEPT of DEPICTION
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\-t ¡ èo OÕ The Architecture of Colonisation TgT' CONCEPT OF DEPICTION a COLON The Colonisation of A(a)rchitecture THT', DEPICTION OF'TgN, CONCEPT NOTES Accompanying the Thesis Gillim McFe¿ Lin PhD. Ardìitedure & I-hban Design The university of Adelaide Table of Contents Notes to the Thesß Abstract Introduction Elevation Part 1 The Architecture Of Colonisation: The Concept of Depiction Chapter 1 Section A-A Difference i. Architecture as ldiont: The Otherwise of Dffirence, Repetition, Both/And, Same íi. Dffirence and Dnlity äi. Dffirence: Rendering,ResurfacingArchitecture iv. Difference: Deferral, to Defer and to defer to Chapter 2 Section B-B Transference i. Transference ii. Transfer: Language Game iii. Trarufer: Communication or the Re-presentation of Language Transfer : Reprduct ion and Re-Producti on iv. Trarslation:Difference,Transference,Displacement Transfer: Graft and Coruuption v. Trarsferrirtg: The ldentity of the Nante Transferuittg: Re-presenting the Figure, Bdy and Soul Transferuing: Architecture, a Corctruction on Shaþ Ground vi. Translation: llhere does architecture site itselJ? As the object referent and/or cts the expression of the object Transfer: Architecture a DisAppointing Nante vii. Transfers: PostntdernDe-Constnrctiorsand/or Collage Gillian McFed Lin PhD. Ardritedu¡e & I-kban Dcsign The lJniversity of Adelaide Table of Contents Notes to the Thesß :COLON: Part 2 The Colonisation of A(a)rchitecture: The Depiction of the Concept Chapter 3 Section C-C The Representation of Illusion i. Architecture us Fìgure and/or Ground: A Questiort of Space Archítecture: Figure cutd/or Ground or Íhe Quesliort of Slructure ll. Architecture : Bottndary and/or Li nknge Boundary or Lì nkage : Contradictiott Linkage: Bou ndary and/or Linkage: Affi liatiort 1lt Monument: The Tradition of Thinking as a Stntcture and an Enclosure ArchiÍecture, the Question of Ovttership, Like qnd Beconùng Like Philosophy, The Question of Beconúng, Sante The QuesÍion of Depicliort; Enclosure - Disclosure or, Itúerior - Exterior Chapter 4 Section D-D Depiction I i. Depictíon: A Tvoþld Theory of Inrpurily or tlrc Represenlaliort of Repressiott Irúerface, Ttvofaced Irtlerþce Ittler fioce 2 i. Depiction: Drawitrg llrc Litrc 2|i. The Ìt4eatitry of Litrcs 2äi. Attlhorigt Drat,ittg the Line Gilli¡n McFent Lirr PhD. Arc'hitecture & Urbru Desigr Thc Univcrsity of Adrlsid.' Table of Contents Notes to the Thesß 2iv. Drcnuing as Nolcttion 2v. The Localion of Drawings 2vi. Drcnuing: The Independent object 2vid.. Drawing is ttot Artwork 2vLä. Drcwirtg is Artwork 2 ix. Drawing Conclusiotts 3i. Depi c ti ort: E I e ctr oni c Te c hno I o gt : T he O nto I ogi ca I Qu e s t i ort 3 ii. The Aspect of Technolog,,: The Ontic Questiott 3 iii. H euristics and Technol ogt J lV. Knowledge AND NOT Infornntiort Processing Or The Questiott of Conrputer Leanúng: A Parallel Paradignt 3v A Discontinuous Lineanty or the Parallax Paradigm Conclusion MONUMENT Un-thinking: A Theoretical Position - The Thesis - Conclusiotu Gilli:ur McFert Li¡r PhD. Arclritectu¡e & Urbm Desigrr TLe University of Adel:ride The Architecture of Cobnisalion Colon The C ol o n i s al i o n of A(a)rchitecture Noles to lhe Abstroct I Frederic Jameson, Is Space Political, in Neil Leach, Rethinkirry Architecture A Reader in Cultural Theory, p256. 2 Manfredo Tafrtri, The Ashes of Jefferson, , in The Sphere and the Labyrinth: Avant Garde Archilechtre from Piranesi lo lhe 1970s, translated by Pellegrino d'Acierno and Robert Connolly, Carnbridge, Massachusetts, London, England: MIT Press, p291. Tafuri quotes frorn Friedrich Nietzsche, Hunnn all too Huntan, Yo12. ppl67-I68 of the ltalian edition. J Architecture is seen as a container that is set into the cultural landscape into which is placed and arranged like furniture, artefacts. The container may also lrold accumulations or accretions of the ad hoc, where sutnmary, disconnected objects or elements settle themselves in the landscape. The container has a structure, a skeletal form or scaffolding. It relates to the structuring of place. In the sense that the nrodes of perception are applied to thinking and working, rnanifesting thernselves as the "labors of vision", architecture is both the scaffolding and the structure necessary to the construction of patterns and geometries that are the artifices of perception and realisation. fte quotation of the "labors of vision" is attributed to Rudolph Arnheim, Visual Thinking, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969,p24. Gilliu McFert Lin PhD ArdrireatLrc & Urbm Design The UDivcrsity of Ade'l:ride The Architecture of Colonisation THE CONCEPT ON' DEPICTION The Architecture of Colonisation comprises two chapters titled Dffirence and Transference.T\e chapters ,*r"rir::;:;:;.inherent in A(a)rchitecture and in Gilliør McFe.d Lin PhD. Aróitecturc & Lhban Design Tho Llniversity of Adclaide The Architecture of Colonisation Colon Thre Co lo n i s at i o n of A(a )rchitecture Notes to the Introduclion ELEVATION INITRODUCTIOI[ BLEVATION 2 Gillinn McFest Lin PhD.Ardritecturc & Urbm Design The Urriversity of Adel¡ide The Architecture of Colonisation Colon The Colonlsation of A(a)rchitecture Noles lo the Introduction ELEVATION Margin: A locatíonfor ldenlity 1. Theodor W. Adorno, Negative Dialectics, trans. E.B. Ashton, Routledge & Kegan Paul: Great Britain, 1973,p5. 2. The use of an upper case 'Architecture' appearing in mid-sentence defines it from architecture. Used in the broadest ssnse as roaming beyond design, tectonics and production, Architecture introduces metaphysics as a facet of architectural thinking. It embraces the tradition of architecture as part of the continuum of civilisation, as one strand in the complex interweave of social and cultural demands. Capital'A' Architecture is therefore, a selÊconscious adventure into meaning. To write the word A(a)rchitecture is to present an other construú.;that of colonisation as an other level of meaning. J For a døailed criticism of Nietzsche the postmodernist who deconstructs the oppositional structure through the will to power, see Alan D. Schrift, The Becoming - Postmodern of Philosophy, in Gary Shapiro, editor, Afier the Future: Postmúern Times and Places, U.S.A: State University of New York Pre ss, I99 0, pp I 0 5 - 1 0 7,I 12n22. By rej eæin g hier ar chy, Nietzsch e' s tranwaluation of language allows opposition to converge by degrees. "Language. here as elsewhere, will not get over its awkwardness and will continue to talk of opposites where there ate only degrees and many subtleties of gradation." See Richard Ro.ty, Introduction, Consequences of Pragmatism @ssays: 1972-1950), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, L982, ppxvixxi-xxii. 4 The primary source is located in Jacques Derrida, 'Point de Folie - maintenant I'architecture', translated by Kate Linker, AA Files, No.l2, Summer 1986,pp65-75. The secondary source is cited in Neil Leach, Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory, London and New York: Routledge, 1997, p326. J Gilliar McFcd Lin PhD.Ard¡itecture & [.hban Design The lJniversity of Adelaide The Architecture of Cobnisstion Colon The C o I o nis al io n of A(a)rchitecture Notes lo the Introduction ELEVATION 5 The differences between the uncapitalised letter pitted against the capitalised letter - the 'proper narne' is discussed in Richard Rorty, Introdttction, Corcecprences of Pragnrutism (Esscrys: 1972-1980), Corsecptences of Pragnntisnt (Essctys: 1972- I9B0), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982, ppxiv-xv. He says the "... capitalized" letter invokes notions of '"Truth or Goodness or Ration ality" as nonns in Philosophy. The idea of what is'proper'and'capitalising on'arenottaken up by Rorty although this is critical to the concept of location and identity. As for the bracketed, lower case 'a', the intention is to demonstrate that identity and location are contiguous and dependent on the concept of the most fundamental concept of architecture; an unnatural artefact which orders by dis-ordering. The 'site' of architecture always ¡efers to dis-placement and conditioning. Derrida says, "Let us not forget that there is an architecture of architecture. Down even to its archaic foundation, the most fundamental concept of architecture has been consÍructed. Tllis naturalized architecture is bequeathed to us: we inhabit it, it inhabits us we think it is destined for habitation, and it is no longer an object for us at all. But we must recognize in it an artefacd a construction, a Ílonurrent. It did not fall from the sky; it is not natural, even if it informs a specific schelne of relations to physis, the sky, the earth; the human and the divine." Jacques Derrida, 'Point de Folie - rnaintenant I'architecture', and in Neil Leach, Relhit*ing Archileclure: A Reader in Culfiral Theory, p326. 6 This definition applies to the totalitarianisrn of the structural project as defined by Denida. The term is used as an interrogation of the human condition and in an architectonic sense. Jacques Derrida, Translator's Introdustion, tn LI/rilirrg and Difference, translated with an Introduction by Alan Bass, London and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978, pxvi. For a definition of 'structuralism' refer to the Glossary in this Thesis. Architectural theory in the 1970's was dominated by genre theory. Coherence retunled to a- priori and ahistorical filndamental principles rerniniscent ol' Dtrrand and Quatrernére de Quincy. See Aldo Rossi, The Architecltte of the Cit¡t, Carnbridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1982, p40. See Karen lSurns, Qf Genre. Panoranras and "J.N.L. f)ttrand, in John MacArtltur, erJ. Ktnwlcdge and/or/of Experience: The Theory of Space itt Arl atd Archileclttre, Queenslarrd: lnstitute of Moderrr Art, 1993,1t46. 4 Gilliu McFent Lin PhD.Ardritcctrrc & Urb:rr Dcsigrt The University of Adel:ridc The Architecture of Colonisalion Colon The Col o n is alion of A(a)rchitecture Notes to the Introducfion ELEVATION 7 "The architect's ever diminishing power and his ever ineffectualness in shaping the whole environment can be perhaps reversed, ironically, by narrowing his concerns and concentrating on his own job.