personal reflection on Vera Maurina Press on personal page: while i couldve been more organized, my first summer design/architecture/critical thinking preparation course for incoming 1st year students went well enough, given the fact that i found out the evening before the first class that i only have the students for 1 hour and 15 minutes, instead of 4 hours each day. agile change is a good skill in this program. its REALLY tough to time manage a significant Summer Design/Build Studio, https://facebook/media/set/?set=a.777936688925786.1073742002.188801414505986&type=3 one other course for incoming 1st year Design prep, https://facebook/media/set/?set=a.778943092158479.1073742009.188801414505986&type=1 and to sustain a consistent studio practice. regardless, some students REALLY got it. it started with an exploration of books, online research, and the library system (something most incoming 1st year students knew little about). veramaurinapress.org/pdfs/Thinking-Reading-Writing-Seeing-Critically.pdf since its a summer course, i was told by the Director of my program that it should not be too heavy. so mid-course, i decided to make the 3 page essay assignment into 1. a paper outline with quotations and pictures from research and 2. an exploration of how one may use pictures/collages to develop ideas/research topics, lecturing about my own work in this as a precedent, https://facebook/veramaurinapress/photos/a.204455846273876.66831.188801414505986/774499012602887/?type=1 and i gave a talk about some inspiring collages to show students the difference between collage as a work/end per se, with a kind of material vibrancy versus the more ideological and/or illustrative approach for essay writing, https://facebook/media/set/?set=a.762945720424883.1073741983.188801414505986&type=3 *not that the two are mutually exclusive* the idea is that once students know how to develop a solid and original research foundation, then its a matter of cleaning it up into typical college essay form. if i have more time with students next year then the essay will be a requirement. this album by Thanapon Wongsanguan is one of the brilliant student responses to these exercises. the text for this album (below the dashed line) is well worth the read. theres several more VERY good responses, but this is the most comprehensive and the closest to what i imagined as a result. next time, ill have to come up with ways to structure the course and communicate effectively so the majority of the class produces such results. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Thesis Statement: Contrary to the belief that contemporary and international style rejected symbolism and its narrative possibilities, the realties are far more complex. Introduction: What is narrative? -A spoken or written account of connected events; a story: -The practice or art of telling stories: -A representation of a particular situation or process in such a way as to reflect or conform to an overarching set of aims or values: - Oxford English Dictionary (online): Definition of narrative Examples of narrative structure: Propps character theory ( which exists in most folk tale stories including most of Disneys) Propp, V.I.A. (1969). Morphology of the Folk Tale. Texas: University of Texas Press. • The villain—struggles against the hero • The donor—prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object: • The (magical) helper—helps the hero in the quest • The princess and her father—gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father cannot be clearly distinguished • The dispatcher—character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off. • The hero or victim/seeker hero—reacts to the donor, weds the princess • False hero—takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess. The Hollywood narrative: The very nature of narrative ... without which we cannot say there is any movement between two equilibriums which are similar but not identical - Todorov At a minimum, any narrative begins with a state of equilibrium or order, which is restored after being disrupted by an event which introduces a state of disequilibrium. The narrative tells the story of how this disruption arises, how it is dealt with and how order is restored. Narrative in practice: Disney animated film- Plutos Dream House (1940) Mickey Mouse is about to build Pluto a doghouse when Pluto digs up a magic lamp that speaks in black dialect. It offers to do Mickeys bidding. Mickeys first wish is for a doghouse, and the lamp starts to work. Suddenly, the saw, the planer, the paintbrush and other tools magically begin working on their own. Finally, Pluto has a magnificent doghouse. The second wish? Mickey asks the lamp to give Pluto a bath. But things go awry when Pluto accidentally breaks Mickeys radio. Now, all sorts of conflicting messages are coming out of the speaker as Mickey tries to fix it. The lamp assumes all the voices are Mickeys and obeys them. Pluto is rolled with a rolling pin, punched with boxing gloves, frozen in an aspic and is about to be cut into thin slices before all ends happily. (An example of how two aforementioned narrative theories can be applied to the story.) Narrative in Architecture: Narratives enters architecture in many ways, from the conceptual messages it is made to stand for to the illustration of a design through models, drawing and other representational forms. The aspect of architectural expression, what the design speak off, is relevant to narrative as representation. Architecture does not only express meaning of buildings and places, and the contribution of architecture to the expression of social and cultural messages. It also participates in the construction of meaning through the ordering of spaces and social relationship. - Architecture and Narrative: The Formation of Space and Cultural Meaning By Sophia Psarra Why narratives are important? Before all else man is a sensitive, spiritual being, who wants to identify with his environment and who is in need of intellectual and emotional experiences. Why do such a large number of people visit ancient temple of Greece and Italy, the Romanic and Gothic cathedrals of Germany and France, the palaces of Venice, the like Heidelberg or Rustenburg?... it satisfies the demands of a man, which go further than pure need, than every day, grasping him in his totality as a spiritual and cultural being. - Architettura come tema = Architecture as theme, Oswald Mathias Ungers (1982) Body 1 Modern narratives: In the modern age, people were interested in visible and the substantial. Such symbols of material civilization as large houses land, and luxury automobiles were regarded as status symbols. Giant buildings, skyscrapers, and huge cities and factories were the symbol of the modern age... I call the twentieth century the age of the principle of the machine, and new age that follows modernism the age of the principle of life. - Kisho Kurokawa: the architecture of symbiosis (1988) The machine age and how industries affect architecture and human progress can be bought by acceptance of machines and pure beliefs. Corbusiers Radiant city. How is it a good narrative character that helps carry his thoughts and beliefs forward. Body 2 Post Modern Narratives. Explain what it is and how they achieve it. Give examples. Focus on two narratives/movements give examples via their buildings. Postmodern thought is characterized by a loss of belief in an objective world and a continual change of perspectives, with no underlying frame of reference, but rather a manifold of changing horizon. Venturi’s influential manifesto, Learning from Las Vegas Tadao Andos Church of Light Rem Koolhass Maison Bordeaux Body 3 Disney Narratives. Explain what it is and how they achieve it. Give examples. • Disney revived architecture as a story telling device and formed itself into a new architectural program, where many buildings could be arranged in relation to each other to shape a whole place. • The architecture emanated from actual stories of Disney and from fictionalized ideas of what real places might have looked like. • Time and space take on new dimension in hands of Disneys architects and designers. • Perspective, forced and other wise, is key to the design of Disneyland.The castles are not castle-sized but they are so designed and so placed that they seem to loom over the landscape as they would if they actually were homes to kings and queens, prince and princess. Hence of course relates it to the movies: in motion pictures you start out with an establishing shot, a long shot, a wow. • Disney requires that everything look freshly painted and clean even when they do not stay true to the original like Frontier land, or New Orleans Square, which were tattered in real life. Disney want visitors to feel they are in another world. • The transitions between lands are planned carefully-from the past (Frontier land/Adventure land) to the future (Tomorrow land/Fantasy Land) • Much of the work done under advocates of Disney take images from architectural history-from a humble medieval cottage to classical temple - and turn them into popular culture. • Robert Venturis and Dennis Scott-Browns tiny fire station at Walt Disney World takes on popular culture and turns it into high architecture. In his fire house for Walt Disney world, Venturi borrows from the traditional language of architecture and pop culture to make a building that is at once cerebral and very accessible. • Even architects whose work is generally highly abstract - like Arata Isozaki would argue that architecture revolves around a theme or even invented story line to be entertaining- go back to ancient Greece as if designing temples to gods could be fairly considered a theme. • Grave states the case for against architecture with a theme: modern architecture has a theme, if you will, in the machine...... -The Architecture of Disney Body 4 Compare and Contrast the narrative types. Just some of them. Similarities and differences. Disney compares with modernism. Disney uses characters to progress visitors through different theme park lands, while modernists rely on important architecture to press their stories. Key player is their architecture. Narrative = principles they believe in. Graves dwarf columns holding up to Caryatid columns. idea about breaking and discarding traditional expectations.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 03:54:30 +0000
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