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-ACSA-Intl-1997-58-
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- 8382-2F-QP-Statistics-G-25Nov21-PM
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T H E CLEARING AND T H E L A B Y R I N T HROBERT A L A N D O R G A N
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Visualizing the Problem through the junction (and disjunction) between the
In The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre argues conceptual understanding of space and the data of
that the "'logic of visualization' that now informs the e ~ p e r i e n c e Put
. ~ in it's simplest terms, when the
entirety of social practice" has changed the way we experience of space coincides with the preexisting idea
acquire spatial information, and further that this 'logic' of the space, this is thepleasure of architecture. When
initiates a distinction between proximate and distant the experience conflicts with the idea, this is the violence
vision. " The eye tends to relegate objects to the distance, of archite~ture.~
to render them passive. The rise of the visual realm entails For Bataille, this sets up the nagging paradox of
a series of substitutions and displacements by means of architecture: The pyramid is always conceptualized from
which it overwhelms the whole body and usurps its within a labyrinth and likewise the labyrinth is always
role."' The phrase "logic of visualizationnis attributed to susceptible to the conceptualizing pyramid of thought.
Erwin Panofsky's GothicArchitecture andScholasticism, For Tschumi, this necessary friction between pure space
where a man imbued with this visual logic "would not and pure experience does not present a limitation, or
have been satisfied had not the membrification of the failure, of architecture, but rather an absolute condition
edifice permitted him to re-experiencethe veryprocesses of architecture: The boundaries which delimit the playing
of architectural composition just as the membrification field within which architecture maneuvers.
of the Summa permitted him to re-experience the very
processes of cogitation."' The Garden and the Stoa
Yet, as visual acquisition of spatial data replaces There's a story that says Plato preferred to teach in
other modes of sensory acquisition (auditory, olfactory, the garden. Aristotle, on the other hand, is said to have
tactile) the body is distanced from its role as spatial preferred thestoa. Whether there is any historical accuracy
locator. This displacement from tactile to visual is a key to this story is probably less important than its suggestion
factor in removing the body from its spatial experience, that the junction of space and use might impact how
as the illusion of inhabiting a space replaces the feeling knowledge is developed. To inhabit one place for any
of inhabiting of a space. The illusory quality of space (or length of time (the garden) fosters alevel of understanding,
of things) contributes to what Walter Benjamin sees as or pleasure, with respect to one's immediate surroundings.
the loss of aura in the work of art, but more importantly In removing the necessity to continually confront one's
it impacts the power structures which ultimately control surroundings, the garden allows for movement into other
space and determine what can and cannot take place potentially violent confrontations with ideas. To
there. continually move through the space, on the other hand,
(the stoa) suggests a violent relationship with one's
The Pyramid and the Labyrinth surroundings, a continual process of disorientation and
To address the question of how this logic of reorientation. In the stoa each idea thought to have been
visualization affects the production and consumption of previously secured is continually subject to potential
architecture, it will be useful t o first consider contention as n e w spatial configurations impose
epistemological constructs of architecturalunderstanding. themselves on the topics under discussion.
Bernard Tschumi has been instrumental in articulating
one such architectural epistemology. In one of his first Visualization: Proximate and Distant
published articles, Tschumi argues the true medium of Lefebvre's comments on the logic of visualization
architecture is not form but space, and additionally that appear in a chapter entitled "From Absolute Space to
any space 'is necessarily incomplete without the events Abstract Space," andit is an abstract space with which we
that take place in and around Borrowing Bataille's are c o n c e r n e d . ~ b s t r a cspace
t is the space inhabited.
metaphoric notion of the pyramid as the disembodied "Thisspace is 'lived' rather than conceived."'The labyrinth
Idea of space, pure space, and the labyrinth as the not the pyramid. It is space met by use, the moment
experience of space, use, an epistemological dialectic is where Tschumi's pleasure and violence are set in motion.
constructed in which architectural knowledge is acquired "A product of violence and war,"8 it is a highly political
, 1997 ACS4 EIJROPEAA CONFERENCE * BERLI'I
space - a space where political conflict definesthe acute The definition of the a u r a as a ' u n i q u e
connection between knowledge of a space and control phenomenon of a distance however close it may
over that space. be' represents nothing but theformulation of the
The movement from absolute space to abstract space cult value of the work of art in categories of space
begins when the space is co-opted,inhabited by the gaze, and timeperception. The essentially distant object
when revelations and distinctions are made in the "overall is the unapproachable one. Unapproachability is
texture" ofspace.9JoseOrtegay Gasset begins to elaborate indeed a major quality of the cult image. True to
on how these distinctions develop when he takes up the its nature, it remains 'distant, however close it
question o f proximate and distant vision: ma]' be.' The closeness which one may gain from
its subject matter does not impair the distance
Proximate vision organizes the whole field of u~hichit retains in its appearance.'*
vision, imposing upon it an optical hierarchy: a
privileged central nucleus articulates itselfagainst
the surrounding area. In the center there is the
Projective Imagination and Becoming -
Pierre
favored object, fixed by our gaze; itsform seems Architectural design is sometimes described as
clear, perfectly defined in all its details. Around projective imagination - projecting imaginary additions
the object, asfar as the limits of thefield of vision, and alterations onto existing landscapes. Same tells a
there is a zone ule do not look at, but which, particularly interesting story o fhow this process works.'"
nevertheless, we see with an indirect, vague, Sartre is late to meet his punctual friend Pierre at a
inattentive t~ision.Eve ything in this zone seems local cafe.As he enters the crowded cafe, he scans the
to be situated behind the object. room for a glimpse of Pierre. As his gaze systematically
Compare this with distant vision. Instead of fixing travels across the interior o f the cafe,Sartre briefly sees
a proximate object, let the eye, passive but free, the image o f Pierre in each face in the crowd. For a
prolong its line of vision to the limit of the uisual moment each customer is perhaps Pierre ... no, it's not
field. What do we find then? The structure of our Pierre. Is that Pierre?No. How about at this table?Again,
hierarchicalelements disappears. The ocularfield no. The bartender, the waiters, even the coat rack are
is homogenous; we do not see one thing clearly tested as potential Pierres. Sartre projects the figural
and the rest confusedij: for all are submerged in image of Pierre onto the ground of the cafe,and in doing
a n optical democracy. Nothing possesses a sharp so each element focused upon by the gaze travels out o f
profile; evelything is background, confused, almost Sartre's distant vision toward his proximate vision, for
formless.'" closer inspection,beforeits negation as not-Pierrereturns
it back to its distant position in the ground. In this case,
It's clear that Ortega y Gasset favors not even an the figure is not an object in the ground;it never becomes
optical democracy,but his view that the construction of fully proximate. The figure is imagined, projected, and
a strong figure upon a clearly established (if unfocused) the movement initiated in the ground distinguishes a
ground offersmore solace for pleasure than the figureless series of possible foregrounds in a more continuous
ground of the distant vision follows well Tschumi's background.'"
epistemology. I f experience is conditioned by prior Sartre posits an "optical democracy" of the visual
conceptions, the presence of a strong figure firmly field that isnot homogenous as Ortega y Gasset proposes,
establishespreconceptions that can be empiricallytested. but one where the ground, with its foreground,
The confusion stemming from the formlessness of the background, middle-ground,peripheries, in and out o f
distant visual field lies not in Ortega y Gasset's inability to focus, its affirmationsand negations , allow for a rich and
experience the field - he knows enough about it to heterogeneous mixture of elements, none of which is
characterize it as homogeneous, even democratic - but fured by, or subjugated by, the field, but all of which
in the violence generated between distant use and possess the potential to reterritorialize the visual field.
proximate preconception. Sartre's architecture, his projective imagination, is not
Ortega y Gasset describes this distinctionas qualitative concerned with designing objects in a field, or figures on
rather than quantitative.Distant vision does not necessarily a ground, but is concerned with designing the ground
suggest an object is farther away, but that it relates to our itself- articulating foregrounds and backgrounds. Sartre's
other senses differently than the object of proximate malaise (or nausea) with this process o f projective
vision." When I hold an object, whether in my hands or imagination stems from projecting pleasure onto the
in my proximate gaze, I feel its weight. Does it smell? Is distant backgroundwhich reflectsviolence as the recipient
it warm or cold?Wet or dry?If I tap it, it produces a sound. of the projective gaze moves toward the proximate
Is it solid or hollow? Distant vision, on the other hand, foreground.15
works purely on the visual sense. I can no longer tell if it
is warm or cold, solid or hollow, wet or dry, heavy or T H E CLEARING A N D T H E LABYRINTH
light. Iftit produces a smell, how can I be sure it is that The Beginnings of a Spatial Typology
object which produces the smell? A causal breakdown
results as well - i f it makes a sound, it was not because of Clearings
my touch, but from some other source. The illusion of a I f , following Tschumi's lead, the true medium o f
distant other is what Benjamin attributes as aura architecture i s not form but space, then the "formal"
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