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    1999 - (Allen) - Field Conditions

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    1999 - (Allen) - Field Conditions

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    Adnan Aslam
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    1999 - (Allen) - Field Conditions

    Uploaded by

    Adnan Aslam

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    “The order is not rationalistic and underlying but is simply order, Conditions like that of continuity, one thing after another.” ONAL Juno ‘The field deseribes a space of propagation, of effects. It con tains no matter material points, eather Funetons, vectors and speeds It describes loca relations of difference within fells of| celerty, transmission oF of careering points, in 2 word, what Minkowski called the world” saNFORD xwineR, 1986" 1 FROM oper ro FieLo Field conlitins moves fram the one toward the many rm indi- viduals to collectives, rom objeets to feds. In its mast complex ‘manifestation, the concep of fell condition refers to mathemati~ cal field theory, to nonlinear dynamis, and to computer sim tions of evolutionary change, However, my understanding of fld conditions in architecture is somewhat distinct from its more exact earing in the physical sciences. | intend the phrase to resonate With a more tactical sense, as it would for an anthropologist or a botanist engaged in “eldwork,” for 3 general facing the field oF bottle, or the architect who cautions a builder to “verify in fe" My concer parallels a shit in recent technologies from the analog to the digital It pays close attention to precedents in visual art from the abstract panting of Piet Mondrian in te 1920s to mini- mals and postminimalst sculpture ofthe 1880s Postwar com posers, as they moved away from the strictures of seraism, ‘employed concepts such as “lout” of sound orn the cas of lan= is Xenakis, “statistical” music in which complex acoustical events ‘cannot be broken down inte their constituent elements? The na structural elements of the modem city, by their nature linked together in open-ended networks, offer another example of Feld conditions in the urban contest. A complete examination of the Implications of field conditions in architecture would necessarily refiect the complex and dyramic behaviors of architecture's users, and speculate on new methodologies to model program ard space. To.genealiz, a ild condition could be any formal er spatial matrix capable of unifying diverse elements while respecting the Identity ofeach eld configurations ae loosely bound aggregates characterized by porosity and loal interconnect. Overall shape and extent are highly Mud and less important than the internal relationships f parts, which determine the behavior ofthe field Feld canitions are bottom-up phenomena defined not by oveat- ching geometrical schemas but by intricate local conaections. Interval, repetition, and seility are key concepts Fm matters, ‘but nat so much tne forms of things asthe forms between things Field contins cannot claim to produce a systematic theory of architectural form or composition. The theoretical made pro= posed here anticipates its own ielevance when faced with the realities of practice, These ate working concepts derived fom ‘experimentation in contact with the eal 42.2 GEOMETRIC VS, ALGEBRAIC COMBINATION ‘The diverse elements of classical architecture ae orgaized into coherent wholes by means of georetic systems of proportion. Shake wea lndeates [Although ratios can be expressed numerically, the relationships Intended are Fundamentally geometric Alberts well know axiom that “Beauty isthe consonance ofthe pats Such that nothing can be aed or taken away" expresses an ideal of organic geometric unity Te conventions of classical architecture dictate not ony the proportions of indiviual elements but also the relationship ‘between individual elements Parts form ensembles which in turn form lager wholes Precise rules of axality, symmetry, ar formal sequence govern the organization ofthe whole Classical architee- ture displays 2 wide variation on these eles, but the principle of erarcical distribution of parts to whole is constant. Individual clements sre maintained in hiercchical order by extensive geo~ ‘metic relationships inorder ta preserve overall unity ‘The Great Mosque of Cordoba, Span, constructed over a span ‘of nearly eight centuries offers an instructive counterexample? ‘The fom of the masque hal been cleary established: an enclosed forecourt, flanked by a minaret tower, opening onto @ covered space for worship (pethaps derived from market structures, ‘adapted rom the Roman basic) The enclosures loosely oriented toward the gibt, 3 continuous prayer wall marked by 2 smal niche (the mira. In the fst stage of constuction (c. 785-800) the typological precedent was respected, resulting in simple structure (oF ten paral walls perpendicular tothe qb. These wall, Sup- ported on columns and pierced by arches, defining a covered space ‘of equal dimension to the pen court. The arched walls operate in ‘counterpoint tothe framed vistas across the grain ofthe space. The columns ate located at the intersection of these to vectors, form= ing an undiferentsted tut highly charged fel, This Red gener- ates complex parallax effects that prey on vistors a they move through the space. The entice west wall isopen tthe courtyard, so that once within the precinct af the mosque there fs no single ‘entrance. The axial, processional space of the Chistian church ‘ives way toa nondirectonal space, a serial order of “one thing after anothex"* ‘The mosque was subsequently enlarged in four stages. Signfi~ ‘antly, with each alton the fabric ofthe orignal has remained substantially intact. The typological structure i reiterated at larger ‘sale wile the local relationships have remained fixed. By com= parison with lasial Westem architecture, t's possible to ident contesting principle of cambination ane algebraic working with rumerial units combined one ser nother, and the other geo- ‘metric, working with figures (lines planes, solids) organized in space to form larger wholes In Cordoba, for example, independent ements are combined additively to frm an indeterminate whole “The relations of part to part are identical in the fst and ast ver sons constructed. The lca syntax i xed, but there is no overar ching geometric scaffolding. Parts are not Fragments of wholes, but ‘Smly parts, Unlike the idea of closed! unity enforced in western classical architecture, the structure can be added onto without substantial morphological transformation Field configurations are Inherently expandable; the possibilty of incremental growth is ‘anticipated inthe mathematical relations of the parts. I-could be argued that there ae numerous examples of clas- sical Western buldings that have grown incrementally and have been transformer overtime, St, Peter'in Rome or example has an qualy long history of constuction and rebuilding, But there is 2 significant difeence. At St. Peters aditins are morphological transformations, elaborating and extending 2 basic geometric schema, and tending toward compositional closure. This contrasts with the masque at Cordoba where each stage replicates and gre= serves the previous sage of construction by the sélition of similar pats. And at Cordoba, even in later stages when the mosque was consecrated as Christian church and a Gothic cathedral was inserted into the continuous and undifferentiated fabric of the mosque, the existing spatial order resisted the cenalor axial focus Le Corrie, ene Hospital, 968-65 typical of the Western church. As Rafel Moneo has observed"! do not believe thatthe Cordoba Mosaue has been destroyed by all these modifications Rather, | think thatthe fact that the masque continues to be itself in face ofall these interventions fs wibute twits own integrity To brily extend the argument to 2 more recent example, Le Corbusers Venice Hospit (1868-65) employs a syntax of repeated slt-same pats, establishing multiple links at its peiph- ery with the ety fabric. The project develops horizontal through 2 logic of secumulation The basic lock of program, the “car uit formed of twenty-eight beds, is repeated throughout, Consulting rooms occupy open circulation spaces in the covered areas between. The tating placement of blocks establishes connections and pathways from ward to ward hile the dislacement of the blocks opens up voids within the horizontal eld ofthe hospital Ther is no single focus, no unifying geometric schema, AS in the ‘mosque at Cordoba, the overall frm isan elaboration of conditions established lcaly? 0.3 WALKING OUT OF CUBISM Barnett Newman, it has been seid, used a sequence of planeflneplane to “walk out ofthe imperatives of cubist space and close the dor behind hia" The story of postwar American pint= Ing and seulptue isin large part a story ofthis efor to move lueyond the limits of cubist compositional syntax. Sculptors in par ‘cla, working under the shadow ofthe achievements of abstract expressionist painting, felt that @ complex language of faceted Planes and figural fagments inherited from prewar European artists was inadequate to ther larger ambitions. It is out ofthis sense of exhaustion that minimalism emerged inthe mid-sivtis, Robert Morris's refusal of composition in favaraf process, ar Don- ald Judes critique of Yeompostion by pats evidence this eat to proce @ new model for working that might be a5 simple and immediate a5 the painting ofthe previous decades they o admite, Minimalist work ofthe sntes and seventies sought to empty the artwork ofits figurative or decorative character in order to Foreground its architectural condition The constuction of mean- ing was displaced from the object isl to the spatial ed between the viewer and the object: a id zone af perceptual interference, populated by moving boces. Artists such as Carl Arde, Dan Flavin Mortis, ane Jud sought to go beyond formal or compositional var- ation to engave the space of the gallery and the body ofthe viewer In writen statements, both Jude and Morris express their skepti- ‘sm toward European (ie, cubist} compositional norms. They place ir work instead inthe context of recent American developments ‘As Moris wrote: "European at since Cubism hasbeen a history of ermuting eatinships around the general premise that reation- Ships should ein tical. American art has developed by uncov- ring suceesve premises for maling ise" Bath Mois and ud Single out lctson Pollok fr his decisive contribution Jul notes that "Most sculpture is made par by pat bation, composed For Jud, what i equi is consolation: “Inthe new work the shape, image, color and surface ae single and not partial and seat- tee There are’ any neta or moderate areas or pa any con ection or tansiiona aress™ The sspiations of minimalist work are therefore toward unitary forms, dec se finda materie als and simple combinations: 2 “pre-exeeute" clarity of intliec- tual and material tems. Minimalsn’s dective tectonic sit eta the wewing space and eastertd the artwork’ contion 35 “specie object ‘seus te Vas earings ‘Ang yeti minimalism represents 2 significant overturning of prewar compositional principles, it remains indebted to certain cent ‘materials Its objects are cley delimited and solidly constructed, U's later architectural constructions confirm tis essential tec= ing mosels in its reduetive form language and use of ‘oie conservatism.) Minimalism develops in sequences, but rarely in eds, Its for this reason thatthe work of artists wsvallydesig- nated “pastminimal” i of particular interest here." In contrast to Ande or Jud, the work of artists such as Bruce Nauman, Lynda Benglis Keith Sonnet, Alan Saret, Eva Hesse, and Barry Le Va is ‘materially diverse and improper. Werds, movement, technology Aid and perishable materials, representations ofthe bocall oF these “extrnsc® contents that minimalism had repessed~etuen, Postminimalism is marked by hesitation and ontological doubt ere the minimaliss are definitive; i is paintecly and informal where the minimalist are restrained; it remains commited to tan- sible things and visibility where the minimaliss are coneemed with underving structures ard idees. These works, fom the wire construetions of Alan Saret othe pourngs of Lynds Benglis to the “nonsites" of Robert Smithson introduce chance and contingency into the work ofa. They shift even mare eadicaly the perception ofthe wor, from discrete object toa record of the process ofits ‘making in the Feld The artist who moves most decisively inthe direction of what | am calling Feld conditions is Bary Le Va, Partly tained as an architect, Le Va is acutely aware af the spatial Feld implicated by the sculptural work. Beginning in the mid-satis, he began making pieces, some planned in advance, others incorporating random ‘races, that thoroughly dissolve te idea oF “sculture™ as adelin~ ited entity, an object dstinet fom the Fld it occuples He called tributions" "Whether ‘random or ‘oder a dste- butions detined as eationshia of points and configurations to cach othe’ or concomitantly, sequences of events" Loalrla- tionships ae more important than overall form. The generation of form through "sequences of events’ is somewhat related to the generative rules for floc behavior or algebraic combination Le Va these works signals key compositional principle emercing out of postminimal- ism: the dsplacement of conta toa series of intiate local rules for combination, ors 3 “sequences of events” but nat as an over- all formal configuration. In the case of postminimalisy, this i ‘often related to material choices. When working with mater ‘such as wie mesh (Saet, poured latex Beng] or blown flour Le Vo) the artist simply cannot exercise a precise formal control over the materia, Instead the artist establishes the conitions within ‘hich the material willbe deployed, and then direct its Now. In the ease of Le Ve pees of Fel cloth itisa matter of relating fold 10 fod ine t Tine, In later works from the sates, the materials themselves become so ephemeral 2st function as delicate egis- tration of process and change, All grids ae elas, but not all Fels are gids One ofthe potentials ‘ofthe fields to redefine the relation between figure and ground We think ofthe figure not as @demereated object read against @ stable field, but as an effect emerging fom the field ite moments of intensity, 3s peaks or valleys within @ continuous Field—than it might be possible to imagine figure and fel 2s more lose allied, What is intended here isa cose attention tothe pro- ction of eiference at the local sale, even while maintaining a telative inference tothe fxm of the whale. Authentic and pro- ductive social altferences, its suggested, thrive at the local evel, ‘and notin the form of large sale semiotic messages or sculpturl forms. Hence the study of these Feld combinations would be & study of models that wok nthe zone between figure and abstrae- tion, models that refgue the conventional opposition between fg- ure and abstraction, or systems of organization capable of producing vortexes, peaks and protuberances out ofidvdualele- rents that are themselves regular or repetitive Pe il a 2) y [A moir is figural effet produced by the superposition oF two regular fields. Unexpected effects, exhibiting complex and apparentyiregular behaviors result om the combination af ele- ments that are in and of themselves repetitive and regular But more effects ate not random. They shift abruptly in scale, ana repeat according to complex mathematical rules, Moiré effets are often use to measure hidden stresses in continuous fil’, orto sap complex figural forms. In either ease there isan uncanny coexistence ofa regular fed and emergent figure In the architectural or urban contest, the example of moire effects begs the question ofthe surface. The field i fundamentally 2 horizontal shenomenon=even a graphic one—and all of the examples deserived thus fer funetion in the plan dimension [Although certain postmodern cities (Tyo for example) might be characterized fully three dimensional field, the prototypical cites ofthe late twentieth century ae distinguished by horizontal extension. What these field combinations seem to promise inthis contents thickening and intensification of experience at spec- fied moments within the extended fel ofthe city. The monuments ofthe past, including the skyscraper, a modernist monument f0| efficient preducton stood out fom the fabric ofthe ety as pii- leged vertical moments The new institutions ofthe ety wil r= haps occur at moments of intensity, inked tothe wider network of the urban fel, and marked by not by demarcating lines but by thickened surfaces eth) In the late 1980s, atl intligence theorist Craig Reynold ere- ated a computer program to simulate the flocking behavior of bins. AS described by M. Mitchel Waldrop in Complexity: The Emerging Science ot the Edge of Order ond Choos, Reynolds placed 2 large number of autonomous, bedike agents, which he called “oid grammed to follow thre simple ules of behaviorist to maintain Into an on-sereen envionment. The bolds were pro- 4 minimum distance From oter objets in the environment fobsta- cles 35 well 2 other bois: second, to match velocities with other bods inthe neighborhood; third, to move tawerd the perceived canter of mass of bods in its neighborhood, As Wildrop nates: “What is striking about these rales i hat rane of them said "Form 4 Mlack’.the rules were ently local, refering only to what an individual bold could do and seein its ov vieinity IF Rock was going to Form at alt would have todo so rom the bottom up, 25 ‘an emergent phenomenon, And yet lacks a form, every time" “The Mocks eal a fel phenomenon, defined by precise and ‘imple local coitions, and relatively indferent to overall form and extent. Because the rules are define locally, obstructions are ‘not eatatrophie tothe whole. Vaviations and obstacles inthe en ronment are accommodated by Rid adjustment. A smll lack and 8 lage Nock display fundament ly the same structure. Over many Iterations, patterns emerge. Without repeating exact, flock luehavior tends toward roughly similar configurations, not a fxed type, but as the cumulative result of localized behavior patterns lane Xenati, Symes 859, Gap verian fled atte” Crowds present a eitferent dynamic, motivated by move com= plex desies, and interacting in less predictable pattems. las Canetti in Crowds and Power hs proposed a broader taxanomy: ‘open and closed crowds sytimic and stagnotng crowds; the slow ‘crowd and the quik crowd. He examines the varieties of the crow, from the religious trong forme by pilgrims tothe mass of prtc- ipants in spectacle, even extending his thoughts tothe Towing of tives, the piling up of raps, and the density of the Forest. Accord Jing to Canetti, the erowd has four primary attributes: "The crowd sways wants to grow: Within a crowd there i equality; The crowd faves density; The crowd needs & direction" The ration to Reynolds rules outlined above is oblique, but vse. Canet,how- ver isnot interested in prediction or verification, His sources are literary, historical, and personal. Moreover, hes always aware that the crows! can be fiberating 85 well as confining, angry and dlestvctive as well as joyous. (Composer Iannis Xenakis conceived his early work Metastasis 25 the acoustical equivalent to the phenomenon of the crowd, Specitically, he was looking fora compositional techsique aéc- uate to express powerful personal memories ‘henson anil demonstation-hundeds af thousands of people chanting a slogan wich reproduces se ke a gigantic ‘yh, The combat wid he enemy The rhythm busts into an enormous chaos of sharp sounds: the whisting of bul; the ‘acing of machine guns. The sounds bait to espe. Slowly silence fls back on the town. Taken uriuel from an aul pont of view and detached fom any oer aspect these sound events made out of large rumber of individual sounds are not sepa- rately perceptible, but reunite Yer aguin and a new sound is formed whieh may be perceived in its entirety tthe same ease withthe song ofthe cicadss ar the sound of hallo an, the crathng of waves onthe cif the his of waves onthe higle* In attempting to reproduce these “global acoustical even” enokis drew upon his evn considerable graph imagination, and bis teaming in descriptive geometry to invert conventional proce ures of composition. That is oa, he began with 2 grape nota- tion desribing the desired effect of "ets" or “loud” of sound, ard only later reduced these graphics to conventional musical ‘notation, Working as he was with material that was beyond the cotder of magnitude of the avaliable compositional techniques, he had to invent new procedures in order to choreograph the 'harac- teristic dstibution of vast numbers of events"° ‘Crowds and swarms operate atthe edge of contr Aside from ‘the suggestive Formal possiblities, with these two examalesareh- tecture could profitably shift is attention fom its wationaltop- ‘down forms of contro ane bein to investigate the possibilities ofa ‘more fu, bttom-up approach. Feld conditions offers a tentative ‘opening in architecture toes the dynamics of use, behavior of crowds, andthe complex geometries of masses in motion 0 INSTITUTIONS. There exists = strong histrial connection Between the preise rules of axa, symmetry, ard formal hierarchy that govern cass- ‘al architecture and the traditional type-forms of Wester institu tions The iran the museum, and the concert halls much asthe bank thecity hall oF the capitol all appeal to the stability of cass-

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