Erotics of Theories

Most of us, by now, are familiar with the word erotics of architecture.  We have spent a whole semester exploring on the term.  Let us now recollect our thoughts a little bit.  Eroticism in architecture is an ephemeral phenomenon, which gives us feelings when we are exposed to it.  From my point of view, erotics could relate to most theories we have studied.

In phenomenology, the theory stimulated our strong emotional sense when we encounter the space.  It plays with experiences of the users in the same way as eroticism.  When we experience something, we got feelings towards it, and that feelings vary from person to person.  In simulation, the hyper reality state that we are in also gives us strong feelings.  It gives sense of something very real, yet it’s fake and we don’t know it.  Since erotics related to feelings, it is a personal experience, just like aesthetics, and the same as semiotics.

That said, erotics is more like an additional theory that we can play with, but we couldn’t use it alone.  It is really hard to tell what is the real meaning of erotics, but it is something that we could use to support our theory

Aesthetics and a cup of tea

aesthetics |esˈTHetiks| (n.): a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, esp. in art.

The term aesthetics refers to feeling beauty towards something.  Again, it is feeling so it varies from person to person.  What is super beautiful in one’s eyes might be super awful in others’.  However, some aesthetic qualities were taught to us, suggested to us, or embedded into our brains, because aesthetics can be like a trend. You may want to like something because it is what the mainstream like, or you like it because the majority of people do.  Like fashion, you might not like how you dress, but you dress like that anyway because that’s what other people like.  One of the examples of aesthetic trends is the TWG Tea Company.  This English brand once used the land conquered over by English colonization to grow tea leafs.  Back then everyone hated colonization.  It took away the defeated countries rights, freedom, and their territory.  Now, in the 21^st century, TWG comes back again, not as a conqueror, but as restaurants.  Lots of TWG branches opened in Southeast Asia recently.  This is also the act of colonization, but now everyone likes it, because it is a trend.  The aesthetics of being a high-class, sitting in a nicely decorated café and drinking an English tea, is now likable.

As for architecture, I think aesthetics is a very hard quality to play with.  Since perfect architecture does not exist, it is nearly impossible to please everyone’s eyes with just one design.  Of course, there are ‘international style’ that most of the people in the world agreed it looks neat, but not all of us like the so-called ‘glass box’.  From my point of view, a good architecture raises contradictions.  It gives different people questions that have a lot of answers.  As imperfect as it is, it still success in grabbing attentions and comments.

Profanity and Architecture

Profane \Pro*fane"\: To violate, as anything sacred; to treat with abuse,
        irreverence, obloquy, or contempt; to desecrate; to
        pollute; as, to profane the name of God; to profane the
        Scriptures, or the ordinance of God.
From the definition, 'profanity' is the act of disrespect to supremacy or divine figures, including religions , kings, and gods.  Claiming someone to be profane is quite serious, meaning that that someone must have done something highly inappropriate.
We were taught what is wrong and what is right since we were kids, but our teachings vary to from each culture to one another.  Thus, the view of profanity highly depends on cultures, so there are cases that someone are being profane unintentionally.
In Thailand we would never see someone draws a cartoon pictures on a banknote just like Americans do.  This is because Thais highly value the King, and making fun of His Majesty is highly profane.  On every Thai Baht banknote and every coin is a picture of the King, so even just stepping on it is already inappropriate.  We would also never see a house made to look like a temple, because temples are sacred and we should not play with its holiness.




Nevertheless, in my opinion, the concept of profanity does not go well with architecture.  If we build something and, by interacting with it, makes profanity, that architecture would be dull and boring.  From my perspective, an architecture would be more successful if it makes people interact with it by their feelings and interpretations.  That way there will be a lot of possibilities to play with the structure, making the building a whole lot more interesting.

Empty Spaces, Empty forms

From my understanding, ‘empty space’ and ‘empty form’ are not the same thing, but very closely related.  These terminologies are derived from a theory, so there are no exact meanings to them, depending on each person’s interpretation.

Empty space, from my point of view, refers more to the physical characteristic, like empty room, abandoned buildings, etc. this can be caused from many factors, such as restrictions made (like IIT Crown Hall that have a lot of confinement to the users), but the main reason, I think, is that its function ceased to exist.  Buildings that were designed using “form follows function” way almost always have a couple of specific uses.  If those uses disappear, the buildings usually cannot survive.  Examples are old factories that are abandoned due to the use of outsource in modern world.

Empty forms, again, from my point of view, refer to a more abstract field.  They are forms that have no specific use or function, but they were created to be ambiguous, leaving the usage open for users renditions. One of the examples would be the ‘Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe’ by Peter Eisenman.  It is indeed built in memories to the Jews murdered during the World War II, but since its form is just clusters of rectangles in a big field, there are so many possibilities of what these forms can be

Nevertheless, empty spaces can be empty forms.  Looking back at those abandoned factories, many of them were reused and renovated, but not as functioning factories anymore, but as houses, shops, and condominiums.  In this case the user decided to look for the new function, new interpretation, of the existing structure and completely changed the use of it.

From my point of view, empty forms are a better design goal for us architects.  Since functions of architecture can change over time, designing an empty form is an interesting solution to make sure the architecture we design is built to last.

Reality, NOT!

Hyperreality is the phenomenon when your consciousness can’t distinguish between reality and simulation of reality.  It is when what is real and what is artificial blended together you couldn’t tell which is which.  There are many situations that really happen, like a Korean couple that let their daughter starve to death because they are busy raising their virtual child in an online game.  In this case their consciousness could not tell reality apart from virtual reality (VR), so they choose the wrong choice.

We also were given an example of hyperreality in this film called “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”, where Sacha Baron Cohen acted as a Kazakh journalist named Borat Sagdiyev travelling to America to study about cultures.  This movie has a concept of hyperreality because, unlike most movies, which are shot in studios or set-up places with actors, it filmed Borat communicating with people who have no idea they are being filmed.  Thus, what people interacted with Borat in the movie was their reality, simulated by Borat.  What is funny about this movie is that the simulation of ignorance of the Kazakh, acting what is called stupid and awkward in America, like walking around on the street, trying to introduce yourself and kiss every on the cheeks.  My favorite part is the driving lesson, where Borat and the instructor discussed on various topics regarding the life and laws in America, and Borat would give some weird reflects of what it is like in Kazakhstan.  It gives people false impressions and ideas towards Kazakhstan.  It makes us think of the way people live there were really like what Borat told us. 

Your Design, My Design

design |dəˈzīn|: do or plan (something) with a specific purpose or intention in mind

‘Design’ is the word we heard a lot, but it is hard to really explain what this word means.  Even us architecture students still could not define it specifically.  But I think the meaning of the word ‘design’ can be many things according to each person’s interpretation.  If we look at the typology, it composes of the prefix ‘de-’, which could be translated as ‘remove’ or ‘decrease’, and the word ‘sign’.  This, I think, could mean decoding, decomposing the sign and reading it in a deeper perspective.

Some signs, like road signs, show their obvious meanings, because they are meant to be easy to read and to make everyone understand the same thing.  But there are signs that invented by personal preference, such as the “V-sign” by Winston Churchill.  It is the sign made by raising index and middle fingers, parting.  It looks like sign for “two” and can also be confused with “the finger” as an insult.  Nevertheless, Winston designed a brand new sign, which later became popular worldwide.

In my own interpretation, design is not just innovation; it could mean to improve the existing stuffs.  Since signs are representation of objects, there is freedom for everyone to play with the possibilities of their meaning, whether to change the whole understanding of that or to use our common understanding of the sign.  When we look at a pentagon shape, a familiar shape that, I could say, everyone drew when we were kids, we all could see that it represents a house.  Herzog and de Meuron played with this shape in their storehouse by extruding the simple pentagon shapes and stack them together.  People who pass by can see the glowing sign of a ‘house’ and interpret that this is a store for house products.