When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of the Future"
The Idea knows nothing of negation.
Gilles Deleuze, "Difference and Repetition"
The process escapes one person"s control, but it matters little knowing who set it off and by whom it will be inflected in turn.
Constant, "New Babylon"
AXIOMS TOWARD NEWSPACE
10. Art is the roadbuilding
habit (Zeno). It ruptures, then rebuilds, the edge of thought.
09. Architecture is the art of the elaboration of
inhabitable space, beyond mere accommodation, in the direction
of excess over need.
08. Elegance is the achievement
of maximal effect with minimal effort.
07. Both cyberspace
and bodyspace are real and physical, and both are inextricably
intertwined with the virtual.
06. Cyberspace is constituted
by information technologies; bodyspace is augmented by information
technologies.
05. Immersion is the transition from
bodyspace to cyberspace; Eversion is the transition from
cyberspace to bodyspace.
04. Space and time are no
longer separate, not even in an everyday sense: a space-time
vernacular has developed.
03. Hence, we must speak
of a vernacular of augmented space-time, of body-space-time
and cyberspace-time.
02. Augmented space-time encompasses
the full continuum from body-space-time to cyberspace-time.
01. This new continuum is newspace-time, or newspace,
for short, the space proper of transArchitectures.
00.
Beauty is objective; meaning is subjective. Both are relational.
000.
Accidents will happen.
ACCIDENTAL WRITING
This text was once much longer, too long for this book. Rather than editing it down manually, and in the interests of exemplifying the art of the accident, I gave the original text over to algorithmic processes that reduced it in size and destabilized its meanings. Naturally, these processes introduced numerous accidents, errors, discontinuities, and unexpected changes, the most obvious of which was the breakdown of hierarchic structure in favor of a structure that is flatter but also more amenable to recombination.
Two countervailing processes were used: first, the main body of the text was submitted to repeated reductions using Data Hammer, a program designed to summarize material found on the Internet. Second, the Babelfish/AltaVista translation program was used to translate a quote from Constant into various languages. Constant"s phrase was first rendered into another language, then back into English, then into yet another language, and so on, the output of each step becoming the input for the next step.
DATA HAMMERS AND BABEL FISH
00
[(transAccidents:
Point of origin, English:) The process escapes one person"s
control, but it matters little knowing who set it off and
by whom it will be inflected in turn. (Constant, 1974)]
01
[(transAccidents:
English to German:) Der Prozeß entgeht einer Steuerung,
das der Person, aber er macht aus wenig weiß, wem es einstellte
weg von und durch, wem wird es der Reihe nach gebeugt.]
02
[(transAccidents:
German to English:) The process escapes a control, which
for the person, but he makes from few white, whom it adjusted
away of and through, whom it in sequence bent.]
a
·
Taking over from an older generation that resisted computation
of all sorts at all costs, a generation of young reactionaries
is perpetuating a twenty-year lag in architecture"s engagement
with new challenges, re-enacting the centuries-old Quarrel
of the Ancients and the (trans)Moderns.
b
·
Even those who otherwise professed to be committed to critical
explorations of the avant-garde potentials of architecture
recoiled from the radical reevaluations required by the
rude but potent newcomer, reevaluations that challenged
theory, research, practice, pedagogy, industry, use, the
very definition of architecture, and, most of all, our understanding
of space itself.
c
· Peer pressure,
and the sheer necessity of accepting that any conception
of critical studies of architectural culture that did not
examine these new issues was plainly irrelevant to the rapidly
forming new world, ensured that those who did not enter
of their own accord were in virtual effect immersed into
the liquid new spirit kicking and screaming.
d
·
However self-congratulatory the rhetoric of the small and
incestuous architectural voiced minority may have been,
by any external measure the slow and reluctant progress
made in embracing computers in architectural discourse simply
managed to maintain a two-decades-long lag between the edge
of possibility and its appearance in so-called advanced
architectural thought.
03
[(transAccidents:
English to Portugese:) O processo escapa de um controle,
que para a pessoa, mas ele faça de pouco branco, de quem
ajustou afastado e através, quem ele na sequência se dobrou.]
04
[(transAccidents: Portugese to English:)
The process escapes of a control, that stops the person,
but it makes of little white, of who he justified moved
away and through, who it in the sequence if he folded.]
e
· Still operant, this hermeneutic
dilution of the instrumentalized virtual emphasizes the
virtual as a latent interpretation superimposed upon a conventional,
if highly contorted, built form, but refuses to admit the
questions brought about by the advent of intelligent environments,
interactive, latent, and invisible form, non-local and non-retinal
social space, telepresence, augmented reality, nanospace,
ubiquitous and inhabitable computing, the morphogenetic
space of complex adaptive systems, and the many advanced
contemporary understandings of the "topochronometry" of
space-time, in sum all those aspects of newspace that I
have collected under the term "transarchitectures," heralding
emerging, unprecedented spatial practices and modes of inhabitation.
f
·
Instead of seeking to foster the variety of new literacies
that are necessary within our new context, various forms
of critical studies of architectural culture aim at theorizing
computation from an arm-chair philosopher"s viewpoint.
g
·
We have proven that we cannot access the sum of what is
true by logic and formalism alone: intuition is necessary
to bridge the vast deserts of noise that span the distances
between isolated, rare, relevant, true, powerful statements.
h
·
However, in the context of the discussion of the relation
of virtuality to architecture, a distinction made by Deleuze
is being echoed as a mantra across current discourse and
is leading to serious confusion.
05
[(transAccidents:
English to French:) Les évasions de processus d"une commande,
ces des arrêts la personne, mais lui fait de peu de blanc,
de qui il a justifié déplacé loin et à travers, qui il dans
l"ordre s" il se pliait.]
06
[(transAccidents:
French to English:) The escapes from process of a command,
these of the stops the person, but makes him little of white,
which it justified moved far and through, which it in the
order if he yielded.]
i
· This
partitioning of terms has been taken as a rallying cry and
is repeated widely, not as a clarifying concept leading
to a more productive engagement with new challenges but
as a political password for mutual recognition of initiated
insiders in an incestuous and unchecked discussion.
j
·
That the direction of this line of thought is suspect can
be seen by the fact that the conclusion reached by those
who follow it is that architecture has always been virtual,
or, at least, has always engaged virtuality, and that the
virtual is in some sense that which is immanent in a work,
that which is in some ways essential, and is in any case
present but inaccessible, without reference to information
technology and computation, without in other terms a substrate
of implementation.
k
· Drawing
upon both mathematics and biology to distinguish between
"differentiation" and "differentiation," and positing a
complex double concept of "different/tiation," Deleuze himself
is clear about the tangibility of the virtual.
07
[(transAccidents:
English to Spanish:) Los escapes del proceso de un comando,
éstos de las paradas la persona, pero le hacen poco del
blanco, que alineó movido lejos y por, que él en el orden
si él rindió.]
08
[(transAccidents: Spanish
to English:) The escapes of the process of a commando, these
of the shutdowns the person, but do little to him of the
target, that it far aligned moved and by, which he in the
order if it rendered.]
l
· He
goes so far as to grant the virtual a manner of objectivity,
writing "indeed the virtual must be defined as strictly
a part of the real object, as though the object had one
part of itself in the virtual into which it plunged as if
into an objective dimension."
m
·
There is no doubt that the perennial Palladio continues
to fascinate architects because of the discrepancy between
what he built and what he drew, and the evidence this offers
regarding the priority he placed on the metaphysical aspect
of architecture.
n
· It is in
remembering Plato that we can see how Deleuze"s comment
has been troped to bring architectural discourse to a reactionary
position: the virtual has been equated with the Platonic
ideal and has thus become metaphysical in an antiquated
sense not at all consonant with Deleuze"s sense of the ideal.
09
[(transAccidents:
English to Italian:) Le fughe del processo d"un commando,
queste degli arresti la persona, ma fanno piccolo a lui
dell" obiettivo, che lontano ha allineato mosso e da, che
lui nell" ordine se rendesse.]
10
[(transAccidents:
Italian to English:) The escapes of the process of a command,
these of the arrests the person, but make small to he of
the objective, than far away it has aligned moved and from,
than he in the order if it rendered.]
o
·
Confusing the virtual with the ideal makes us disregard
what is most important about the project of constructing
a technologically embodied virtuality, which is exactly
that it is virtuality made explicit, immersive, empirical,
and shareable.
p
· The pursuit
of the impossible for the purpose of recuperating it into
the possible is still a concrete project, unlike the pursuit
of the impossible for the sake of leaving it on the side
of the metaphysical, which is an abstract effort that leans
toward the unchecked and the facile-fantastic.
q
·
Just as the recognition of the embodied mind renders obsolete
the Cartesian mind-body division, the virtual-as-construct
enacts an embodied virtuality that is engaged in the world
as we are constructing it, in all its problematic but rich
specificity.
r
· The virtual-as-ideal,
on the other hand, stops short of engaging the underlying
matrix of physics and materiality that makes both mind and
cyberspace possible; the virtual-as-ideal limits itself
to making isolated conventional forms in conventional space,
dressing them in rhetorical conceit, and leaving the world
unchanged.
11
[(transAccidents: English
to German:) Die Entweichen des Prozesses eines Befehls,
diese der Anhalten die Person, aber bilden klein zu ihm
des Lernziels, als weit weg es bewogen und von, als er in
der Ordnung übereingestimmt hat, wenn es übertrug.]
12
[(transAccidents:
German to English:) An escaping of the process of an instruction,
this for that stopping the person, but form small to it
the training aim, when far away moved it and of, when it
corresponded in the order, if it transferred.]
s
·
It should be obvious at this point that while the virtual-as-ideal
operates by trooping and interpretation to enact power-plays
of membership and exclusion, the virtual-as-construct encompasses
a variety of existing, emerging, and still-to-be-invented
forms of expression, including liquid architectures, transArchitectures,
hypersurface architectures, and other as-yet-unnamed alien
hybrids of bodyspace and cyberspace.
t
·
The need for new skills is already becoming evident as architects
begin to embrace computer animation and simulation software
in which understandings of differential geometry and scripting
are required.
u
· Citizens are
seen as creative nomads free to alter the environment as
they see fit, employing the Situationist panoply of concepts
for life-against-boredom: détournement, décor, the dérive,
the labyrinth, unitary urbanism, ambiance, psychogeography.
13
[(transAccidents:
English to French:) S"échapper du processus d"une instruction,
ceci pour cet arrêt de la personne, mais forment petit à
lui le but de formation, une fois loin écarté lui et de,
quand il a correspondu dans la commande, s" il transférait.]
14
[(transAccidents: French to English:)
To escape from the process of an instruction, this for this
stop of the person, but form small with him the goal of
formation, once far isolated him and from, when it corresponded
in the command, if it transferred.]
v
·
Non-Situationists saw a proposal that involved a re-evaluation
of architecture and life on such a grand scale that it seemed
impossible to implement under any known or foreseeable political
economic or social system.
w
·
This is because there is no question that his proposals
are critiques of the reality within which he worked and
that the realization of his propositions would require substantial
changes to that reality.
x
· Constant"s
spaces never seem to have specific functions or to explain
themselves in terms of utility, and though there is a fascination
with a labyrinthine interiority, it is always unclear how
one would actually dwell there.
y
·
It is as if Constant were able to sense virtual space as
we now understand it but did not have the means to reconcile
the vision with the techniques of his time, and so proposed
what he saw in his mind"s eye using the materials and techniques
at hand, however inadequate those were to the vision.
z
·
The megastructural framework that was to cover the entire
planet has been replaced with the infrastructure of the
global Internet, the World Wide Web, and the convergence
of the cellular telephony grid with constellations of low-earth
orbit satellites that bring the whole earth within wireless
electronic reach.
15
[(transAccidents:
English to Spanish:) Para escaparse del proceso de una instrucción,
esto para esta parada de la persona, sino formar pequeño
con él la meta de la formación, una vez que lejos le esté
aislado y de, cuando correspondió en el comando, si transfirió.]
16
[(transAccidents: Spanish to English:)
In order to escape of the process of an instruction, this
for this shutdown of the person, but to form small with
him the goal of the formation, once far he is to him isolated
and of, when it corresponded in the commando, if it transferred.]
aa
· The lack of personal possessions
and the sharing of common goods is already the case in multi-user
environments, where spaces are built by copying and using
convenient shareware components, a practice that is entirely
sensible when the copy is identical to the original and
the cost of reproduction is marginal.
bb
·
The lack of specific function is totally in keeping with
the liquid variability of algorithmic space and is in perfect
agreement with McLuhan"s insistence that the meaning of
a medium is the medium itself, not any particular content
that happens to be transmitted through it, just as the meaning
of the telephone is telecommunications, not any particular
conversation however important or unimportant.
cc
·
These can be just as easily transposed to virtual space
per se as they can to intelligent physical space, that is
to say, they exist in the domain of newspace, the continuum
between real and virtual that is the domain of transArchitectures.
17
[(transAccidents:
English to French:) Afin de s"échapper du processus d"une
instruction, ceci pour cet arrêt de la personne, mais former
petit avec lui le but de la formation, une fois que loin
il est à lui a isolé et de, quand il a correspondu dans
le commando, s" il transférait.]
18
[(transAccidents:
French to English:) In order to escape from the process
of an instruction, this for this stop of the person, but
to form small with him the goal of the formation, once that
far it is with him isolated and from, when it corresponded
in the commando, if it transferred.]
dd
·
There are people we only meet when both they and we are
in a third space, either online or in some part of a new
city that is unknown to us but still to our liking, our
new next Soft Babylon.
ee
· Constant"s
efforts are unbuildable but are nevertheless concerned with
a concrete utopia that liberates the real, while the architecture
of the virtual-as-ideal may be buildable but is still concerned
with an abstract utopia that explores the impossible under
the guise of the antiquated immanent and metaphysical.
ff
·
Constant"s propositions challenge not only the shape of
architecture but the shape of the society that would produce
it and inhabit it; the architecture of the virtual-as-ideal
proposes new shapes but leaves the society that would produce
them unchallenged.
19
[(transAccidents:
English to German:) um vom Prozeß einer Anweisung zu entgehen,
lokalisierte dieses für diesen Anschlag der Person, aber
klein mit ihm das Ziel der Anordnung zu bilden, sobald das
weit es mit ihm ist und von, als es im Kommando entsprach,
wenn es übertrug.]
20
[(transAccidents:
German to English:) in order to escape from the process
of a statement, this localized for this impact of the person,
to form but small with him the target of the arrangement,
as soon as that is far it with it and of, when it corresponded
in the command, if it transferred.]
gg
·
Anyone who has ever attempted to design something for cyberspace
knows full well that the limitations are severe, that resources
must be expended sparingly, that numerous standards must
be complied with, and that careful engineering is required
just to make even the simplest things happen.
hh
·
The space-time that opens in the span of the hyperlink is
not the space-time of virtual reality as conventionally
understood, but a meta-space-time, an initially indeterminate
intermediate space and time that opens in passing from the
token upon which the link is hung to the destination to
which the link points.
ii
· This
is the curious space-time that is presently underutilized
by being filled with information of merely peripheral interest,
such as rates of the data transfer and estimated times of
task completion, for instance, a space-time waiting to be
used as a space-time proper to new tectonics.
21
[(transAccidents:
English to Portugese:) a fim escapar-se do processo de uma
indicação, isto localizou para este impacto da pessoa, ao
formulário mas pequeno com ele o alvo do arranjo, assim
que aquele fosse distante ele com ele e de, quando correspondeu
no comando, se transferisse.]
22
[(transAccidents:
Portugese to English:) the end to run away itself of the
process of an indication, this located for this impact of
the person, to the form but small with it the target of
the array, thus that that one was distant it with it and
of, when corresponded in the command, if transferred.]
jj
·
Using cutouts from the plan of Paris and a graphic language
of bold arrows signifying links across discontiguous space
The Naked City anticipates an urban condition in which remote
urban locations are linked together, not according to proximity
but according to an orchestration of psychogeographic ambiences.
kk
·
Indeed, the negotiation of such inter- or trans-spaces has
become an integral part of the art of cinema, allowing the
editor of the cinematic image to act as the architect of
the meanings by which discontiguity is spanned without decaying
into discontinuity.
ll
· What
is being done for two-dimensional space must also be done
for linked spaces of three or more dimensions, morphing
not only the perspectival screen images of interlinked spaces
but the three-or-more dimensional contents of those space-times,
crossfading between both forms and behaviors.
mm
·
A history of architecture can be written on the basis of
how the transition from one space to another has been elaborated
through time and culture, as evidenced in the design of
entries and fenestration.
23
[(transAccidents:
Italian to English:) l" estremità da funzionare via in se
del processo d"un" indicazione, questa situata per questo
effetto della persona, alla forma ma piccolo con esso l"
obiettivo dell" allineamento, così di che quell" era distante
esso con esso e di, una volta corrisposto nel comando, se
trasferito.]
24
[(transAccidents: Italian
to English:) the extremity to work via in if of the process
of an indication, this situated for this effect of the person,
to the small shape but with it the objective of the alignment,
therefore of that that was distant it with it and of, once
corresponded in the commando, if transferred.]
nn
·
"In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni," "we go round and
round in the night and are consumed by fire" was the motto
of the Situationist International and the title of a film
by Guy Debord.
oo
· We can easily
crossfade Marx"s "all that is solid melts into air" into
"all that is solid melts into information" and "all that
is information melts into hyperspace."
pp
·
The spectacle dominates our times and New Babylon is being
built, not as a megastructural web around the surface of
the planet but as Soft Babylon, as both the infrastructural
virtual space within the global internet and as the hidden
impulse in the making of transurban transmodern bodyspace.
25
[(transAccidents:
English to Spanish:) persona, a la dimensión de una variable
pequeña pero con él el objetivo de la alineación, por lo
tanto de el que era distante con ella y de, correspondido
una vez en el comando, si está transferida.]
26
[(transAccidents:
Spanish to English:) the extremity to work via inside if
of the process of an indication, this located for this effect
of the person, to the dimension of a small variable but
with him the objective of the alignment, therefore of which
he was distant with her and of, corresponded once in the
commando, if it is transferred.]
qq
·
New formal explorations of conventional architecture will
no doubt continue as powerful tools alter the range of what
can be conceived or constructed both in bodyspace and in
cyberspace, but the newest challenges will be non-retinal,
dynamic and abstract.
rr
· There
is no way to escape the fire of spectacle, only to resist
it and from time to time fly through it fast enough not
to catch fire.
ss
· Both the new
Ancients and the transmoderns are caught in its field of
attraction, but perhaps the transmoderns will remain liquid
and learn to play with fire while the reactionary new Ancients
simply dehydrate, ignite, and flame away.
WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE
· Newspace is being constructed by big technology, at the service of big commerce, motivated by big interests, and likely to make big mistakes.
· Odysseus, like the historical trickster, the Situationist, and the contemporary hacker, is a figure who is both self-disciplined and insubordinate.
· We play music, serious music, why not play architectures, serious architectures, transArchitectures.
· Round and round we go: In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni.
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i Arthur C. Clarke
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14.
ii Gilles Deleuze, "Difference and Repetition,"
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