"...one always ascends the attic stair and descends the to the cellar..."

Further: "...undulations of fear and curiosity increase when reality is not there to moderate them, that is when we are imagining. (110)"

This historical novel celebrates the magic of discovery and the pushing of boundaries on both the astronomical and geographical frontiers. It was valuable in more of an atmospheric sense rather than an objective one.

realness = presence, significance, materiality and emptiness

"Emptiness may resound without sound, may be filled by its potential to be filled, and make open what is complete...(50)"

emptiness

The emergence of Canada is elegantly documented; of special interest is how the land both shaped the socio-political life and the geographical location of frontier towns.

This compendium of British patents portrays the eccentric sensibilities of an age infatuated with gadgetry. This air of invention could perhaps be applied to my thesis project...

This book illustrates the effects of high technology to the urban entity: electronic all-white enclaves arise in Los Angeles and the public police services are superceded by deadly private security forces. This work depicts the possible negative side of the hi-tech evident in my thesis.

Why is there this renewed cultural interest in large mechanical gears and obsolete machinery when everything’s getting smaller in this information age? Dery cites McLuhan’s "rear-view mirrorism": "When faced with a totally new situation, we tend always to attach ourselves to the objects, to the flavour of the most recent past."

This article discusses the Aboriginal spatial concepts of Australia. The huts are merely sectioned off privatized section of a continuous "songline", which flows through the structure. This captured space is off the ground to capture breezes and offer protection from the creatures of the night. The hut has a minimal footprint; it is a minimal insertion along a transient space, "a space that exists to be moved through, that in turn moves through the structure (232)."

"We were alone before the hostile stars, alone with those black phantoms who ferret in the bellies of red hot locomotives as they hurtle forward at insensate speeds....We are in at the birth of the centaurs, we shall see the first angels fly..."

-Marinetti, "Le Futurisme,"

Le Figaro, Paris 1909

This intriguing read contrasts and compares the psychic lives of "savages" and neurotics. Of particular interest here is the discussion of ambivalence, specifically its manifestations on the psyche. My question: do architects unwillingly instigate psychic breaks?

As Hawking deals in the realm of thought, while Galileo sought answers to a mechanistic universe, these contrary world-views could be merged by magic (ritual, either contagious or imitative):

"As thought does not recognize distances and easily brings together in one act of consciousness things spatially and temporally far removed, the magic world also puts itself above spatial distance by telepathy, and treats past association as if it were a present one (111)."

...the possibility opens up to explore the "magic" of architecture...imagination/ imitation/ association...

Her depiction of life-forces are ominous mists of black (representing incredible density).

Thence, with light being the given, orchestration of the dark defines the negative spaces of our existence- Define the dark spots/ consonants to allow the lightness/ vowels to emerge...: shadowcasting

This book comments on the slyer aspect of various myths in addition to providing generous excerpts of diverse ones.

This is the manual that translates space-time theory into attainable concepts for the layperson, such as yours truly. It inspires wonder, the elixir of imagination...

Dynamic systems of the earth are described in both the micro and macro scales. This text allows one to understand the effects of time and physics on "stable" landscapes such as the Badlands.

Basically an engineering manual, this textbook is invaluable in informing the construction details of my Badlands project.

- For "unslumming" there must co-exist

"the standard with the strange, the large with the small (147)."

This booklet explores the notion that things do not evolve, but shift phases. Jencks attempts to apply this idea to Ghery’s Bilbao museum, amongst others. The concept of chaos and folds of time leading to catastrophic events may be used in my project...

This essay first ignited my interest in the logistics of sub-atomic science. To paraphrase her: "Buckminster is to Einstein what Boullee is to Newton."

This new age manual proposes that the universe is holographic in nature, that, like a starfish, the whole is contained in each of its parts. This echoes Einstein’s postulation that "God does not play dice."

-ancient Upanishad saying

This anthropological work claims that all myth, science included, arises from the projection of human attributes upon the cosmos: "with the kind of scientific thinking we are bound to follow, we can regain these things (humanistic ideals) exactly as if they had never been lost...(p. 5)"

This collection of essays by a world-renowned astrophysicist illustrates that there is room for creativity and imagination in the scientific world of precision and calculation. Of special interest to me was his essay on the space telescope (58-71). In addition to providing a general outline of its evolution, he examines the impact of so many minds focusing on the unknown.

Greg Lynn,

Through his investigations of biology, he finds that in a system, loss of information leads toward symmetry...

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

-William Blake

Paul K. Moser (ed.),

- Concerning notions of reality and the unreal that my thesis will touch upon, an interesting incongruity emerges:

As we can only experience the world through our sensory devices, we only have access to sensory properties. The realist assumes these properties to be inherent to the substance of a thing, however (as John Locke noted in the 17th century), if we ask ourselves what this substance is, devoid of any properties, we find ourselves thinking about nothing at all.

-this encyclopedic (and expensive!) manual fully catalogues and details the tectonic components (weight, strength, fabrication, etc.) and the processes of a stage production.

I sense a tension to a live performance (will the actor mess up?) Missing is the safety net of the editing process-it doesn’t operate in the stop-gap time of film. How does this bear on architecture? (See: Vertigo Theater)

Is there a fragmentary mode that is comprehensible?

This is an excellent introduction to chaos theory, this book is pertinent to architects in that it focuses on the visual consequences of fractals (wow!) It also provides valuable formulae and computer programs with which to explore and inform future research.

The concept that I found resonates most was the one regarding patterns of thought and other structures. Once a pattern of any sort becomes static, it is superceded by a more dynamic one. Anyone subscribing to the "mythos" outside the accepted one is regarded as mad.

-written by an architect, this book describes the inner workings of the Warner Bros. studio system.

"All the camera sees is the last coat of paint (174)"

This commandment is now fallible; the onset of digital holographic technologies shall see to that.

I love the idea of an engineer role-playing the architect. Much of the fluff disappears, leaving structurally sound forms to speak for themselves- often with cerebral results. The full moon theater, for example I found most inspiring. In addition to its primal lighting effects there is also an element of danger: the sun could easily fry the surrounds. Isn’t danger a heightening aspect of live theater? (will the actor mess up?)

This translation is perhaps the most novel-like in form, doing away with the at-times cumbersome dactylic hexameter of the original Greek. The panhellenic ambition was in effect more clear.

Basically an investigation of typology and morphology of urban form, the analytical drawings are most clear. The pursuit of underlying order is something that I think my program speaks of: what "stuff" makes up this experience we call life?

If I design the machine to propagate images , will I impact in any way the output ? Is the medium indeed the message? It seems television is a paranoid medium...

-a series of interviews reveals the sensibilities of contemporary set designers ranging from Ming Cho Lee to Heidi Landesman. It was interesting to see how text, subtext and atmosphere were dealt with in productions ranging from Shakespeare’s "Hamlet" to Chekov’s "The Seagull"; oblique layering allows for the irrational coexistence of contradictory elements...day/night...inside/outside...

At Chaux the workers’ dignity was factored into the efficient layout of industry, much to the ire of King Louis XV:

"These views are grand, but why so many columns; they are only suited to temples and the palaces of kings.(37)."

The rituals that the Masonic lodge entails are informative to my project regarding the tunneling into the unknown/ disorientation/ orientation...