these is..

the act of "world theatre" is what we engage in every day. we exchange words, wisdom, and personal perspectives as a means of communication and understanding. using theatre as the catalyst for this public facade, i am attempting to re-construct the dialogue between actor and audience allowing individuals to change their positions/points of view in a type of ebb and flow of roles. this facade is designed to allow an exchange of views from either side of the wall so as to modify the normal perspectives of passersby and give them a means of re-contextualizing their environments. 

process

so, ive been trying to negotiate this form. its been..  f r u s t r a t i n g :0)

  

i moved on to wire to begin to think about the structure and mobility of the form for interaction with the user (i.e. the hand).

  

i'm using nylon to skin the form so as to allow it to rotate and i began by stitching the wire through the nylon and shoring up the form with thicker gauge wire, but . .

  

that was not working. i know it can work, but i have to figure out the proper limits of the nylon to balance the structural capacities of both materials.

as for the wall, i am using 6"-8"pieces of threaded rod with plastic tubing for the joints. the tubing allows for more flexibility, suggesting to the users that they can begin to take control of the wall and manipulate views at will.

  

below is an elevation of a portion of the wall ( the wire shape needs to be skinned). the last image is a close-up of the construction detail using washers to pinch the wires that i have wrapped around the rod to give it lateral support and also secure the form.. 

  

(i've gotta come up with a better term to refer to this tapering form as..)

explorations

here are a few images of my first exploration into a public face or façade. the aim was to begin to mediate the lack of exchange between the human body and the structures that surround them.

using theatre as the inspiration for this initial model, i began to perceive the sides of the wall as the dichotomy between actor and audience. understanding the interdependency between the two, it was necessary that actions that occur on one side of the wall affect actions allowable on the other side. 

the tapering form is to frame views to the individuals on the opposite side of the wall thereby re-constructing them as "actor" and the one viewing as a member of the greater "audience" in the play of life.

framing views allows one to focus on aspects of life that beforehand may have gone unnoticed. the wall allows for both the larger, expansive view to be appreciated as well as the minute details of life such as the swaying of hips, or the twitch of a nose, or a fly that needs zipping...

using an external structure to create a new dialogue between strangers on the street removes the anonymity and unease associated with being outside of one's comfort zone [home], creating new opportunities for exchange and interaction with the built environment and, more importantly, with each other.

how do i start? with questions.

yeah.. so this is going to be a fairly casual blog that aims to be an in-depth and honest exploration into what it means to create a socio-political architecture.

what is politics?

what is architecture?

how does the american political structure shape our country and the image of our country to outside nations? what of our image of them?

and, as for the catalyzing questions to this problem: how do these "external factors" shape and condition our own psyche and affect our perceptions of ourselves, our bodies and the interactions we have with the built environment?

are these factors truly external? or is it more accurate to say that there is a fair exchange between how we influence our society and how it "returns the favor."

how can we compose architecture to create a social space that facilitates an exchange between our bodies and the built environment?

more importantly, why am i already viewing them as disparate entities and not as similar elements of a larger societal structure that enhance each others inherent qualities through their interaction?