Human bodies are made of matter and, being subject to gravity, have weight. (Weight is the force created when a mass is acted upon by a gravitational field.) Our weighty bodies exert pressure on the surfaces that we encounter. We make indentations when we sit or lie on soft surfaces such as the grass. Furniture and upholstery give way to our mass. Our bodies are in turn marked by the surfaces that we encounter with our weighty and fleshy bodies. Our next project, my feet can’t touch the ground, asks you to consider the architectural implications of our undeniably weighty bodies.
Weight, gravity and the ground are subjects central to historical architectural discourse. Rajchman, in his discussion of ground and the possibilities emergent in becoming un-grounded, cites Schopenhauer’s notion that “architecture is the art of overcoming heaviness or gravity and the resistance of matter.”1
Discussing Le Corbusier’s thoughts on domestic architecture and the city Rajchman says that in Le Corbusier’s view, “we should sever the traditional connection between building and ground, giving up the continuity where a building is the figure whose ground is supplied by its natural setting. With such ‘artificiality’ goes a kind of abstraction. The house becomes an abstraction of vertical and horizontal panes, the plan free to take on various configurations and the façade open to various kinds of transparency."2
Strategies . . .
So, what might it mean to overcome the weight of bodies? How might we stop our feet from touching the ground? Two possible strategies are dwelling on lightness (Calvino) and "affording" the carrying of the body. “My working method has more often than not involved the subtraction of weight. I have tried to remove weight, sometimes from people, sometimes from heavenly bodies, sometimes from cities; . . . maybe I was only then becoming aware of the weight, the inertia, the opacity of the world. . . ”3
Affordance:
An affordance is the quality of an object, or an environment, that allows an individual to perform action. Psychologist James J. Gibson originally introduced the term in his 1977 article The Theory of Affordances. He defined affordances as all "action possibilities" latent in the environment, objectively measurable and independent of the individual's ability to recognize them, but always in relation to the actor and therefore dependent on their capabilities. For instance, a set of steps which rises four feet high does not afford the act of climbing if the actor is a crawling infant.
“Affordance is the comprehensive understanding of both the subject of an action and the environment that it “affords”, or allows for . . . For instance . . . Standing wouldn’t occur if there were no gravity and no decently solid surface on which to do it. Under a weightless condition we would float . . . In the case of standing, both gravity and a solid surface are said to “afford” an action”. 4
How might you deal with this architectural issue of weight, ground and gravity?
What form might afford the carrying of another person?
Your task:
Work in your group of three.
Invite one other person to be your “body”.
Design and fabricate a device for carrying your body so that its feet don’t touch the ground,that is it becomes un-grounded.
Consider the ergonomics, comfort, balance and the vestibular system of the bodies,
(that carried and those carrying). Your device should be carefully crafted, it is a cultural as well as a functional artefact. You might also need to pursue research into aerodynamics, light weight materials and systems of fabrication.
It will also be important to create a team identity.
Timeline:
Friday 13 March
“My feet can’t touch the ground” workshop introduction
Tuesday 17 March
9:00-12:00 open studio
Thursday 19 March
9:00-12:00 studio
Friday 20 March
9:00-12:00 “My feet can’t touch the ground” testing
Auckland Domain, check blog closer to time for details and map
Sources in this brief:
1 Rajchman, J. (1997) Some senses of ground. In Davidson, C. ed. “Anybody”. New York and Cambridge
Mass., Anyone Corp and MIT Press.
2 ibid
3 Italo Calvino, “Six memos for the next millennium”, Cambridge, 1988. Pg 3-4
4 Kenya Hara, “Designing Design”, Lars Muller Publishers, Baden, 2007. Pg 4
Image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Physicist_Stephen_Hawking_in_Zero_Gravity_NASA.jpg
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