Elective at semester(s) 6, 8, ECTS: 3
dis·sec·tion
n.
1. The act or an instance of dissecting.
2. Something that has been dissected, such as a tissue specimen under study.
3. A detailed examination or analysis.
Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation
Through the analysis -verbal and diagrammatic- of a work created within the fields/symbolic media of architecture, visual and performing arts, literature etc, the students are asked to design a 'piece of clothing' or rather a full scale prototype structure to enfold their body with.
The aim is to explore the intrinsic properties of the architectural design process given the thesis that:
1) A work of architecture and spatial meaning are constructed through dense cross-modal design operations. Translating works across different symbolic media help us to identify, firstly their similarities, the common ‘areas’, where transference of meaning takes place; secondly we can better study and define the distinct properties of every medium and therefore develop clearer definitions of architectural forms and design.
2) Clothes provide an excellent model for the exploration of the relationship between the body and its immediate spatial environment. Aspects of spatial intimacy and self identity are also taken into account.
3) Architectural forms are mainly explored through their fundamental property: configuring human performativity.
The notion of 'skin' (skin, structural skin, envelope, surface etc) is suggested as the starting point of a study in different scales, from that of the human body and the garment, to the full scale of a building.
The notion of skin is not treated as the borderline that unites or divides situations and/or characteristics. It is rather considered and presented as an expanded condition of space and time that describes qualities of embodiment and integration of special characteristics. At the same time it is perceived as a social and political 'capacitor' of meanings.
The (dis)section is used as the basic methodological tool.
Suggested Books:
Barthes R., The Fashion System, transl. M. Ward-R.Howard, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983 [1967].
Barthes R., The Language of Fashion, transl. A. Stafford, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2006 [1993].
Baxandall M.,Patterns of Intention: On the Historical Explanation of Pictures, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1985.
Entwistle J., The Fashioned Body / Fashion, Dress and Modern Social Theory, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000.
Entwistle J. – Wilson E. (επιμ.), Body Dressing, Oxford: Berg, 2001.
Goodman, Nelson,Languages of Art: An Approach to a Theory of Symbols, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company, 1976.
Peponis John, Spatial construction of meaning: four papers – Formulation, in The Journal of Architecture, Volume 10, April 2005
Exhibition Catalogues
Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed , The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Images from the work of Bart Hess
http://barthess.nl/
sites:
http://shape-and-colour.com/2008/05/12/lucy-mcrae-bart-hess-lucyandbart/
http://designspiration.net/image/144032950413/