J_Hubbard
The reader is asked to step away from static materiality and understand the concept of “field” and “field conditions” as fluid and abstract concepts. Space as something to be understood, more than perceived. “[The field] contains no material points, rather functions, vectors, and speeds.”
Of works in a field, composition can be understood to follow arrangements of geometry and of algebra. Of algebra, “working with numerical units, combined one after another” and of geometry, “working with figures (lines, planes, solids) to form larger wholes.” These are fundamentals of human perception that architecture employs in the field.
In explaining what separates the novel minimalism from its predecessors as an art style, Donald Judd claims, “Most sculpture is made part by part, by addition, composed.” Minimalism erects itself on allowing for an intense holisticality. The dire consequences of scant composition place a larger burden of responsibility on form and color. The space between elements is truly incorporated to be equally as important to the work as the elements themselves. Bringing this approach to architecture uncluttered the definition of the field, as understood by Stan Allen, and how it relates to architectural space. The human present in the architectural space becomes as much an actor of the composition as the form, elements, and void between.
The reader is asked to perceive figures of a field not as an object against its surroundings, but as “an effect emerging from the field itself. Moments of intensity.” Verticality presents itself in architecture and city development in a two-dimensional demeanor. Within a cityscape, the highest points are moments of intensity.
Oh, in their flocks in the sky, the birds are so pretty. In the late 80’s simulated birds with only the individual directives of maintaining proximity and speed to one another. Without fail, the little avians of computer binary began to dance in the same pretty flocks as birds in the real, unsimulated world. Though only given individual instruction, the birds attracted each other and began to function as what can be perceived as a singular instance. How these birds interact can be used as a reference to understand actors in architectural fields. People in crowds, flow of traffic, sound emotion, sound. All exist in the field.
And as times change so does understanding. The rules of law and rules of form previously to be understood as objective and true, falter and stammer as public opinion broadens and changes. The viewer is reminded that “static, accidents and disruptions will inevitably undermine any formal system.” It is reinforced that, as any field, architecture is subject to change and influence.
