EXERCISE 1.1a
- From object to field
After reading the quote by Sanford Kwinter, my understanding of the field in its simplest form is a space for action. As Stan Allen goes into explaining his perception of the field, it became clear that this concept is about how forms create a structure that are there to support what happens within them. The activities that take place are what define the space itself, highlighting how critical space is what defines to the user experience and the relationships over the form itself.
- Geometric vs. Algebraic Combination
Allen brings up the examples of the Great Mosque of Cordoba and Venice hospital to demonstrate the important of geometric unity. Even though the buildings differ in or not having a central emphasis, the geometry allows for the buildings to be seamlessly added on to with unifying forms. This also demonstrates the strength of these geometries as forms that can stand the test of time.
- Walking out of cubism
The change in art form from cubism to minimalism to postminimal as described by Allen can also be seen how design has changed in terms of being walls, or planes, that define a space in a strict way to a form that allows for experience to define the space. The quote that stood out to me to compliment this thought is when Allen talks about how art goes “beyond formal or compositional variation to engage the space of the gallery and the body of the viewer.”
- Thick 2D: Moires, mats
The first sentence of this section jumped out at me, “all grids are fields, but not all fields are grids.” I think this statement expresses how there are limitations to an ordered system, and there are only so many outcomes from one. In contrast to something to come up from a more organic place, when the fields create something new and different, or as stated by Allen as, “moments of intensity.”
- Flocks, schools, swarms, crowds
This concept made me thing about how there are different forms of movement that happen without any strict rules. As Allen describes in a flock, it was something that happened without any kind of command for it to form and that it was something that occurred in an organic get orderly way. Even the patterns that appear in a crowd, something that is more fluid can still have a sense of order in terms of the way it moves or the way people join.
