*OUTLINE* in progress


0. DIALECTICS

moving away from a dependence on binary relationships to exploring relationships, thresholds, "relational" architecture vs spaces of escape


1. SUBJECTIVITY and PLACE -- HISTORICAL ANALYSIS of the reception of our environments

1a. The repetitive experience (the resident): Body knowledge.

. ritual.  permanence.  ownership.  the engaged subject. 

. connection to place through interaction.

1b. The singular experience (the visitor): Optical consumption.

. momentary.  transience.  no responsibility/appropriation.  the freedom of the shopper.

. connection to place through image. 

 1c. Representation of these modes of perception: method for defining these connections, use in design?

1*. Transcendence/conflation of these experiences. 

. reversal of "resident" and "visitor" subjectivities in land art and monuments.  connection without ownership.  specific subjectivity.

. the intentionally (dis)placed subject.  pedagogical/politicized architecture of utopian designers.

  . homogenization in communities: second- and third-home urbanism.  ownership without connection.  generic subjectivity.


2. RELATIONAL -- NEW SYNTHESIS of subjectivity and place

 2a. Crisis: homogenization and collapse of dialectics

  . relevance: (collective) ownership today

  . privatizing public, public disappearing.  different outward appearances but same spaces.  crafting the same type of character, identity lost.  defining ourselves, our contexts, where we come from but operating with no common ground.  can we still preserve a sense of ownership and connection to physical space?

  . too much imagery, too much information: seeking our own individual experiences, but still acting as anonymous subjects.

 2b. What are we looking for?  CASE STUDIES

  . role reversals, new subjectivities, new definitions of place,connection,identity,collective

 2c. Focus on social interaction and revealing cultural forces: the contingencies of relationships between people, objects, environments

  . Architecture can sharpen consciousness of the self

  . And can thus empower people in environments of growing artificial ubiquity


3. LAS VEGAS

Las Vegas offers ubiquitous images for both tourist and resident, though completely disassociated.

  . Mapping the communities: where are the tourists, where are the residents.  who is moving, who is static.  investment in the city?

  . Perceptions of the city.

  . Synthesis: the threshold between living and playing, reality and image, environment and individual

  ...


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