2000.03.21 17:26
architectural lacunae
architectural lacunae :
blank architectural spaces : architectural gaps, architectural holes : missing parts of architecture : architectural defects, architectural flaws
OR
architectural blank spaces : gap architecture, hole architecture : architecture's missing parts : defect architecture, flaw architecture
"The professor's lecture on architectural lacunae harbored critical lacunae itself."
2000.08.07
Eutropian Bonding
...outlined of a thesis/essay about Eutropia as best friend of Helena and a bonding force of Constantine’s reign.
1. ...a [virtual] place in architectural history, and Eutropia possessing the exact same attribute.
2. Eutropian connections: an analysis of Eutropia's decending genealogy.
3. the against all odds friendship/bonding with Helena.
4. Eutropia's Christianity.
5. double basilicas mean double architects? e.i., Helena and Eutropia.
6. Eutropia (with Helena and Fausta) at the first Nicean Council.
7. Eutropia's relation to the Maxentius buildings in Rome.
8. Eutropia's relation to the Piazza Armerani?
9. did Eutropia carry out Helena's dying wishes for a double basilica at Trier.
11. did Eutropia have anything to do with Fausta's death/murder?
12. the double sessorians in Piranesi’s Campo Marzio.
13. the notion of using email lists as an extremely advanced publishing system.
14. did Eutropia have anything to do with the discovery of the True Cross?
2000.08.16: Eutropian Bonding is now a chapter within Learning from Lacunae.
2000.08.15
...the course
...a title/concept that allows a broad incorporation of the work at Quondam: Learning From Lacunae, a progressive inquiry of the acquisition of knowledge via reflection on what is not there.
2000.08.15 12:18
Learning From Lacunae
Learning From Lacunae does not examine the process of learning via merely the act of not doing something. For example, learning may occur by looking closely at the manifestations and effects of lacunary assumptions.
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2000.12.14
Language & Voice
Paul says:
Yes, a building affords a sequence of perceptual events, each which may entail recognition of an architectural "noun," but a mere sequence is not the same as a sentence with a predicate, stating a connection between a subject and object. Beyond the "manifests" or "represents" there is no architectural verb, is there? We may interpret, or "read into" the sequence an implied meaning, but the observer brings to the experience that meaning. What does the Danteum MEAN if I don't know the literary program? It is merely a perceptually effective sequence of formal episodes.
Steve adds:
A "perceptually effective sequence" is something that an architect can intentionally design. Le Corbusier did it at the Villa Savoye, which is "understandable" without referencing any literary source. Le Corbusier also did it within the Palais des Congrès (1964), Terragni did it within the Danteum (1938), and James Stirling did it within the Museum for Nordrhein-Westfalen (1977) and within the Wallraf-Richartz Museum (1977). Sadly, none of these buildings was ever executed, hence their designs are not prominant examples within architectural history. It was precisely because of the sequences within these designs however, that prompted me to create computer models of these buildings (in the early 1990s). I also wrote several articles and essay on the "promenade architecturale" which were published at www.quondam.com. My point now is that had these buildings been built, just maybe there might now be a far better understanding (and hence better teaching) of just how effective a deliberately designed architectural sequence can be.
Granted, any architect designed "preferred route" can be misunderstood or even ignored by a building's user, but that shouldn't prevent architects from at least trying to add "architectural language" to how a building is moved through.
What I find most interesting about designing architectural sequence is that the sequence itself is not actual form, rather the gaps between actual forms. For me, it's another example of learning from lacunae.
2000.12.14
conceptio / womb envy
After finding the translation of conceptio last night, I was struck by the notion that becoming pregnant is the first meaning of conceptio (i.e., conception), and it made me think how the notion of first coming up with a concept for a design never really plays on the notion of having a concept is like being pregnant. This morning I thought some more about this and it dawned on me that the notion of males being the idea/thinking half of the species may well just stem from the fact that males are not able to biolgically conceive, hence ideas as womb envy.
I might eventually take this idea some steps further, e.g., in Learning from Lacunae.
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2000.12.19
conspectii
I particularly like the lacunae. You know, the bits that are there implicitly, but not explicitly.
2001.08.28 11:08
Re: Prisca, Eutropia and Valeria
Thank you for supplying the Lactantius source regarding the (textually slim) possibility that Prisca and Valeria were Christian believers during the persecution of 303-305 or in the following years of their lives. While textual evidence is most often the cornerstone of historical veracity, there are also many other factors that relate 'history'. For example, you mention some reasons that may have compelled Eutropia to 'convert' to Christianity by 324 or soon thereafter. A question I ask is: how might Eutropia (and Helena for that matter) have reacted when she learned of the dire fate of Prisca and Valeria? Prisca and Eutropia no doubt knew each other quite well, perhaps just as well as their respective husbands Diocletian and Maximian knew each other. The violent deaths of Prisca and Valeria may well have affected Eutropia greatly. Perhaps this is the reason why she later decided to "embrace the faith of her son-in-law," or perhaps this is one of the factors that further resolved Eutropia's own faith. The point being that either scenario is plausible depending almost only on individual point of view.
As to lack of other textual evidence regarding the possible Christian beliefs of Prisca and Valeria, I am quickly reminded of the recent discussion here on damnatio memoriae and the notion of historical 'silence' as well. Last night I was reading H.W. Bird's Introduction to the Breviarium ab Urbe Condita of Eutropius, and was intrigued to learn that Christianity was virtually not at all mentioned in this abbreviated history of Rome and its rulers, even though the text was dedicated to and written for the Christian Emperor Valens in 369. Did Eutropius omit Christian details because he himself was not a Christian? Having been close to the emperor Julian (the Apostate), however, the rise (and threat) of Christianity to the Hellenic status quo was surely not unknown to Eutropius. The Breviarium of Eutropius is a perfect example of textual history that purposefully omits much of what (really) happened.
As an aside, last summer I thought of a great title for a book, but alas I wasn't sure what the content would or could be. Given what appears to be my approach toward (writing) history, I think I could now eventually fill a book entitled Learning from Lacunae, a progressive inquiry of the acquisition of knowledge via reflection on what is not there.
Getting back to serious history then, it is interesting to note that Fausta is named within the Breviarium of Eutropius, specifically her disclosure of Maximian's plot against Constantine (Book 10, section 3). Comparatively, the death of Crispus is mentioned (10:6) but only that Constantine "killed his son"--the name of Crispus is omitted. This appears to be a sure sign as to the continuance of the damnatio memoriae of Crispus, but why then is Fausta's name written in the same text if she also suffered damnatio memoriae. Again, is there then a special significance to the 'Helena/Fausta' palimpsest of CIL X 678?
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