1997.03.23
Stanley Allen article
I eventuall have to reread the S. Allen article with the expressed purpose of calling out portions that I wish to dispute. Perhaps I could do a critical review of the article as part of an ongoing work concerning the Campo Marzio. Perhaps I make it one of my objectives to "correct" what info is already out there, or at least call out what literature exists, and then make critical comments on the texts cited.
1997.03.23
critical review of Tafuri, Bloomer, Wilton-Ely
I already have many ideas of how to "correct" Tafuri's reading of the Campo Marzio and I think I will start this process of critical review in the form of HTML. I will start by writing my notes next to the published texts, and eventually I will also add graphics. In due course, an entire article will be done (or at least very completely outlined). I already have the published texts for this work, and I will just use the cut and paste method.
1997.03.23
Campo Marzio glossary
I have a number of ideas concerning the use of Sue's glossary. First, I want to add whatever words are not already included. This means that I have to make a list by going through the entire map.
I also just now thought of doing an illustrated glossary where each term will be defined and illustrated by all the examples of the term found in the ichnographia, along with adding any other information that may pretain to the term, like specific literary or historical references, (which may include Piranesi's own Campo Marzio text).
1997.03.31
Campo Marzio database log
I created grusr\campo.
I have consolidated the old cm1 database into just 12 layers. This is a new cm_1.db (705 kb).
The proto blank database is cm_0.db, with 100 layers.
As the other databases develop, layer 12 will be a consistent river layer throughout all the subdivided databases. 12.ly will contain all the waterways throughout the Campo Marzio.
I will be working with the Campo Marzio databases at their original reduced scale. I will not convert the data to its proper (real) scale until all of the Campo Marzio is redrawn. (The scale factor for increase is 5.1535.
I still have to come to a decision as to the organization of the orthagonal plan data. Right now I do not want to consolidate big clumps of data, but rather keep individual building complexes as separate layers.
I did a quick overview of all the databases, and made some loose notes as to what needs to be done within each data base. I will start my work tomorrow in sorting out all the data here and bring it all up to the standards of the new organization.
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1997.04.21
me @ SAH
I went to Baltimore on Friday to meet Susan Peik (Friends of Schinkel) and Rand Carter (Schinkel scholar, Hamilton College). I got on well with Rand, but Susan is a ...! Anyway, while I was sitting by myself in the hotel lobby after some afternoon sightseeing, a man and woman from the conference sat down next to me to discuss something. I looked at his name tag and it was John Pinto. When they finished I quickly introduced myself to John, got his e-mail address, and told him there was some Campo Marzio material on a web site I had created.
I intend to e-mail him once I have completed more work on the Fasolo article pages that I am currently working on.
1997.05.15
Campo Marzio, Fasolo, etc.
I will continue to generate links to the Fasolo article throughout the rest of May and June. I imagine at this point that I will be using Piranesi's own plans to illustrate part III of the Fasolo article.
Along with work on the Fasolo article, I should also begin to form a table of contents for the overall Campo Marzio project, which will ultimately act as an outline for the "book" proper. I think this will be the best way for me to organize my own aspirations re: the Campo Marzio. (I really have to start collecting all my ideas and putting them in a order.)
I just went over all my notes and material, and there is a lot of disjointed stuff. I am going to work on a variety of web pages, each pertaining to one aspect of the data/book, but I will start by creating an omnibus web page that will feature nearly all the collected data (or at least starting with the already published texts). I will also try to experiment with different types of web page formats.
In my notes, I mention doing a key plan (image map), and I think I will experiment along these lines using the long axis as the base story line. There could be a definative text as an introduction followed by the key plan that will send the user to more detailed info pertaining to the chosen area with the key plan.
I will also start working on the presentation of contiguous elements. I will use various colors and x-hatches to show the contiguous elements both in context and alone.
I will also begin to compile the illustrated glossary, which will work hand in hand with the typological display.
1997.05.15
Imagination / Piranesi
Piranesi links to my work on the imagination and architecture, particularly as a potent example of the juncture of the assimilating and metabolic imagination. I'm just now wondering whether I should create a web page with hyper contents referring to all my notes on the imagination--taken primarily from my Timepiece notes, but all the other notes as well. The fact that Piranesi is involved will allow me to make more links to the Timepiece in more unexpected places.
I wonder if "capturing more than meets the eye" will provide the overall link between Piranesi and the imagination? I have to go over all the texts again and begin to formorulate a web page for it. The carceri will also be an imporatant part of the Piranesi/imagination discussion, therefore I have to begin looking up and collecting data on the subject.
a. look up tafuri, manfredo on the Internet.
b. look through the avery index online for Piranesi, Campo Marzio, Tafuri references (see article "Cologne in Context" and the footnotes in the Stanley Allen article.
c. get a better copy of the Middleton review from jsah (this will become the backbone of the "about the competition" portion of the book proposal).
d. see if I can get copies of some of the articles referred to by Middleton.
e. look up the catalogue reference by Allen.
f. look up the Paolo guy (that delivered the SAH paper) on the web.
There is more research that I have to pertaining the Stirling. architectural promenade, etc.
1997.05.22
next exhibit(s) @ Quondam: Campo Marzio
I would also like to do a smaller exhibit on the contiguous elements of Piranesi's Campo Marzio plans. Putting it into an exhibit will force me to treat the subject seriously and I might be surprised myself by the drawing results I come up with. (There is at least one past note concerning my intentions regarding the contiguous elements.) I just thought of a drawing where only the contiguous elements are shown in context. It might make a very interesting drawing (I'm sure one that has never been thought of before) and I picture it looking very much like an archeological map. Of course, that is the real point of the exercise--I want to make a point about the possible nature of Piranesi's reconstructive/imaginative method. I will make sure that it is only a suggestion that came out of my own redrawing of the map/plan.
I just thought that the contiguous elements might be the perfect place to also start with a 3-D construction of the Campo Marzio. It certainly makes sense because the contiguous elements are the basic elements that will then just be mirror copied and copy rotated. It will be like turning Piranesi's Campo Marzio back into a ruin.
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1997.05.28
notes on/for projects
The following is a list (hopefully complete) of the projects that I want to compile notes on:
2. Campo Marzio
a. start an earnest book proposal, using web pages as a form of organization of what the entire project is going to be
b. continued noting and illustrating of the Fasolo article part
c. begin web pages of the Fasolo article part
d. begin new work on contiguous elements in context and as 3-D extrusions
e. start expansion of the Life and Death essay
f. retrieve the Campo/Parkway project comparisons from the old system and use them for NOT THERE (relating to the Parkway Interrotta project)
g. do a new extents of the database page, and keep the old extents to someday (in NOT THERE) show the gradual growth stages of the Campo Marzio redrawing
h. begin glossary/typology formulation
i. begin specific notes that criticise the current literature (in web page format)
j. begin my own personal story of redrawing the Campo Marzio (for NOT THERE)
1997.06.05
promenade architecturale - triumphal way
Realizing how the Danteum brings an entirely unique twist to the architectural promenade "formula" has greatly expanded my architectural promenade book into a much more substantial set of examples which now also include Piranesi and Dante's Divine Comedy.
1997.06.11
architecture over time - ruins as generators
1. I had much deeper ideas concerning the notion of designing buildings first as ruins with a set of design alternatives to demonstrate how the architecture can adapt over time. The best example of manifesting my idea is the Wacko House as infrastructure (as it is right now) and the actual cladding and climitizing of the "building" can take on any number of manifestations (which I may or may not also design). I am definately going to now approach this project in this way and it has real theoretical implications (i.e., regarding the extremism of historical preservation, palimpsest, urban renewal, metabolism vs. osmosis, design over time, Piranesi's contiguous elements, etc.) I actually think this is going to be my next theoretical work because I can produce limitless demonstrations of the theory within the virtual realm.
3. Today I thought it might be fun to use/demonstrate the building as ruin/generator idea in conjunction with some of the Campo Marzio plans. i.e., add spaces within the "framework" of the Piranesi plans.
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1997.07.11
fertile architecture - fertilized architecture
I am presently reading The Hindu Temple and I am very happy to find that my instincts are correct in terms of seeking fertility in architecture--the Hindu temple is the prime example. There are already good quotes and the whole notion of successive repetition is at the very core of the temple's design. (I will have to scan the notes soon.) After I finish this book, I will do more research of Hindu architecture, and of other architecture from Asia and Meso America.
Given the dates of the Hindu temples, it seems that the history of this architecture begins coincidental with the womb, and its subsequent development then coincides with the first three months of the TPH pregnancy. I am just now thinking of a time line of architectural history relative to the TPH pregnancy. Perhaps the history of fertilized architecture begins around AD 700 with Hindu temples and Muslim mosques. The inner sanctuary of the Hindu temple is, in fact, called the womb, and perhaps the repetitive domes of Muslim architecture are also related to the womb (besides the fact that I see Islam as the religion where God is pure conception--a being beyond human comprehension). Perhaps then Gothic architecture also becomes part of the history of fertilized architecture, again because of its repetition (and organic, multi-cell structural formation) and because many Gothic cathedrals are dedicated to Mary, the virgin mother. In a strange way, this initial three month period seems to come to an end right when the architecture of assimilation (the Renaissance) enters the picture--the naval coincides with the TPH pregnancy at three months. (This is a very interesting sequence that I did not see before.)
My initial readings of Hindu architecture also made me realize that there may be a significant difference between fertile architecture and fertilized architecture, and the dates of each type (style?) stem from being above or below the womb. Perhaps Hindu, Muslim, and Gothic architecture are a product of when the womb and the developing fetus are actually in the plane of the present, however, I might also see the Pantheon as an example of fertilized architecture--it may symbolize the fertility of Greek and Roman architecture at the point when it becomes fertilized. (I should also note that I just thought that the Pantheon also fall close to the center of the "ages of highest fertility".
1997.07.11
Campo Marzio - 3d (re)constructions
I thought that it might be a long term project for me to start creating 3-D constructions of Piranesi's plans, and in so doing I will try to be as inventive as Piranesi was. In fact, I will be using Piranesi's own example of a metabolic imagination, so rather than trying to do it as he might, I will use my own (metabolic) imagination and create a whole new Imperial Rome, albeit in 3-D. I really like this idea and it could occupy me for many years. I only hope that I actually start to see it happen. Perhaps the best way for me to approach this project is to just be very loose (especially in the beginning) and just experiment in a very carefree way. I probably should not worry initially whether or not what I produce is "Roman" or not. It is probably only through first experimenting that I will find the ultimate path that I am to take. Of course, I will be recording and archiving my work as it progresses (i.e., keeping separate databases as well as web pages that record the process and the results.
If I start with some easy plans, I may find that I get much done in a very short period of time. In general, however, I think it will be well worth my while to get some large reproductions of Piranesi's own 3-D renditions of the Campo Marzio, and, of course, I will use these images as my primary source of inspiration (and I will probably learn much more about Piranesi's own design methodology while I am in the process myself).
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