7
8/10/2019 Guattari Architectural Enunciation Interstices 6 2005-Libre http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/guattari-architectural-enunciation-interstices-6-2005-libre 1/7 Felix Guattari Architectural Enunciation ' Translation by Tim Adams For thousands of years, perhaps by imitating crustaceans or t er mites, human beings have been encasing themselves in a ll kinds of she ll s. We are ceaselessly secreting buildings, clothes, cars, images and messages that cling to the fl esh of o ur ex istence like fl esh clings to the bones of o ur skele ton s. Nevertheless, there is one major difference between men, crustaceans and term ites, which is that the last two species haven't for the moment been fo und to include any co rp ora ti ons of architects, ar ti sans and media "pros". Be that as it ma y, for a very long tim e, the delineation of social assemblages has been largely du e to ecolithjc ex pr essions such as the building of zig gurat s, the demolition of the Basti lle, or the ca pture of the Winter Palace. Only now, besides stone having been replaced by concrete, steel and g la ss, the cleavages of power occ ur above a ll in terms of the speed of communic a tion and the co ntrol of information. Under these co nditions architects don't even know which hero to turn to What use would Le Corbusier be today in a pl ace like Mexico City, that grows uncontrollably towards 40 million inhabitants Even someone like Haussmann would be useless here because the politician s, technocrats and engi neers now manage this sort of thing with the least possible contribution from the men of that art that Hegel once placed on the bottom ra nk among all other ar ts. Admittedly archi tects do maintain a minimal wind ow of control' in the domain of ex trava gant buildings. But positions in this area come at a high price, and unless they co nsent to become postmodern dandies, which the politico-financial schemes always imply, the lu cky few are subjected to a deceitful degrada tion of their creative talent s. They channel their energies into pure theory, ut op ia, or a nostalg ic return to the past.' Alternatively, although the times hardly seem to lend themse lv es to thi s, there is the possibility for criti ca l co ntesta ti on. The architectural object flies to pi eces. It is useless to cling to what it has been or should b e. Situated at the intersection o f political stakes of the utmost importan ce, of demographic and et hnic tensions, of economi c, so cial and regional antago ni sms that are by no means nearing resolution, sp urred on by co nstant technological and industrial mutati on s, the archi tectural obj ect is irreversibly co ndemned to being tugged and torn in a ll directions. Nothing infers, however, that we should take an eclectic co ur se of action in such a state of affairs, which on the contrary demands an ex acerbation of the ethico-political choices that have always und erl ain the practice of this professio n. From now on it will be impossi bl e to take ref- I. [The source for this transla- tion is Lenonciation architec- turale frol"Q Felix Guacur i' s Cartograph i es schizoanalyt i ques (1989: 291.301). Wherever possible I have found existing English texts for Guattari's ref erences and made his quotes correspond to these. Unless indicated by square brackets. all other footnotes are Guattari·s. Many thanks to Trudy Agar for her considerable gUidance with my translation and grammar. Any errors that remain are en tirely my ow n  Trans .] 2 [Guattari s term here is creneau. which has a double meaning of crenel of power and battlement of a building ". My thanks to T rudy Agar for suggesting window of con trol Trans.] 3. As an example of pure th eo- ry, Leon Krier considers that in the face of the holocaust that raged through our cities , . a re- sponsible architect doesn't want to build anything today ". 80- by/one no. 1 (Paris: UGE. 1983). 132 , As examples of utopia. the work of Daniel Ubeskind or the landscape compositions of Vittorio Gregotti. such as his project for collective hOUSing in Cefalu. have little chance of be ing realized. For a nostalgiC re- turn to the past, see the inter esting propositions on regional architecture in Gaudin (1984). 11.

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Felix Guattari

Architectural

Enunciation

'

Translation by Tim Adams

For thousands of years, perhaps by imitating crustaceans or t

er

mites,

human

beings have been encasing themselves in a

ll

kinds of she

ll

s. We

are ceaselessly secreting buildings, clothes, cars, images

and

messages that

cling to the flesh of our ex istence like flesh clings to the bones of o

ur

skele

ton s. Nevertheless, there is one major difference between men, crustaceans

and term ites, which is that the last two species haven't for the moment been

fo

und

to include any co

rp

ora

ti

ons of architects,

ar

ti

sans

and media "pros".

Be that as it ma

y,

for a very long tim

e,

the delineation of social assemblages

has been largely

du

e to ecolithjc ex

pr

essions such as the building of zi

g

gurats, the demolition of the Basti lle, or the ca pture of the Winter Palace.

Only now, besides stone having been replaced by concrete, steel and g la ss,

the cleavages of power occ

ur

above a

ll

in terms of the speed of communica

tion and the

co

ntrol of information. Under these

co

nditions architects don't

even know which hero to

turn

to What use would Le Corbusier be today

in a pl ace like Mexico City, that grows uncontrollably towards 40 million

inhabitants Even someone like Haussmann would be useless here because

the politician

s, technocrats and engi neers now manage this sort of thing

with the least possible contribution from the men of that art that Hegel

once placed on the bottom ra

nk

among all other

ar

ts. Admittedly archi

tects

do

maintain a minimal wind

ow

of control' in the domain of ex trava

gant buildings. But positions in this area come at a high price, and unless

they co nsent

to

become postmodern dandies, which the politico-financial

schemes always imply, the lu cky few are subjected to a deceitful degrada

tion of their creative talents. They channel their energies into

pure

theory,

ut

op

ia, or a nostalg

ic

return to the past.' Alternatively, although the times

hardly seem to lend themse lves to thi s, there is the possibility for critica l

co ntestation.

The architectural object flies to

pi

eces. It is useless to cling to what

it

has been or should b

e.

Situat

ed

at the intersection of political stakes of the

utmost importance, of demographic and

et

hnic tensions, of economic, so

cial and regional antagoni sms that are by no means nearing resolution,

sp

urred on

by

co nstant technological

and

industrial muta

ti

on

s,

the archi

tectural o

bj

ect is irreversibly co ndemn

ed

to being tugged and torn in a

ll

directions. Nothing infers, however, that we should take an eclectic co urse

of action in such a state of affairs, which on the contrary

demands

an ex

acerbation of the ethico-political choices that have always

und

erlain the

practice of this profession. From now on it will be impossible to take ref-

I. [The source for this transla-

tion

is

Lenonciation architec-

turale frol"Q Felix Guacur i's

Cartograph ies

schizoanalyt

iques

(1989: 291.301).

Wherever

possible I have found existing

English

texts for Guattari's ref

erences and made his quotes

correspond to these. Unless

indicated by square brackets. all

other

footnotes are Guattari·s.

Many thanks

to

Trudy Agar for

her considerable gUidance with

my translation and grammar.

Any errors that remain are en

tirely my own

  Trans

.]

2 [Guattari s term here is

creneau. which has a double

meaning of crenel of power

and battlement of a buildi

ng

".

My thanks to T rudy Agar for

suggesting

window of

con

trol Trans.]

3.

As an

example of pure

th

eo-

ry, Leon

Krier

considers that in

the face of the holocaust that

raged through

our

cities ,

.

a re-

sponsible architect doesn't want

to build anything today". 80-

by/

o

ne

no. 1 (Paris: UGE. 1983).

132 ,

As

examples of utopia. the

work

of

Daniel Ubeskind or

the landscape compositions

of

Vittorio

Gregotti.

such as his

project for collective

hOUSing

in

Cefalu. have little chance

of

be

ing

realized. For a nostalgiC re-

turn to the past,

see

the inter

esting propositions on regional

architecture in Gaudin (1984).

11.

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4. I refer here to the exci t ing

ana l

ysis

of Christian Girard

in

Arc

h

itectu

re

et concepts

nomodes:

T

roite d indiscipline

(19

86

).

5. On the some times decisive

position of the programmer

and

the architect in the modelisat

ion

of psychia tr ic institutions,

see

the special edition of Recherches

Uune.

1967).

N

TERSTICES

6

uge behind a

rt

fo r art's sake or pure science with a clear co nscience.'

To

reinvent architecture ca n no longer be taken to mean the reviva l of a styl

e,

a school, or a theory with hegemo

ni

c tendencies, but rather to recompose

the

arc

hit

ectu ra

l elllmciatiol1   and in a sense, the

metier

of the architect

und

er

today's co ndition

s.

When architects stop trying simply to be

pl

as

ti

cians of built

fo

rm and

begin to off

er their services as revealers of the virtual desires of space, pl ace,

journeys and ter ritory, then they will have to analyse the relations between

individua l and collec tive co rporeities by constantly s ing ula

ri

sing their ap

proach. And f

urth

ermore they w ill have to become intercessors between

those desires reve

al

ed to themselves and those interests they o

pp

ose; in

other word

s,

they will have to be artists and cra

ft

smen of perceptual and

relational lived-ex pe

ri

ence [vew] Obviously, I have no part icular desire for

them to lie down on the psychoanalyst 's couch so they can come to terms

with such a decentring of their rol

e.

On

the contrar

y,

I be

li

eve they are

in the position of having to analyse for themselves certain speci

fi

c fun

c

tions of subj ectivation .> For this reason they w ill be able to constitut

e,

along

with many other social and cultural operators, an essential rela y within the

multi-headed assemblages of enunciation that can deal with the co nte

mp

o

rary pro

du

ctions of subjecti vity, both pragmati ca lly and analytica lly. Con

sequently, this is far fro m placing the architect in the role of simply being

a critical observer.

The emphasis having thus shifted from object to project, an archi

tectural work, whatever the char

ac

te

ri

s

ti

cs of

it

s semio

ti

c expression and

its semantic content may be, will now require a specific elaboration of its

enunciative "mate

ri

al

":

how should one pract ice architec

tur

e today? What

part of themse lves do archit

ec

ts need to mobilize? What kind of co mmit

ment should they be making and which operators should they use? Wh at

relative importance should they give to the developer

s,

the engineer

s,

the

town planner

s,

and the user

s,

both ac tual and potential? Up to what point

w

ill

they be justified in making compromises with the va

ri

ous parties in

vo

lv

ed? It's a matter of a hig

hl

y elaborate transferential economy, and one

that

I w ill now examine from the point of view of the two fo rms of

co

nsist

ency of the enunciation of an archit

ec

tural co cept

:

- The first one polypho

ni

c,

of the

p

erce

ptu

al

ord er, in

herent to the deployment of the components co nc

ur

rent with its dis

cur

sive co ming in

to

ex istence; and

- The second one ethico -aesthe

ti

c, of the aff

ec

tive orde r, inhe rent to

its non-disc

ur

sive "coming into being".

The

Polyphonic Components

Under the category of scal

e,

Philippe Boudon has listed twenty ways of

conceptualising the architectural object, a ll essentially based on the cat

egory of space. He then proposes to regroup these into four ca tego

ri es:

-Sca les that refer real space to itself (geographica l, op

ti

ca l visibility, proximity and apportio

nm

ental sc

ales);

- Scales that refer architectural space to an ex terior referent (for

mal, symbolic, technic

al

, functiona l, ex tensional, dimension-

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a lly symbolic, socio-cultural, modelling and economic scales);

-Sca les that refer architectural space to its representation

(geometric, cartographical, and representational scal

es);

and

-Lastly,

scales of architectural thought processes that invo

lv

e a

co nstant to-ing and fro-ing between different spaces

(to

"put into

scal

e",

"give scale" e

tc .).

'

One could no doubt list other components of this type, but from the

point of view of enunciation rather than a simple taxonomic enumeration

of modes of spatialisation, it is evident that thei r number is potentially infi

nite. In fac t, a ll of the virtual enunciations can drift into the vicinity of the

architectural object. As Henri von Lier writes, "a signifi

ca

nt work of archi

tecture always has the ability to be other than what it is. A dwelling is not

dwelling

per

se, but refers to dwelling: it is one of its possibilities appearing

as s

uch.'"

Nevertheless, I have selected eight kinds of assem

bl

ages from

this continuous spectrum of virtual enunciations to reflect those "voices"

that seem to me to be active in co ntemporary a rchitectu re.

1. A geopolitical

enunciation

taking into account not only the orientation

of cardinal points but also the co ntours of the land and the climatic and

demographic g

iv

ens, which evolve over long pe riods like Fernand Brau

del's secul ar trends ca usi ng the ce ntre of gravity within "a n archipelago of

towns" to drift according to the fluctuations of the world-economy."

2. An urbanistic enunciation relative to the laws, regula tions, habits and

customs, concerning the size of parcels of land, the arrangement and vol

umes of buildings, as well as the mechanisms

for

co ntamina

ti

on between

va rious models and images (referring to what Philippe Boudon calls the

scale of proximity). The interlocutors here

ca

n take the hard form of lo

cal authori ties and state bodies or the

"f

uzzy" form of a co llective state of

mind, opinions more or less contro

ll

ed by the media.

3. An economic enunciation, the capitalistic expression of relations of fo r

ce

between the different systems of individual and collecti ve va lori sation: the

use of a relative eva

lu

ation of costs and demand in terms of projected prof

its,

pr

es

ti

ge, political impact and social usefulness to

fix

the exchange va lue

of rea l-estate property and to "drive" the choices and scales of investment

in the domain of co nstruction.

4. A j t/n elio ml mein lion or function of equipment that considers built

spaces according to their specific uses. Collective equipment as well as

e

quipm

ent for private use becomes integrated into a double network of:

a) "hori zontal" co mplementary relations positioning each con

structed segment in the set of urban structures now interconnect

ed within world capitalism,' and

b)

"vertical" rela

ti

ons of integration ranging from the micro-equip

ment

(li

ghting, ventilation, communication, e tc.) up to the infra

structural macro-equipment.

6. See Boudon (1971 :

1972

: and

1975) .

7. See van

lier

( 1985 : 554).

8 . See Braudel (1992 :

76

.82).

The

world economy is the larg

est zone

of

consistency in

any

given period

and

in any global

field.

a

sum

of individualised eco-

nomic and non-economic spac

es that usually transgresses the

limits of oth e: 'r large groupings

of history.

Fran ;o

is Fourquet,

under the term

ecomonde

.

has

undertaken a systematic theo

risation of the c.onceptions of

Fernand Braudel and Immanuel

Wallerstein in

La richesse et

10

puis

s

anc

e.

Publ

ication

proviso

i

re

:

Comm iss

ariat ge

neral du Plan,

Convent ion d·.rude (1987) .

9 Cl.

my

study in collabora-

tion

with

Eric AJliez (1984 : 273·

287).

2

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10. See Vi rilio ( 1991 : 21 ·22).

1/ . See Boudon 1 972 : 17).

As Paul Virilio wr ites:

Today ... the essence of what we insist on ca lling urbanism is co m

posed/deco

mp

osed by these transfer, transit and transmission

system

s,

these transport and

tr

ansmigration networks whose im

materi al config

ur

ation reiterates the cadastral orga

ni

sation and

the building of monument

s.

f there are any monuments today,

they are certainly not of the visible order, despite the twists and

turns of architectural excess. No longer part of the order of perce p

tible appearances nor of the aesthetic of the apparition of vo lumes

assembled under the sun , this monumenta l disproportion now re

sides within the obsc

ur

e luminescence of terminals, co nsoles and

other electronic night-stands

.'"

Consequentl

y,

the co

ll

ec

ti

ve enunciators here will be:

T

he social stratificati ons a

cc

ording to resources, age group, regional

c

har

acte

ri

sti

cs,

ethnic divisions, etc.

The social bodies sectored according to their ー acti vi

ties of an econom ic, cultural nature or by a state of assistan

ce

(in

ternment, incar

ce

ration, et

c.

).

- The programmers, ex perts, and technicians of all so

rt

s, having

the position of stating the

co

nstraints and norms of archit

ec

tural

writing.

5.

A technical enunciation implying that the e

quipm

ent and, more gene

r

a lly, the

co

nstruction mate

ri

als "speak" in terms of

fi xe

d standards, stating,

fo r example, "the slope of a roof according to the relative permeability of

the mate

ri

al employed, the thickness of a wa

ll

according to its load, the

dimensions of a mate

ri

al according to its ease of handl ing, transportability

or implementation.""

The relay of inte

rl

oc utors here no longer only includes building eng

i

neers but a lso chemists, who every month invent new material

s,

electrical

and commun ica

ti

on engineers, and eventua lly all the techn ica l and scie

n

tific disciplines.

6. A

signifying

enunciation whose aim, independent of func

ti

onal seman

temes, is to a llocate a signi fica nt co ntent to a built

fo

rm, which is shared by

a more or less ex tensive human community, but which is always delineated

by all the other communities not shar ing the same type of content. We re

discover several of Philippe Boudon's scales here. At one scale a building

comes to embody a symbolic

fo

rm independent of its size (for example, the

cross pl an of Christ ian churches). At another sca le, the pl an of an ideologi

cally explicit model is transferred to a construction (the ideal city of Vit

ru

vius; the rural, indus trial and commercial cities of Le Corbusier). At yet

anothe r scale, a more or less unconscious socio-cultural scheme intervenes

(such as the ce ntral cour tyard that Arab builders probably inherited from

Roman antiquity). Or at another even more va gue scale, a global style is

conferred onto an urban settlement (such as the se

lf-

enclosed character of

a sma ll Tu scan town, being the o

pp

osite ex treme of North Am erican ag-

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glomerations that

ope

n onto a

tr

ansfinite spatium and cling, as best they

ca n, to the fl

ow

of moto

rw

ay traffi

c)

.

7.

An enunciation

of

existential territorialisation

that

is

as much of an

ethological order as of a perspective on

e,

in which I w ill locate the

thr

ee

types of spaces distinguished by Vittorio Ugo. 12

E uclideanspaces under theregi

so

f Apollo, uni vocally positioning

an o

bj

ect identity within the framework of an axiomatico-dedu c

ti

ve logic in whi ch is inscribed a "prima ry and eleme

nt

ary architec

ture in all the clarity of its crystalline perfection, always identi ca l

to itse lf and devo id of any ambiguity or internal contrad ic

ti

on".

- Projective spaces under the regis of Morpheu

s,

posi tioning forms

of a mo

dulat

ed identity within metamorphic perspec tives, affi rm

ing the primacy of "the imaginary above the rea l, vision above

speech, extension above usefulness, the pl an above perce ption

".

- Labyrinthine topological spaces

und

er the regis of

Di

onysu

s,

function ing as existentia l space" according to a geometry of the

enve lopment of the tactile body that already refers us to the regis

ter of affect

s.

Architectural space is one concrete operator among others in the me

tabolism between o

bj

ects on the outside and intens

iti

es on the inside. But

even if the interplay of correspondences between the human body and its

habitat has been expl ored continuousl

y,

from Vitruvius to Leonardo da

Vinci and Le Corbusier, perhaps it is he

nc

eforth less a ques

ti

on of consider

ing these correspondences from a formal point of vi

ew

than from one that

could be described as organic. As

Ma

ssimo Caccia

ri

writ

es,

"A ny authentic

organism is labyrinthine"." And let's not forget that the labyr inthine (or

rhizomatic) c

harac

te

ri

stics of existentia l territo

ri

a

li

sa

ti

on ca n have multiple

f

ra

ctal dimensions.

8.

A

scriptural enunciation

that articulates a

ll

the other enuncia

ti

ve com

ponent

s.

Because of the diagrammatic distance that it introduces between

ex

pr

ession and content, and

throu

gh the coefficients of creativity that it

generates, architectural projec

ti

on promotes new potentialiti

es,

new con

ste

ll

ations of universes of referen

ce,

starting with those whi ch presi

de

over

the deployment of ethico-aesthe tic aspects of the built o

bj

ec

t.

The

Ethico-Aesthetic Ordinates

Architectural enuncia tion is not limited to these di ac h ro nic di sc ursive

co

mp

onents: it is just as much a matter of the ca pture of consistency within

synchronic ex istential dimension

s,

or ordinates on a leve l. Fo llowing Ba

khtin

lS

I will distinguish three types:

-Cog nitive ordinates, namely the energeti co-spatio-temporal co

ordinates that pertain to the log

ic

of everything disc

ur

sive.

t

is in

this register tha t

th

e sc

riptur

al e

nun

ciation of architecture concate

nates the first five types of assemblages of enunciation listed a bove.

x

iolog ical ordinates, including a

ll

the systems of anthropo-

12. See Ugo (1987a and 1987b).

13. In the

sense

that Martin

Heidegger gives this term

in

"Bu ilding

Dwelling

Thinking

 

( 1975 : 143-161) .

14

. See Cac

ci

ari (1980).

15 . I refer here to the three

categories of enunciation (cog·

nieive, ethical. aesthetic) pro·

posed

by

Mikhail Bakhtin (1990:

257-325).

121

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16 . [See Gu.uari (

1996

: 110).

where

Guattari compares paint

ing. which

for the ruling classes

has never been

more

than a

supplement

of

the spirit , a

currency of prestige.

to

archi

tecture

that has always had a

major role in forming territo

ries of power, fixing its em blems

and proclaiming

its

durability.-

Tr.n,.)

17. See Kle in (1950).

18. See Winnicott (1958).

19

. [Th e key text for Sartre s

concept

of

commitment

is his

short book. What

is

litera-

where he writes. the

'commiued' writer knows that

words are action. He knows

that to reveal is to change and

that one

can

reveal only by plan

ni ng to change. H e has given up

the imp

ossible

dream

of

giving

an impa rt ial picture of Soci

ety

and

the human condition,

(13)-Tr.n,.)

6

ce ntric valorisa

ti

on of aesthe tic, economic and political orders.

-Aes the tic ordinates determining the th resholds of complet ion of

entities, objects or structural group s, inasmuch as they are able to

transmit meaning and form on their ow n account. It is up to these

ethico-aesthe

ti

c ordinates to intertwine the components of signify

ing enunciations and existential deterritorialization with the othe r

components. Thus the built object, lived reality

[le

vecu

]

and the

incorp

oreal find themselves rear

ti

culating each ot her, despite the

fact that capitalist corporations are ceaselessly trying to eliminate

any trace of subjec

ti

ve

si

ngularisat ion from their architec

tu r

e and

urbanism in an effort to achieve a

ri

gorously functional, informa

ti

onal and communica

ti

onal transpa renc

y.

t should be clear that the singularisa

ti

on at issue here is not a simple

matter of a "s upplement of the spirit",l' a "persona

li

sation" filed away un

der "a

ft

e

r-

sa les services".

It

conce rns procedures that operate at the heart

of the architec tural object and grant it its most intrins ic consistency. Under

its exterior dis

cur

si

ve

aspect this object establishes itself at the intersection

of a thousand tensions that pull it in every direction, but ul'lder its ethico

aesthetic enunciati

ve

aspects it reassemb les itself in a non-discursi

ve

mode,

whose phenomenologica

l approach is g

iv

en

to

us th rough the par tic

ul

ar

experien

ce

of spatia

li

sed affects. Below the thresho

ld

of cogniti

ve

consist

ency the architec

tur

al o

bj

ect collapses into the imaginary, the dream or de

lirium, while below a

thr

eshold of axiologica l consistency the dimensions

of alterity and desire are exhaust

ed

like those cinematic images that fail

to interest the abo

ri

gines of Australi

a a

nd below the threshold of aesthet

ic

consistency it ceases to ca pture the form's existence and the intensities

destined to inhabit it.

What therefore defines the ar t of the architect, in the final analysis, is

the capacity to apprehend these affects of spatia

li

sed enunciation. But it

must be ad mitted that it concerns paradoxica l objects that ca nnot be de

lineated by the coordinates of ordinary rationality; they can onl y be ap

proached indirec tly by meta-mode

li

sation, by an aes

th

e

ti

c detour, and by

mythical or ideological narrati ves. Like the part-objects of Melanie Kl ein 17

or the transitional objects of Winnicott,1' this kind of affect establishes it

self transversally on the most heterogeneous levels; therefore we must not

homogenise them but, on the contrary, engage them further in the fractal

process of heterogenesis. Architectural fo rm is n

ot

destined to function as

a gesta

lt

closed in on

it

self, but as a ca ta lyt ic operator setting off cha in reac

tions among the modes of semioti sa

ti

on, which

dr

aw us out of ourselves

and expose us to new fields of possibility. The feeling of intimacy and ex

istential s ingul arity contiguous with the aura given off by a familiar situ a

tion, an old d

we

lling or a landscape inhabited by our memories, establishes

itself in the rupture of the redundancies emptied of their substance, and

can be the generator of a proliferation and lines of flight in all the registers

of the desire to

li

ve, of the refusal to give in to the dominant inertia. t is the

same movement of existential territo

ri

a

li

sation a

nd

ca

ptur

e of synchroni c

consistency, for example, that will make things "work" together, things as

different as a treasure chest and a shoe box under the bed of a child hospi

talised in a psychiatric hom

e,

the refrain-password that he perhaps shares

with some comrades, the space within the particular constellation that he

occupies in the refectory, a totem tree in the playground or a part of the sky

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known only to him . The

ar

chitect s aim, if not to

co

mpose a harmonic out

of all these fragmentary co mponents of subj ectiva tion, must be at the very

least, to a llow for a ll these virtualities and not to mutilate them

The architect, in order to undertake the reco

mp

osition of ex istential

territo

ri

es in the co ntex t of o

ur

so

ci

e

ti

es devastated by ca pita

li

s

ti

c

flo

ws,

must be a

bl

e to detect and processua

ll

y explo

it

a

ll

the points of catalytic

singularity likely to establish themselves, not only in the per

ce

ptible di

mensions of the architectural apparatu s, but also in its formal co

mp

osition

and in the most complex institutional problematics as we ll. All the carto

graphic methods that ca n he lp achieve this w ill be valid since their commi/

IIIm

/I'

 

et's not s

hrin

k from this old

Sa

rtrean co nce

pt

that has been taboo

for too long- w ill

find its own regime of ethico-aesthe

ti

c automisatio

n.

The

only cr ite

ri

on of truth co nfronting the architect w ill then be the effect of an

ex istential co mpleteness and an overabundance of being, which w ill never

be absent so long as he has the good fortune to be ca ught up in a process of

becoming-a

n-

event, that is to say, the histo

ri

ca l enrichment and re-singu

la

ri

sa

ti

on of desire and va lues.

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