On Human Dignity (1)

"A life is a life; there it is; if anything is sacred, a life is. The question: Of what value is a human life? is indecent. The question: why do you want to stay alive? is a tyrant's question. It should not be asked; any answer will always be off the mark; the words will fill in poorly for the appropriate silence."

--George Kateb, Human Dignity, 2011: pp. 40.

Between Sociological Imagination and the Geographical Imagination

A most pertinent quote from Harvey,
"This distinction between the geographical imagination and the sociological imaginations is artificial when we seek to relate to the problems of the city, but it is all too real when we examine the ways we think about the city. There are plenty of those possessed with a powerful sociological imagination (C. Wright Mills among them) who nevertheless seem to live and work in a spaceless world. There are also those, possessed of a powerful geographical imagination or spatial consciousness, who fail to recognize that the way space is fashioned can have a profound effect upon social processes--hence the numerous examples of beautiful but unlivable designs in modern living."

(from David Harvey's Social Justice and the City, revised edition, 2009: pp.24)

What is utopia for?

"Utopia is on the horizon: when I walk two steps, it takes two steps back...I walk ten steps, and it is ten steps further away. What is utopia for? It is for this, for walking." (Galeano & Borges 1997)

cited from Just City on the horizon (2009), by Cuz Potter and Johannes Novy.

A Critique of the Creative Class

William Lim, architect, theorist and writer, came to class today and said something often missed in our tacit or explicit pursuit of the telos of creativity.

He said, 'creativity is the beginning and not the end.' With this declaration he devastated Florida's thesis; and with these few words, a massive intellectual edifice of platitudes--'teaching to be creative', 'creativity', 'the creative city'; you name it, its all there--was toppled.

If creativity is the beginning and not the end, then what is the end, the telos, or purpose of our practical actions? Implicit in Lim's declaration is the idea that creativity is only a means to some end: what we are actually striving for is not creativity, but creativity is merely a vehicle towards that goal. I have to wonder aloud with so much investment pouring into ventures building our creative capacities, what would we actually do once we find ourselves there?

'Palindrome' from Ed Soja

Today I heard Ed Soja lectured for the first time. It was truly a splendid experience to have finally heard the writer himself rather than through his books.

He said something that after some thinking, I thought is rather indicative of the state of affairs today.

His quote reads, 'from crisis-generated restructuring to restructuring-generated crises today'. By this, Soja was referring to the changes in the urban form as a result of the tumultuous social and political events of the 1960s and 70s--when multiple crises prompted a change in how we plan and design cities ('cities': Soja thinks the city is passe; I disagree because barring an objective definition, the city is also a psychological category that can never quite disappear at any scale of reference). These urban forms are however again changing rapidly today due to the many unanticipated volatilities in the larger environment resulting in never-seen-before crises in planning and design.

It has taken me a painful one paragraph to recapture and explain that one particular line. While we can all debate on the validity of his proposition, this proposition does encapsulate an economy of thought that warrants a record on this blog and perhaps, further review.

On the criterion of beauty in architecture

A statement by Alvar Aalto quoted by Kenneth Frampton:
"The structures which were means to create a new architecture have been wrested from us and turned into commercialized decorative ends in themselves with no inner value. There was a time when a miscontrued, lifeless traditionalism was the chief enemy of good architecture. Today its worst enemy is the superficial decorative misuse of the means acquired during the breakthrough...The contrast between deep social responsibility and decorative "surface effects" is perhaps the oldest and certainly the most topical issue in the debate on architecture. Please do not think that I wish to disparage beauty in rejecting decorativeness. Architecture must have charm; it is a factor of beauty in society. But real beauty is not a conception of form which can be taught, it is the result of harmony between several intrinsic factors, not least the social."

Cited from, 'Questions of Value: An Interview with Kenneth Frampton', by W.S. Saunders and N. Levinson (2007).

Luxe, calme, et volupte

image: Dezeen

This interpretation of the traditional Japanese teahouse says it all: "luxe, calme, et volupte".