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Spectral Traces (pt. I)

The mysteries of a text are magnified within the circumscribed spaces of a building. A derrideanreading of a text may not give us any sense as to the actual meaning of a word. And such areading, when applied to a building, offers no additional insight. Yet there is a comfort in thismystery. Though Derrida argues that the meaning of a word is ineffable, described by absencesor suggestions (traces) of that meaning, this absence is ripe with possibilities. A morearchitectural reading (in fact, a wholly Eisenmanian reading) of a work will do the same. Derridaand Eisenman transfer the idea of diffrance, the idea of a trace of a meaning, to architecturalspace when both argue about the meaning of the Platonic choros. A choros is a mute form (if aform can ever be so), and the architect, as a demiurge and formgiver, ascribes meaning to thisform. He or she crafts it, molds it -- but this is not to suggest that the result of such formgiving isan actual, tangible physicality. The choros is true ineffable space.

The use of the term ineffable is not coincidental. Le Corbusier wrote of such ineffable spaces inNew World of Space (1948). In that book, Le Corbusier writes:

... the whole environment brings its weight to bear on the place where there is a work ofart, the sign of man's will, and imposes on it its deep spaces or projections, its hard orsoft densities, its violences or softnesses

Such poetic transcendence is evident in Le Corbusier's own Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp... a place bounded by mystery if there ever was such a place.

The architectural critic and historian Robin Evans sought to decode of the latent, ineffablemysteries within Le Corbusier's chapel at Ronchamp. In "Comic Lines," the penultimate chapterin the posthumously published The Projective Cast (1993), Evans answers Le Corbusier'schallenge to find the modulor within the chapel's round, conch-like spaces. The modulor, LeCorbusier's hypnotic, baroque, and profound Fibonacci-inspired measurement system, defiedthe architect's own draftsmen. The modulor was literally transcribed on Le Corbusier's ownbuildings -- a glance at the lower storeys of his Unit d' Habitacion reveals the tell taleandrogynous figure with arm stretched upwards. The demiurge has indeed written his ownimage into the choros of the Unit.

The modulor operates as a glyph. But it is also a work of authorship, a mark or symbol that notonly denotes authorial intent, but connotes a personal cosmography. For Evans, the modulor isnot only concept carved in stone, but it is a presence that permeates the vaults at Romchamp.For what is Ronchamp if it is not a vaulted space? The sidereal vault hanging over our ownheads at night is only repeated within the holy firmament inside Notre Dame du Haut. If themodulor is indeed authorial script, can its derridean traces be found in the system of ruledsurfaces along the chapel walls, floors and ceilings?

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Ronchamp is an absent space. Evans reveals that any kind of mathematical logic related to themodulor's use is simply not there -- Le Corbusier handled any formal or mathematical issues in acavalier way. Such matters were typically delegated to Le Corbusier's draftsmen and assistants,Evans tells us. In fact, it was Iannis Xenakis, one of Le Corbusier's assistantengineers/draftsmen, that used ruled surfaces to generate forms for the Monastery at LaTourette as well as the short-lived Philips Pavilion of 1958. Xenakis first used ruled surfaces asan alternate system of musical notation in a chamber orchestral piece entitled Metastasis (1954).For Evans, a glance at that score reveals that

To coordinate 52 different string parts written for the orchestra ... Xenakis resorted to anunusual method of composition: he drew a graph. The horizontal axis represented time,the vertical axis represented pitch. The rising or falling sounds of each instrument weremapped onto the graph as straight lines. All together on the same sheet they give apicture of total orchestral sound, much more directly apprehensible than in conventionalmusical notation ... these were referred to by Xenakis as "ruled surfaces of sound"

to be continued ....

4 Comments

Fred Scharmen (History|Contact)May 8, 06 11:35 pm

What?! Xenakis worked for Corb?!

Smokety Mc Smoke Smoke (History|Contact)May 8, 06 11:40 pm

Yes ... on several different projects.

futureboy (History|Contact)May 9, 06 9:19 am

you bet...and he is the only employee of corbs to have been given any title of authorship on acorb project.xenakis is a completely fascinating figure of the 20th century..keep it up smss!

c.k. (History|Contact)May 10, 06 6:51 pm

and then we went on to design the philips pavillion

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