Writing, Reading, and Remembering - University of Manitoba · experiencing, and understanding...
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This thesis explores the act of writing, the event of reading, and the art of memory, together with their relation to architecture and place. When we position ourselves in front of a blank page, pen in hand, and begin to form marks upon it, we bring tangible life to immaterial thoughts and the internal workings of our minds. Writing machines, such as typewriters, have also been crafted to manifest this physical presence, with the push of a key initiating a striking of the page, upon which lines of text begin to form. As early as the 16th century, devices have been crafted which bring to life an inhabitation of these acts. For instance, Agostino Ramelli’s 1587 Book Wheel reveals the process of acquiring knowledge through reading, as an active, physical event with cosmological resonance. Daniel Libeskind constructed his own version of Ramelli’s wheel in 1986. Belonging to a series of machines titled “Three Lessons in Architecture,” Libeskind explored the idea that producing, experiencing, and understanding architecture are akin to writing, reading, and remembering written texts. The nature of these devices, as spatial constructions of highly intricate and relational components, engaging both their users and the surrounding context, suggests that architecture is itself communicative. Like tracings left behind by the movement of our hand holding pen to page, there is a relationship between invisible phenomena and its visible embodiment in architecture. Through movement, engagement, and occupation, architecture becomes activated; its silent spaces speak, revealing and nurturing subtle, yet articulate meanings in tangible and corporeal ways. These ideas will be explored through the design of a mixed-use literary institution, accommodating workspace and living-space for writers-in-residence, galleries, performance spaces, supporting offices for writing associations, a publishing house, as well as affordable housing. The project will be sited in downtown Winnipeg along Smith Street and Graham Avenue, in suggestive relation to the existing Millennium Library. Together with exploring the poetic potential of this urban setting, the project will also bring critical attention to related questions. These include the status of the book and the relevance of literary institutions in today’s technological society, and the role that architecture might play in sustaining or reinventing cultural literacy. Writing, Reading, and Remembering: An Architectural Typology for the Life of Words SARAH STASIUK ADVISOR: LISA LANDRUM
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Transcript of Writing, Reading, and Remembering - University of Manitoba · experiencing, and understanding...
This thesis explores the act of writing, the event of reading, and the art of memory, together with their relation to architecture and place. When we position ourselves in front of a blank page, pen in hand, and begin to form marks upon it, we bring tangible life to immaterial thoughts and the internal workings of our minds. Writing machines, such as typewriters, have also been crafted to manifest this physical presence, with the push of a key initiating a striking of the page, upon which lines of text begin to form.
As early as the 16th century, devices have been crafted which bring to life an inhabitation of these acts. For instance, Agostino Ramelli’s 1587 Book Wheel reveals the process of acquiring knowledge through reading, as an active, physical event with cosmological resonance. Daniel Libeskind constructed his own version of Ramelli’s wheel in 1986. Belonging to a series of machines titled “Three Lessons in Architecture,” Libeskind explored the idea that producing, experiencing, and understanding architecture are akin to writing, reading, and remembering written texts.
The nature of these devices, as spatial constructions of highly intricate and relational components, engaging both their users and the surrounding context, suggests that architecture is itself communicative. Like tracings left behind by the movement of our hand holding pen to page, there is a relationship between invisible phenomena and its visible embodiment in architecture. Through movement, engagement, and occupation, architecture becomes activated; its silent spaces speak, revealing and nurturing subtle, yet articulate meanings in tangible and corporeal ways.
These ideas will be explored through the design of a mixed-use literary institution, accommodating workspace and living-space for writers-in-residence, galleries, performance spaces, supporting offices for writing associations, a publishing house, as well as affordable housing. The project will be sited in downtown Winnipeg along Smith Street and Graham Avenue, in suggestive relation to the existing Millennium Library. Together with exploring the poetic potential of this urban setting, the project will also bring critical attention to related questions. These include the status of the book and the relevance of literary institutions in today’s technological society, and the role that architecture might play in sustaining or reinventing cultural literacy.
Writing, Reading, and Remembering:An Architectural Typology for the Life of Words
SARAH STASIUKADVISOR: LISA LANDRUM
![‘Reading and remembering?’ or ‘Reading and interpreting ... · ‘Reading and remembering?’ or ‘Reading and interpreting?’: ... [my] ideas come together, ... Celia Thompson](https://static.fdocuments.in/doc/165x107/5b095f657f8b9a520e8e10c5/reading-and-remembering-or-reading-and-interpreting-reading-and.jpg)
