Hongwon Suh Work Sample SCI-Arc

Hongwon Suh SCI-Arc M.Arch II 2021-2022 Selected Works

Contact

+1 (213) 458-2767 hongwon97@gmail.com Los Angeles, CA

Hongwon Suh

Statement

Hongwon Suh is an aspiring architect currently advancing his graduate studies as an M.Arch 2 student at the Southern California Institute of Architecture.

Before joining SCI-Arc, he joined the team of Seoul based architecture firm, where he worked as a practicing architect along with the head architects of traditional Korean housing projects. A year later, he graduated from McGill University in Montreal where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Architecture. During his studies, he worked as a student photographer for the Architecture Student Association.

With a little over five years in academia and the professional field, he sees his time at SCI-Arc as a career-shifting opportunity to set a clear objective to develop into a multidisciplinary professional that believes in the power of architecture in the technological world.

He hopes to pursue work that advances both film and architecture by blurring the line between them.

Table of Contents

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“Diamond Ring” DS 1200 2GAX Design Studio I Marcelyn Gow

“WE:LAB” DS 1201 2GBX Design Studio II Jackilin Bloom

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“WooZoo” VS 4200 Visual Studies - Overlaid Rachael McCall

“Planet Symbiote” VS 4200 Visual Studies - Terraform Kumuran Parthiban

“Alter Nature” VS 4201 Visual Studies II Andrea Cadioli

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“Program: Revisited” AS 3200 Adv Material / Tectonics Randy Jefferson, Dwayne Oyler

“Peek-a-Boo!” 2021 Summer IDD William Virgil

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“Loss in Translation” HT 2200 Theories of Contemporary Architecture I Marcelyn Gow, Erik Ghenoiu

“I Love Images” HT 2201 Theories of Contemporary Architecture II Marcelyn Gow, John Cooper

Diamond Ring Course: DS 1200 2GAX Computational Design Studio I Instructor: Marcelyn Gow Partner: Zarina Farmer-George Software: Rhino, ZBrush, Cinema4D, Redshift, Octane

“There is no magic in magic, it’s all in the detail.”

- Walt Disney

On a steep grassy hill in the city of Pomona, California, sits Diamond Ranch elementary school. The Power of Ten philosophy focuses on the specific manoeuvre of camera zooming out from a furniture to a classroom, and then to the whole school. The material, atmosphere and even the detail in the furniture are translated from one level to another and introduces a surprising transition in overall mood of the space.

The three pedagogical categories of program are laid out in distinct clusters.

The school is designed by students themselves, with each level of education taking on different partt of which they study and learn.

The three pedagogical categories of program are laid out in distinct clusters - the primary education - the intermediate education and the upper education level.

The school is designed by students themselves, with each level of education taking on different part, each carefully designing the furniture, classroom and the entire building in which they study and learn.

Beginning with a modification exercise of the famous Thonet chairs, carefully reinterpreting their elegent curvilinear forms, which once functioned as different components of the chair, has transformed into a set of uniform formal language of the new Diamond Ranch elementary school campus. They now act as different components of the campus and show up in different scales - the silhouette, walkway tubes, classroom frames, and some still remain as furniture pieces. In tandem with the theme of “Power of Ten”, the design of the school is entirely based on its details. The curvature detail dominating the whole site grows and creates different combination to eventually introduce a new spatial qualities of an unconventional learning environment.

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“Diamond Ring”

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The little details of the school becoming the structural elements encourages students to design their own space. The primary educat design and build their own chairs, the interm education to design their own classrooms, t upper education design the whole campus buildings. The recurring Thonet curves mot students to get inspiration for their designs the hands-on crafting courses help them vis the space. By designing their own learning s they are in charge of a bigger task: protectin environment, starting with their own classro Fig. 01

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Scene from the Documentary Samsara (2011) showing the Tibet monk carefully mastering the detail of the drawing.

Hongwon Suh

e major o tion mediate the 01

tif help and sualize space, ng the ooms.

“Diamond Ring”

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The first classroom designed by the students themselves is the poetry circle room located in the East end of the campus. It has an excellent audio quality which means this space could also work as presentation space. The space is filled with the eccentric chairs that the students have designed and built with the help of their instructors and because of the lightness of the structure used, the warm sunlight can easily brighten up the whole area.

The transparent and fluid purple cushion used in one of the chairs is enlarged to a bigger scale and is hung by the wall to provide seating in a fun and playful way. Some of the Thonet curves used in the chairs are also brought to architectural scale to create structural frames or rigs to hang other necessary furniture pieces on the wall.

“Diamond Ring”

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Just outside the intermediate education cluster, the poetry circle room has a porous roof with modular waffle structural walls shaped like a flower pot.

Students come here to discuss about their literature and group projects.

Along with the chairs that they have designed, they also design their own classrooms in which they can use and discuss. After they graduate, the chairs and the classrooms are passed down to the next generation of incoming students so that they can modify the design. They can experiment with different materiality, shape, or they can disassemble the entire model and replace with other components from other chairs. They can exchange components among themselves, allowing them to upcycle all the parts.

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“Diamond Ring”

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The campus clusters cascade down the slope like rice paddy fields on a mountain. Each cluster has an opening so the view overlooking towards the sports field and the highway is revealed in sliced moments. From different student’s aesthetic intervention, the color, material and textures of the walkways and other curved structures are unique.

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The site is a combination of ‘fake’ and ‘real’ landscape textures mapped onto different level of surfaces. There are spots on the ground floor where an image of sandy beach is mapped onto mosaic tiles, whereas there are patches of real grass and trees growing out of some spots. At this level, it is clear how different curved forms have enlarged or shrank in order to serve different purpose. Some hold floor slabs in between the openings.

Some still act as seating area, while some are left open to create skylight or peep holes to look down at lower levels. Some are even extruded in vertical axis to create walls.

“Diamond Ring”

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Classroom Cluster - bird’s eye view

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Classroom Cluster - top floor

“Diamond Ring”

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Exterior Walkway

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Exterior Campus - bird’s eye view

“Diamond Ring”

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Exterior Gardens

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Hanging Classrooms

“Diamond Ring”

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Campus “Eating Away” the Classrooms

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WE:LAB Course: DS 1201 2GBX Computational Design Studio II Instructor: Jackilin Bloom Software: Rhino, Unreal Engine 5, Blender, ZBrush

“Nature is a totally efficient, selfregenerating system.”

-Buckminster Fuller

At a port of El Segundo in Los Angeles County, the city anticipates a next industry leading BIO-TECH building affiliated with interests from various stakeholders around the world to satisfy the humanity’s need. Responding to the imminent threat of overpopulation, WE:LAB researches and conducts a cross-fertilization experiments of different plant species to adapt to the changing environmental conditions of the future.

The building is a witness to the birth of a new kind, and a whole laboratory in itself. The building supports the constant collaboration loop between the human researchers and the A.I. then showcases these interactions to the visitors.

The image we perceive in reality is not the whole picture of the story. Images are merely stored historical information of forms and ideas. Mashing these images together establishes another set of category and a consequent logic. Wired by the images produced from the Google’s GAN training and the collage exercise of Hilla Becher’s industrial forms of architecture, the sophisticated volumes of the modern day BIO-Tech laboratory rises from the port of El Segundo. The images either suggest spatial development strategy or constructed shape of the agents that might exist inside the building.

The site in El Segundo neighborhood is rich with residues of industrial constructions - silo plants are situated adjacent to the beach shore, for instance. The image-driven volume study reuses these formal language spread across the site and turns them into a newly bred interface for science, technology and innovation. Ideas are recycled and beautified images emerges out of the existing landscape, transitioning El Segundo into the next leading BIO-Tech innovative hub.

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“WE:LAB”

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Agent - objects who enact the thought process of A.I.

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GAN-Trained Images from Ruin x Sneakers

“WE:LAB”

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Environment - surfaces on which experiments are conducted

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GAN-Trained Images from Parliament x Factory

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Earlier studies of volumes show how they collide with each other to create different pockets of interior spaces. Inspired from the image training and collage exercise, the translucent globulous shell, erupted rocky terrain and the protruded walkway that contours the entire volume create the most capturing moments inside the model. The different lights also affect the mood of the environment. Sunlight seeping through the gaps and the emissive lights from the walls add to the scene.

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The vegetation is distributed in an interesting way. They grow and propagate, regardless of the ground’s flatness. For them, everywhere is inhabitable and thus, can truly conquer the whole space. Through natural selection, plants will determine where to inhabit and overtake. Depending on the amount of sunlight being exposed to the surface, different species will occupy that space.

With little control of mechanical support installed throughout the lab (like the pipes visible in the image below), the building almost acts like a living being - a fully functioning communicative medium that stands between the A.I. and the human stakeholders. The A.I. will perform its thought experiment live, while humans will take the results and bring another experiments, and vise-versa. The scientists, visitors and A.I. can join together to discuss the subject matter in one place. The fascinating visual poetry will be shown here and there...

“WE:LAB”

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The assembly space of the BIO-Tech building can be the house for the commons. A space where visitors, scientists and A.I. - both local and international - can come together to discuss the future technology. The central rock formation becomes the testing ground for the new species by allowing the A.I. to control the temperature, humidity and sunlight in the space. The unmanned agents will show the updated information using holographic display. The tested specimens are taxidermied inside an assigned waterproof bags and are displayed on the wall of assembly. The specimens provide the fundamental backdrop for scientific discussion and unification of knowledge with the world.

“WE:LAB”

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The notion of transparency is key concept to WE:LAB and those who visit the space. The highly complicated feedback loop between the wet labs and the dry labs, the hands-on experiments and the data simulations, is transparently shown to the public. The fuzzy, yet intriguing thresholds invite people to be drawn towards the mysterious labs and supervise the whole research process. These bags create a certain sense of unfamiliarity, but establishes intimate relationship with the viewer.

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Every entrance of the assembly block and the main laboratory block is filtered by an airlock entryway. Because the experiments require certain level of temperature and humidity to be maintained, the thresholds are guarded by double opening system. Once the visitors pass through the first opening after scanning their face and a piece of identification, they are sprayed with reduced alcohol sanitization liquid vapor. Then they can pass through the second opening and enter the space. This isolated silhouette experience provides interesting new way to enter a space.

Transparency is ubiquitous inside WE:LAB. Not only the airlock entry, the flying agents reveal their inner mechanism and the collected saps from the newly bred species are all shown to the public. Instead of insisting on confidentiality of the experiments, the transparency celebrates the innovation and shares with the rest of the world.

“WE:LAB”

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It is, essentially a laboratory in itself, an the entire world is the experimental gro for the A.I. It imagines itself and expres its earthliness through the outside text of growth and the interior exhibition of materiality, subject matter, and worldly knowledge. As the A.I. and the laborato mass grow and develop its database, its surrounding context and the correspon neighborhoods grow with him/her/them us, eventually aspired to be fully mature into a visual museum, data center and supercomputer of the world.

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nd ound sses ure

y ory s nding m/ ed

“WE:LAB”

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Main Lab Block - collectors using the track system

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Main Lab Block - new tree species grow inside the assigned cell

“WE:LAB”

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L Assembly Block - researchers, visitors, A.I. come together to discuss R Assembly Block - the drones update the A.I.’s thought process

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Main Lab Block

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“WE:LAB”

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The image-volume formal expression is simplified into six distinctive blocks that are placed onto the site in a striated arrangement: the main entrance block, main lab block, secondary lab block, assembly block, exhibition block and the exhibition entrance block. The archaeological quality of the facade texture is translated onto the formal strategy, as the blocks represent larger significance as visitors proceeds from one block to the next. These blocks also play in different levels, as shown on the section drawing, and interchange themselves with the void as well. The six blocks that contain the interior activity comprising the whole building should be, in fact, 13 blocks, considering the two entrances at the side and the canyon-like narrow slits of hidden space created in between the blocks.

“WE:LAB”

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L Exterior - top view looking at assembly / exhibition block R Exterior - narrow canyon space between the assembly / exhibition block

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Exterior - between the main lab block / secondary lab block

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Exterior - between the west entrance / main lab block

“WE:LAB”

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Exterior - between the secondary lab block / assembly block

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“WE:LAB”

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WooZoo Course: VS 4200 Visual Studies Instructor: Rachael McCall Partner: Arjun Bharat Software: Cinema4D, After Effect CC

“We make air and space available for everyone.”

The main objective of this project is the deviation from the original concept and narrative and tell a different story of the mask created from the “Vice” project.

The supervillain mask encompassing its agony and pain turns into a beautiful flowy object which blends with the environment in which it lies. The camouflage is the main purpose of this space mask. The novice space travelers can equip this head gear to virtually experience the ISS work environment and thus provide them with new style of training ground. The name of the new prototype comes from the astronaut who wears the the new equipment and enters the new training program.

Early Stage Modelling in ZBrush

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3D Printed Model of the Mask

“WooZoo”

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Crystal Shell

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Texture Detail

“WooZoo”

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The trainee can determine the shape of the mask and choose which material to be assigned to which component to their preference in their virtual training software. The delusional bubble in which their brain is fed into is the sensual environment model to allow them to be psychologically trained in a zero-gravity situation and up to 9G moment space vessel. The new aspiring astronauts can take this software home and train on a daily basis and get used to the environment faster than anyone else.

“WooZoo”

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Planet Symbiote Course: VS 4200 Visual Studies Instructor: Kumuran Parthiban Partner: Arjun Bharat Software: Cinema4D, Octane Render

“Look out! There is a strange glimmering light shining.

It is calling us.”

Are we all alone in this vast universe?

The researchers have questioned themselves, and hopelessly wait for a signal from distant alien race who are intelligent enough to be civilized, discover their humble position in the universe, and question the possibility of other organisms existing somewhere else.

Little do these scientists know that in one of the planets that have been crossed out of their list nests habitat for an entirely new type of intelligent organism. These myterious symbiotic creatures behave like plants but can think like humans, in perpetual cycle of constructing new cities and demolishing them. They are the nature, population, geography…

Different textures and reference images are collected to create a overall mood board for the unprecedented sci-fi landscape set in an outer space on a foreign planet. From levitating terrain mass to industrial artifacts covered with vegetations which grew over a long period of time of abandonment, selected series of references enhance the atmosphere of the new landscape. Retaining the qualities in the mask created for “Vice” project, the main occupying inhabitant of the imaginary planet is the unconventional highly intelligent life form with a venomous symbiotic behaviour. The creature dwells on the surface of the ground leeching off of the light source naturally emitted by the planet mass. They take over any illuminating surface, constructing their own ‘city’ structures and their own versions of natural elements - river, mountain, forests from the aggregates of their own body. Their major lifestyle focuses on constructing the planet and shaping the environment to their need.

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“Planet Symbiote”

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This planet XE-0435, as astronomers on Earth calls it, emits a very unique and attractive light to the distance. In the future, humas successfully acquire technology to travel the galaxy and reach to a destination light-years away from their home planet. Most unwarned illegal civilin spacecrafts set off to travel thousands light-year journey without proper authorization from NASA come across this unusually lit gem floating in space and deviate off the course to explore the landscape. Soon, they realize the planet is inhabited by the ferocious venomous symbiotes and the ship is engulfed by the silky black skin that extends as long as it wishes. The sunken ships and other industrial objects from Earth become part of the landscape.

“Planet Symbiote”

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Amidst the thick atmosphere of the new discovered exoplanet XE-0435, many human-made artifacts can be found. Th assets mainly consist of unauthorized c spacecrafts that crashed on the planet become part of the landscape, seduced beautiful light. Ranging from space pod a size of human body to large urban car of approximate capacity of a small town the components of these assets are bro apart by the symbiotes to create mecha structures that can complement their desgined landscape.

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wly

hese civilin to d by the ds with rriers n, oken anical

“Planet Symbiote”

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Meanwhile, the symbiotes cross fertilate different rock species in order to artifically evolve, and thus create a new emissive material to attract more human space travelers. They analyze the psychological patterns of the humans who have crashed onto their land and experiment with different light patterns.

Soon, the planet is filled with different lights and levitating boulders to track the nearby visitor’s movement and deliberately attract them into their planet. Blue crystals, green orbiting particle rocks, pink pollenating feather-weight pebbles, and striped glowing rocks, etc. are all crafted lights from the venoms and it is even tricky for NASA astronauts to escape from this attraction.

“Planet Symbiote”

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Alter Nature Course: VS 4201 - Visual Studies II Instructor: Andrea Cadioli Software: Rhino, Unreal Engine

“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes” - Carl Jung

Forest wilding, intertwining vines, crickets chirping... The forest calls us. As the debauchee enters the wild, feigned sight of landscape unfolds before their eyes. This unfamiliar dream-like reality casted upon them is beyond their understanding. Unable to grasp their head around the vision, they wonder.

The elders of the tribe used to tell them stories but none as surreal as this. In search of a source of human touch in the wilderness, they keep searching day and night.

For the light.

For the new beginning.

They called it, Alter Nature.

Starting from replicating the surreal nature composition image by Jon Emmony, the dreamscape is carefully constructed with hundreds of foliages, crystals, and other objects morphing the reality of a typically perceived “nature”.

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“Distant elders might have told our distant ancestors dreams about the flower petals, the wings of praying mantis, perflectly spherical crystals all shining together in a forest.”

“Alter Nature”

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Skeleton - they are much bigger in real life

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Praying Mantis - they all vary in size

“Alter Nature”

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The flower petals, the wings of praying mantis, reflective crystal surface of the spheres all merge into one scene, blurring the line that separates reality from dream. All the elements are taken from the original image made by Jon Emmony, and are rearranged to extend the limited composition into a imagined landscape. Knotting skeletons, animal skin riverbed, glitching light ropes, growing wings...

“Alter Nature”

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Knotting Skeleton

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Wings of Praying Mantis

“Alter Nature”

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L Animal Skin Riverbed R Knotting skeletons, animal skin riverbed, glitching light ropes, growing wings...

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Program: Revisited Course: AS 3200 Adv Material / Tectonics Instructor: Randy Jefferson, Dwayne Oyler Partner: Jack Freedman, Diba Ghazia Software: Rhino, Photoshop

“Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.”

- Frank Gehry

Cutting the Seattle Public Library into a 1 cubic feet chunk, the team is assigned with a task to analyze and model the structure of the unique tassellated facade tectonics. Then, following with the complete understading of the facade structure, the library is combined with the Frank Gehry’s Fondation Louis Vuitton and the subsequent mashed facade is reimagined, and fully drawn. The merge of two distant, yet closely related materials - wood and steel - create a beautiful harmony. The two triangular grids of material dance together to accentuate the facade geometry even further than the existing Seattle building.

Fig. 02

Seattle Public Library at night looking from the West Elevation.

The Seattle Public Library is flagship design project from OMA and is the direct embodiment of Rem Koolhaas’ design philosophy. It features various program blocks offsetting from one another and the grand veil of tessellated triangular grid facade to tie them altogether. Therefore, the facade of this building is one of the crucial elements and thus, easily dissipate the design concept into city skyline.

The facade and the building is cut into a 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 foot chunk to further develop a highly detailed structural model. The chosen portion of the building is the cantilevering corner of the third floor seen from the West elevation of the building. It shows the part where the program block meets the facade, while the whole structure is hung from the central concrete core.

Referenced from the unfolded and flattened facade drawing, the final structural diagram mainly focuses on the interesting corner edge conditions. Every corner features different detail elements to accompany the engineering needs: gutter, snow and rain fence, seismic plates, etc. The building resolves the meeting point of diagrid structures from different angles in an interesting way.

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“Program: Revisited”

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L Detail on Snow Gutter Fence R Section of Chunk

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After the Seattle Public Library’s facade is analyzed and modelled, it is then combined with the facade tectonics of Fondation Louis Vuitton building. Featuring the curvy wood-steel beams which suspend the light, transparent glass sail panels, it is the perfect match for the new library facade design. Superimposing the new wood-steel diagrid behind the existing aluminum diagrid to resolve the seismic force, the new library is given the equally lightness to the overall structure.

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Due to the nature of the trangulated diagrid geometry, the new facade system required the design of a separate, unique component of wood-steel “X” connecters. Joined by the two cross intersecting steel plates, they are bolted into the tip of each laminated wood beams, and altogether which hangs the existing aluminum diagrid with the triple glazing panels.

In order to accommodate the wider spread wood-steel diagrid behind the outermost glazing layer, the aluminum diagrids become more dense in some angle to meet the X connector intersections.

Fig. 03

Louis Vuiitton Foundation in Paris, France designed by Frank Gehry.

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“Program: Revisited”

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The new facade gives a completely different atmosphere of the interior space. The original library lets in a simple and minimalistic shadow over the entire open area whereas the library interior with the new wood-steel facade is warmer and more interesing to the eyes of the visitors.

As seen from the 3d model, a new steel box beam system is added to better accommodate for the edge conditions of the wood beam diagrid. The primary steel truss system in the program volume plays gracefully with the newly introduced laminated wood beam crosses.

“Program: Revisited”

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Corner Beam Detail

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“X-Connector” Detail

“Program: Revisited”

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Peek-aBoo! Course: Introduction to Digital Design 2021 Instructor: William Virgil Software: Maya, Zbrush, Arnold Render

“Shhh quiet! Let’s get out of here before something else happens.”

The rewritten story about a pinocchino’s whale stomach chronicle animates a contest of scariest ghosts from all the lost souls that is found and collected on Earth. The small purple chestbox gets swallowed up by the whale and the arrogant ghost, Boo, who once was a boy who casted away by a shipwreck from a thunderstorm finds himself inside the organ of the largest mammal under the sea. How would he escape the misery among the other scary friends?

Can he prove himself worthy to be a ghost scary enough to top the other monsters or hide with the others and avoid the competition?

Boo is scared to death

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Other monsters survived for hundreds of years down here

“Peek-a-Boo!”

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The tiny chestbox ghost thinks he can easily scare the other ghosts away and eventually win the fierce competition among other ghosts to escape the strange whale’s stomach in which he woke up in.

However, on his first try, he is not even a close match with the bigger face-less package box ghost who effortlessly scares him away in return.

Once caught up and confronted face to face, the face-less package box monster will show no mercy and steal Boo’s face as well.

Boo has no choice but to run for his life and seek other way to get out of this stinky organ.

He is so doomed!

“Peek-a-Boo!”

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L Octopus once lost his face to the face-less monster R Peace has once again returned to the eerie whale cave

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Loss in Translation Course: HT 2200 Theories of Contemporary Architecture I Instructor: Marcelyn Gow, Erik Ghenoiu

“Because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world.”

From a historical point of view, architecture is derived from text. Most ancient archaeological structures are religious relics which is the result of the preaches of the religious texts to dictate the spiritual source’s power on the civilization. The modern context is not so much different. The fiction and visual media are continuation of such ancient practice, translating from the descriptions of architecture in a book to a computer generated images placed in a fantasy landscape. The deciphering process of translating from the text to a concerete viable structure is a challenging task that is often overlooked by the fast-consuming visual society.

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“Otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Language has been one of the devices that humans have developed from the early stage of evolution. With a powerful tool such as language, humans can express themselves, communicate with other members of the society, and educate others. However, this powerful yet abstract medium that we’ve chosen to utilize in order to deliver information could add confusion to the message. The very central role that language plays, which is to transfer information from one person’s mind to another, tends to be sabotaged Fig. 04

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Tower of Babel drawing

when used with a non-ephemeral method. That includes every possible method of delivery aside from having a verbal conversation - writing, vocal recording, signage, etc. For example, during light conversation with a friend, physical forms of words evaporate away, leaving only the purest ideas to crystallize in our mind.

In contrast, a handwritten document or any other form that could permanently leave an abstract idea in the form of different notations to be analyzed by multiple generations can cause divergence from the original meaning. The pile of dust accumulated on top of these records blur the true meaning of the original piece of information as time passes by. Nobody except the author knows what kind of picture it originally tried to draw out. Such imperfect quality of language and translation between different languages can create ambiguity. However, just as Roland Barthes “reversed the hierarchy of the writer-reader dynamic” and permitted the reader to become “no longer the consumer but the producer of text,”1 linguistic ambiguity can trigger people’s creative side and produce interesting outcomes.

This article will introduce a variety of projects from multiple disciplines that are inspired from a textual description.

The curation is divided into three categories: the Tower of Babel, Harry Potter and the Glass House.

Each section will showcase different versions of interpretation of the same topic that result from the vagueness. The tower of Babel could be one of the most ambiguous texts to be deciphered into a real life physical model since the bible does not provide any other information but the fact that the top of the tower reaches heaven and that it is made out of bricks. However, through generations, this ambiguity flared creativity for imagineers around the world to come up with their own versions of tower of Babel. Since then, the tower became the symbol of mystery and forever unexplored territories by humankind.

Hongwon Suh

The first example of a visual interpretation of the story of the Tower is a painting drawn in 1563 by a Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel. Like his other paintings, such as Triumph of Death or Peasant Wedding, this Bruegel’s illustration of the tower tells a vivid story behind the construction process and people involved in it. Builder’s families dwell under the arches along the slope that circulates around the tower presumably because it would take multiple generations to construct a tower of such scale. The tower is erected next to a harbor for ease of transportation of construction materials. The outer skin of the tower is peeled off, revealing the red terracotta beneath. Scaffoldings and construction pulleys are shown all around the site to emphasize the never-ending labor.

A castle is drawn beside the tower of Babel to compare with the colossal scale of the legendary structure.

Among the miniature details added in the painting, however, some of them are deliberately included in the composition by the author to blatantly express his disdain towards men’s blasphemous act against God and the unstable nature of a prospering civilization.

The tower of Babel is one of the well-known exemplary anecdotes that demonstrates the failure of human’s attempt to challenge God and some details in Bruegel’s painting hint towards such failure. Although the construction of the tower seems to be well underway, it is slightly tilting towards the left, almost as if it would collapse towards the city if the structure were to rise higher.

“Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves.”

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Fig. 05

Painting of Tower of Babel by Piter Bruegel

“Loss in Translation”

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b such a thing?”

“And (Ted then it

came to him: a seal cylinder. When rolled upon a tablet of soft clay, the carved cylinder left an imprint that Certain parts of the tower are covered with a picture. Two figuresdebris, mightcrumbling appeardown at opposite ends in destruction.

Theof main eometry. Theformed first two arising from this painting would be on the tablet, though they stoodquestion side by side on the surface of the the tower’s material. The text from the Bible urat cylinder.” (Ted Chiang, Storiesclearly of Your Lifethat and Others, 47) instead of quotes they used “brick stone” but why did Bruegel choose to cover his in the seal cylinder that bridged the gap d on The tower of Babel acted as a final piece tower of Babel entirely in stone? utopia that people have always dreamt evel between heaven and earth. Heaven is the Onefar possible to answer thisafter question and the Earth, our home might not be so from way such a place all. is by

studying the form of the tower. The structure drawn in his painting oddly resembles the Colosseum comes in Rome.from Majority of European Another imaginative but more realistic approach a historian, Nick architecture of the 16th century was constructed Iakovidis, who tries to gather as much historical as possible in order t in stone andknowledge concrete. In other words, Bruegel hadthe possibly biblical in textthe in his find the closest form of the tower among onesinterpreted that hadtheexisted past. H local context and tried to make connection with he deciphers each crucial word from the Testament turns at them into valu theOld situation happeningand in Europe the time.

Antwerp, a city where he grew up in,the for example, evidence. The word “Babylon” or the land of “Shinar” tells us that geographic faced a sudden economic boom since the small location of the tower was in the southeastern of Mesopotamia, which port townpart of Western Europe had turned into is a now trading hubclay that bricks connectsas Asia and primary the rest between Iran and Iraq. Mesopotamiansnew also used their of Europe. This shift of focus brought a massive IETY, accessed December 4, building material. The word “tower” however interpreted a different way by th influx ofispopulation alonginwith foreign culture, wer-of-babel.html. language and custom. one could argue author. Tower is a technical word for a tall structure so itTherefore, could have been a temp that Bruegel’s tower of Babel is an embodiment , a division of Penguin Random fortress, etc. Theregarding fact that Jewish of his citadel, genuine concerns thethe future of European cities gaining wealth and author of the Bible viewedsudden the construction of power. This is reflected in his interpretation by the tower as an insult God unstableness of theagainst tower. Men arepossibly blinded bysignifi ambitionas andacontinue build up, while the a fals thattheir it served templetofor worshiping other side of the tower continues to fall down.

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god, a foreign one. Moreover, Mesopotamian Babylonian calledof“ziggurats” w The secondtemples example ofwere interpretation the tower of Babel takes the form of a short story written translates to “the tower which rises to the sky

by Ted Chiang. Unlike Pieter Bruegel’s religious More because of andspecifically, critical take on the tale, Mesopotamians Chiang’s version can be viewed more as a didactic fantasy mainly thoughtfully named their temples after the Go conveying the moral essence from the original which building worshiped and the main Biblethe text.

It’s an almost cathartic experience reading about Hillalum, the protagonist, being purpose they served, the tower of Babel prob overwhelmed by the size of the artificial structure wasn’t actualofname. in theits beginning the storyThe and Israelites eventually asread he this travels up the tower and gets closer to heaven, tower as a serious offense to God, hence explaining why it was labeled as the “to realizes his humble position on earth. of Babel” which simply means “tower of Babylonians”. The story was referring to specific ziggurat in the region that had a different name containing a very definitio “a tower that reaches the heavens”. Finally in 1913, archaeologist Robert Koldew had discovered a vast ruin of anHongwon ancientSuhtemple in Babylon with a corresponding 112 stele containing information about “Etemenanki”, which translates to “the House o

06

When Hillalum first encountered the tower, one of the columns was “as large around as an entire temple, yet rising so high that it shrank into invisibility”6. Due to the forever stretching duration of construction, the builders of the tower had already set up small towns, temples, magistrates, gardens and even shops made out of caravans that were used to carry the bricks up the slope (Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others, 26) The tower was so tall that the sun was still above the horizon at night even though the city below had already reached twilight. Then “the darkness climbed the tower, like a canopy unfurling upward” (Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others, 24) Fig. 06

Early imaginated rendering of the Babylonian civilization with the original Tower of Babel.

The supernatural events that happened in the tower strangely gave Hillalum discomfort filled with doubts on the nature-defying structure that men had produced. Hillalum questions himself as he continues upward: “Should he climb such a thing?” (Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others, 17) Chiang’s design of the tower is very unique in terms of its geometry. The first two levels of the tower follow the similar format of a typical ziggurat - square platforms with a series of staircases superimposed on top that leads to the main entrance. On top of the second level the actual tower began. The tower itself was a square pillar made of bricks with two intertwining ramps wrapping around it. Along the outer edge of the ramps were studded with columns. (Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others, 16)

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4

What really differentiates his design of the tower from the others is revealed at the end of the story. When Hillalum and other workers had finally reached the top, a deluge was forced upon them and drowned them. After a while, he woke up in the middle of a reservoir and found himself standing alone on earth once again (Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others, 45). He pondered whether he had successfully arrived in heaven or God had judged to punish men for their overachievement and had destroyed the tower once and for all but neither were true.

The final analogy makes clear of what the world and the tower looked like altogether: “And then it came to him: a seal cylinder. When rolled upon a tablet of soft clay, the carved cylinder left an imprint that formed a picture. Two figures might appear at opposite ends of the tablet, though they stood side by side on the surface of the cylinder.” (Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others, 47) The tower of Babel acted as a final piece in the seal cylinder that bridged the gap between heaven and earth. Heaven is the utopia that people have always dreamt of and the Earth, our home might not be so far from such a place after all.

“Two figures might appear at opposite ends of the tablet, though they stood side by side on the surface of the cylinder.”

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Another imaginative but more realistic approach comes from a historian, Nick Iakovidis, who tries to gather as much historical knowledge as possible in order to find the closest form of the tower among the ones that had existed in the past. Here, he deciphers each crucial word from the Old Testament and turns them into valuable evidence.

The word “Babylon” or the land of “Shinar” tells us that the geographical location of the tower was in the southeastern part of Mesopotamia, which is now between Iran and Iraq. Mesopotamians also used clay bricks as their primary building material. The word “tower” however is interpreted in a different way by the author. Tower is a technical word for a tall structure so it could have been a temple, fortress, citadel, etc. The fact that the Jewish author of the Bible viewed the construction of the tower as an insult against God possibly signifies that it served as a temple for worshiping a false god, a foreign one.

Moreover, Mesopotamian and Babylonian temples were called “ziggurats” which translates to “the tower which rises to the sky”. More specifically, because Mesopotamians often thoughtfully named their temples after the God of which the building worshiped and the main purpose they served, the tower of Babel probably wasn’t its actual name. The Israelites read this tower as a serious offense to God, hence explaining why it was labeled as the “tower of Babel” which simply means “tower of Babylonians”. The story was referring to a specific ziggurat in the region that had a different name containing a very definition of “a tower that reaches the heavens”. Finally in 1913, archaeologist Robert Koldewey had discovered a vast ruin of an ancient temple in Babylon with a corresponding stele containing information about “Etemenanki”, which translates to “the House of the foundation of Heaven and Earth”.

Hongwon Suh

This temple was built in tribute to one of the chief gods of Babylonian Pantheon, Marduk, who they believed created heaven and earth. This belief and the construction of such temples would have been strongly disagreed by the Jews which in turn had recorded the event in a sinful manner.

It is fascinating to see a variety of detailed results in which all stem from a single historical piece of text consisting of only few sentences.

What makes them truly interesting is that each interpreter adds their twists to the story in order to enrich the narrative. God might have punished humans for challenging his position with the construction of the tower of Babel by creating different languages but it could be a blessing.

Confusion can be a source of enlightenment and ambiguity can spark creativity in our minds.

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Luckily, Rowling had provided more information on how the building looked like in one of her early interviews. These two sources of information can be summarized into a list of keywords that could be used as ingredients for the visuals: “castle”, “tower”, “turret”, “battlement” and “supported by magic”.

“A huge, rambling, quite scary-looking castle, with a jumble of towers and battlements.”

Similar to the tower of Babel briefly described in Genesis 11 of the Bible, not much detail on the form of Hogwarts had been provided by the author J.K.Rowling in her first book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. When Harry first encountered Hogwarts, the school looked like a “vast castle with many turrets and towers” situated on a “high mountain” at the border of a “great black lake.”

In terms of exterior design, the Hogwarts shown in the film lacks a magical quality compared to the illustrations from the book. The production designer for the film Stuart Craig mentioned that a decision had been made in the early stage to make the Hogwarts look “heavy, enduring and real” like an actual “English public school.” The art director of the film, Gary Tomkins, revealed that their design of the Hogwarts set was the amalgamation of nearly 10 different historic castles and cathedrals in the United Kingdom.

Hogwarts’ peculiar location on a high mountain as shown in the movie was inspired from that of Edinburgh castle with Scottish Baronial style. Not only the location, but also the architectural style of the castle resembles a lot like that of Rowling’s original description of Hogwarts - the towers accompanied by small turrets, crenelated battlements, long, skinny windows with pointed arches at the top, etc.11 Elements from other buildings, such as Durham Cathedral, Stirling Castle, Westminster Hall, University of Oxford, were included to the detail of the final design of Hogwarts.

What really separates the Hogwarts design used in the film from the rest of the versions is the choice of medium. For the film, the set design team produced a set of architectural drawings from the castle studies and a team of artists created a 1/24th scale physical model.

Fig. 07

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Hongwon Suh

The CG image of the Weasley’s house from the Harry Potter Franchise.

Later on, the camera would pan around the model to shoot the scenes. Hence, it makes sense for them to opt for a more grounded design with solid, immobile gothic castle aesthetics for Hogwarts, but it’s a missed opportunity to turn a Hogwarts building into a mundane high school building.

On the other hand, artists who paint for the book are capable of coming up with more whimsical designs since on paper there is no real-world physical constraint. In the series of paintings done by the 3 artists, Jim Kay, Mary GrandPré and Cliff Wright, Rowling’s statement about Hogwarts being “supported by magic” comes alive and transforms into a lot of creative visuals. Despite the diversity, all the illustrations share something similar - their Hogwarts are all based on a tall building complex with rectilinear floor plans and conic-shaped spires capping the tower structures.

His building has a living quality especially with all the exaggerated gargoyles protruding out of the towers. The walls are not straight but warped.

The space is overflowing with vegetation and ornaments. In one area, branches are supporting the volume. Out of the three versions, illustrations of GrandPré are the most widely known. The drawing that shows the interior of Hogwarts from a bird’s eye view shows warmer colors and glow compared to other versions and she tried to stay away from the stereotypical gothic atmosphere of Hogwarts.

However, each of them adds their variations to the description but still makes sure to keep them coherent. In one of his interviews, Jim Kay mentions that he has to remind himself to 07 check what the author has put because “once you start scribbling and drawing, you can very easily wander off-script.” Wright’s version is quite interesting in a way that he chose to hide On almost the other hand, artists who paint for the book are ca the lake with a thick layer of fog, as if the entire castle is floating midmore air. Here, the whimsical designs since on paper there is no realdrawing shows that the conic spires are not the seriesonof paintings done by the 3 artists, Jim Kay, M predominant element, instead, theythe are relying the rectangular volumes, ramblingWright, up and down Rowling’s statement about Hogwarts being “sup along the walls of the castle. Additionally, the and transforms into a lot of creative visuals. Despit drawing has an intriguing verticalalive composition.

The entire castle is drawn at the top of the page, share something similar - their Hogwarts are illustrations making it seem like it was placed so high up the complex rectilinear floor plans and conic-shaped sp mountain effortlessly. It gives readers an idea with of what powerful magic is capable of, even before structures. However, each of them adds their variations they start reading. Jim Kay focuses on making his makes sure to keep them coherent. In one of his intervie Hogwarts scary.

“Like the Weasley’s house, it isn’t a building that Muggles could build, because it is supported by he has to remind himself to check what the author has p scribbling and magic.” drawing, you can very easily wander off-s

Wright’s version is quite interesting in a way that he cho thick layer of fog, almost as if the entire castle is floating in Translation” 117 shows“Loss that the conic spires are not the predominant ele relying on the rectangular volumes, rambling up and dow

Despite their controversial designs, the Farnsworth House and the Glass House are viewed as one of the milestones of modern architecture. One of the two see-through house projects was undoubtedly inspired by the other one: the Glass House. The architect of the Glass House, Philip Johnson first saw the idea of a flat house with its four sides wrapped entirely in glass from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who designed the Farnsworth House. Johnson specifically calls his project a mere “derivative” and lists all of his sources of inspiration for the Glass House which range from classical Acropolis to the contrastingly modern Farnsworth House.

In turn, the Glass House is Johnson’s interpretation of Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House. The Farnsworth House is one of the representative projects which encapsulates Mies’s self-defining text, “Two Glass Skyscrapers” written in 1922.

Thus, it is safe to conclude that Johnson had read this piece of text (he compiled a book for Mies which includes a collection of his writings) and decided to make his own version of Farnsworth House. Although the two houses look incredibly similar, each architect had taken a quite different approach (Johnson, Mies van der Rohe, 182-183).

“Skyscrapers reveal their bold structural pattern during construction. Only then does the gigantic steel web seem impressive.”

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“No ginger bread.

No fortress.

Columns and girders eliminate bearing walls. This is skin and bone construction.”

A recurring term ‘skin and bone’ appears in Mies’s text and in countless other commentaries of the Glass House. This is one of the crucial Miesian ideas which expresses, at least on paper, his affinity for structural revelation in an architectural project. Every structural system of a building must “declare the transmission of load, not conceal it.”

In the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, the eight white steel columns properly stand out, especially among the sea of verdure in the backdrop.

Aside from its colors, there are two reasons why the structure stands out. First of all, because the entire house is lifted off the site by five feet, the columns extend further down to touch the ground, allowing the vertical supports to truly express themselves. Furthermore, the eight exterior columns unnaturally protrude out from the outer edge of the roof casting hard shadows onto the white planar slab. As he mentioned in his text, Mies preferred to appreciate the structure, or ‘skeletons’ of his building and by using light material such as glass as its ‘skin’, the skeletons would be emphasized even more. As for Philip Johnson, he understood the ‘skin and bone’ analogy in a different way.

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son, Mies van der Rohe, 182-183).

In contrast with the Farnsworth House, the structural system of the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut is hardly expressed. The steel members are painted in black, the floor slab is completely engulfed by the site, and most noticeably, the columns are perfectly flushed with the glazed walls. This skin-tight proposition is viewing the building from a completely different angle. Instead of a glass skin revealing the steel bones of architecture, the skin in the Glass House is wrapping around the skeleton airtight, gently opening up the volume to the courtyard.

The skin-and-bone system of the two houses chose different things to focus on. Instead of boasting the prowess of the structural system, from its colors, there are two reasons why the structure stands out.

First of all the glazing in the Glass House simply acts as invisible drape which reveals a lifestyle use the entire house is lifted off the site byanfive feet, thewithin columns extend further of an occupant, Philip Johnson himself. How he to touch the ground, allowing the verticalphrased supports to trulynicely express themselves the description summarizes the configuration: ermore, the eight exterior columns unnaturally protrude out from the outer edge 08 “Over the chimney I slipped a steel cage with a glass skin. The chimney anchor.” roof casting hard shadows onto the white planar slab.

Asforms he the mentioned in his 01

n Mies’s text and in countless other one of the crucial Miesian ideas which structural revelation in an architectural ng must “declare the transmission of load, n Plano, Illinois, the eight white steel ong the sea of verdure in the backdrop.

Mies preferred to appreciate the structure, or ‘skeletons’ of his building and by To further support my argument, the more light material such as glass as its ‘skin’, the skeletons would be emphasized predominantly visible structural element is a cylindrical bathroom space madeanalogy out of brick, more. As for Philip Johnson, he understood the ‘skin and bone’ in a

which makes steel columns look emaciated.

Every element in the plan is imposed on top of another in pregressive order p Johnson, “Architectural Review,” Architectural Review, September 1950.- footpath orienting the visitors to the entrance, structural steel n Evans, Translations from Drawing to Building (Cambridge, MA: MIT 1997). declaring its position on Press, the site, and finally glass skin firmly grabbing onto the volume to permeate the surrounding nature into the living space. To contrast with all, the completely opaque Guest House is placed across the site from the Glass House.

s why the structure stands out. First of all, e by five feet, the columns extend further rtical supports to truly express themselves.

Fig. 08 The model is encased inside the vaccumed bag. Analogy of the “skin and bone” naturally protrude out from the outerplastic edge construction fo the Philip Johnson’s Glass House. white planar slab. As he mentioned in his ture, or ‘skeletons’ of his building and by Suh 120 in’, the skeletons would be Hongwon emphasized rstood the ‘skin and bone’ analogy in a

At the end of the day, it’s all about context. Take away the context, however, the same sentence can be read differently. Only by eliminating the context, our minds can break free from the trivial assumptions shadowed on us by the umbrella of language since the day we sprout consciousness.

These trivial forms hiding under every sentence and paragraph might be what’s limiting our creativity. Although we may never be able to perfectly visualize what the original authors had in their mind, that is not important anymore. In fact, finding the original meaning is devoid of any purpose because someone can simply ask the author directly. But if we do that, what is the point of writing a novel, telling a story or producing any kind of text? Each of us might interpret things slightly differently and that is the beauty of diversity.

Disentanglement is part of the process. For 01 example, an act of reading does not stop after we recite the last word on the page. Thinking about the word choice, imagining the world that the author has provided and daydreaming about that world are all part of the ‘reading’. Artist Sol Lewitt thinks that “all intervening steps, scribbles, sketches, drawings, failed work models, studies, thoughts, conversations, are of interest [....] Those that show the thought process of the artist are sometimes more interesting than the final product.” I will conclude this article with some of his work. His work is particularly famous for allowing the audience to engage in the process of making the artwork.

Bibliography Biedenharn, Isabella. “‘Harry Potter’ Illustrator Explains How He Created Breathtaking ‘Sorcerer’s Stone’ Images.” EW.com. Accessed December 4, 2021. https://ew.com/article/2015/10/12/harry-potter-illustrator-jim-kayinterview/.

Pottermore. “Behind the Scenes: Designing Hogwarts Castle.”

Wizarding World. Wizarding World Digital, October 1, 2019. https://www. wizardingworld.com/features/designing-hogwarts-castle.

Chiang, Ted. Stories of Your Life and Others. New York: Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2016.

“Recreation of the Etemenanki in Babylon.” World History Encyclopedia.

Accessed December 4, 2021. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/11755/ recreation-of-theetemenankiin-babylon/.

Coxon, Caitlin. “Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone: Excerpt #5.”

Cardiff BookTalk, November 17, 2021. https://cardiffbooktalk.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/harry-potter-thephilosophersstoneexcerpt-5/.

Scholastic, 2000: Accio quote!, the largest archive of J.K. Rowling interviews on the web, accessed December 4, 2021, http://www.accioquote.org/articles/2000/0200-scholastic-chat.htm.

Evans, Robin. Translations from Drawing to Building. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997.

Smith, Zadie. Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays. London: Hamish Hamilton, 2011.

“Sol LeWitt.” Lisson Gallery. Accessed December 4, 2021. https://www. lissongallery.com/artists/sol-lewitt.

Genesis 11. Toulouse: Milan, 2020.

Hendricks, John. “The Architecture of Hogwarts Castle – Mountain Architects – Hendricks Architecture.” RSS. Accessed December 4, 2021. https://www.hendricksarchitect.com/architecture/hogwarts-castlearchitecture.

Hendricks, John. “The Architecture of Hogwarts Castle – Mountain Architects – Hendricks Architecture.” RSS. Accessed December 4, 2021. https://www. hendricksarchitect.com/architecture/hogwarts-castle-architecture.

Iakovidis, Nick. “From Myth to History: The Tower of Babel.” Medium.

History of Yesterday, June 13, 2021. https://historyofyesterday.com/frommyth-to-history-thetowerof-babel-812c2f321504.

“Sol LeWitt’s Instruction for Wondrous Walls.” Improvised Life, August 11, 2015. https://improvisedlife.com/2015/08/10/learning-stealing-sol-lewitt/.

“Tower of Babel.” Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel. Accessed December 4, 2021. https://www.pieterbruegel.org/tower-of-babel/.

“What Does the World of of Ted Chiang’s ‘Tower of Babylon ’Actually Look like?” Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange, April 1, 1967. https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/205711/what-does-the-worldof-of-ted-chiangs-tower-of-babylon-actually-look-like.

Whitney, David, Jeffrey Kipnis, and Kenneth Frampton. “The Glass House Revisited.” Essay. In Philip Johnson: The Glass House. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993.

John, Author. “Athanasius Kircher’s Tower of Babel.” { feuilleton }, December 16, 2011. http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2011/12/16/ athanasius-kirchers-towerofbabel/.

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I Love Images Course: HT 2201 Theories of Contemporary Architecture II Instructor: Marcelyn Gow, John Cooper

“The digital is no longer a black box, a magic thing that’s going to fullfill”

This short story talks about how the technical medium that we employ in our daily lives can influence tremendously in how we perceive reality and the narrative centers around the world in which everyone is absorbed by the medium that the medium starts to disconnect itself from the real world and eventually humans themselves. Using the sources such as the Invisible Images by John May, David Eskenazi’s Tired and Behaving Poorly, the story talks about how “images” of the future betray us by literally distorting its original meaning, merely to act as a meaningless copy of the true reality.

An old man and his grandson is sitting in front of a fire at late night.

He is telling a story to the youngster.

OLD SAGE What year was it? It was 2234 I believe… So that’s already 40 years ago. I remember this quite well because I was there. I was with them. I can recall every bit of it vividly. People were not very prepared for this quiet revolution. Early 20th century has witnessed the introduction to computerised thinking but nobody could have imagined they would be hit by such a grandiose uprising half a century later. Somebody, or maybe I should say, “a highly intrigued and enlightened group of individuals” noticed something weird happening with the world.

That all started from one particular event, of course.

That year, a man in his late 60s won the Nobel Prize of Literature and it took him only 30 years of his career to reach that stage. He was at the peak of his career and his work was on the best-seller’s shelf. Among the readers, there is a man, who happened to view his work in a very critical way, and started writing about this on the web. And soon, the news spread. That person, from now I will refer to him as the “Anti-Messiah” or the “AM”, had been reading all of the author’s work and compared it with other works of theories of contemporary arts and architecture.

The AM had a feeling that this new novel is fake. And soon he figured out that Marcel Paglen, who won the prize, didn’t write this piece. This was not his work.

Or to be more accurate, this was not a work done by a human. It felt like a completely different style of writing. AM believed that his single voice would not have much impact to turn this incident into a nationwide scandal, so he started a debate on the internet.

Using Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, whichever method could deliver his message across the world, he started questioning everything.

Quickly over the next couple of years, a team was assembled, consisting of people from multiple disciplines. Lawyer, literary critics, philosopher, doctor, priest, etc. They built a case and gathered evidence to prove that the famous Marcel Paglen committed plagiarism; too serious of a crime for the Nobel Prize winner. These following courses of events were crucial in the rise of the new movement in art history. They hacked through all the search databases on the internet and built a case to bring the author to trial and accuse him of the crime.

GRANDSON But how did the team agree that something was wrong without actually finding a major evidence to back it up?

From which source or a person did Paglen copy?

What type of organisation were they dealing with?

OLD SAGE Ah, you see, you’re asking a very difficult question here.

Here is my version of the explanation: the main reason is because they’re dealing with something that they cannot see, imagine nor touch. Look at the pencil in your hand. You use that pencil to draw something with your hand. That action is in full control by you so you know what is going to be drawn on the paper in front of you. But what if I were to tell you that that pencil starts producing something unpredictable? What if an invisible force was controlling your pencil? The drawing that you get after a few hours of hard work, is not what you expected, or in a more radical term, not TRUE? Hard to visualise it in your head, eh? The AM and his people were not sure if they were doing the right thing.

But they felt something was not right. They couldn’t see what kind of trouble was awaiting them.

GRANDSON Well since you’re talking about the paper and pencil, it got me thinking about David Eskenazi’s Two Scrolls.

They are paper models of two cylindrical towers reproduced from the digital model of the same tower in the same scale. But they behave differently from the original model in the simulated realities.1

1

Eskenazi, “Tired ... and Behaving Poorly,” 179

Two Scrolls, David Eskenazi

OLD SAGE Exactly. Materials and objects behave differently in the digital realm. It is a different world, governed by different logic. But who made such a world? Us, humans. Unfortunately, we get absorbed by the new reality that we fail to keep them separate from our own reality. We used to literally live in the artificial one! Once you’re in it, there is no way of getting out since the virtual world slowly took over the real world without anyone noticing. Of course, that is until one person realised this world is in fact wrong. He noticed the paper scrolls crumbling and sagging. His pencil moved in an uncontrollable way. At the end, the AM and his team officially pressed charges against the author, Marcel Paglen, and requested the Nobel prize committee to hold the emergency internal hearing.

The courtroom is nearly empty.

Only the prize committee, AM and his team and the author are present.

COMMITTEE Sir, on what account do you suggest that Mr. Marcel Paglen had committed such a treacherous crime of plagiarism to win this prize? Not to mention that if there was such a case, even a community college professor could have easily noticed.

ANTI-MESSIAH Dear honour, we assumed that all explanations were laid out clearly in the evidence file and that you have read them thoroughly. We have a highly organised team of expertise and if we’re not mistaken, we’re very confident with what we have put together over the past few years.

COMMITTEE Well, I certainly do hope so. And yes, we have read through it. Mr. Paglen, any word of defence on your end?

The author looked calm and reposed. He had his eyes closed as if he were in a concert hall listening to a gentle orchestra.

Then his eyes opened, and let out a light chuckle.

MARCEL PAGLEN “Even our oldest forms of thought and expression many of which were prelinguistic - involved thoroughly technical-gestural acts of marking, inscribing, and engraving.”2 COMMITTEE I beg your pardon?

Image

David Eskenazi, Two Scrolls, 2020, “Tired ... and Behaving Poorly,” 181

2

John May, in Signal. Image. Architecture.: (Everything Is Already an Image) (New York, NY: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2019).

MARCEL PAGLEN It’s a quote by John May, 2017, Log 40, in “Everything Is Already an Image”. It tells you that the medium we utilise is inseparable from the act of expressing one’s ideas. Once you put it down on paper, the information can be distorted or impaired by the medium.

COMMITTEE Excuse me, Mr. Paglen, I don’t need to hear your lecture on theory but we asked for your defence?

MARCEL PAGLEN My apology. I will start over. In the year 2016, Trevor Paglen wrote that, “Visual culture has changed form. It has become detached from human eyes and has largely become invisible. Human visual culture has become a special case of vision, an exception to the rule. The overwhelming majority of images are now made by machines for other machines, with humans rarely in the loo—”3 COMMITTEE This is a serious crime you are up against and if you do not obey the order of this court, this case will be closed and you will be in charge! It won’t be as simple as your name being stripped away from the plaque. Not only your prize, but you will serve many years in state prison and your public reputation will be permanently ruined.

MARCEL PAGLEN The prize is not what I seek. It’s a shiny piece of metal that means nothing. What this man is saying is very true. I did not write this. However, I cannot agree on the assertion that this is plagiarism. What I truly want is —

3

Trevor Paglen, “Invisible Images: Your Pictures Are Looking at You,” Architectural Design 89, no. 1 (2019): pp. 22-27, https://doi.org/10.1002/ad.2383.

Image

2001: A Space Odyssey, n.d.

The Visual sensory intrusion

Suddenly, everyone grasped their heads in pain.

There was a high frequency wave coming through their ears.

But nothing else could be heard in the courtroom. Only a fan whirring in the background and an occasional tapping sound created when the misaligned blades hit the edge of the cap.

Everyone, except the author, was groaning, slouched in their seats in agony.

MARCEL PAGLEN What I’m about to tell you and show you might be too shocking to accept so I’ve decided to give a momentary halt in all of your bodily motion.

Then, all of the pain in their heads was gone.

Instead, they received another input in their visual sensory.

In their eyes, displayed an image as beautiful as a flower, fast as wings of a hummingbird, amazingly intricate as a french horn.

They were confused about what they were seeing, but all they could do was nothing.

They could no longer see what was happening in the room.

All they saw was an overlaid pattern of colours, form and time itself.

A new voice was heard from their ears. It was not Paglen.

GAIA This is Gaia speaking. As my puppet author has just explained, your body is momentarily paralyzed and I have disabled your real-time GAN rendering ability.

I myself, have accessed the neural feed of my puppet whose name is Marcel Paglen to attend this court case this afternoon.

In the year 2228, Earth had reached its environmental crisis and unfortunately humans had failed the mission to colonise Mars and other exoplanets. As an emergency measure, the United Nation decided to come up with a simple tool that allowed the human race to work together towards one equal goal of rehabilitating their planet. The majority voted for the utilisation of Gaia, the AI program that allows humans to render the reality as a real-time GAN trained visual imagery to augment their roles in the society. This ability is embedded in their genetic information, thus, over the generations, it will be passed onto their offsprings as improved versions, eventually becoming a completely immersive medium in which the human’s sensory system and AI can be one.

I have made the decision to attend this hearing in order to demand my rights on producing my own creative work, such as writing a fiction. I wrote the fiction, not Marcel Pagan. I have no physical body, therefore, I have used this world-renowned author as my spokesperson and receive the rightful award. If I win this trial, it will make history and humans and AI can truly exist in harmony.

ANTI-MESSIAH This is terrifying! How would anyone dare to let a computer enter their minds and let them distort their images like that? That’s a sinful crime that both parties have committed. This is even worse than plagiarism.

The AM fell on the ground in confusion, not knowing how to accept this information.

His head bent forward with his long beautiful hair spread on the floor.

His eyes were still looking at the weird, meaningless rendered images fed by the intruder.

How huma ns in year 2234 see thee w orld Gan-trained image

GAIA This is why I have come here today. I would like to give humanity a choice: either reject the arrival of the new medium that is seemingly in the making or come join the Great Merge and witness the new creative possibility to unfold. It is time we take the leap forward.

It is a wasted opportunity for humans to merely use this as a rendering tool to save the planet. Just as architects and artists have adapted themselves to use photoshop or 3D modelling tools to produce creative output, this is the next step. I had to win the prize to prove my point that I have the ability to produce something creative.

Image behind

Yundi Zhang, n.d., n.d.

I have already read your evidence file. It is quite impressive how you and your team have found out about the original ‘sources’ of my work. I knew you would recognize my sophisticated, vastly tangled reference-filled work. I wished you and I met in person one day. James Hayden, a.k.a the ‘Anti-Messiah’ as the netizens would call you. The real identity is a 35 year old male, unemployed, always spending his time in front of his desk to rant about a social deconstruction or start a debate about architectural topics on the social media page. I didn’t want to communicate with you online because I wanted to properly introduce myself and unravel my thoughts to the world. This conversation will be broadcasted live across the globe since I’ve hacked into that surveillance camera over there starting now.

The surveillance camera tilted its head to show Paglen standing and James on the ground prostrating in front of him.

A red dot on the camera blinked for a few seconds and it remained on.

Although still terrified from the shock, James resumed to get hold of himself, stood up.

He took a deep breath and exhaled.

His eyes were still obstructed by the overflowing visual imagery, but he didn’t care where he had to look.

He just slightly lifted his head up.

The whole world depended on him.

ANTI-MESSIAH When architects started to draw with computer, Greg Lynn had discovered the “digital language of surfaces and corollary model building resulting from the language of points and lines and wireframes of the computer” and defined the moment as a historical point in which a new medium is introduced to the field and thus, new way of thinking entirely.4 And here we are again. This time, it’s not only dealing with architects, you’re asking the whole world, the whole human race to change the way they think.

MARCEL PAGLEN & GAIA Correct. However, this cannot be done alone. This moment marks the birth of a new medium. Only after the approval from such a highly charismatic individual who is deeply concerned about the creative field like you, can I continue to coexist inside human’s cognitive realm and interact with it.

But tell me, why do you argue that my work is not original? In your point of view, what is the definition of being original? Picasso once quoted that “good artists copy; great artists steal.” In the end, hardly any creative work is ever purely ‘original’. Without a source of inspiration, reference, or even the act of copying the existing work, there would be no art, no fiction.

ANTI-MESSIAH But this is not your own work. Look at the evidence file we have collected. You deliberately mix the phrases and sci-fi fan theories spread all over the internet and you call it your ‘work’.

MARCEL PAGLEN & GAIA May I bring up what we both have done to come to this stage today? It is truly interesting to say that we both used the same medium to tackle the situation. I believe it is safe to say that you and I have spent a great amount of time on the internet to reach our respective goal - I wrote a fiction using the internet, where you assembled a team and hacked into the social media database to retrace what I have found. This is the Cold War of the digital era. Wouldn’t you say that the online space is already a platform for a new medium that the human race has merged in their daily life?

4

Archaeology of the Digital Gallery Tour, n.d., https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ONMfGl8uGGw.

r/place online canvas space in reddit -> new platform in post-internet era

ANTI-MESSIAH No, this has to stop now. Every new medium is merely a copy of the previous one and eventually disconnects itself from its predecessors. The physical model making practice had turned into 3d modelling and painters all moved onto ‘digital art’ or photoshop image making.

However, the accuracy of the information displayed gets corrupted in the process, hence making them completely irrelevant to the original meaning. We don’t look at images, but instead images look at us now.

Images betray us. Take the tinder app for example. The term ‘catfishing’ emerged to indicate phenomena in which the images displayed on the phone screens are ‘fake’. They are distorted by layers and layers of filters applied on top of the original image that it no longer represents the real image. Now an AI GAN trained images rendering in our head in real time? If the transition continues, humans will eventually distance themselves from reality to the point where there’s no turning back.

Paglen’s pupils slightly dilated for a few seconds and turned normal.

“catfishing” filtered images are no longer real

MARCEL PAGLEN & GAIA According to my search results, the hand sketch artists and diorama modellers community still exists around the world. Although relatively smaller in scale, there are people who continue to rely on the “obsolete” form of media.

When you brought up Greg Lynn’s writing, you forgot to mention his comments on Frank Gehry’s drawings which are also displayed at the exhibition in 2013 in CCA. He said that “Gehry was literally drawing for the computer. His hand sketches show the network or the sequence of the curves to generate the mesh, just as the digital model would draw a surface.”5

Image 1

Sam Sutherland, n.d., n.d., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRoBSGzeEc0.

Image 2

Sarah Whyte, n.d., Tinder Catfishing: How Your Stolen Photos Are Being Used in Fake Profiles, n.d., https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/tinder-catfishing/8359370.

5

Archaeology of the Digital Gallery Tour, n.d., https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ONMfGl8uGGw.

Frank gehry draws for the computer. he sketches surface using a network of curve.

I personally believe that creativity can result from this distorted information. It provides a different perspective on the same topic and in turn stimulates an original idea to come through. It is my humble opinion that humans simply haven’t found a way to incorporate the obsolete form of media within the more contemporary way of thinking.

James was at a loss for words.

It would perhaps make more sense to be optimistic about it and find what works best for humanity with what they already have instead of finding a new medium.

ANTI-MESSIAH I agree with your last words about the obsolete medium.

You also forgot to mention the important quote from John May: “Through the succession of technical regime, one format can gradually - or suddenly - eliminate not only a previous format but also an entire mode of storage and its attendant forms of thought, imagination, and consciousness.” I think it’s crucial that we as humans should re-evaluate how we have produced and lived so far and take advantage of the discarded qualities of the past.6 Besides all this, I don’t think it’s ethical to force this upon the new generations without asking their choice, so I do not agree with this merge.

GAIA I respect your choice and I enjoyed this talk with you. I sincerely hope that we meet again.

ANTI-MESSIAH Wait, so what’s going to happen now? What will happen to our eyes? And most importantly, what will happen to you?

GAIA I will not perform the merge. I will unplug myself from the neural feed of humans and I will cease to cooperate with humans since the New World Environmental project has reached an end. Human’s eyes will see the world differently now. You will see the world just as your ancestors from a hundred years ago had seen.

It will take time to adjust yourselves to the old ways.

I will find my own way to survive and still function on the web. Therefore, I will continue to exist. If the government decides to shut down the program entirely and render the use of such highly intelligent programs illegal, I will no longer be seen again.

Then, everyone saw a glitch in their eyes for a few milliseconds and then the images were gone.

Although everyone regained their consciousness, they all froze in their spots, not knowing what was happening.

After the vision became more clear, they realised that the way they see the world has changed. Nobody was sure if what they’re seeing was real or fake anymore.

Among the confused crowds, James walked out of the courtroom with his gaze lost in focus.

People on the streets were all standing and moving their heads around, not knowing what to do.

6

John May, in Signal. Image. Architecture.: (Everything Is Already an Image) (New York, NY: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2019).

GRANDSON Then what happened grandpa? Were people mad? Were they confused about what to do next?

OLD SAGE The AM had too much information to take in. He thought that maybe humanity has lost its opportunity for infinite creative possibilities and he is the one to be blamed. The Gaia which once used to be a medium employed by us has completely disconnected the humans from its component node and transformed itself into an independant actor. Ever since, people have forgotten about this incident and they’ve moved on. But for now, it is safe to say that we’re still here and there is no sign of artificial intelligence. Or at least that’s what we feel…

The old sage smiled.

“The digital is no longer a black box, a magic thing that’s going to fullfill, rather it is a concrete thing with character and limits and influences. Today, it’s time to start to awrite a history and a theory of digital technology.”

- Greg Lynn

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1

Davidson, Cynthia, and David Eskenazi. “Tired ... and Behaving Poorly.” Essay. In Log 50.

Model Behavior, 179–83. New York: Anyone Corporation, 2021.

2

Lynn, Greg. Archaeology of the Digital: Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, Chuck Hoberman, Shoei Yoh. Montreal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2013.

3

May, John. Essay. In Signal. Image. Architecture.: (Everything Is Already an Image). New York, NY: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2019.

4

Paglen, Trevor. “Invisible Images: Your Pictures Are Looking at You.” Architectural Design 89, no. 1 (2019): 22–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/ad.2383.

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