HEADSPACE BLACK CONTEMPORARY IMAGINARY
Samantha Barger Mackenzie Deiuliis
Alexis Call Jonathan Kaye
HEADSPACE BLACK CONTEMPORARY IMAGINARY
ARCH 403 — FALL 2021
Experience physical, three-dimension acts of drawn observation affecting perceived sensations of the mind...
...where individuals psychologize themselves within the space.
“The structure is beautiful.” “The combination of colors is clever — it challenges my perception.” “The seed-bin itself is actually glowing.” “The way it separates spaces is effective.” “The hierarchy of the bin’s form is celebrated.” “Oh! It’s a completely different space up here.” “The intentionality of the installation is tangible.” “This space is making me feel warm! I know it’s cold, but the red light makes me feel warm inside.”
—Exhibition Visitors
Headspace is a project of the body and mind. These typically assume passive roles when dormant, remaining immutable in the presence of animated surroundings. Similarly, the site seems dormant — former seed-drying bins no longer functional and encircled by overgrowth. Yet thorough observation exposes the site as a dynamic, flexible, and responsive partner. Headspace is therefore a complementary installation — one whose form amplifies existing phenomena by introducing an assemblage with which to engage. The 20th century philosopher Gaston Bachelard provoked the consideration of cellar and attic as polar locations bound within a single structure. Headspace offers a response of sequential movement, volumetric manipulation, and internal psychologization. Linear passage through a defined series of spaces elicits a resultant psychological response — an expression derived from the process of sensory data transforming into perceived and expressed emotions. Headspace intensifies these evolutions of comprehension by employing distinct colors: red emanating from the cellar and blue washing down from the attic. These hues are delineated via a system of suspended aluminum foil-clad baffles, whose apertures allow a soft diffusion of colors amongst one another. At the entrance, a threshold and vestibule attenuate the transition from the farm and extend a deep scarlet hue toward the sidewalk’s terminus at the bin. Deeper within, the elevated metal floor inclines toward the linear baffles, compressing the body toward a seated or supine position. Movement up the slope brings one beyond the baffles, placing their position at chest height and transforming what was once above into the below. This duality between perception and the unknown assists in one’s psychologization of the space through gradual discernment and sensation — making possible the manifestation of feelings potentially unsubstantiated by reality. These feelings are an experiential outcome connected to what one sees, what one thinks there is, and what is truly present.
The seed-bin presents a pure expression of functionality.
A fabric vestibule now attenuates the moment of arrival.
A threshold establishes the bin as an accessible exhibition space.
As for the cellar, we shall no doubt find uses for it... It will be rationalized and its conveniences enumerated. But it is first and foremost the dark entity of the house, the one that partakes of subterranean forces. When we dream there, we are in harmony with the irrationality of the depths. -Gaston Bachelard
The inclining, perforated metal floor generates upward momentum, compressing an inhabitable space between cellar and ceiling.
Three baffles are installed with linear precision...
...and their spatial relationships transform material continuity into separate planes.
The body responds to and transforms the baffle system into a series of dualities: Solid & Void Continuous & Separated Compressive & Floating Above & Below
Tensioned aircraft cables are installed on rafters, heightening the structural hierarchy of the bin.
Attachments showcase how each component contributes to the suspended baffle system.
Lighting originates from outside the bin, entering through pre-existing hopper doors set within the walls. Thermostatic colors delineate space and feeling, affecting apparent temperature while expressing the relationship of interstitial space to the cellar below and attic above.
A roof tells its raison d’etre right away: it gives mankind shelter from the rain and sun he fears... We “understand” the slant of a roof. Even a dreamer dreams rationally. Up near the roof all our thoughts are clear. —Gaston Bachelard
1 1 3 4 6 8 11 12 20 200 240 5100 1 2 2 4 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 4 6 7 18 117
SEED-BIN 3’ WIDE X 8’ TALL DOOR 60’ LONG TROUGH & CONVEYER BELT 20’ SPAN STEEL BEAMS 10’ WOOD JOISTS 8’ X 8’ PLYWOOD SHEETS & METAL ROOFING HOPPER DOORS VERTICAL STEEL BEAMS WOODEN RAFTERS 1’ WIDE X 2’ TALL STEEL PLATES PERFORATED STEEL SQUARES & FRAME SQUARE FOOT FLOOR AREA CUBIC FEET OF CIRCULATING AIR THRESHOLD SET OF THREE STAIRS STRINGERS MACHINE SCREWS & NUTS C-CLAMPS VESTIBULE 2” X 60” ELECTRIC METALLIC TUBE CONDUIT 8’ LENGTH NYLON CORD 8’ LENGTH 2X4S 6” METAL TENT SPIKES BLACK PIPE UNIONS BLACK PIPE ELBOWS BLACK PIPE FLOOR FLANGES 3” WOOD SCREWS 3-1/4” MASONRY SCREWS SAFETY PINS LINEAR FEET OF THREADED BLACK STEEL PIPE SQUARE FEET OF RED & BLACK FABRIC
ALUMINUM-FOIL CLAD PANELS LINEAR FEET OF ALUMINUM FOIL TAPE 1/4” SHEET METAL SCREWS SQUARE FEET OF CORRUGATED CARDBOARD SQUARE FEET OF ALUMINUM FOIL 1/4” STEEL STAPLES
150 342 1080 2175 3036
PVC FRAMES CANS OF SILVER METALLIC SPRAY PAINT PVC 3-WAY TEE CONNECTORS PVC ELBOW CONNECTORS 3-1/4” MASONRY SCREWS EYEHOOKS MANUFACTURED PANELS LINEAR FEET OF 1” DIA PVC PIPE
4 9 13 28 32 84 147
TENSION-CABLE STRUCTURE AIRCRAFT CABLES ALIGNED IN A ROW FIFTY-POUND PULLEYS GRIPLOCK CONNECTIONS EYEHOOKS LINEAR FEET OF 1/8” AIRCRAFT CABLE
6 12 18 36 225
LIGHTING RED LIGHT BULB POWER STRIPS STEEL CLAMPS WOOD ANGLE FRAMES FLUORESCENT FIXTURES & TUBE LIGHTS PARKING LOT FIXTURES & LED LIGHTS LINEAR FEET OF EXTENSION CORD SQUARE FEET OF BLUE CELLOPHANE SQUARE FEET OF RED CELLOPHANE
1 2 4 8 9 12 75 128 208
CRITICS Cameron Campbell (Iowa State University, Department of Architecture) Cruz Garcia (Iowa State University, Department of Architecture) Peter P. Goché (Iowa State University, Department of Architecture) Bosuk Hur (Iowa State University, Department of Architecture) Vladimir Kulić (Iowa State University, Department of Architecture) Sharon Wohl (Iowa State University, Department of Architecture) Alex Michl (OPN Architects) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Black Contemporary Imaginary Peter P. Goché (Founder of Black Contemporary)
PEERS Danielle Allen Zhaoyue Chen Noah Schulte Taylor Shaw
Youn Choi Kelsey Dust Fawzi Khoury Chi-Hsien Liu
Nicholas Blazek Megan Ehlert Shivang Patel Sara Smiley
SPECIAL THANKS Daniel Kaye Liesl Kaye Lillia Kaye Preston Kaye Gunner O’Reilly WORKS CITED Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2014. Benjamin, Walter. Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008. Lavin, Sylvia. Form Follows Libido: Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007.