What’s the point?
Trilogy of the Nihilist Tripolis The Archives
by: Victoria Nip
Abstract
This is a study and compilation of the entire process in the ideation and creation of the project “What is the point?” as a completed project of the IRN 501 course.
Several philosophies, modes of creation and communication have been used in order to stretch the bounds of freedom in this project. Where the boundaries of the project structure began to crack is what this report hopes to cover and speculate where freedom began or if it ever did...
Special thanks to those who helped document their experiences for developing the point of this project.
Timeline
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment 00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
03-00// the game of life
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem 06-00// enlightenment
00-03// routine 03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
03-01// hello world 05-02//alternate realities
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
All I knew was the constant arrival and departure to go to and back from school. It was the same everyday and the minor inconveniences or a change in pace with the breakdown of the system that was standing between me and the comfort of what I call home.
The assignment was simple, “explore the thems of interior urbanism, the legacy of historical promenades and arcades, the coexistence of multiple publics, community formation,and program hybridity” through creating interventions in the PATH system.
but what was not anticipated was what was revealed through further inspection.
Things are not always how they seem...
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment 00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
03-00// the game of life
00-03// routine 03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
03-01// hello world 05-02//alternate realities
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
06-00// enlightenment
Exceeding the Boundaries//Acrylic on Illustration Board, 2020
IRN 401- the motifs, 2022
This idea was not new, it was like something thought before, it took more time to find ways to express something that I has been in the back of my mind..
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment
00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
00-03// routine 03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
03-00// the game of life
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
03-01// hello world 05-02//alternate realities
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
06-00// enlightenment
Scotia Tower
Union to Royal Bank Plaza
Union Station, York Concorse Bay Adelaide
The tone and theoretical aesthetic was defined in this moment of the assignment where diagrams were made to describe a particular idea in the space but it revealed a particular way of thinking.... something that was free yet moving in a structure... peculiar.
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment
01-00// absorbtion
00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
03-00// the game of life
00-03// routine 03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
03-01// hello world 05-02//alternate realities
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
06-00// enlightenment
Herzog & DeMeuron, Fufe Hofe Charles Correa/Moriyama and Teshima , Ismaili Centre
Ryuji Nakamura, Corn Field
Tlaplan Chapel, Luis Barragan
Quickly it was found to map the circulation in Toronto’s Union Station was not simple
Through the circulation diagrams there were more questions found than complexities answered...
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment 00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
03-00// the game of life
03-01// hello world
00-03// routine 03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
05-02//alternate realities
06-00// enlightenment
Models
Through the exploration of the theoretical aesthetic in three dimensions, it was quickly known that the two dimensional would prove more fruitful in the short time this project would live.
Precedents
Interiors
Ryuji Nakamura, Corn Field
Funfe Hofe, Herzog & DeMueron
MKM Museum Küppersmühle, Herzog & DeMueron
Tlaplan Chapel, Luis Barragan
Ismaili Centre, Charles Correa/Moriyama and Teshima
Les Halles, Rem Koolhaas
Aaniin Library, Perkins and Will
Film and TV Shows
Blade Runner
Blade Runner 2049
Cyberpunk 2077, Anime
Video Games
Cyberpunk 2077, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz
Final Station, Oleg Sergeev
Death Stranding, Hideo Kojima
Detroit Become Human, Quantic Dream
Mini Metro, Dinosaur Polo Club
Mini Motorways, Dinosaur Polo Club
Books and Texts
Notes from a Dead House, Dostoyevsky
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment 00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
03-00// the game of life
00-03// routine 03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
03-01// hello world 05-02//alternate realities
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
06-00// enlightenment
sketchbook
One could have never imagined the outcome, once it began, it would never stop.
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment 00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
03-00// the game of life
00-03// routine 03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
03-01// hello world 05-02//alternate realities
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
06-00// enlightenment
other inspirational texts and visuals
Benjamin, W. (2002). The Arcades Project (Third Printing ed.). Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press. The continuous arcades that is the PATH system reveal something more about the insidious nature of the system in which those who created them secretly know of...
Koolhaas, R., & Foster, H. (2013). Junkspace. Notting Hill Editions. “Architecture disappeared in the twentieth century; we have been reading a footnote under a microscope hoping it would turn into a novel; our concern for the masses has blinded us to People’s Architecture. Junkspace seems an aberration, but it is the essence, the main thing. . .”(175)
Heidegger, M. “The Question Concerning Technology,” in Martin Heidgger: Basic Writings. Edited by David Farell Krell. (New York: Harper & Row, 1977), pp. 287317. [Page numbers of this edition are in brackets.] This translation slightly edited from the original English translation in Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. Translated by William Lovitt. (New York: Harper & Row, 1977), pp. 3-35. The German text appears in Martin Heidegger, Vorträge und Aufsätze (Pfullingen: Günther Neske Verlag, 1954), pp.13-44.
Where does technology reveal and how does it create an illusion?
Sanford Kwinter, Architecture and the Technologies of Life
“Humans have defined themselves with essence of creative “freedom by conquering and subjugating nature through technique”
Superstudio, 12 Cautionary tales
Absurd depictions of cities and their design for the needs we currently demand for Continuous Cities has a similar idea where they believe that we currently create architecture to be a“Moderate Utopia”
Bernard Tschumi
The unconventional graphic style, disruptions in a very pointed way to reveal something about the space. Circulation at the forefront, graphic representation is highly expressive.
Bruce Mau, Massive Change
“The first step to its unfolding is to reject the biinary notion of client/designer…The old-fashionoed notion of an individual with a dream of perfection is being replaced by distributed problem solving and team-based multidisciplinaryy practiced… It is no longer about one designer, one client, one solution, one place. Problems are taken up everywhere ,solutions are developed and tested and contributed to the golbal commons, and those ideas are tested against other solutions. The effect of this is to imagine a future for design that is both more modest and more ambitious.” (page 17)
Thucydides, regarding the Plague of Athens
“No one was willing to persevere in struggling for what was considered an honorable result, since he could not be sure that he would not perish before he achieved it. What was pleasant in the short term, and what was in any way conducive to that, came to be accepted as honorable and useful.”
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment
00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
03-00// the game of life
03-01// hello world
00-03// routine 03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
05-02//alternate realities
06-00// enlightenment
Commute Freetime Existential Crises and Overthinking eating classes and homework Sleep
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment
00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
03-01// hello world
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
03-00// the game of life
00-03// routine 03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
05-02//alternate realities
06-00// enlightenment
does the artist live the realities they so want to escape?
The narrative begins prior to Union where we start to see the realities that one can see themselves before they make it to this circuit. This is what the tripolis gravitates to and it is what has a gravitational pull to the build structures/buildings/systems
Who is excluded from these systems? People who can’t access freedoms from the exclusion from the structure
Why do people find meaning in travelling to new places if it is really just as simple as a place differentiated by weather and geographical adaptations?
Technological freedom where we can easily pass by the layers of invisible work that has allowed great connection
Do people find meaning in the lack of boundaries in creating social connections through technology?
Or is it the freedom of theology and answering the unknown with something more rational and ideal?
Note: All images used are my own or allowed to modify by the Creative Commons.
concept statement
Tripolis Archives 1/3
Everyday we walk a path to get to our desired destinations yet never acknowledge the spaces of transition. In Toronto, Union Station is at the epicenter of relocating people from their own realities to the context of their place of work, study, or play. In this project, the fabric of realities we know of Union will disintegrate and make space for inhabitations of a “tripolis” that not only works and studies in the transition spaces but can transition while doing so. The city is parasitic, and expansive, a complete exaggeration of today’s societal vision of progress and ideas of personal freedom within built and highly controlled environments. The tripolic city will not stop expanding eventually implanting into the international circuit and creating a homogenous architecture. The order of this new city emphasizes the tension in the rationality of transportation infrastructure and our role as the human kind among humans, revealing nihilistic and existential dimensions.
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment
00-03// routine
00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
03-00// the game of life
03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
03-01// hello world 05-02//alternate realities
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
06-00// enlightenment
By the thirtieth minute and the twelth hour, the project “what is the point” will have expired. Once the project is called and played, the visual and audio spectacle shall announce the finality of its’ existence as an evolving art, evolving lifestyle...
2022-12-07 12:30:00
Tripolis Archives 2/3 concept statement
Everyday we walk a path to get to our desired destinations yet never acknowledge the spaces of transition. In Toronto, Union Station is at the epicenter of relocating people from their own realities to the context of their place of work, study, or play. In this project, the fabric of realities we know of Union will disintegrate and make space for inhabitations of a “tripolis” that not only works and studies in the transition spaces but can transition while doing so. The city is parasitic, and expansive, a complete exaggeration of today’s societal vision of progress and ideas of personal freedom within built and highly controlled environments. The tripolic city will not stop expanding eventually implanting into the international circuit and creating a homogenous architecture. The order of this new city emphasizes the tension in the rationality of transportation infrastructure and our role as the human kind among humans, revealing nihilistic and existential dimensions.
...Legacy shall proceed itself and those who were in the moment will only know what has once existed...
The final resting place of the journey was always known but the way it was achieved was never always anticipated. As the presentation drew to a close, things would never be the same again. The secrets were revealed and may alter lives forever. Some say that there is still one who seeks the truth and never stopped looking for it...
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment
00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
03-00// the game of life
03-01// hello world
00-03// routine 03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration 2022-12-06 11:30:00
06-00// enlightenment
05-02//alternate realities
Trilogy Infographic
passed on 2022-12-06 11:30:00
The
Archives passed on 2022-12-06 22:00:00
Presentation passed on 2022-12-07 12:30:00
I herby declare in the records of the Nihilist Tripolis to certify that on the seventh day of December. year of Twenty Twenty Two, at the School of Interior Design, Toronto Metropolitan University, the project by the name of “What is the Point” shall be pronounced dead. 2022-12-06 12:30:00
post mortem
What is freedom and structure?
It is a question I asked myself since the beginning and the process revealed many answers to the same question. Is it the freedom we create through using the structure? Or is it being able to know how to find loopholes in the structure to find true freedom to live a meaningul life? no answer is perfect.
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment
00-03// routine
00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
03-00// the game of life
03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
03-01// hello world 05-02//alternate realities
06-00// enlightenment
“what is the point of death?” the child asked.
You blink a few times shocked at the question. But you begin to ponder for a while...and you answer, “well it can be all about the desination of arriving to the end of life” and you pause thinking this may be too dark for the child so you add on, “but maybe it is more about having fun along the way”
“some say the journey is more important than the destination”
The child just nods and stays quiet.
You think to yourself that maybe the eternal life we seek is in the implication of our lives always being imperfect and unfinished so the legacy lasts forever...
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment
00-03// routine
00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
03-00// the game of life
03-01// hello world
03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
05-02//alternate realities
06-00// enlightenment
etc.
Did the outcome expect the artist?
An artist may express their life or live to create and a certain combination of technique and experience in an individual could create a formula for this result. Was this really art?
Does the artist try to rationalize anything and everything to imagine a new reality? Surely this new reality came from a reality in itself.
concept statement
Tripolis Archives 3/3
Everyday we walk a path to get to our desired destinations yet never acknowledge the spaces of transition. In Toronto, Union Station is at the epicenter of relocating people from their own realities to the context of their place of work, study, or play. In this project, the fabric of realities we know of Union will disintegrate and make space for inhabitations of a “tripolis” that not only works and studies in the transition spaces but can transition while doing so. The city is parasitic, and expansive, a complete exaggeration of today’s societal vision of progress and ideas of personal freedom within built and highly controlled environments. The tripolic city will not stop expanding eventually implanting into the international circuit and creating a homogenous architecture. The order of this new city emphasizes the tension in the rationality of transportation infrastructure and our role as the human kind among humans, revealing nihilistic and existential dimensions.
The archives are a place that records the time spent to reveal what we know of the PATH and Union Station. It a the posthumous work written in anticipation of the death of theproject in its entirety. Legacy shall proceed itself and those who were in the moment will only know what once existed.
The final resting place of the journey was always known but the way it was achieved was never always anticipated. As the presentation drew to a close, things would never be the same again. The secrets were revealed and may alter lives forever. Some say that there is still one who seeks the truth and never stopped looking for it...
00-01// experiences 00-02// assignment
00-03// routine
00-04// the break. 00-05// execution 00-06// death
01-00// absorbtion
01-01// sketches 02-01// initial ideas 02-02// annotations 02-03// word fuel
01-02// models 01-03// precedent
03-00// the game of life
03-02// breakdown 03-03// archetypes
00-00// structure 02-00// processing... 04-00// death 05-00//post mortem
03-01// hello world 05-02//alternate realities
04-01// the infographic 04-01//declaration
06-00// enlightenment
absorbtion
structure
processing...
mortem
enlightenment
the game
life
sketches
initial ideas
annotations
word fuel
experiences
assignment
the break.
execution
death
routine
breakdown
archetypes
hello world
realities
models
precedent
death
Timeline 01-00//
00-00//
02-00//
05-00//post
06-00//
03-00//
of
01-01//
02-01//
02-02//
02-03//
00-01//
00-02//
00-04//
00-05//
00-06//
00-03//
03-02//
03-03//
03-01//
05-02//alternate
04-01//declaration 01-02//
01-03//
04-00//
Abstract
This is a mourning of the entire process in the ideation and creation of the project “What is the point?” as a completed project of the IRN 501 course.
Several philosophies, modes of creation and communication have been used in order to stretch the bounds of freedom in this project. Where the boundaries of the project structure began to crack is what this report hopes to cover and speculate where freedom began or if it ever did...
Momento Mori.
What’s the point?
Trilogy of the Nihilist Tripolis Momento Mori
by: Victoria Nip
