Architecture101 roadtoperception

architecture 101, road to perception

by dominikpfister

in week 1, i learned to feel nothingness like it was #50000YearsAgo

part 1: what i`ve learned

part 1: what i`ve learned

and looked with other eyes to #ThingsWithNoName

part 1: what i`ve learned

in week 2, i learned to sketch and entered the world of zen with a #QuestionWithoutAnswer

part 1: what i`ve learned

and learned about the difference between #daytimenighttime by sketching kazuo´s house in uehara by memory

part 1: what i`ve learned

in week 3, we started our journey to “place”. with digital collages like #RomanceInManyDimensions we learned to represent ourselves in an abstract way.

part 1: what i`ve learned

we also learned what #BrianEnoSays and adapted famous artists like “yves klein” into a digital world

part 1: what i`ve learned

in week 4, we observed the weather and used crazy apps, for example to build #MySunmachine.

part 1: what i`ve learned

as highlight of this week, we started the #VoyageDansLaLune and learned to render the moon!

part 1: what i`ve learned

in week 5 we learned to shape diagrams. #IfYouStartToThink, your thoughts can get free!

part 1: what i`ve learned

it was a hard job, to bring the elements mind, body and place together. #BeSureYou have a place, a HOME, where the prison of your body can flow away!

part 2: what i`ve learned from others

@sarahkaushik: thank you for the wonderful light effect #DaytimeNighttime

part 2: what i`ve learned from others

@diana.topan: you teached me, that an easy diagram coul look like an artwork #YourMindWill

part 2: what i`ve learned from others

@t.simjanovic: #YouCantCriticize the way you did it! easy, cool and rememberable!

part 2: what i`ve learned from others

@sabsiline: that´s a wonderful way to render the moon #VoyageDansLaLune

part 2: what i`ve learned from others

@nalexblog: thank you for the easy way to bring the body in connection with the mind and the place #BeSureYou

part 2: what i`ve learned from others

from @lizzielalayellow i learned, how to build an relationship between body, mind and place in an very creative way. #BeSureYou

part 2: what i`ve learned from others

@melindagyorgy: fantastic way to connect the island with the land. like an elevator to heaven! #nomanis

part 2: what i`ve learned from others

@ghitchcockv: #ThisWorldIs made for people! Thank you for inspiring me!

part 3: my place

i am living and working in germany, lake of constance. #alineisadot

part 3: my place

#YouCantCriticize, that this location looks wonderful, even as a diagramm

part 3: my place

#SomePeopleWalk around at this beautiful location, even when it´s raining

part 3: my place

sometimes it´s possible to see the alps, but #WhatMakesTheDesert ?

part 3: my place

#NoManIs on my little island, right in the middle of the lake, where i got fire, water, sun, nature and maybe pink dreams

part 4: illustrated essaymy road to perception started with absolute nothingness in my brain, just like a #TVWithoutSignal!

questions over questions.what is a place? what is my place?how can i find a way to visualize this place?

by googling the word place, you will find a lot of meanings: 1. a particular point or part of space or of a surface, esp that occupied by aperson or thing2. (Human Geography) a geographical point, such as a town, city, etc3. a position or rank in a sequence or order4. (Human Geography)a. an open square lined with houses of a similar type in a city or townb. (capital when part of a street name): Grosvenor Place.5. space or room

6. a house or living quarters7. a country house with grounds8. any building or area set aside for a specific purpose9. a passage in a book, play, film, etc: to lose one's place.10. proper or appropriate position or time: he still thinks a woman's place is in the home.11. right or original position: put it back in its place.12. suitable, appropriate, or customary surroundings (esp in the phrases out ofplace, in place)

and some more definitions….

you can see, the meaning of the word “place” is very diverse.on the road to find my place, i started to sketch up my first thought´s with a simple line. the line looks like the area i´m living: lake of constance, germany

but this line is not much more than nothingness. so i decided to work with an easy diagram on my journey to place. #YouCantCriticize that my diagram of the lake is already more than complete nothingness.

The diagram shows the first connections around the lake

and on the right, you can maybe see a person, which lives in this nice area. the next step on my journey, was trying to find a way to give this place more dimensions. So i tried to make a collage of my place.

in this collage it´s possible to see another dimension of my place. but it´s only showing a place, like thousand others in the world, therefore grey. It has nothing special and personal, it´s surely a place, but not my place.

the next step was to give this place some feelings, some color, more emotion and more dynamic. with the use of some iphone apps, i produced a little picture of my area, just like walking in the rain along the lake-coast. #SomePeopleWalk.

maybe this picture is a nice and dynamic view of my home place, but there is still something missing to really describe my place. in this way, the journey is not finished here, i think it just begins!

a place can be seen with absolutely different eyes, e.g. a place is very different at daytime and at nighttime. at drawing kazuo´s house in uehara by memory i realised how different i and my fellow students interpreted the house at #daytimenighttime.

it was definitively the same place, but nearly everybody had a different view from the house in his own memory. everybody had different feelings and ideas how to describe this house in uehara.

brian eno said: “Feelings are more dangerous than ideas, because they aren't susceptible to rational evaluation. They grow quietly, spreading underground, and erupt suddenly, all over the place.”http://www.

brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/brian_eno.html#VZxxL1RgvTuH8PEz.99

ok, short summary. i learned, that my place can not only be a nice region, it must also integrate my body and my mind. and i learned that everybody has a different interpretation of the same thing, because of our individual feelings and ideas.

in this way i started to think about my mind. the mind is more important than any place and any body can be. but the mind is very complex, so it is not easy to show how the mind works. in my first diagram i tried to find an easy way to enter my brain. #YourMindWill

in my mind, there are a lot a things connected, which are important for me. i have my work, to earn money or sports to get self-affirmation. there are some fears in my mind. maybe war or losing my job. in my mind, there is although my

my home-place, where my friends and my family are living. and of course there is a needs-pyramid. if some basic needs like money and job are fulfilled, there will be new space for other things on the way to self-fulfillment.

after thinking about my mind, i realised, that the mind need a body to work. visualizing the connection between mind and body was my next step on the journey to find “my place”.

#YouGottaHave a sunmachine behind your body, to have the power to solve your daily tasks.

your body is the connection between your mind and your environment. without a working body, some things can't be fulfilled.

but what is the connection to place? at some places your mind is not free, it feels like a prison. but if #YouStartToThink, your thought´s can get free!

ok, my thought´s are free. so it´s time to start at zero. what is my place? what is the place of my dreams? where my thoughts and my body can be free? what is my destination? i startet with a new, completely abstract diagram about #OnesDestination

in my perfect place i need fire (red) which stands for warmness, friends, social connections. sun (yellow) which stands for live and happiness. nature (green) which stands for food, but also for activities. water (blue) which stands for drinking, but also for watersports at lake constance. the second green area is a football field. i played football for 25 years and the football-field was always an important place for me. Michael Yordan, a famous american basketball-player says about his sport:

“The game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I've always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It's been the site of intense pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It's a relationship that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the game”

and last but not least, pink, for my dreams. You should never lose your dreams. If you have lost your dreams, your place can be like a prison.

so, why i use colors to explain my place?

wassily kandinsky has the answer:

“Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.”

with colors, it is possible to get people to think. it´s all about IMAGINATION.Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/artist.html#2GVCICyVtlPdKIFI.99

#BeSureYou have a wonderful place where your thoughts are free and the prison of your body can flow away. and today it´s snowing at my place...

Scott Russell Sanders told us, why a place always belongs to a landscape: „In belonging to a landscape, one feels a rightness, an at-homeness, a knitting of self and world. This condition of clarity and focus, this being fully present, is akin to what the Buddhists call mindfulness, what Christian contemplatives refer to as recollection, what Quakers call centering down. I am suspicious of any philosophy that would separate this-worldly from other-worldy commitments. There is only one world, and we participate in it here and now, in our flesh and our place.”

ok, i hope you can follow me on my journey to place. now, i think i found the connection between body, mind and place. but the most difficult question for me was, how to connect the abstract place with my home area, lake constance.a personal place, is always an island, where you feel save and where you can live your dreams.at lake constance, there is an island, called “mainau”. this sheltered place with absolute fantastic nature and a pretty cool castle on it is an absolutely nice place to live.

so here is my place, at the end of my journey on the road to perception. it is an island, with the different colors which characterize my life and my personal journey to self-fulfillment.

thank you for reading my essay!