Rima Ohanyan ∙ Umeå School of Architecture ∙ Master Thesis ∙ 2020

Abstract
Today’s world has undergone through a variety of changes shifting from metaphysical way
of thinking into postmodernism which has left its footprint in the aspects of literature, art
and theatre. But architecture doesn’t reflect those changes in the theatrical world, because
buildings are not adjusted to the postmodern performances.
In this research I made a journey through postmodern philosophy, literature, art,
architecture and theatre and tried to analyze the main tools of postmodernism, such as
deconstruction of narrative, displacement etc. Then I applied them into my project which
makes an attempt to translate the postmodern mind into a physical space and create a
theatrical area. It tries to answer the question whether architecture is able to accommodate
postmodern conceptions and performances where the audiences are the creators and active
participants of their own narratives. The case study of the performance Sleep No More has
become the concept for my design proposal where I also used displacement to combine
several objects in a new context.
The analysis and the design method have shown that architecture can accommodate all the
cultural developments and can transform from postmodern conceptions into a physical
space with the help of the same tools that are used in postmodern literature, art and
philosophy. A building can become the embodiment of a post modernistic idea.
Rima Ohanyan Umeå School of Architecture Master Thesis 2020
The Theatre of a Thousand Plateaus
by
Master Degree of
Studio 13 Year: 5, 2019/2020
Tutors: Amalia Katopodi, Sara Thor, Andrew Belfield, Tom Dobson Word count: 7240
Rima Ohanyan Umeå School of Architecture Master Thesis 2020
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................... 1
2.1. Situating Postmodernism within its Broader Philosophical Context .......................................... 2
2.2. Postmodernism in Art ..................................................................................................................................... 3
2.3. Postmodernism in Literature ...................................................................................................................... 5
2.4. Postmodernism in Architecture.................................................................................................................. 6
2.5.1. Case Study: “Sleep No More”..................................................................................................... 9
3. The Concept of the Design Proposal ................................................................................................................. 11
3.1. The Design Proposal ...................................................................................................................................... 14
4. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................ 18
Table of Figures
Figure 3 – State Gallery of Stuttgart by James Stirling .............................................................................. 6
Figure 4 – The McKittrick Hotel ............................................................................................................... 10
Figure 5 – The audience wearing masks .................................................................................................. 10
Figure 6 – Diagram of the McKittrick Hotel showing the rooms and the scenes.................................. 11
Figure 7 – Concept of structure ................................................................................................................ 14
Figure 8 – Distortion of shapes ................................................................................................................. 14
Figure 9 – Horizontal circulation.............................................................................................................. 15
Figure 11 – Ramps organizing performance areas ................................................................................. 15
Figure 12 – Adding the pyramid ............................................................................................................... 16
Figure 13 – Combination with the pyramid and the Gestalt Principles ................................................ 16
Figure 14 – The section showing the ramps and the overlapping parts .............................................. 17
Figure 15 – Internal space of the foyer .................................................................................................... 18
1
1. Introduction
In modern world, theatre, art and literature have stepped into the postmodern era and, by rejecting
the previous traditions, they faced a lot of changes during this journey. However, these
transformations haven’t found their reflections in architecture, which, although having stepped into
the world of postmodernism, is one step behind because theatrical performances are carried out in
classical buildings with the well-known stage-auditorium structure. This thesis and the design
proposal are an attempt to locate the last developments of human mind into architecture and show
how postmodernism, which has come out from the divine, is reflected in a building.
The question that I raise from this problematique is “How can architecture accommodate the
postmodern conceptions of the theatre and provide spaces for non-conventional theatricals where
narrative is deconstructed and the audiences are active co-creators or co-participants?”
My design project tries to transform the postmodern mind into a physical space by using
postmodern tools such as deconstruction of narrative and displacement. I take existing objects and,
with the help of the mentioned tools, combine them in a different way and put in another context by
giving them a new meaning. This is my way of designing a postmodern theatre.
The Methodology of the research is desk based carried out by the exploration of theories and
philosophy about postmodernism, understanding how they are used in the world of art,
architecture, literature and theatre, and making them a departure point for my project. I apply
those investigations in the creation of a physical space and also take the case study of a theatrical
performance Sleep No More as a concept for my design proposal.
2. What is Postmodernism?
The terms “postmodern” and “postmodernism” first of all referred to new departures in the arts, in
literature, and in architecture that had their origins in the 1950s and early 1960s, gained
momentum in the course of the 1960s, and became a dominant factor in the 1970s.1 It is common
knowledge that the second half of the 20th century saw multiple transformations in different areas,
such as cultural, social and ecological. The youth launched a new wave of opposition towards the
existing cultural and social orders. An alienated attitude critical of establishment values was
widespread in this rebellion, which looked for some kind of universal renewal of modern
civilization.2 As a result, in twentieth century, postmodernism was shaped as a protesting wave
against modernism and enlightenment.3 It departed from some fields of arts, but later paved its way
to other areas as well, such as painting, literature, architecture, photography, politics etc. It was an
era of the downfall of modern philosophy, and the birth of postmodern philosophy. The ideas
established before got replaced by new concepts and theories. Postmodernism rejected the essence
of individuals and believed in the existence of a common essence.
1 Bertens, Hans, 'Postmodernism', Oxford Bibliographies, DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780190221911-0081, 28 August 2019. 2 Adams, David, 'The Postmodern Revolution and Anthroposophical Art', Research Issue, 2010, p. 27. 3 Dewan Mahboob Hossain and Shariful Karim explain modernism in the following way: “Modernism originated from the thought of ‘European enlightenment’ that roughly began in the middle of 18th Century. Modernism appreciates human intellect as the significant strength and identifies this strength as the basis of a scientific mentality. Modernity can be characterized as an era of scientific mentality that stemmed from the revolutionary development in the disciplines like physics and biology.” Mahboob Hossain, Dewan and Karim, Shariful M.M., 'Postmodernism: Issues and Problems', Postmodernism: issues and problems. Asian journal of social sciences & Humanities, Vol. 2, No. 2, May 2013, pp. 174.
Rima Ohanyan Umeå School of Architecture Master Thesis 2020
2
Postmodernism can be divided into three different formats; 1) postmodernism as a new epoch after
modernism: Preda designates postmodernism as “an extension of sociological inquiry”, “new forms
of sociological expression”, “a form of social analysis” and “a kind of sociological sensibility.”4
According to sociologists, the society has started to go towards a new direction where the ideas of
modernity are misleading; 2) postmodernism as a rejection of modernism: here, postmodernism is
a rebellion against the intellectual era. More specifically, it criticizes two main elements of
modernism – wisdom and progress – that push a human being towards divinity. It also claims that
nothing is absolute and there is no single meaning behind the reality. Lemert stated that: “If
modernism is a culture of modern age, then postmodernism has something to do with the
breaking apart of modernism;”5 3) postmodernism as an epoch of a new philosophy: This is a
mixture of the two formats mentioned above combined with a third dimension – new tendencies of
anti-structuralism, pluralistic and diversified discourses. From this perspective, the movement is
known as a rejection of obligatory categories that had been established before for every person,
time and place. Skepticism put under question the belief that human being is able to do everything.
This lead to the elimination of legitimation of cosmetic intellectual systems, and therefore, objective
and universal facts lost their meanings. Humans became the only ones to create, to break and to
recreate their own essence.
2.1. Situating Postmodernism within its Broader Philosophical Context
The movement has been influenced by some philosophers such as Heidegger, Nietzsche, and
Wittgenstein who were critical towards modern philosophy. Nietzsche’s seminal works instigated
many philosophers to ask some questions related to textual interpretation and language that in
other words paved the way to postmodernism. Ambiguity is a common practice in postmodern
literature. The proponents of postmodernism are of the opinion that all things may have two
meanings at the same time and these meanings are not contradictory; rather they are integral parts
of reality.6 The culture of postmodernism is full of metaphors, concepts and theories that, of course,
are not absolute truth. Nevertheless, it is relevant to mention some postmodernist scholars and
their theories in order to have a deeper understanding of the philosophical context of the
movement. To begin with, Jean François Lyotard – a prominent French philosopher – who criticized
modern epistemologies and tried to develop a postmodern epistemology.7 He found flaws in grand
4 Preda, A., Postmodernism in Sociology, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2001, cited in Mahboob Hossain, Dewan and Karim, Shariful M.M., 'Postmodernism: Issues and Problems', Postmodernism: issues and problems. Asian journal of social sciences & Humanities, Vol. 2, No. 2, May 2013, pp. 173. 5 Lemert, Charles, Postmodernism is Not What You Think, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers, 1997, p. 21. 6 Mahboob Hossain, Dewan and Karim, Shariful M.M., 'Postmodernism: Issues and Problems', Postmodernism: issues and problems. Asian journal of social sciences & Humanities, Vol. 2, No. 2, May 2013, pp. 176. 7 Epistemology is defined as “the philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge.” Stroll, Avrum, 'Philosophy', Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/epistemology/A-priori-and-a-posteriori- knowledge, (accessed 12 August 2020).
Figure 1 – This illustration of Postmodernism has been removed in this publication due to copyright reasons https://owlcation.com/humaniti es/Postmodernism-Explained
3
narratives – a concept which serves the basis of “universal truth” that the modernists look for
justifying any form of knowledge.8 Gilles Deleuze is another famous French philosopher and
theoretician who rejected Platonism – a philosophy that makes a distinction between the realm of
ideas and the realm of forms, the latter being the perceptible reflections of the former.9 Jacques
Derrida – an Algerian born French philosopher who was a supporter of a deconstructive approach.
He criticized “logocentrism” – a philosophy holding that all forms of thought are based on an
external point of reference which is held to exist and given a certain degree of authority.10 To move
on to Jean Baudrillard – another prominent French philosopher whose postmodern idea is
convinced that now we are in the realm of “hyper reality” where the image of something is more
real than reality.11 According to him, the whole world of postmodernism is a simulation. Media and
technology are creating an exact replica of the imaginary world and as a result, “the difference
between the original and the copy is eliminated.”12 And last but not least, Roland Barthes – a French
theoretician famous for his article “Introduction à l'analyse structurale des récits” which states that
the purpose of an artwork is not for the reader to be a consumer, on the contrary, its goal is to make
the reader the producer of the context.
2.2. Postmodernism in Art
Compared to all the movements of art, postmodernism is more controversial and it has no precise
description. The previously established understandings about style were completely taken down by
postmodernism. In nearly twenty years – from 1970 to 1990 – a new self-awareness about style
came out which gave freedom to art and design by the means of funny, sometimes even absurd acts.
The criticism against modernism challenged the following core principles:
The idea that each of two has its own unique style.
Time span in accordance with the Darwinian sequence of phenomena.
Excessive accuracy and shape-oriented features.
Rationality, simplicity, oneness and consistency of the work.
Instead of these principles they suggested new ones such as:
Abundance and variety in linguistics and styles.
Past reality that has been forgotten, though still relevant in the contexts of past, present and
future.
changes.
Postmodernists see different things as context and they highlight the importance of viewing them
critically. Many modernist works try to uphold the idea that works of art can provide the unity,
coherence, and meaning which have been lost in most of modern life. Postmodernism, in contrast,
8 ibid., p. 179. 9 Sedley, David ,'An Introduction to Plato's Theory of Forms', Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, Volume 78, July 2016, pp 3 – 22. 10 'Logocentrism', Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/logocentrism, (accessed 11 August 2020). 11 Nicol, Bran, The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction, The UK, Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 4. 12 ibid., p. 5.
4
doesn't lament the idea of fragmentation, provisionality, or incoherence, but rather celebrates
that.13
Ihab Hassan – one of the first prominent critics, who first introduced the concept of “postmodern”
to describe artistic activities, – proposed several main principles of postmodernism. 1)
Indeterminacy: or rather, indeterminacies. These include all manner of ambiguities, ruptures, and
displacements affecting knowledge and society.14 It is “in the absence of essences, of ontological
centers, man creates himself and his world through a language that is, post structurally, divorced
from the world of objects.15 2) Fragmentation: the postmodernist only disconnects; fragments are
all he pretends to trust. His ultimate opprobrium is "totalization" – any synthesis whatever, social,
epistemic, even poetic. Hence his preference for montage, collage, the found or cut-up literary
object, […], for schizophrenia over paranoia.16 In a word, fragmentation is defined as the inability to
perceive systems and ideas as a cohesive whole. 3) Decanonization: in the largest sense, this applies
to all canons, all conventions of authority. We are witnessing, Lyotard argues again, a massive
“delegitimation” of the mastercodes in society, a desuetude17 of the metanarratives, favoring
instead “les petites histoires,” – the little stories – which preserve the heterogeneity of language
games. Thus, from the “death of god” to the “death of the author” and “death of the father,” from the
derision of authority to revision of the curriculum, we decanonize culture, demystify knowledge,
deconstruct the languages of power, desire, deceit.18 This is about rejecting all the tools of
unification in the postmodern world. 4) Self-less-ness, Depth-less-ness: postmodernism vacates the
traditional self, simulating self-effacement – a fake flatness, without inside/outside – or its opposite,
self-multiplication, self-reflection. […] postmodernism suppresses or disperses and sometimes tries
to recover the “deep” romantic ego.19 Hassan believes that in postmodernism “traditional self” as a
“totalizing principle” is relinquished.20 5) The Unpresentable, Unrepresentable: Like its
predecessor, postmodern art is irrealist, aniconic.21 Even its “magic realism” dissolves in ethereal
states; its hard, flat surfaces repel mimesis22 (the act of representing or imitating reality in art,
especially literature)23. In modernism, the secrets of life were considered hard to explain properly.
These mysteries are mainly preserved in postmodernism and are of a great importance in social
frameworks. 6) Hybridization: or the mutant replication of genres, including parody, travesty,
pastiche.24 The “de-definition,” deformation, of cultural genres engenders equivocal modes: […] at
once young and very old.25 In postmodernism, it’s possible to synthesize everything, even if not
relevant or compatible. Diversity itself is the outcome of relativity and ambiguity, thus none of them
is privileged, be it old or new. 7) Carnivalization: carnivalization further means “polyphony,” the
13 Klages, Mary, 'Postmodernism', 2001, cited in Yousef, Tawfiq, 'Modernism, Postmodernism, and Metamodernism: A Critique', International Journal of Language and Literature, Vol. 5, No. 1, June 2017, p. 36. 14 Hassan, Ihab, 'Pluralism in Postmodern Perspective', Critical Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 3, Spring 1986, p. 504. 15 Raj, Prayer Elmo, 'Postmodern Thought in Ihab Hassan', An International Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal, ISSN 2349- 5189, Vol. 2, No. 4, May 2016, p. 109. 16 Hassan, Ihab, 'Pluralism in Postmodern Perspective', Critical Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 3, Spring 1986, p. 505. 17 Desuetude is “the principle that laws can stop having any legal force when they have not been used for a long time.” Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/desuetude, (accessed 12 August 2020). 18 Hassan, Ihab, 'Pluralism in Postmodern Perspective', Critical Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 3, Spring 1986, p. 505. 19 ibid. 20 Haji Gholam, Mahya and Hoorvash, Mona, 'Immanent Indeterminacy: Tracing Postmodernity in John Banville’s Neo- Realist Novel The Sea', Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics, 10(1), 2019, p. 161. 21 Aniconic is defined as “symbolic or suggestive rather than literally representational : not made or designed as a likeness.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aniconic, (accessed 12 August 2020). 22 Hassan, Ihab, 'Pluralism in Postmodern Perspective', Critical Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 3, Spring 1986, p. 506. 23 Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mimesis, (accessed 12 August 2020). 24 Pastiche is defined as “literary, artistic, musical, or architectural work that imitates the style of previous work.” Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pastiche, (accessed 12 August 2020). 25 Hassan, Ihab, 'Pluralism in Postmodern Perspective', Critical Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 3, Spring 1986, p. 506.
5
centrifugal power of language, the “gay relativity” of things, perspectivism and performance,
participation in the wild disorder of life, the immanence of laughter.26 Postmodernism seeks to
represent emptiness, satire and grotesque. In postmodern works irony is used not for laughing but
for conveying hidden meanings. 8) Performance, Participation: indeterminacy elicits participation;
gaps must be filled. The postmodern text, verbal or nonverbal, invites performance: it wants to be
written, revised, answered, acted out. Indeed, so much of postmodern art calls itself performance,
as it transgresses genres.27 Reader has a participation in the reading process and perceives and
interprets it depending on his/her own preferences, personality and needs.
2.3. Postmodernism in Literature
Postmodernism has had a big impact on people’s perceptions about literature. Writers of this
movement have been influenced by the conceptions of postmodern philosophy about not being able
to strictly define the world. As a result they started to deliver their ideas in a more playful and
fragmented way. They argue that without a universal and absolute logic of word/world connection,
words get attached to reality in either arbitrary or imposed ways, with the result that different
narratives of reality can be made and therefore people can live in widely different realities.28 This
statement leads us to another concept of postmodernism which is the deconstruction of narrative.
It’s a term introduced by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida.29 The goal of deconstruction is to
let people freely choose a random order and construct their own narratives and multiple
interpretations instead of being imposed to have just one narrative which is not even their own.30
David M. Boje and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen present the essence of deconstruction in a greater
detail:
Story performance happens in the moment of becoming and is at the same time
deconstructed with each telling. Deconstruction happens as part of the continuous sign-
chain of infinite textuality. As such deconstruction is not particular method for textual
analysis, for example. “Deconstruction happens” is part of the dynamic play of language and
thus part of the organizing process itself where words, concepts, artifacts, symbols etc. are
continuously transformed, deconstructed and reformed. As such living story always
involves a new beginning. To speak a language, that is story performance, is in other words
to begin over and over again.31
There are two vivid examples of postmodern deconstructed literature that clearly demonstrate the
concepts mentioned above. The first one is the book A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and
26 ibid., p. 507. 27
ibid. 28 Bishop, Wendy and Starkey, David, Keywords in Creative Writing, 1st edition, Logan, Utah 84322, Utah State University Press, 2006, p. 132. 29 Derrida writes about deconstruction: “While the moment is socially constructed, the moment at the same time is being deconstructed. Words, concepts and meanings thus conceal and erase themselves in their own production.” Derrida, Jacques, Of Grammatology, Baltimore and London, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, p. 7. 30 David M. Boje and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen write about interpretations: “What is found when we look…