importance of NARRATIVES

As architects, its our job to understand the nature of relationships, and the underlying systems of organization that serve to create similarity and difference.




the above video is talking about the use of "systems of scale" as the "system of similarity and difference." it is a way of controlling relationships. You might also think in terms of "systems of color" and "systems of orientation" (even these circles can theoretically be rotated out of the 2d plane.)



The above video is talking about "systems of quantity." But these are very simple relationship - and in the case of the circles there is only one system being used to create differentiation. and As has been pointed out, there are other systems (color/orientation), they just remain latent. but if you start playing with these other systems you begin to get a much more complex layering/interlocking of relationships - and this, mind you, from very simple "systems."




As architects it is our job to understand and control these systems. And outside the context of sesame street, at the scale and neighborhood these systems become greater in number and complexity. For example, you have social/economic/gender/political/agricultural/geologic/cosmic/atomic/genetic systems (of course I could go on).

It all quickly becomes WHITE NOISE.

It is our job through the use of a "thing" called REASEARCH to find and make visible and hopefully understand these underlying systems.

The way we are going about this in this studio is through the use of the NARRATIVE. I have previously talked about the importance Drawing as an analytical process - and the narrative is important for the same reason. It is the hope that through the process and accumulation of narratives, these underlying systems will present themselves.