The altering, evolving relationships between subject and object suggested by new discoveries about the physiology of the brain imply a new form of embodied architecture. This new embodiment by turn necessitates a new form of representation, one which has the ability to convey its complexity and corporality. In this paper I argue that new modes of representation in the multi-disciplinary medium of film are most suited to achieving this.
In turn the paper will then explore how theses cross-disciplinary relationships can evolve and inform one another beyond their immediate and initial goals.
Architecture is the tool by which we can see the truth, as the manifestation of our sense of self in the world. This I argue is architecture’s most important role. To understand the world in ourselves and ourselves in the world – in a physical, phenomenological way, not merely objectively . Architecture above all other art forms / disciplines has an ability to transcend due to its spatiality; its ability to envelop, surround, immerse, to engage with multiple senses.
At this point it should be noted that two forms of embodied architecture can be defined. First, the internal sense, which is the internal mental map of our perception of ourselves in relation to our surroundings, the absolute grounding of the body within space as the interface by which we can make sense of the world. The second is the external manifestation of this sense of self in the world, this is the conventional description of architecture, the one which we recognise in the stone carved cathedrals of the past and the shining forms of the present.
In recent times our sense of self and our place in the world has radically altered due to technological and scientific advancements. In this paper I am focusing on the changes implied by advancements in neuroscience, in particular that of mirror neurons, place cells and plasticity. However, the backdrop of a post modern landscape of complex media space, the dynamic system of the Internet and scale bending phenomenon that is nano-technology is always present as the same fabric that comprises our experience and understanding of the world.
Recent discoveries in neuroscience can easily be read as radically shifting relationships between subject and object, creating a more dynamic interchange between the self and the environment. One which has been described / prophesised already in the 20th century by Merleau-Ponty, Baudrillard and Virillio among others.
When analysed a new landscape is implied, a truly embodied internal architecture in which subjectivity and inter subjectivity reign.
For embodied architecture to play its role as initially stated in ‘revealing the truth’, to create external manifestations of our sense of self in space, I will argue it needs to embrace the representational tools available to it and given to it by the age it exists within. It needs to ask difficult questions about the fundamentals of representation? Does a building need to be functional on a practical, physical level to transmit meaning and reveal the truth? Indeed, can a fully physically realised space adequately represent such subtle and complex relationships? I argue that is cannot. That paradoxically only in the rejection of the obviously recognisable, physical architecture can we begin to truly represent space and ourselves in it realistically. I argue that the medium of film in its current multi-disciplinary phase of development is most suited to the representation of this form of intensely embodied space, on in which the senses are linked to a sense of oneself, one of immersion and transience.
Looking at the history of film theory which developed alongside philosophical theories of self I will reference Merleau-Ponty, Eisenstein, Deleuze and more recently Vivian Sorbach in developing a language which can be used in our current time. Next I will inspect a series of case studies in the light of such theories.
Taking a number of case studies, I will look at the versatility and complexity of the medium in communicating new notions of space and the subjectivity of space due to our brain’s method of processing it. With the feature film ‘ Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ by Michel Gondry, the link between memory (which is another word for the accumulation of sensory experience embodied) and our sense of self in the world is beautifully conveyed using conventional film and heavy use of CGI and post production.
Without these new methods of film making I argue this revealing sense of how we create our own realities would be impossible.Next I will look at piece of work which explores a sense of immersion by using a carefully crafted visual and sound landscape using the human body as its only prop: ‘Flex’ by Chris Cunningham.
As the final case study, I will discuss my own project as a cross disciplinary attempt to express the internal sense of embodied architecture as an external manifestation of itself in the medium of film, using all of the research I have undertaken with regard to phenomenology and neuroscience.
Finally I will look at how while the manifestation of embodied architecture in filmic space encourages and helps us to understand the world as it is, it also has reaching consequences for each of the other disciplines, through engagement with the other techniques. Neuroscience benefits through the enhanced visualisation techniques afforded by filmic space, speeding up understanding and communication among scientists and between the scientists and other disciplines. Therefore as the technology increases the growth and development of ideas is exponential.
By reassessing the relationships afforded and revealed by the mergence of embodiment, philosophy, neuroscience and film; the contradictions, the illuminations the successes, I will look to the future, using the thesis as a methodology for understanding the present through works of art and technology. I will speculate on potential
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