[-empyre-] Sense as space

[Alexander Wilson]

Thanks for your critical response, Renate.

I'd like to respond specifically to what you see as a contradiction between
sedimentation and architecture. I admit my last post wasn't clear. What I
meant about architecture being thought about as related to sedimentation, is
that it is the process by which the body (that which moves through
architectures) becomes or "sediments" into the architecture. All movement
leaves a trace. This trace is generally seen, from Husserl on, as a layering
of successive layers of significance, which recede into the passive
background of our active experiences. One way to see this is to look at
etymology : any one who's looked up the origin of words we commonly use
notices that many of them are actually concrescences of two or more ancient
words, each with a particular usage and meaning. But there is also a way not
to "use" language but to have language speak for itself (merleau ponty's
"parole parlante").  Poiesis (and as I argue, any bodily act, gesture,
performance can be poietic) reveals new meanings, produces new usages for
language and gesture, new grammars, new languages, new sense. This kind of
topological restructuring allows different kinds of movements, words,
gestures to be freely "used" in the future. So this is why I relate it to
architecture. Poiesis is like a restructuring of the architecture that adds
doors and moves walls, perhaps cuts through several stories (like a matta
clark). This changes the topology of the space we can subsequently move
through. But it does not do away with sedimentation. The sedimentation
continues in this new topology, as bodies now move through it leaving their
trace, a trace which, in "normal" usage will not be topologically
transfiguring, but will be consensual with the architecture. Most of the
time, we merely walk through the corridors. This does leave some trace, as
is noticable in the steps of my Paris apartment's stairway: decades of
people walking up and down those stairs has worn them down, there is a curve
in the boards near the middle, and every time I walk up and down them I'm
contributing to that wear. However there is a real difference between the
trace that I leave as I use the stairway (sedimentation), and the action an
architect could have on the stairway if he decided to renovate the building,
adding floors, taking down walls, putting them up, adding doors or windows,
etc etc. Yet as soon as this renovation would happen, people would start
leaving their trace as wear and tear... These are like two levels of trace:
sedimentation (wear) is consensual with the architecture, whereas the
renovation is a "dissensual" act: it changes the topology of the space.

thanks again
alexander
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