[ FINAL RESULTS ]
FIRST PLACE
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QIONGYU LI
Vancouver, BC Canada
Intro
In the ancient Greek story of Simonides of Ceos and the collapsing banquet hall, Simonides was able to recognize all the mingled corpses after the collapse from his memory of their locations. This story clearly revealed how memory is formed in our mind.
Memory is a collection of places with specific structures. Spatially, it’s similar to paths, but not necessarily linear. Therefore, different from the rigid geographical structure between places, the places in our memories are linked in a looser and more arbitrary way. In that sense, it is similar to how strokes make letters and how words make signifiers. Moreover, the structure of memory can be constructed cross-dimensionally, from a two-dimensional image to a three-dimensional location for example. Whenever a specific structure is built between places, a memory is formed.
This project is an attempt to capture the structure of memory and project it onto a two-dimensional surface, which is the graphic image. In the image, memories are embodied.
Graphic Image
On this 18in x 18in board, I constructed a map. It’s an image, a one-dimensional space, a two-dimensional space, a three-dimensional space, and a four-dimensional space that coexist on this two-dimensional surface. On the map, everyone can find their own paths across dimensions.
In the ancient Greek story of Simonides of Ceos and the collapsing banquet hall, Simonides was able to recognize all the mingled corpses after the collapse from his memory of their locations. This story clearly revealed how memory is formed in our mind.
Memory is a collection of places with specific structures. Spatially, it’s similar to paths, but not necessarily linear. Therefore, different from the rigid geographical structure between places, the places in our memories are linked in a looser and more arbitrary way. In that sense, it is similar to how strokes make letters and how words make signifiers. Moreover, the structure of memory can be constructed cross-dimensionally, from a two-dimensional image to a three-dimensional location for example. Whenever a specific structure is built between places, a memory is formed.
This project is an attempt to capture the structure of memory and project it onto a two-dimensional surface, which is the graphic image. In the image, memories are embodied.
Graphic Image
On this 18in x 18in board, I constructed a map. It’s an image, a one-dimensional space, a two-dimensional space, a three-dimensional space, and a four-dimensional space that coexist on this two-dimensional surface. On the map, everyone can find their own paths across dimensions.
THE MAP OF THE MONASTERY
God is an infinite sphere, the centre of which is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.
-- Liber XXIV philosophorum
in the walls dwell the dwarfs
in the sky live the giants
all is a dwarf and giant
all is born and will die here
legible symbols are inscribed
the revelation of demiurges
it is the answer to all
a map of a part of the monastery
it is the map of the monastery
and it is the monastery
composed of endless corridors
any varieties can and cannot exist
in the sky live the giants
all is a dwarf and giant
all is born and will die here
legible symbols are inscribed
the revelation of demiurges
it is the answer to all
a map of a part of the monastery
it is the map of the monastery
and it is the monastery
composed of endless corridors
any varieties can and cannot exist
Drawing
The drawing is the grid, the structure, and part of the architectural process of the “Map”. At the same time, it demonstrates the spatialization of the “Map”.
The drawing is the grid, the structure, and part of the architectural process of the “Map”. At the same time, it demonstrates the spatialization of the “Map”.
SECOND PLACE
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BRIAN HAVENER
Ithaca, NY United States
“We are living in an incredibly exciting and slightly absurd moment, namely that preservation is overtaking us.”
Rem Koolhaas, 2004
The gap between the present and what is left to be preserved of the past is diminishing rapidly. Global technological advances and the ubiquity of digital data have intensified demands to recall the cultural edifice that has come before. With the proliferation of the digital comes an opportunity to reimagine preservation as an immaterial practice; an ephemeral preservation.
The cracked ankles of Michelangelo’s David could fail in an earthquake at any moment. Periods of consequential ancient architecture are being eradicated at the hands of militarized civilians and foreign bombs. The longevity of timeless cultural artifacts is increasingly at question - the rate at which architecture of significance is being
recognized as such has been overtaken by the rate at which such architecture falls out of repair. With contemporary methods of documentation (e.g. three-dimensional
scanning), artifacts are now able to take on a new life in the abstract realm of computation and code.
Seemingly permanent, this mode of preservation feigns the flaws of human memory, which change with time and trauma. Physical environments which cease to exist
physically (ie, those destroyed by man or nature) are otherwise manifest in language that is intangible and inexact. The computational construct can be sourced, transferred and manipulated with little effort, ensuring that this ephemeral preservation is the furthest from resisting change; it embraces change.
Rem Koolhaas, 2004
The gap between the present and what is left to be preserved of the past is diminishing rapidly. Global technological advances and the ubiquity of digital data have intensified demands to recall the cultural edifice that has come before. With the proliferation of the digital comes an opportunity to reimagine preservation as an immaterial practice; an ephemeral preservation.
The cracked ankles of Michelangelo’s David could fail in an earthquake at any moment. Periods of consequential ancient architecture are being eradicated at the hands of militarized civilians and foreign bombs. The longevity of timeless cultural artifacts is increasingly at question - the rate at which architecture of significance is being
recognized as such has been overtaken by the rate at which such architecture falls out of repair. With contemporary methods of documentation (e.g. three-dimensional
scanning), artifacts are now able to take on a new life in the abstract realm of computation and code.
Seemingly permanent, this mode of preservation feigns the flaws of human memory, which change with time and trauma. Physical environments which cease to exist
physically (ie, those destroyed by man or nature) are otherwise manifest in language that is intangible and inexact. The computational construct can be sourced, transferred and manipulated with little effort, ensuring that this ephemeral preservation is the furthest from resisting change; it embraces change.
THIRD PLACE
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PIETRO SERVALLI CARLALBERTO AMADORI
Milano, Italy
HONORABLE MENTIONS
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MIKEL SAINZ DE ROZAS LUCAS JAVIER BERGARETXE
Bilbao, Bizkaia Spain
500 After Earth. It is been long since humanity left behind a dying planet in search for a new place to live, what came to be known as the exodus.
Hoping to return home someday, the last remnants of modern civilization launched The Imaginarium, a spherical space station built using state-of-the-art technology, conceived as a giant library to store a virtual copy of all data recorded throughout human history.
The Imaginarium's Artificial Intelligence-controlled onboard computer runs a complex modular network of virtual reality engines which interact with its visitors' thoughts and requests through holographic representations of every possible concept, including personal recollections. This is possible thanks to the Client-Server connection between the spaceship's CPU and the peripheral chips pre-implanted to all newborn babies.
Variable magnetic fields in the outer layer of the shell enable users to freely walk the interior side of the sphere, creating virtually unlimited space when engines are on.
As a means to preserve the essence of human nature, The Imaginarium aims not only to visualize each of its users' ideas but also to reshape them according to humanity's stored collective memory, creating increasingly precise images.
The Imaginarium explores the meaning of terms like memory and truth by revisiting its users' subjective realities from the point of view of millions of people and assembling them into a consensuated, more objective vision of the same concept.
In a future where humans need to coexists with each other in order to survive, The Imaginarium serves as a tool to take a look in the past in order to learn from its mistakes.
Hoping to return home someday, the last remnants of modern civilization launched The Imaginarium, a spherical space station built using state-of-the-art technology, conceived as a giant library to store a virtual copy of all data recorded throughout human history.
The Imaginarium's Artificial Intelligence-controlled onboard computer runs a complex modular network of virtual reality engines which interact with its visitors' thoughts and requests through holographic representations of every possible concept, including personal recollections. This is possible thanks to the Client-Server connection between the spaceship's CPU and the peripheral chips pre-implanted to all newborn babies.
Variable magnetic fields in the outer layer of the shell enable users to freely walk the interior side of the sphere, creating virtually unlimited space when engines are on.
As a means to preserve the essence of human nature, The Imaginarium aims not only to visualize each of its users' ideas but also to reshape them according to humanity's stored collective memory, creating increasingly precise images.
The Imaginarium explores the meaning of terms like memory and truth by revisiting its users' subjective realities from the point of view of millions of people and assembling them into a consensuated, more objective vision of the same concept.
In a future where humans need to coexists with each other in order to survive, The Imaginarium serves as a tool to take a look in the past in order to learn from its mistakes.
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JUNWEI LI WENJIA LI
Shanghai, China
Memory Distortion
--Memorial Museum for Biologist Dr. Oliver Sacks
In Oliver Sacks’ study, memory disorder may be caused by memorial distortion and external influence. The source of memory may not always come from real experience, and the authenticity of memory could not be tested by psychological or physiological methods. But there is a power of contradiction resides in the imperfection of memory, and this kind of imperfection can stimulate people’s imagination and creativity.
By reading Oliver Sacks’ autobiographical novel “Uncle Tungsten”, we understand how memory could be distorted. And in this project, we try to reinterpret the narrative structure in this novel.
The story begins in an order of a time line. And as the story unfolds, the time line becomes ambiguous and intervened. We are highly inspired by the narrative structure and try to create a new way of programming based on this. All the spaces are distributed along a rising double spiral surface and the surface is providing a circulation of obscurity and non-hierachy.
The way of description in this novel is similar to other novels, but the complete memories of several chemists in this book is obviously isolated from his/her personal life. We are so fascinated by this narration. In this project, different eventful memories are defined by different volumes of different dimension. Some distorted memories are inhabiting inside the preexisted volumes and
still keep distorting.
The double spiral circulation and spacialized memories are organized in the narrative way of “Uncle Tungsten”. We hope this chemistry museum can offer people a wonderful experience of memory distortion, fragmentation, novelization and imagination.
--Memorial Museum for Biologist Dr. Oliver Sacks
In Oliver Sacks’ study, memory disorder may be caused by memorial distortion and external influence. The source of memory may not always come from real experience, and the authenticity of memory could not be tested by psychological or physiological methods. But there is a power of contradiction resides in the imperfection of memory, and this kind of imperfection can stimulate people’s imagination and creativity.
By reading Oliver Sacks’ autobiographical novel “Uncle Tungsten”, we understand how memory could be distorted. And in this project, we try to reinterpret the narrative structure in this novel.
The story begins in an order of a time line. And as the story unfolds, the time line becomes ambiguous and intervened. We are highly inspired by the narrative structure and try to create a new way of programming based on this. All the spaces are distributed along a rising double spiral surface and the surface is providing a circulation of obscurity and non-hierachy.
The way of description in this novel is similar to other novels, but the complete memories of several chemists in this book is obviously isolated from his/her personal life. We are so fascinated by this narration. In this project, different eventful memories are defined by different volumes of different dimension. Some distorted memories are inhabiting inside the preexisted volumes and
still keep distorting.
The double spiral circulation and spacialized memories are organized in the narrative way of “Uncle Tungsten”. We hope this chemistry museum can offer people a wonderful experience of memory distortion, fragmentation, novelization and imagination.
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MATEI EUGEN STOEAN ANDREEA IOANA NICUT
Bucharest, Romania
SCION
Memory is a sum of information, details, emotions, images which appear and disappear from the first layer as does each ring of a tree. For a year each of them is the
exterior ring, the bark. According to the above definition, memories are an unseen part of the body in which they live.
The floating in the sap of present is one of the most important aspects, in fact, it connects us to origin. Why does this happen? Because memories are the nutrients of
the sap and because our roots are linked to the early stage of existence.
The multitude of memories shape every human being and greatly influence all future actions. As we grow older, there are moments of solitude that bring back these
memories in the form of flashbacks and that allow us to gain a new perspective on the past and to act differently in the future. This examination of conscience allows us to rethink our past and to pass on to younger people an authentic way of being. Thus, memories are passed on from one generation to another and this cycle leads back to the very origin of existence.
In our proposal, we approach the architectural aspect of memory which can be found in the theme of verticality, particularly illustrated by the column as an object of
transformation/process of changing. The column is a metaphor of memory and a ladder towards infinity. The stages in the evolution of columns are symbolically represented. In general, both form and material define columns. Both of them are specific for certain periods in time and certain places and this is why they are carriers of memory. All columns have the same origin and become mature under the same roof. In fact, the tree is the scion and it is also the superior part of tree. We think that material has a memory and form has a memory, but the source is the same.
Memory is a sum of information, details, emotions, images which appear and disappear from the first layer as does each ring of a tree. For a year each of them is the
exterior ring, the bark. According to the above definition, memories are an unseen part of the body in which they live.
The floating in the sap of present is one of the most important aspects, in fact, it connects us to origin. Why does this happen? Because memories are the nutrients of
the sap and because our roots are linked to the early stage of existence.
The multitude of memories shape every human being and greatly influence all future actions. As we grow older, there are moments of solitude that bring back these
memories in the form of flashbacks and that allow us to gain a new perspective on the past and to act differently in the future. This examination of conscience allows us to rethink our past and to pass on to younger people an authentic way of being. Thus, memories are passed on from one generation to another and this cycle leads back to the very origin of existence.
In our proposal, we approach the architectural aspect of memory which can be found in the theme of verticality, particularly illustrated by the column as an object of
transformation/process of changing. The column is a metaphor of memory and a ladder towards infinity. The stages in the evolution of columns are symbolically represented. In general, both form and material define columns. Both of them are specific for certain periods in time and certain places and this is why they are carriers of memory. All columns have the same origin and become mature under the same roof. In fact, the tree is the scion and it is also the superior part of tree. We think that material has a memory and form has a memory, but the source is the same.
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ENRICO PINTO
Barcelona, Spain
A possible path
Memory has always been one of the main aims and means of architecture. Even before the gigantic pyramids arose from the sands, mankind has used architecture as a way to defeat death and future oblivion. In contrast, we have always felt the necessity of a connection with the past, as the only possible way to give meaning to the places we inhabit. History of architecture is filled with examples of intellectual theft, reverence, unconscious plagiarism, homage and unconditional devotion.
But what is going to happen to these values, once memory won’t be such a fundamental part of our mental process?
Soon we are going to be so integrated with our computers that we will solely rely on them, in order to collect and organize the enormous quantities of data we are exposed to everyday.
Memory will become useless, nostalgic, analog, out of fashion.
The most alarming symptom is that our culture is already merely reduced to image. Image is nowadays the only means through which we communicate architecture. Text is marginal, a disclaimer, a link. We don’t have time to read, analyze, comprehend. Shiny, high-contrast, desaturated, highly-modified - almost pornographic - pictures keep prevailing and being updated in a huge, invisible and tremendously fast archive, that we can access with the simple touch of our fingertips. Memory is losing its rituals of research, recognition and categorization, in favor of a holistic and confusing vision of the world. A vision that prefers serendipity over investigation, randomness over pertinence.
But even if we accept the inevitable transformation of the way we use our brains, how can we save meaningful architecture from this intellectual decay?
Luckly enough, memory works in a mysterious way and is still a precious tool that architects should never underestimate. A good architect could also just be a person with good memory - or with a good computer - who is capable of configuring his or her own recollections into a logical structure, to let something new come out of it.
Creativity usually comes from the collision of elements that would unlikely be connected by a computer, like the Japanese prints and Froebel gifts that inspired Frank Lloyd Wright’s unprecedented architectural language.
If computers will take over our capacity to catalogue and organize our memory, architects need to fight to keep their absolute privilege to discern meanings from the mass of information and their ability to create a meaningful system, a possible path.
Memory has always been one of the main aims and means of architecture. Even before the gigantic pyramids arose from the sands, mankind has used architecture as a way to defeat death and future oblivion. In contrast, we have always felt the necessity of a connection with the past, as the only possible way to give meaning to the places we inhabit. History of architecture is filled with examples of intellectual theft, reverence, unconscious plagiarism, homage and unconditional devotion.
But what is going to happen to these values, once memory won’t be such a fundamental part of our mental process?
Soon we are going to be so integrated with our computers that we will solely rely on them, in order to collect and organize the enormous quantities of data we are exposed to everyday.
Memory will become useless, nostalgic, analog, out of fashion.
The most alarming symptom is that our culture is already merely reduced to image. Image is nowadays the only means through which we communicate architecture. Text is marginal, a disclaimer, a link. We don’t have time to read, analyze, comprehend. Shiny, high-contrast, desaturated, highly-modified - almost pornographic - pictures keep prevailing and being updated in a huge, invisible and tremendously fast archive, that we can access with the simple touch of our fingertips. Memory is losing its rituals of research, recognition and categorization, in favor of a holistic and confusing vision of the world. A vision that prefers serendipity over investigation, randomness over pertinence.
But even if we accept the inevitable transformation of the way we use our brains, how can we save meaningful architecture from this intellectual decay?
Luckly enough, memory works in a mysterious way and is still a precious tool that architects should never underestimate. A good architect could also just be a person with good memory - or with a good computer - who is capable of configuring his or her own recollections into a logical structure, to let something new come out of it.
Creativity usually comes from the collision of elements that would unlikely be connected by a computer, like the Japanese prints and Froebel gifts that inspired Frank Lloyd Wright’s unprecedented architectural language.
If computers will take over our capacity to catalogue and organize our memory, architects need to fight to keep their absolute privilege to discern meanings from the mass of information and their ability to create a meaningful system, a possible path.
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ASHLEIGH EDINBURG MAN HIN MA
Conneaut, OH United States
DIRECTORS CHOICE
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ANDREW VICHOSKY
Conneaut, OH United States
Selfies, check-ins, and even our personal search history
all seamlessly work together in recalling where we are and what
we are doing. Technology, especially through the use of social
media, has entirely changed how we experience not only our built
environment but how it has molded our memories. Much like a
theatrical production where the lights, interchangeable scenes,
and wardrobe changes all seem to effortlessly show a reality of
both truth and fiction. So also, the built environment becomes the
backdrop to our stories as we take the leading role and our digital
interactions create proof that we in fact were there.
This investigation takes us behind the scenes and
highlights the fact that we are now all actors and viewers in this
new physical existence of memory. It also exposes the reality that
our environment, both built and natural, are no longer spaces
meant just to be inhabited, but have also become two-dimensional
backdrops in the production of our digitized life.
all seamlessly work together in recalling where we are and what
we are doing. Technology, especially through the use of social
media, has entirely changed how we experience not only our built
environment but how it has molded our memories. Much like a
theatrical production where the lights, interchangeable scenes,
and wardrobe changes all seem to effortlessly show a reality of
both truth and fiction. So also, the built environment becomes the
backdrop to our stories as we take the leading role and our digital
interactions create proof that we in fact were there.
This investigation takes us behind the scenes and
highlights the fact that we are now all actors and viewers in this
new physical existence of memory. It also exposes the reality that
our environment, both built and natural, are no longer spaces
meant just to be inhabited, but have also become two-dimensional
backdrops in the production of our digitized life.
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ZEE SHAKE LEE LIAM MCROBERTS
Parnell, Auckland New Zealand
Parnell, Auckland New Zealand
LANDSCAPE OF MEMORY
Technology has increased our ability to digitally record selected or even non-selected moments in time, becoming a direct extension of the brain translating memories to code and pixel. Through this technology becomes a threshold and boundary of accuracy, preventing the natural decay of our memories that over time distort, skew and eventually fade to nothing.
While technology allows us to recall past experiences in vivid detail, it often creates discussion around what we can’t immediately see in front of us on a screen or print. Two-dimensional, digital information becomes overlaid with our physical, three-dimensional experiences. Between this digital fabrication and human fabrication lies a landscape of distorted memories where our built and natural environment is reduced to simple elements, geometry and
iconography, frozen in time.
Subconsciously we may connect the dots between the two in order to re-collect past memories that may become strengthened by the alignment of the two. Or we may choose to forget, viewing digital fabrication willingly or unwillingly while mentally disconnecting our physical experience and submitting it to natural decay.
Our graphic images and drawing, “Landscape of Memory”, represents this separation between the digital, two-dimensional and three-dimensional, physical memories. We see this as an important realm of memory recollection that is void of accuracy and detail yet an important space for re-creations and dreams while a distinct separation between the two exists.
Technology has increased our ability to digitally record selected or even non-selected moments in time, becoming a direct extension of the brain translating memories to code and pixel. Through this technology becomes a threshold and boundary of accuracy, preventing the natural decay of our memories that over time distort, skew and eventually fade to nothing.
While technology allows us to recall past experiences in vivid detail, it often creates discussion around what we can’t immediately see in front of us on a screen or print. Two-dimensional, digital information becomes overlaid with our physical, three-dimensional experiences. Between this digital fabrication and human fabrication lies a landscape of distorted memories where our built and natural environment is reduced to simple elements, geometry and
iconography, frozen in time.
Subconsciously we may connect the dots between the two in order to re-collect past memories that may become strengthened by the alignment of the two. Or we may choose to forget, viewing digital fabrication willingly or unwillingly while mentally disconnecting our physical experience and submitting it to natural decay.
Our graphic images and drawing, “Landscape of Memory”, represents this separation between the digital, two-dimensional and three-dimensional, physical memories. We see this as an important realm of memory recollection that is void of accuracy and detail yet an important space for re-creations and dreams while a distinct separation between the two exists.
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KESRA MANSURI WILLIAM E. BODELL
Brooklyn, NY United States
Brooklyn, NY United States
What is the source of human conflict? What makes people, whether individually or collectively, act with hostility toward each other? In the most general of terms, conflict stems from a lack of communication and an inability to empathize with others. Entire cultures have formed their values and identities through the accumulation of isolated memories over generations, making it nearly impossible to experience the world from the perspective of the ‘other’. By isolating and rejecting alternative worldviews, people in conflict have lost the capacity for empathy and resolution.
How might this condition of empathic dystrophy be affected by technological augmentation of the human condition? The digital realm has collapsed many boundaries between culturally distant populations, and has augmented the human capacity to see the world from multiple perspectives. Extrapolating the trend of a continually shrinking interface between the mind and computer, one arrives at a point of full merger, in which the individual consciousness is completely and continuously connected in a web of experiences and memories. Such technological evolution will bring with it the ability to record, archive and access the collective memories of humanity, enabling every connected individual to experience the memories of others. Beyond conventional methods of recording and sharing experiences, it will be possible to replicate the complete state of a mind during the memory sequence. Advances in brain scanning and distributed databases will spawn a global consciousness, a superintelligence made up of augmented minds as nodes.
Such a transcendent state of being would not make the built environment obsolete, but rather would embed in physical architecture a temporal and empathic dimension, thus further enhancing the richness of the physical world. Every memory is located in a particular place and time, and the continuous recording and archiving of memories will add layers of information that may be accessed instantaneously by any individual. Thus a city like Jerusalem, with its centuries of rich memories from countless peoples who have called its walls home, would appear as a patchwork of fundamentally different human experiences. Every wall and stone would tell the stories of all who have recorded it in their memory. By tapping into such a collective memory, the built environment may be experienced from all sides, dissolving the boundary between ‘us’ and the ‘other’.
How might this condition of empathic dystrophy be affected by technological augmentation of the human condition? The digital realm has collapsed many boundaries between culturally distant populations, and has augmented the human capacity to see the world from multiple perspectives. Extrapolating the trend of a continually shrinking interface between the mind and computer, one arrives at a point of full merger, in which the individual consciousness is completely and continuously connected in a web of experiences and memories. Such technological evolution will bring with it the ability to record, archive and access the collective memories of humanity, enabling every connected individual to experience the memories of others. Beyond conventional methods of recording and sharing experiences, it will be possible to replicate the complete state of a mind during the memory sequence. Advances in brain scanning and distributed databases will spawn a global consciousness, a superintelligence made up of augmented minds as nodes.
Such a transcendent state of being would not make the built environment obsolete, but rather would embed in physical architecture a temporal and empathic dimension, thus further enhancing the richness of the physical world. Every memory is located in a particular place and time, and the continuous recording and archiving of memories will add layers of information that may be accessed instantaneously by any individual. Thus a city like Jerusalem, with its centuries of rich memories from countless peoples who have called its walls home, would appear as a patchwork of fundamentally different human experiences. Every wall and stone would tell the stories of all who have recorded it in their memory. By tapping into such a collective memory, the built environment may be experienced from all sides, dissolving the boundary between ‘us’ and the ‘other’.