Sunday, November 9, 2008

The closest I get to religion

Do two cells ever touch? Two fingers near each other, they come closer and closer but do 2 fingers ever touch. Do 2 atoms ever occupy a shared space? Do two cells ever share 1 location or do they just become closer and closer neighbors? To me it is clear, 2 can never touch or they become one. Our only option to become closer and closer, to witness.
To be witnessed is infinitely reassuring. To observe others and recognize another's struggle is deeply comforting. And it is in this in between that I see all life generated. That space between where a word is spoken and a sound heard. That freedom afforded in the midst of a tensile member supporting a compressive. An oscillation of opposites. The inhale and the exhale, and somehow life is generated. The positive and negative nodes and somehow in their exchange, electricity.
In architecture we have the capacity to create spaces for opposites to interact. We have the opportunity to generate the environment for this life generating synthesis. Inside and out, maximize the surface area. Expansion and compression: alternate abundantly. To witness to witness to witness.

1 comment:

chelsea said...

the closest i get to religion. do i believe you in this statement, in this thesis, title, abstraction of what you are about to say. of what you are about to state, about to reveal, these moments of clarity, in the written word, in the collaboration of experience, digestion, intuition and reflection, i believe that you believe strongly, feel violently towards things, have a faith in what you are saying and yearn to manifest these ideas in the world.
i am currently dismissing the negative connotations we associate with 'religion' as the church and posit the idea (though it may be blatantly obvious) that religion, that strong belief in a set of ideas and ideals, is also a form of power. In this vein, are you not deeply imbedded in religion? Doe we not seek our own manifestos, our own body of principles, attempt to convey them, draw them, write them, build them? can we not derive an essence of a church as a house of education, a house that holds a space in which to tell stories.
The complications of political, social, cultural, economic and personal, circumstances have confused and contrived the etymology of words and the essences of institutions of education, discussion, diversion and progression.
dear avi, is it not the "closer you get to religion?"