HYBRID OF EXTREMES:
the epicenter of commerce and contemplation

a reconciliation of two speeds ;  slow (memory) and fast (action)

Things are different now. Just how different is indeterminate and what the final state will be is unknowable. What created this predicament is short term thinking,  our inability to pace ourselves to endure, our diminished patience, and need for diminishing time horizons for ‘returns on investments’, both personal and collective. It seems that we no longer are regulated or guided by a common vision or story and we have a growing propensity to negotiate our private interests in public forums. We have created quite a mess.

Individualism Altruism
why do we study insect societies? Because their social organizations cohesive and innately altruistic. They best exemplify the full seep of ascending levels of organization from molecule to society. We witness social design to solve collective problems, both communal and ecological for the  sake of endurance. This is a fundamental imprint. We can only emulate this behavior, although we have a similar imprint. We are primarily Individualistic. Altruism is present when our survival as a species or a society is threatened. Our question this semester will be, ‘is it possible for us to be altruistic in the best of times?’

Body Mind
the body moves systematically, and relatively slowly. When it is working properly and with a particular focus,  each part ‘moves’ in proportion to other parts ; common goal, synchronized action, effective performance. It apprehends the world directly through senses and sub-senses (heat and cold, gravity, speed, etc) The body time structures are rhythmic, cyclical, and sequential.

The brain works systematically but moves a-systematically, and at warp speed.When it is working properly and with particular focus, it can see what is less than visible, the order that lies within, and can imagine what is not present yet. It apprehends the world by analyzing primary sensations and transforming them into perceptions. The brains time structures are non-rhythmic, non-cyclical, and non-sequential

The mind-body complex ( subtle body) is the quintessential example of the ‘hybrid of extremes’. One plus one equals one.

the hybrid of extremes occurs when two ‘things’ become one. In fact they already are one system, but we could not see it or imagine it. Finally we realize that it has always been so.

BOTH / AND
In the influential book, Complexity and Contradiction, Venturi and Scott-Brown proposed an aesthetic argument for a more balanced and inclusive world view and approach to practice. The phrase either–or  was replaced with both-and. Colin Rowe also implied this in Collage City. We often talked about this as a social model, unity and diversity - and then a personal model – intense concentration and open mindedness
Introverted and extroverted
Particular and universal
Simplicity and complexity
Consistency and contradiction
Continuity and discontinuity

We no longer had to take sides, or dis integrate something to know it, when we accepted the meaning of both – and.

“what part of the horse is the horse’ the shaman asked me when  I looked puzzled at his naming of the constellation, the star, the place, the ritual, the dancer, and the experience, with just one word. This was unusual for me to hear."

The philosopher Alfred N. Whitehead described a symbiotic binary relationship of conservation and change. These two principals are inherent in the very nature of things. There can be nothing real without both, he stated.

In the human body this is known as Homeostasis, a regulating system and a fundamental expression of the Conservation of energy

The conservation of energy is fundamentally a symmetry operation at all scales, in all dimensions simultaneously.

NOW
the world as it is now is alarming and destructive but it should not blind us to the fact that at this very time it is also one of its most creative periods. The forces in play have brought us back down to earth making us aware once again of two profound existential realities, the interdependence and impermanence of everything. Ashes to ashes. And back again like the phoenix.

Considering this, I am proposing we explore the possibility of a Societal Homeostasis, One that acknowledges striking a balance between human and natural systems, and their time structures, slow and fast.

Is it possible to strike a balance between these two speeds?
Is it possible to move fast in slow motion?
Is it possible to move fast and think deeply?
Is it possible for all of you to envision a world that is not predicated on the values, performance criteria, and expectations of the world you will inherit from your parents, remaking it as you know in your hearts it should be?

And finally,Is it possible for you to imagine what the architectural equivalent of this new world might be?

This is not a formal proposition as much as it is a spatial and programmatic one.

We will explore this with the help of some friends,
Professor Michael Dobry and Lama Tenzin ‘wangdu’ Thokme

PROJECT
Two extremely different uses that meet in the middle.

Extreme 1 –    SLOW PROGRAM – CONTEMPLATIVE RETREAT
               An urban Monastic Retreat
               30 lay people and 7 support staff
                         
Extreme 2 -    FAST PROGRAM - CARAVANSERAI
               A contemporary interpretation of a Caravanserai.
               depot, storage, hotel for 10 drivers, 10 workers, 10 craftsmen.
               light industrial (manufacturing), stores, public spaces

Liminal Zone - in between the two extremes is a zone where both need to be                reconciled. It is the segue from one to the other conceptually                and experientially. It is where the identity of the other two                programs dissolves. 2 become 1+1=1
              .
Solitude and Communitas
In retreat, living in silence for 3 days to two weeks everyone is there to focus on an inner World of mind and body. In time, one moves into a liminal state, a positive twilight zone. It is a place and space of transition where normal limits to experience, thought, and self understanding are relaxed and can lead to new perspectives. Normally accepted difference between participants are deemphasized. ‘as it says in the American constitution,‘all men are created equal’, (another symmetry operation) for a while, living in a provisional community of 30 other people. A social structure of communitas forms. One based on humanity and equality rather than recognized hierarchies. An overwhelming sense of joy and compassion can be experienced.

Introduction to the Physical World: a metaphor of our social world
                                                             
First law of thermodynamics – conservation of energy
                              It can change form – kinetic to thermal
                              It can not be created nor destroyed

Third Law of Motion -         Reciprocal Action
                              To every action there is an equal and
                              opposite reaction

Quantum Mechanics -           The observer is the observed
                              We see what we have a capacity to see
                              Our lens sets the limits
                              We see ourselves

Spiritual Law of Motion -     Karma
                              What goes around comes around
                              Who we are is what we manifest

When two things meet in this zone of interference they do not assimilate, homogenize or emulsify into similarity or sameness. There is at first a marginal overlap where a rite of passage will occur which involves some change characterized at first by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy. Each part remains integral in this new context,  a unified field of semi transparent Interdependencies and interactions that are mutually defining.  Sometimes there is a transformation - one thing becomes another, or so it seems, until something new emerges. Then as they leave this field of interference they return to their original state with an evolved memory.

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

   There are two principles inherent in the very nature of things- change and
  conservation.
   There can be nothing real without both.
                  Memory and adaptive innovation.
                A.N.W.
                       
OBSERVATION
to live, for Darwin, meant

looking and examining, and then      observation

writing down what is seen            recording
analyze it and finally               analytical
trying to make sense of it           meaning

 
TIME
Progressive and recurring
endurance and reproduction
cycles and rythms
sequence, patterns, spontaneous action
Now and then
Anticipation and memory

read : the clock of the long now
research: fast and slow

THIRD LAW
physics action : reaction
symmetry
mirror worlds
Feedback
Reciprocity and exchange

assign: visualize in a drawing this law.

PROCESS
Things change………………impermanence 
                      On becoming
                                                       
                 energy                                       interface
                 information                                  interaction
                                                              exchange           
                       transformation
                       shape shift              steady state
                growth                dynamic
                decay
­
                       adaptability
                innovation
                metabolism

                       endurance

                you can never step in the same river twice.

ORDER
Things self organize………interrelationships
                On meaning
                 
                context           
                      
                coherence                               
                patterns                         networks           geometries

                natural                          inherent           branching
                                                                    dendritic

                abstract                         extrapolate        grid
                                                                    matrix
      
                mythological                     constructed        nested
                                                                    enfolded
                             
                DNA
                           
                Nature likes to hide

UNITY
Things come together........interdependence
                       
                 On being
                  wholeness                     convergence
                                 
                  entrainment

stillpoint : the hybrid of extremes
We will search for. the center line of gravity that exists within all things and processes. A dynamic equilibrium,  a zone for the hybrid of extremes.

Antipodal BINARIES are diametric extremes. They can be the flipside of each other, two aspects of one thing. Each is the context for the other. The midpoint in between these extremes is a point of balance, This is the middle way.

                          where one            meets the other
                          where one            becomes another
                          where one     is the other
                          where two     become one
                                               
                               part     whole
                           molecule     organism
                              small         big
                              micro     macro
                             simple         complex
                                 in     out
                             inhale     exhale
                          implosion     explosion
                        contraction          expansion
                         convergent     divergent
                               here          there
                                 up     down
                              night     day
                               dark          light
                               void          solid
                               slow          fast

                                          EQUILIBRIUM
                                BALANCE

                                      emergence
                                      unity
                                      creation

visualize these phrases in your own terms. And match with images
What do  you see?
What do you think they mean?
.           1.   Moving fast in slow motion                      
            2.   Inevitability/Uniqueness               
            3.   Transparent Medium        
            4.   Neutral with Presence 
            5.   Hiding in plain sight         
            6.   Looking twice
            7.   Entrainment
            8.   Simplicity on the other side of complexity
            9.   Distillation
            10.  One to many
            11.  Solitude and community
            12.  Part to whole
            13.  Scaling
            14.  timing
            15.  Cycles and rhythms
            16.  Pattern recognition
            17.  Continuity
            18.  Coherence
            19.  Centering
            20.  Equilibrium
            21.  Flow
            22.  Metaphor

World view
4) The fourth is our the basis for making choices
world view refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts in it.
“why do we need to have values “, he asked, “they help edit  all of the choices that confront you” his older brother answered. 
“Where do they come from? “
“ they are embedded within your world view”, his brother answered, again.
“ where does this come from ?” he finally asked.
“ it is inherited from the past, through your family, and re-interpreted over time, by you.”

Creativity
Exploration, is moving  forward, across unfamiliar territory, with a destination and no itinerary, proceeding with an open mind and being attentive to what ever might be revealed,  without expectation or predetermination. Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand. They ‘play it as it lays’.
Each of us is born with two sets of instructions: a conservative tendency made up of instincts for self preservation, and an Expansive tendency made up of instincts for exploring.

TOPICS
Cosmology
The subject matter of cosmology is everything that exists and the aim is to place all known physical phenomena within a single coherent framework.

It will be explored at three particular historical periods, and look at these three cosmologies and their relation to the built environment. The idea is to look at how the cosmos was explained, and then how that reflected back onto making. The thesis is that humans tend to project their social relations into the heavens, and then use that Schema as a way to map things back onto the earth.

A. The first period is of early man up to CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY- Greeks. These cultures saw the Heavens as embodying people and animals and their stories as mapped in the Positions and relations of the heavenly bodies. The stories about people were projected onto the heavens, where the constellations were used as sightlines inscribed on the surface of the earth. These projections then formed pathways for journeys and diagrams of urban and architectural forms. In this way social relations were transformed into cities and buildings and even states—the personal becomes the built.

B. The second period covers the RENAISANCE  - ENLIGHTENMENT during which the newly discovered rational relations among the heavenly bodies are projected back to earth as the demand for rational relations among people and their institutions. It resulted in a duality: demanding rationality of the state (which results in totalitarianism) and rationality on the part of the individual (which implies personal responsibility and the ownership of the self, thus personal freedom).

C. The third period is our own MODERN times, from the middle of the 19th century until the present. The concept that is projected into the cosmos is that of the abstract materiality of space. Instead of being seen as a container or place where things happen, space becomes the “substance” of particles and forces. Everything that is—energy, space, time, forces, materiality, ourselves are seen as abstract conditions of space itself. Reality has become a completely abstract substance. The reprojection of that back to our planet is consciousness, the means whereby we apprehend all these ideas. Consciousness is tangible, abstract and completely self contained. But it cannot go outside itself to study itself. It is the consequent abstraction of all our relations and states of self. We are become the categories through which we analyze ourselves.

SOCIETY and RECIPROCITY.
Rights and responsibilities
Individualism and altruism
The cultural anthropologist,  Levi-Strauss proposed that the basis of society was reciprocity. It is a way of defining people’s informal exchange. It is an informal economic system.
There are tree kinds of reciprocity.
Generalized, which is defined by uninhibited sharing between people, without expecting anything in return.
Symmetrical, which is one person giving to another with the trust of a fair and tangible return at some undefined future date. And third,
Barter. These three kinds of reciprocity are the most basic forms of economic exchange. More complex exchange systems include redistribution and the market.

NETWORKS.
Systems and information
 This topic will be our gateway into visualizing the dynamic processes of systems,
Everything, at all sizes and scales, in all dimensions, are simultaneously interconnected and interdependent.
We think of networks as a product the computer age, the Internet is it’s common name. The fact is that digital networks are a phase in the ongoing evolution of a networked global brain, which has existed for more than 3 billion years. It is a product of evolution and biology. The global brain is a web between all species.
In Costa Rica as tuna hunt for their prey, seabirds watch their movement waiting for the leftovers. Fishermen searching for the tuna watch the birds, leading them to their catch. This is a network.

STORYTELLING
It has existed as long as humanity has had language. Stories are a means of entertainment but more significantly they have been central to the preservation of culture as a  fundamental form of teaching. Traditionally, oral stories were passed from generation to generation, and survived solely by memory. In the oral tradition, storytelling is an improvisational art form with a hidden structure of connected events, ideas, and images that are transformed with each recollection. Generally a storyteller does not memorize a set text. Instead he has a framework of facts or events that direct a narrative arc that guides the teller as he visualizes the characters and the settings while improvising the words. The same story is usually told differently, each time. Improvisational storytelling is an act of creativity.

FINITE AND INFINITE GAMES
There are at least two kinds of games. One can be called finite , the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning. An infinite game is for the purpose of continuing the play. The creative process is, at best,  an infinite game.

The Observer is the Observed

"Bohm first became aware of Krishnamurti in 1959 through a book of his entitled The First and Last Freedom and its exploration into the question of the observer and the observed. Both he and K had been questioning limitations imposed on discovery and awareness by the restrictions of language and images. The nature of the observer and the observed centers on the difficulties created by the self which, the observation of, and any action proceeding from, "is usually rooted in the apparent creation of a second self, who is watching and acting upon the first self. This is the problem of the observer and the observed, a cognitive structure which is appropriate and effective in some domains, but riddled with contradictions when applied phychologically. This subject was on great interest to both Bohm and Krishnamutri. They met soon after this and began a friendship formed from a mutual interest in the way thought works."

there is an innate relationship between that which comes to us in observation and that which  we bring to the observed

What we see
What we know it, and
What we make, are intertwined with
Who we are

Developing a capacity to see and know the explicit and implicit realities of the world are contingent on looking without pre-condition, pre-conception, or pre-determination. Bare attention is the foundation of discovery. It requires observing things as they are and not as you expect them to be.

LIVING SYSTEMS THEORY
This is a subset of all systems and are self-organizing systems with special characteristics of life and constantly interacting with its environment (context). This exchange occurs by means of information and material-energy exchanges. A living system can be a cell or a country and regardless of their size, scale or complexity, they each depend on
sub-systemic processes of exchange that are mutually beneficial to continue the propagation of their species or types beyond a single generation. The most essential imprint for any system

RECIPROCITY
It is common to every culture. It is a way of defining peoples informal exchange of goods and labor, that is people’s economic systems. It is the basis of non market economies. This is common to every culture. Giving to another without any expectation of anything in return. The satisfaction and the reward is in the act itself. Claude  levi–strauss , a cultural anthropologist,  told a story from his experiences traveling with his father. One day they sat for lunch, in  a French country inn, directly across from a stranger. When they were served his father and the stranger both poured their small carafe of wine into the other’s glass; an equal exchange, nothing lost but much gained, symbolically. Trust and social closeness.  Levi-strauss would eventually write that RECIPROCITY was a fundamental centerpiece of society. It  was an expression of altruism which is essential

In social psychology reciprocity refers to responding to an action with another action (refer also to the third law of motion – action : reaction ). This can be either positive or negative