Page 20 - Studio International - April 1974

argue that this remains one vital function of outer determinants acting independently upon It may be no coincidence that these
seeing. A. J. Ayer has attempted to establish the mind. `alternative' forms echo two paramount social
a distinction between objects and information, But vision does not often supersede critical alternatives : to either hack one's way up the
asserting that when something is perceived, the predispositions toward form, or for that matter, precarious ladder of 'success' or, if that fails,
thing itself is not directly seen, but rather sense the conditions within which they appear. The becoming 'strung out' in frustration. Perhaps
data pertaining to it is obtained.3 The latter visual thinking (if indeed it may be termed as a more viable set of alternatives would be
view of perception takes into account the such) currently manifested by designers has between co-extensiveness and co-existence,
aspect(s) of the thing seen which serves as an often related only to autonomously conceived between harmony and fragmentation.
extension of self-knowledge, or other- physical form, with little consideration of the It may be evident at this point that exposure
knowledge, as it existed prior to the perception. relation such forms have to human behaviour. to other types of forms, along with an acute
From this premise, one could say the individual G. V. Trieschmann has drawn attention to study of their essential potentials, must
is seeing the shadow of himself in the shell of a break-down in the behaviour-form paradigm precede their eventual adoption. Both Leeper
the form, assuming it conforms to his prior as the locus of design : 'the seriousness of this and Gombrich have noted that a familiarity
existence as he identifies it. fact has been accentuated by the widening gap with different forms increases one's capacity to
In the words of Michael Polanyi, 'aspects between the user of built forms and the overtly respond to each of them." Unfortunately,
of reality are clues to yet boundless, undisclosed manufacturing processes which produce these there are many forms which are not 'seen,'
and perhaps, as yet, unthinkable experience.'4 forms . . . Theoretically, that gap was to be except in a peripheral manner that is counter
Polanyi suggests that an intense engagement filled through the humane interaction between to the main effort to particulate through
through forms at a personal level, coupled designer and patron, but unfortunately, that industrialization.
with a relaxation of the psychic barriers interaction no longer takes place and inhumane
inhibiting one's full exercise of faculties in built forms are the increasing result.'5 As artists II
relation to them, may invoke new visions of and architects expounded the virtues of a In a culture which considers itself to be
form which may or may not bear resemblance geometric, hard-edged environment, a web of governed by cause and effect, one would think
to the form originally seen. Perhaps vision may rigid planes latticed the urban enclave. With that the interchange of energy between things
be said to spring from a dynamic convergence the exception of the work of Buckminster would act as a criterion for choices affecting both
of both internal and outer phenomena with Fuller and a handful of other visionary builders, the present and the future. James Simms
a subsequent awakening to what is possible. the recent architecture of modern culture has defines knowledge as 'directly proportional to
The basis to this concept of vision lies in the been a proliferation of 'stacking' (vertical post the capacity to direct energy.'' But in everyday
plausibility of the form seen becoming co- and lintel system) and 'stringing' (suburban, life we are regularly reminded that knowledge
extensive with the person's mind, not so much horizontal post and lintel sprawl). and an ethical use of it are not synonymous.
The application of knowledge in terms of the
pervasive energy-system may be the true
measure of human consciousness. Simms
proposed this in a further axiom when he stated
that the 'upper limit of knowledge is a function
of the ratio of the directed energy to the total
available energy.' 10 But, in response to Simms's
third axiom, that the 'knowledge of a substance
is equal to or greater than zero,'11 I have
previously written that 'one can question this
postulation as applied to life-sustaining systems
for, in reality, the directing of energy may
occur only with a partial regard for the energy
potential of another given substance
in the over-all system . . . The manifestation
of knowledge as a prevalence of one energy
source over another in a given system, such as
in parasitic activity as opposed to symbiotic
activity, may be observed to reinforce the
prominence of a given particle and, in some of
these instances, negates the energy potential
of the total system as well as the energy
duration of another particle within it.'12
What may be termed the dynamics of form
Haystacks, Kansas Related observations have emerged from the has in recent decades been increasingly
first experiments with the MERG behaviour- acknowledged according to the dual activities
as an end in itself, but as a point-of-departure design process (Man Environment Resource of modules and spaces. The function of each
in the formation of consciousness. Furthermore, Gram) developed by Trieschmann. Through is determined by how they work together.
co-extensive vision must then exert its force this effort an accentuation has been placed upon Various patterns and sequences are continually
through real action stemming from the nexus the possibilities of a less fragmented condition. unfolding. Some of these can serve as models for
of the dual relationship between the self and the `Growth into areas of non-lineal, multi- the process of form. For example, the source and
outer world for communication and problem- dimensional, visual thinking may show a more direction of energy involved in a process of
solving to develop. Because of this it would subtle dimension of man-environment formation, as well as in one of deformation,
seem that a co-extensive basis to vision is not interaction:6 Another writer has likened the is intimately bound with the resultant form
as vulnerable to biases inhibiting its application attempt to translate the multi-dimensional world (or de-form) as we can see it at a given instant
under real conditions as would conventional into a linear symbol as 'an attempt to drink and the means by which it came into being.
vision derived more strictly in terms of inner or a gallon of water with a fork.'7 There are two primary directions from which

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