Prelude of Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge

by Alberto Perez-Gomez and Lousie Pelletier

“It must be granted, however, that the meaning of an architectural work is never simply the result of its authors will. Once the work occupies its place in the public realm, a multitude of factors related to context, use, cultural associations, and so forth have an impact on how it is perceived. Nevertheless, the architect cannot abdicate personal responsibilities. The changing relationships between the intentions of architectural drawings and the built objects they describe hold important lessons for architects who wish to exercise ethically the personal imaginations and construe a better, richer place for human dwellings.”

Well said. An architect’s role is to design with integrity by proposing an “idea” that will be “one with nature.”

“The question for postmodern humanity is whether the collapse of this distance, which is not reducible to vision but retains a visual dimension (best characterized as perspectival en-framing – the depth of virtual reality), will not signal a loss of the possibility of acting ethically and compassionately.”

I am completed astounded. I can’t even begin to explain my own understanding of this question. Will the technological world “close (or ignore) the space between the body and the world?” I believe there will be instances where it will get fairly close.