Carlos Bethencourt

[Re]visions

During the 18th and 19th century the world was in a process of having new vision in the architecture world. New things and new ideas were coming through and people were exited. The modern epoch was shifting away from authoritarian and dictatorial governance to democratic republics. This meant new growth of powerful corporations, increase of population and the reviving of a new era. This meant the search for a pure and uncorrupted art and architecture. Roth says, “In architectural terms, this meant that the purest architecture, that most suited to fundamental human needs and to basic human society, was what had appeared at the dawn if civilization”(Roth 443). So basically, the era of the 18th, 19th and almost 20th century was about people having new visions and reviving what was left behind creating revision but without imitation.

In my photography class revision is a key instrument to have in mind whenever someone takes a photograph. In order to take a good picture one has to have a vision, a understanding of what is the picture going to be about. All pictures are good as long as it has a meaning and that the photographer had a vision before taking it. Normally tends to happen that when someone takes a picture with no vision at all, the picture will be vague and just meaningless. In this case one would revise the picture and retry again until you get an idea of what is one's vision about.

Transition + Character

The changing in the social class was becoming a big influence on the materials used for interior desing. The Victorian middle class was the primary responsible to demand a higher production of interior structures. This was a big movement because now not only people with political power could afford furniture, art works, etc but also a middle class society. This led for a reproduction in extreme amounts to satisfy the needs of the people. Massey says, “… all-pervasive the Victorian middle-class desire to express comfort and wealth, the aesthetic standard of the interior disturbed contemporary critics, and a large body of writing appeared during the nineteenth century to give advice on taste and interior desing”(Massey 8). What Massey says is incredible because he demonstrates that the Victorian middle-class was not an insignificant class but instead it was so significant that numerous of critics were almost obliged to write about interior design and how is it done. This also created a sense of character within the objects. Since the production of furniture, wallpapers, textiles and carpets had to be multiplied to satisfy the costumer machines were incorporated. This questioned the authenticity and lack of character that all these interior decoration had originally. The original idea was that everything had to be hand-made, with the joints visible. Massey says, “The more clearly expressed the construction the more honest the piece, and the greater the contrast with the machine-carved, highly polished veneers of mainstream taste.”(Massey 15). The understanding of interior decorations is not only about how it looks but also how and by who is made. Massey makes clear the point that by having something hand-made it naturally have more character than any other furniture made by a machine.

In my Human Studies class we have talked about the way relationships should work out. In class we were told that when a relationship is not working the couple must know that there is something that is not going right and that they must fix it. In order to get to a solution and resolve a problem there has to be a transition from a status of negativity to positiveness. The studies shows that when someone has the heart beat over 70 beats per second, one is incapable to reach for a solution. Therefore in order to get to a solution one must relax and be positive, have a change of character. Changing character also works when the relationship is in a tense situation. For example, use the "I" statement instead of the "you". If your girlfriend or boyfriend is doing something that bothers you, then you should use the I statement in oder to get your point across in a constructive way. Instead if you use the "you" statement it will normally tend to be a negative comment and not constructive. So one should have a change of character if one wants to fix a problem in your relationship.

Datum

Datum is defined as something that contains a single piece of information. That could be a single line or a story carved into a wood furniture made by hand. Furniture made by a person and not by a machine was considered more valuable and therefore more appreciated. I piece of furniture had lines and stories embedded into the wood creating uniqueness to the furniture because every furniture was made different. Blakemore says, “There was a preference for plain surfaces, and when ornamentation was employed it was largely in the form of cast-metal decoration; to a significant degree the latter replaced carving. When carving was used it was accomplished by hand and was usually for pieces for the very wealthy. (Blakemore 367) Blakemore draws a line between the art of handmade furniture and a machine made furniture. This is because it was impossible for a machine at the time to create datum and the only way to do it was hand-made. Therefore it tends to be more expensive those furniture’s that contained a special engraving.

In my Design Perspective class we have discussed about centers and wholeness. A set of centers make wholeness and wholeness is in itself whole. But the fact that a single point or line put together with other lines and points can create wholeness and therefore create life is interesting to think about. Datum is a single point or line that provides information and I think that we can relate datum to centers. Because centers are the providers that give information to a given structure. A structure becomes alive when there is a complete set of centers creating wholeness.

Audience

Reflection

This week prompts have illustrated that we have come to a moment of reflection and a intent of understanding what architecture really is about. Reviving of the classical architecture but without imitating or replicating it. The 20th and 19th century is an important phase in the history of art and architecture because from those century we are who we are today. We are connected and often use the same ideas and visions that our ancestors had. Still today we are transitioning and moving to greater things upon serious reflection. And not only in architecture but also in other areas like photography where revision and vision is a key fact for success. This week prompts makes us reflect and understand the development of human kind in every aspect and field that we could imagine