“When the cannons are heard, the muses are silent. When the cannons are silent, the muses are heard.”

Jorge Silvetti outlines a compellingly inside-looking-out point of view about the current state of architectural design in The Muses Are Not Amused... The four thinking types, Programism, Thematization, Blobs, and Literalism are succinctly effective at describing the range of options in value judgements that architects wade through when determining a proposal's proper approach. Yet somehow each outlook has a shortcoming. Programism's fall to the restrictions of media production methods, Thematization's overdependence on pre-existing styles, the much too complexly-transformed data of Blobs, and the nigh-neurological lingual restraints of freedom to Literalism's referents implies that every attempt at compressing the essence of a space into functional, material form may end in an ontological failure of some kind. Merely identifying the very specific lofty ideals undertaken by a program is unclear when contradictory positions or situations co-exist in the same space. It is the selection of pertinent terms to be enacted upon in the ensuing process that charges an idea's potency. The intentions to achieve efficiency, optimization, consolidation as well as cross-pollination, invention, compromise and controversy, are the various intermediary steps in defining a personal touch in the profession and determining an alignment with a particular theory or strategy.

The discussion about Blobs hit upon an inspiring discovery, that the latest gifts of technology are unique in their generative powers when we consider their role in history. The achievement of total freedom of form has arrested the architect of his office to affect the world, as it is in the definition of form that we mark our specialization in society, turning us now into programmers who can't code. The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture contains Greg Lynn's definition of "blobs", part of which I shall transcribe here:

"Recently, a class of topological geometric types for modeling complex aggregates that exhibit the qualities of multiplicity and singularity has been developed. The most interesing example is the development of 'isomorphic polysurfaces' or what in the special effects and animation industry is referred to as 'meta-clay', 'meta-ball' or 'blob' models. The explanation of the organisation of these topological geometries actually outlines a working schema for a new typology for complexity. [...] In this schema, there is no essential difference between a more or less spherical formation and a blob. The sphere and its provisional symmetries are merely the index of a rather low level of interactions where the blob is an index of a high degree of information in the form of differentiation between components in time. In this regard, even what seems to be a sphere is actually a blob without influence; an anexact form that merely masquerades as an exact form because it is isolated from adjacent forces."

The ability to amass data in a manner informed by a filter or generator made to produce a form leads to self-defining, autonomous systems, a sustainable path. Keying in additional layers of information - contextual, social, environmental - benefits and justifies complexity but in mapping this data to what remains a singular object, the classical model of architecture isn't so fundamentally altered. The growth of technology even in historical contexts such as the Baroque still demanded a human sensibility to the establishment of what is always a new or contemporary aesthetic. The value of the blob is in its loosening of our visual dependencies, decoupling so many aspects of what orders are present in a form. Yet while these procedures are so promising, Silvetti's argument seems to be that they haven't proven themselves as sires of architecture. While the calculating power may be there, the impetus towards intuition is not. I'll be thinking much more about the theoretical limitations and consequences of process in drafting my thesis, and what is really an ideal situation in such an imaginary world.

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Architecture through symbolic power can be a healing agent in the cluttered chaos of a technological age by changing consumerist attitudes into responsibly managed natural and human ecological systems.

Today's successful urban spaces are characterized by a healthy mix of efficiency, density, and diversity, but this is only made possible by a responsible allocation of resources. The American failures of excess and egregious demands for energy are pitted against the incentives of developing worlds, where the lack of modern mass manufacture methods results in pollution and waste, leaving a greater potential for environmental improvement. How will the coming globalist carbon market force the construction industry and regulatory agencies to meet needs of individuals and groups across the world?

The futuristic vision of the city by science fiction writers such as Philip K. Dick is known for being filled with spaces accumulating gadgets and electronic trinkets, the garbage of a technocratic culture. As in our world, the actual location of a given experience or event is flavored or characterized by the mundane repetition and identifiable details in the daily usage of space. Symbols employed by product advertisers are the labels used by the culture of mass consumption. The paradoxical namelessness that is established as a result may inadvertently end up hurting the chances of innovative yet unconventional solutions through marginalization away from the mainstream. The transformation of the container into an extension of the consumer fantasy is akin to the process by which houses create a market of wealth in a given neighborhood. The current economic crisis is a problem of much of this wealth being imaginary or synthetic, and the challenge to artists and designers is to make material advancements still meaningful to restore the usefulness of our commercial context. The urban interactions and social sensibilities of a global city or metapolis posit the perception of space as directly affected by those placeless fixtures of culture that initially led to its oversaturation and downfall. We will need to remove redundancy in the system and consolidate the advances we've developed. Now to only narrow down the methods by which we do this.