“Spatial Synthesis”
“The illusion on which these two stories rely, that of putting two incompatible phenomena on the same level, is strictly analogous to what Kant called “transcendental illusion,” the illusion of being able to use the same language for phenomena which are mutually untranslatable and can be grasped only in a kind of synthesis or mediation is possible. Thus there is no rapport between the two levels, no shared space-although they are closely connected, even identical in a way, they are, as It were, on the opposed sides of a moebius strip.”-- Slavoj Zizek, The Parallax View
Spatial parallax is tension. But not all tension is spatial parallax. Through the abstractions of walking through Charleston, Calvino’s Invisible cities (Eusapia), “Ground Zero”, and the readings on parallax by Steven Holl and Slavoj Zizek provided the building blocks for an architectural language. Calvino describes a tension between a city and its exact replica which thrives beneath the surface. Constantly shifting and readjusting to reach a balance between the two cities permits a gap in the perspective of what is real and what is not.
Parallax - the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer
In my own writing, “Ground Zero”, Charleston is depicted as a city that holds another city. In the area between King and Meeting Street there lies a city, The Corral. It is unlike the city of Charleston because there is a constant populace of residents. Like that of the city of Eusapia, in Invisible Cities, The Corral is in constant tension with the city of Charleston. The pulling of the axis, the change in traffic and noise are variables that are in constant tension.
How can these ideas of tension translate into spatial qualities? How can parallax relate to a technology center?
Zizek presents the idea of a moebius strip as an example of the two phenomena that are of the same level, yet incompatible. The essence of an architecture where two entities are so similar, yet so far apart leads to an imbalance of spatial potentials. By taking two separate materials and spatial elements and putting them close enough together to form interstitial spaces, the idea of a parallax gap can be housed in such spaces. A gap where neither entity thrives, but instead it is the tension between the two that create moments of parallax. Identical in that they both form or shape spaces, the two phenomena live in a realm of disconnectedness. But, it is this very disconnectedness that allows for interstitial moments that in fact connect these two very different phenomena.
