After the harmony, the experiment of the crack

The philosopher Daniel Payot, in his work entitled “After the harmony”, gives an account of artistic practice inevitably confronted “, during all the 20th century, with impossibility (or prohibition) of reporting his works to an ideal understanding according to the old concept of the harmony: beauty like completeness, of the completed form, the unit to which nothing could be addeed nor cut off, of the figuration into small of a world finally reconciled”, but the artists “understood on the contrary that art had as a task to contribute to show and give rise to think, that this task had always been his, and that it required today that one put itself in search of a new experiment, properly contemporary, understanding”.

Thus the idea of “crack” is put ahead in the chapter “Transmission and catastrophe” in connection with the reading of a text of Walter Benjamin in Paris, capital of the 19th century: “Although the concept is not clarified by it here, one guesses thus that the crack is not to interpret primarily like a lack, the index of a loss or the effect of an accident, but rather as the reserve with a future which each phenomenon would contain, as an opening in him who exposes it and which dedicates it with what is not him. The crack could one say, it is what phenomenon is with the different one, in the world and even with oneself, insofar as the other, the world and it are what can and must still come or occur. The crack, it would be “the ex”of the word existence: the going beyond the station or the stagnation, the possibility in general of a movement ahead or in-outside… “.

Resistances and rebounds

Regarding a certain modernity which privileged a form of functionalism and exploitation, exhausting the natural environments and human, it is with another social and political paradigm like with another ecology of the attention and the action that we are necessary in order to optimize the conditions of the “anthropisation” and those of “making company”. It is by a town planning and installations in synergies and opening that a medium is regenerated in its living strength. This paradigmatic change (underlined in particular yesterday by Hans Jonas with “Principle Responsibility”, taken again today inter alia by Edgar Morin as by Bruno Latour) led to develop other scenarios.

We will mention five principles which appear from now on decisive in a process of project synergistic working in a way waked up and responsible in a “cracked” world.

 Principle 1. Immersion and corythmes.

The landscape designer Gilles Clément underlined many times the urgency of a thought ecologist which points out the importance “to be immersed, to accept himself like being of nature, revising his position in the universe, to place themselves more at the top or the center but inside and with”. He calls some with a culture of alive, in situ and experiment, “to go obviously; if there exists a possibility for the man of putting up with ecological complexities in order to ensure its own perennially on planet, that will be done in most empirical of the experiments of ground, step by step and not starting from an arsenal of contradictory and sometimes dangerous texts police resulting from the leading technocratic thought”. What results in being centered on the interactions and inter-productions. Immersive space, it is thus the immersion in situ and the experiential, and thus the catch with serious of the rhythms cosmic, geological, atmospheric, biological, social, personal.

 Principle 2. Adaptability, revalorization of the capacity to be adapted to always singular situations and always in becoming

The challenge consists in exploring potentialities starting from the resources and resistances specific to a specific medium. This test of the mediums, which is against the imposition of models a priori, passes by the recognition of realities and rhythmic experiments which redefine the plighting of troths of alive nature and the culture as well as interlacings of the scales of the microphone and macro, of the close relation and the distance.

 Principle 3. Reliance: an art of the links

A medium inhabited being connected by a multiplicity of links, it is by an art of the links, connections, that the mediums are spared in their symbioses, coexistences and divisions.

 Principle 4. The art of the recoveries and rebounds. In this art, the test of Søren Kierkegaard, “the recovery”, is lighting insofar as it explores a “paradoxical category” which combines concretely what was (the “same one”) with what is new (the “other”). This posture or this phenomenon is not reduced to a redoubling or an impossible repetition as such, the recovery comprises a re-creation. “The recovery is reality, the serious one of the existence” explains it.

by Chris Younes

Philosopher, ESA Paris

This video was prepared for the 7th University Business Forum
(UNIVERSITY-BUSINESS COOPERATION – FOR INNOVATION AND MODERNISATION) that took place in Brussels, 6-7th April 2017.

From April 10 in the “Laboratory of Analysis and Design of Landscape 2” Gic Lab “Re-scale” (Scuola Politecnica – Università di Genova)  within the European project KA-AU ::: Advanced Urbanism 

What could be a strategy for urban design today? In the developing of Jade Eco Park, Taichung (Taiwan), we exploited the climate issue as the main reference for the project. The result was a three-layer masterplan based on heat, humidity and pollution variables, not in a modernist vision of best and worst weather but
with a fluid approach of gradation of different areas. Thus, based on a CFD map, 15 thousands new trees were planted for shading, screening, pollution and noise absorption purpose. The road structure was a consequence of climate as well. We traced the paths according not to time or slope but mainly to climate perceptions.

The results are dry paths for sport activities with gradients and benches for training, cool paths and clean paths, less noisy and more comfortable. Moreover, an additional electrical system of devices was spread in the park. A network of sensors, distant 50 m one to the other, detect ceaselessly the parameters of temperature of the air, sun light, humidity, pollution and wind speed. This data, then, is sent to climate electrical devices that mediate with the environment using convection, evaporations, radiation, blowing process to cool down temperature and is open to the users via app for a complete map of the area.
Finally, I think that the best approach is, first, to control the climate, then, to shape the form and install the functions.” disclose the struggle to reconcile the utopian ideas of replicating earth in its totality with adversarial and raw material reality.

by Philippe Rahm

Digital technology has bridged the gap, allowing ideas and knowledge to flow. It has done away with many of the geographic and technological barriers to sharing. It has provided new educational tools and stimulated new possibilities for social, economic and political organisation. This revolution is comparable to the far-reaching changes brought about by the invention of the printing press.

In spite of these transformations, the entertainment industry, most communications service providers, governments and international bodies still base the sources of their profits and power on controlling tools and distribution channels for what they call “content”. They present this approach as the only possible model for how a digital society can deal with culture. This leads to restrictions on citizens’ rights to education, access to information, culture, science and technology; Freedom of expression; inviolability of communications and privacy; Freedom to share.

How can cities exploit citizens potential?

Streetlights are a vital part of every city, providing citizens and business with safety and security. But what if we could use our street lighting network in a more intelligent way rather than the simple on-off system that currently exists.

http://futurecity.glasgow.gov.uk/intelligent-street-lighting/

Information provided by Judith Sykes at the 8th Symposium Métropoles du Sud – ENSAM (January 2016)

The Glasgow Cycling App provides a platform for cyclists to map how they move around the city. Using the app, cyclists can record their routes – capturing and publishing their journeys. Using the data collected, other users can access information on the best routes around the city allowing them to better plan journeys and encouraging more uptake of cycling.

http://futurecity.glasgow.gov.uk/active-travel/

Information provided by Judith Sykes at the 8th Symposium Métropoles du Sud – ENSAM (January 2016)

Hello Lamp Post encourages to look at the city with fresh eyes and engage with systems we take for granted. This is a chance to slow down, reflect and give yourself permission to play.

http://www.hellolamppost.co.uk/

Information provided by Judith Sykes at the 8th Symposium Métropoles du Sud – ENSAM (January 2016)