Alex Schweder and His Practice Flatland - Research Paper Example

ALEX SCHWEDER AND HIS PRACTICE-FLATLAND (PRECEDENT REPORT) By of the of the of the School 6 January 2015 Importance and reasons for looking at Flatland Flatland architectural project established in 2007 is an exemplary work in art. It demonstrates contemporary artistic practices of creating architectural work that integrates with its surrounding and interacts directly with its locality. The Flatland structure is one of the site specific works that employ radical architecture to express how humans relate with buildings in a nearly 2 dimensional space (Farrell, 2007). This piece of art work is by Alex and five others who moved to re-site their art work in public space with the idea of local interaction. It is basically not just any art, but a form of architectural performance. Unlike the ordinary buildings built with blocks, implementing closure and invisible life within the walls, Flatland vividly expresses how individuals create and shape their houses and the impact the structures have on them later. According to Gratza, Schweder describes flatland project among others as that intended to ‘take things that are more subtle, and make them large enough for people to see’ – namely how architecture draws implicit boundaries and constructs relationships between people” (2013, p.141). Flatland structure is fascinating in the sense of the space and material used to sustain life in the contrived living space constructed. How it’s interesting What makes Flatland interesting is the performance essence brought out through the architecture. First, the materials used to make the four story building are merely wood and metal beams, and visible glass walls in an unusually textured space. The idea of flatland project was living under the constant gaze of the audience through the transparent walls performing all their daily routines in the confinement of less than 20 m2 total space, where six housemates at one point shared for an intended 20 days period (Felthousen, 2008). The thin sliced sculpture approximately 60 centimeters wide in the story expresses creativity in housing and how people’s behaviors are influenced by the set up to harmoniously live together. The image below depicts the installation view of Flatland where the housemates ran their lives in the confined spacing. (Shelley, 2007). Understanding more about society and relationship between humans through Flatland Like in the society, housemates in the Flatland structure needed to share the limited resources (space, kitchen, toilet, bathroom and stairs). Hence, there is need for a particular order and rules to guide the people in their daily routines. Without such, people get into conflicts and collide with each other in their roles. In Flatland, there were three rules: once one left the structure, he or she was not allowed to come back, no two people could be at the 2-D space at a time and only at designated times could one receive new materials and food amongst others (PBwork, n.d.). It only means they had to alter their life routines (when to fetch food, move up or down stairs, or use a kitchen or bathroom or toilet) to create room for each other. The life and relationship between housemates just like the society is expressed as an art. Sharing the space in Flatland structure becomes the focus of their attention because they have a shared interest in it. Flatland structure is a social object of interest around which people are socially networked, and interpersonally engage and connect with each other through conversation and shared experience (Simon, n.d.). Flatland inspiration and learnt potentials Flatland allows people to look at lifestyle from another approach. The piece is itself an alternative architecture developed and filled with life enabling audience, to realize how people establish formative relationships with the buildings they design and choose to live in. In other words, while people are used to the ordinary housing, spacing and architectural practices with the availability of the limited resources, there exist the other side of the lifestyle where resources are minimal. It inspires people to exploit a fundamental aspect of architecture to shape people’s performances and construct relationships in a designed space. People need to develop architectures and manage buildings in tune to the responsible use of natural resources, and structuring life through the limited objects’ material property (The Guardian Professional Network, 2011). Consider a wealthy family that eventually loses its large piece of land and partial financial power after a law suit. This would call for a change in lifestyle scrambling for the resources that it once took for granted in their former life. Their world is eventually reduced and demands creation of alternative lifestyle through fostered cooperation for sustainability. Flatland demonstrates the potential of architectural ability to solve existing socio and economic difficulties within the society through creativity in a world of limited resources. It portrays the potentials of developing sustainable buildings with minimal resource consumption from lighting, space to raw material use. Flatland structure demonstrates the potentials of designing and constructing appealing structures on recuperated places formerly abandoned or neglected. A creative architecture can initiate a feedback loop between a building as the object and people living within, whether they are strangers or not. The Practice-Alex Schweder Schweder has rich educational background and experiences in architectural work. He has not only contributed to various architectural projects since the 90s, but also has experience as a lecturer on architectural practices in universities (alexschweder.com, n.d.). Over the last decade, Schweder’s career has adopted the world of visual arts to venture into performance architecture. As an intersection of both architecture and performance, “it was based on the notion that relationship between occupied spaces and occupying subjects was permeable – perception affected both the perceiver and the perceived” (Artist Pension Trust, 2010, p. 1). He envisions that architecture be based on history of performance art and be in a position to construct relationships between subjects. He has implemented this in his collaborative work with other artists in projects like Flatland and in orbit (hamster wheel). His major performance architecture pieces of work reflect the life in the societies, where they have constructed diverse dwelling places, which demand that they work together, collaboratively maintain order, but also has an impact on their psyche and influence their movement and general behavior. His architectural performances reflect the reciprocal relationship between people when it came to movement and performing certain activities within the object (lawrimoreproject.com, n.d.). For example, if two were using the ladder in flatland story (one moving up and other down), one responds friendly by releasing the ladder or stepping aside to allow the other pass and cooperatively coexist. Schweder projects an architect as the one residing in the building seeks to reveal new ways of being to the greater society. He was inspired by ‘one minute sculpture’ by Erwin Wurm that relied on instructions to interact with everyday objects (Byles, 2009). Schweder in his contemporary performance architecture can focus on altering space, rewriting instructions and incorporating art in humans’ everyday activities. A building- Flatland Slums around the world remain a major challenge for states to offer families better housing structures. Slums vary in different countries, but all exhibit impoverished living conditions for residents. Hong Kong slums record some of the poorest living conditions in a wealthy city where families live in relatively bathroom sized rectangular structures (kitchen, living and bed room altogether) piled with stacks of living essentials by the walls (Caulfield, 2013). While Hong Kong displays massive single room quarters congested by material properties and overly populated number of people residing in a room, spacing for household remains a problem in the overly populated city. (Caulfield, 2013) Hong Kong planning could implement a prototype of Flatland project as a targeted area and focus on altering the space available to create comfortable compartments for family members. Instead of consuming considerable spacing horizontally, more families would be better housed through stable structures similar to that of Flatland. The idea here is to construct private and public compartments to serve public and individual needs. The restructured slum area would be designed to give each person in a family their own spaces where they can calmly relax and meditate in, without close interference by other family members. Such a target experiment with reasonably calculated measures of height, length and width of a compartment imply that architectural creativity could be the site responsive art, capable of solving the slums issue which is a challenge to the economic and social structures. It goes without saying that Flatland project moves to question the societies’ living environment. Detail flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions Schweder’s Flatland project acquired its inspiration from the scientific fiction exploring on the possible multiple dimensions of space. Following the 1884 science fiction novella with a satirical geometry theme in a two dimensional world filled with characters like square, circles, lines and polygons, Schweder’s Flatland employed the strategy to project how architectural buildings and inhabitants would interact and feel like in the universe of two dimensions (Shapiro, 2007). The novel does relate with solving the slums social issue in the sense that it depicts subjects or characters living in an oppressive two dimensional world, whose lives are changed by exploring potential scientific breakthroughs such as an encounter with the third dimension. From the novel, the subjects entailed two dimensional features (hexagons and squires amongst) which move freely but are incapable of sinking below or rising above. Buildings in the novella are constructed with two doors (smaller and big one for women and men respectively) and no windows. Based on the novel, women enter building using a different entrance; have a particular way of indicting their presence like making noise and swinging, walking at the appropriate side, and there is recognition of sound and hues between men and women. Through such rules and customs of Flatland revealed in the novella, one is pushed to comprehend the existence of human relations and how participative subjects alter their routines to work, coordinate and interact together. Conclusion Through Flatland project, one can see that art and architecture has evolved over time. Showcasing an architectural work is not only limited to museums and gallery stations, but could exercise art installation and architectural performance in the public space in site specific locations. By developing and implementing creative designs in architectural work, artists can deliver innovative and alternative structures to common lifestyles, which eventually influence occupants’ behavior with each other to shape their relationships with each other and the structure as the object. References Alex Schweder La/C.V/ Works. n.d. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7 January 2014]. Artist Pension Trust, 2010. Alex Schweder La, Karyn Olivier and Monika Bravo. [online] Available at: [Accessed 6 January 2014]. Byles, J., 2009. Alex Schweder. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7 January 2014]. Caulfield, P., 2013. SEE IT: Heartbreaking photo series shows poor families living in cramped, closet-sized apartments in Hong Kong slums. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7January 2014]. Farrell, K., 2007. The Happiness of Objects. [online] Available at: [Accessed 6 January 2014]. Felthousen, K., 2008. Myspace: A Thirteen Day Performance and Gallery Installation. MI: ProQuest LLC. Gratza, A., 2013. Open House. FRIEZE (157), p. 140-144. [online] Available at: [Accessed 6 January 2014]. Pbworks, n.d. Save old Ideas here. [online] Available at: [Accessed 6 January 2014]. Shapiro, G. F., 2007. Flatland: Inhabiting Two Dimensions. [online] Available at: [Accessed 7January 2014]. Shelley, W., 2007. Ward Shelley: Recent Projects. [online] Available at: [Accessed 6 January 2014]. Simon, N., n.d. Chapter 4: Social Objects. [online] Available at: [Accessed 6 January 2014]. The Guardian Professional Network, 2011. Why Buildings Matter. [online] Available at: [Accessed 6 January 2014]. Read More