Strange Symmetries. Profesor: David Salomon
Andrew Kovacs, Plan for a Hotel, Floor plan series. 2012.
Temas de Historia y Teorías de la Arquitectura y la Ciudad
Strange Symmetries
Profesor: David Salomon
Why symmetry, why now? Is its uncanny return a reactionary move, a backwards step towards disciplinary insularity? Or, is it a device that can –as it has in the sciences– help to integrate architecture with other disciplines? Could it be both at once? This paradoxical ability is surprisingly consistent with the modern mathematical understanding of symmetry as a system that remains invariant despite enduring a transformation. In other words, far from autonomous, obsolete or closed, symmetry is engaged, relevant and promiscuous. To help us link this age-old issue with current cultural conditions, this seminar look at symmetry’s affinity with the philosophical concept of flat-ontology. As outlined by Bryant Levi (and indirectly by Bruno Latour), flat-ontology is a position that advocates for a lack of hierarchy between any and all entities, with a specific emphasis on the equal conceptual status humans and non-human beings, and between living and non-living things.