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Towards the poetic

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-163). / Born out of a concern for the world, this philosophy of artifact makes a case for a particular way of making. It is a search for things which mediate between ourselves and the earth. It is a search for those things which allow us to dwell, for things that anchor our belonging. It is a search for things which are formed from a principle which is a cultural, a historical, formed from something deep within us. Moreover it is an explanation, better still a belief about what we are about. I am not going to talk about poetry or literature per se. I will be talking about poetry as the springing point from which 1 will talk about our works. I will look at the nature of things. the things we make mediate between the earth and ourselves in some way. In each things we make we can read our relationship to the earth, or non-relationship as the case may be in our present alienating world. These things gather the earth and ourselves together and make sense by our willing. For anything to be born into the void, the distance between us and the earth there must be an idea, a thought. We concertize those images in the thing, to be anchored and made real. In creating these things we have the power to bring to the thing values we consider worthwhile. This essay will be a case for those values which allow belonging to occur, which makes dwelling possible. To return to poetry, or rather the poetic let us look at language for a time. In ordinary language we use naming to make the world understandable and precise. We can begin to communicate reality through this naming. Thus language anchors our existence and is tied to the things by this act of naming. Poetry, however, transcends this connection. It brings about meaning through the juxtaposition of different things. It creates its meaning by association and by metaphor (translation), bringing it alive in another way. It becomes a thing in itself. It stands on its own, outside of ordinary language, it mediates between reality and us. It is not tied to a thing as a name is, rather it brings earth and humanity together, it mediates just as a thing does. It becomes a living thing in its own right revealing for us the earth and us to the earth. And so to architecture that is truth, an architecture that echoes and mirrors reality, illuminates its existence and allows for dwelling. In a way this is a search for truth via the artifact. Dwelling depends on belonging which in turn depends on reality and our knowing of it, particularly as truth. I hope to show a way which lies beneath our false constructions to achieve that which has been elusive, a sense of belonging in order that I might find ground upon which I can truly build. / by Noel Jonathan Brady. / M.S.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MIT/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/71405
Date January 1989
CreatorsBrady, Noel Jonathan
ContributorsImre Halasz., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.
PublisherMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Source SetsM.I.T. Theses and Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format171 leaves, application/pdf
RightsM.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission., http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

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