Page 72 - META

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ISSN 2309-0103 www.archidoct.net
Vol. 7 (2) / February 2020
tion between mind and matter (Hendrix, 2011) all point to the same direction. Representational distance allows the dominion of symbols that establish the authority of the architect while ensur- ing his control over what we call architectural space. Distance also effects on the temporalities of contentual metarepresentations as time seems to be obsolete since it is an intrinsic characteristic of the system that is reversible. Time is of a symbolic nature, to repeat time has absolutely no meaning as ideas are eternal or perpetuated.
3.2 Content awareness. Referencing – quoting. Criticism.
An action of metarepresentation that falls in the content awareness trope but what does not just fit in the previous paradigm is the action of referencing and quoting. This practice reached a peak with post-modernism and especially that branch that used historical references, figurative work in the architectural work. At that time Post-Modernist architects stood for differentiation, varia- tion and choice (Carpo, 2013). Through the action of reappropriation or most famously decon- struction of forms that were taken from the span of architectural history they introduced a me- ta-thinking of the content and the techniques used in architecture but in a, more or less, strictly historical western metaphysical framework. According to Sanford Kwinter what we understand historically and geographically as Western metaphysics is rooted in the relation of subject-object in which the dipoles of representation-reality and criticism-representation are interjected, and through which any relationship between separate things can be understood (Kwinter, 2001). On the two dipoles of representation-reality and criticism-representation the relation of possible-re- al emerges internally. Thereby, representation constitutes a possibility of the real while criticism constitutes a possibility of representation that is not realized in the first place. Criticism of rep- resentation emerges as a form of metathinking on representation as by referencing juxtaposes what is realized with its possibility, what could have been thought and by this it criticizes ethics of originality and authorship.
A good example is the various references to architectural elements in James Stirling’s Neue Sta- atsgalerie in Stuttgart (figure 4). James Stirling neither attempts to change the technology of architectural building nor he proposes a new dogmatic architectural vocabulary, but instead re- configures the museum almost as a built index that opens up the building to interpretations. Michael Graves’ Portland Building instead of elements indexes styles that then he merges. This combinatory practice again tests the limits of the possibilities inherent to criticism and content in architecture.
4 Context awareness. Monitoring
If contentual metarepresentations automate distance through repetition, contextual metarepre- sentations emphasize presence by monitoring the relations within the system. This constitutes a rethinking of architectural production within the tropes of exteriority that could mean an open- ing up of the inherent relations according to which architecture is produced.
A metarepresentation of context awareness demands a rethinking of the framework in which architecture is produced. This will demand a rethinking on key notions such as standardization, self-referentiality, abstraction, authorship, criticism, distance and the primacy of fixed content. In this sense a meta-architectural expression does not constitute a paradigm shift but a self-aware re-evaluation of the relations according to which architecture is in-formed by its representations.
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Meta(re)presentations
Antonis Moras