Warped Space - A discussion of Vidler, Lynn, Leibniz and the nature of space

Anthony Vidler, in “Warped Space. Art, Architecture, and Anxiety in Modern Culture,” discusses the notion of folded space. He discusses two ways in which space is warped. First, by objects that disturb the continuity of space, thereby creating the possibility of other space. Second, the intersection of artistic media and the subject of the artistic work. Space has to then be imagined as something more than the volume of the room. This implies the possibility that our conception of space is determined by our entire range of perception, imagination, interpretation, and state of mind.

In “Folds, Bodies & Blobs, Collected Essays,” Gregg Lynn furthers this discussion on the difficulty of understanding the nature of space. He illustrates how Corbusier used the Domino house to show the disappearance of discrete boundaries. He relates this idea to the two types of probability, discrete and continuous. This combination adds to Vidler’s idea of warping space by showing how space can be the result of allowing probability to exist in architecture.

Lynn introduces Leibniz into the discussion of the nature of space. I have not considered Leibniz for some time and certainly since I have begun my architectural education. The combination of Leibniz and architecture presents an interesting phenomenon. Leibniz was essentially a monist, believing all things were one and it is only perception that creates division and heterogeneity. Architecture, it seems, has the primary purpose of dividing space. It plays upon how we perceive space to create the illusion of multiple and separate space.

Furthering this exploration, Lynn discusses the nature of blob tectonics. A blob, according to Lynn, is “near solid” and moves through space like liquid, “can absorb objects as if they were liquid” and is “neither singular nor multiple but an intelligence that behaves as if it were singular and networked.” If find this to an interesting development in the understanding of space as continuous but divided by our perception. Blob-architecture, then, is that which seeks to distort our perceptions by allowing us at once to determine division and separate space but, at the same time, remain indiscreet so that it allows for a continuous probability of spaces to be perceived.