Wednesday, October 29, 2008

THE PLEATS OF MATTER…


Better late than never...I hope.

This reading seems to be describing at an interconnected universe held together by “folds”. This universe includes, I believe, includes all material and immaterial, organic and inorganic matter. It is made of Souls and Stones alike. Deleuze makes a distinction between the two “floors” of matter in the universe and uses Baroque architecture and mathematics as a way of thinking about the connectedness of these two “floors”.

I think that with Deleuze-the interconnected nature of these worlds allows us to examine physical artifacts and relate them to metaphysical concepts. The reading is not necessarily about the physicality of the fold or about Baroque architecture, but more about how these resonate with a new conception of the universe and the object/subject.Deleuze always leaves me feeling like the shaping of matter is deeply wrought with metaphysical implications.

“The world was thought to have an infinite number of floors, with a stairway
that descends and ascends…but the Baroque contribution is a world with only
two floors, separated by a fold that echoes itself, arching from the two sides
according to a different order”

Deleuze discusses the concept of “viewpoint” and the transformation of the subject to the object. This is another example of the “two floors” concept. He explains how perspective was seen by some as a tool to connect these two worlds, there by embodying some sort of relativism. But in fact perspective clearly embodies a “pluralism” that disconnects the two worlds. Perspective relies on a singular “point of view” while Deleuze argues that “There are many points of view-whose distance is in each case indivisible” So there are infinite viewpoints and an infinity of connected matter to be viewed. This conception of the universe makes perspective seem like a tool incapable of expressing the complexity of connectedness of these two worlds.

The “fold” is also a way of describing the capacities and tendencies of matter. Potential for variation is folded within matter. Deleuze explains how the butterfly is not different from the caterpillar but how they are one singular creature folded together. This invokes the idea of time and evolution and questions the notion of the plutonic object, which seems to be trying to freeze this evolutionary fold into a static singularity.
In terms of math, it seems implicitly tied into all of this. If all matter, organic and inorganic, physical and metaphysical is tied together through a series of folds and differentiations it seems critical to think about curves and trajectories. It seems that curvature and continuity are taking the place of Boolean logic. “To unfold is to increase and to fold is to diminish, to reduce” this is reminiscent of fractal geometry.

In fact through out the article Deleuze is referring to Leibniz, Descartes and other thinkers such as Heinrich Wolfflin, all of which have had immense impact on the field of mathematics and design. It is a widely held belief that mathematics tends to explain much of the physical world around us and that there is some universal truth found in mathematics that goes beyond our physical world. If we think that 2+2 always equals 4 whether we believe it or not, (which soap bubbles, gravity, and nautilus shells among other things, seem to indicate) then we agree that mathematics is a sort of existential truth. There is physical world and a …dare I say it… metaphysical world. Hence, the two floors, linked by a fold, a curve-a mathematical phenomena. All of this does make me think of Maya, splines, fractals, particles, networks, and their metaphysical implications. Hmm…

Also, of course in the article there is a lot of formal language that seems of particular interest to the architect and designer. There is all of this formal description of Baroque architecture - separation of facade, spongy, flattening of pediment, etc…There is discussion of how matter finds form through elastic and plastic forces and a description of the fold as the smallest element of matter and the point as a simple “extremity of the line”. Deleuze introduces Leibnez’s concepts of families of curves. Three types of points are distinguished, the point of inflection, the point of position, and the point of inclusion. Their counterparts, “explication, complication and implication” form the “triad of the fold”.
I could never summarize what I believe to be the subtleties and rich tangential nature of this reading but most obviously stated and most obviously relevant to our field is the changing status of the object. Deleuze makes (sort of) clear for all of us…

“The new status of the object, the objectile, is inseparable from the different layers that are dilating, like so many occasions for meanders and detours. In relation to the many folds that it is capable of becoming, matter becomes a matter of expression.”


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