Animating absence : future disasters in art and architecture

Abstract

From the lambency of early civilisation the representation of the ruin has existed as an index of greatness lost. This representation manifest since Babylonian times has existed to open a fantastic world of wakeful dreaming in which the visuality of structure exists outside of time to the viewer. This manifestation of other-world-existed places the recipient within a manifold of fascination, aggrandizement, and enchantment constructing a world where the imagination enters a space of spectacular architectural fancy. This development, encapsulated as architectural capriccio offers a lens of transition from the fanciful to allegories of the sub-optimal. This is exemplified through a construct that traces a visual lineage from Marco Ricci to Gustav Dore. It is within this vector that Smith and Bardebes have explored architectural structure as metaphor - exploring the relationships between structure, ruin, and land within time-based visual arts practices. Employing the tools and processes of previsualization, explorations in the architecture of disaster are located and recounted across the landscapes of industrial Auckland, critically informed by the writings of Paul Virilio, Francois Cusset, Joshua Comaroff and Ker-Shing Ong. The work presented will discuss the current facet of an ongoing dialectic between the corporate and individual existence, while simultaneously agitating for a visual response to an architecture of peril and isolation.