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The Embodied Image: Imagination and Imagery in Architecture
The Embodied Image The Embodied Imagination and Imagery in Architecture Juhani Pallasmaa All artistic and architectural effects are evoked, mediated and experienced through poeticised images. These images are embodied and lived experiences that take place in ‘the flesh of the world’, becoming part of us, at the same time that we unconsciously project aspects of ourselves on to a conceived space, object or event. Artistic images have a life and reality of their own and they develop through unexpected associations rather than rational and causal logic. Images are usually thought of as retinal pictures but profound poetic images are multi-sensory and they address us in an embodied and emotive manner. Architecture is usually analysed and taught as a discipline that articulates space and geometry, but the mental impact of architecture arises significantly from its image quality that integrates the various aspects and dimensions of experience into a singular, internalised and remembered entity. The material reality is fused with our mental and imaginative realm. The book is organised into five main parts that look at in the image in contemporary culture; language, thought and the image; the many faces of the image; the poetic image; and finally the architectural image. The Embodied Image is illustrated with over sixty images in pairs, which are diverse in subject. They range from scientific images to historic artistic and architectural masterpieces. Artworks span Michelangelo and Vermeer to Gordon Matta- Clark and architecture takes in Modern Masters such as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto, as well as significant contemporary works by Steven Holl and Daniel Libeskind.
160 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 14, 2012
This is the third of Pallasmaa's books in Wiley's AD series. Its arguments follow very much along the lines of "Eyes of the skin" and "The thinking hand" in that we are loosing a sense of engagement with the world when we focus on one sensorial modality only.
Here his argument, and i must say a very well stated one, is that the dominance of the visual sense in architecture, leads to an impoverished architecture that overly caters to the visual sense but not to the other senses such as touch, feeling protected and sense of control.
He uses quotes from Bachelard as well as contemporary knowledge from the neurosciences to make this argument convincing.
Architecture used to be a narrative. In an age of fragmented knowledge information was replacing knowledge. Thus we moved from causal narratives to detached and fragmented data. Did this mean an end to narrative? Another point he makes is that publicity turned consumption into a substitute for democracy. So what was a role for contemporary architecture?
One of his arguments is to connect us to the 'real'. In a world of simulacra, simulation and virtuality, the ethical task of architects (and artists?) was to provide a touchstone for the real. In our logo-centric Western philosophy dominated by scientific thought educational thinking has denied the imagination of thought in everyday life. Very much along the lines of Bachelard.
His argument is that we experience the world with all our senses and 'an image' is not just a visual thing but anything that 'captures a moment'. So an image could be a poem, a song, a painting, a text.
Here his argument, and i must say a very well stated one, is that the dominance of the visual sense in architecture, leads to an impoverished architecture that overly caters to the visual sense but not to the other senses such as touch, feeling protected and sense of control.
He uses quotes from Bachelard as well as contemporary knowledge from the neurosciences to make this argument convincing.
Architecture used to be a narrative. In an age of fragmented knowledge information was replacing knowledge. Thus we moved from causal narratives to detached and fragmented data. Did this mean an end to narrative? Another point he makes is that publicity turned consumption into a substitute for democracy. So what was a role for contemporary architecture?
One of his arguments is to connect us to the 'real'. In a world of simulacra, simulation and virtuality, the ethical task of architects (and artists?) was to provide a touchstone for the real. In our logo-centric Western philosophy dominated by scientific thought educational thinking has denied the imagination of thought in everyday life. Very much along the lines of Bachelard.
His argument is that we experience the world with all our senses and 'an image' is not just a visual thing but anything that 'captures a moment'. So an image could be a poem, a song, a painting, a text.
December 20, 2017
Reading his books for each environmental physiologist or each architect wants to know Architecture by it’s philosophical meaning is recommended.
July 15, 2022
Un viaje a través de la concepción de la imagen. Qué es, qué significa para el ser humano y más concretamente qué supone la imagen arquitectónica en el mundo contemporáneo.
En algunas partes quizá se hace un poco difícil la lectura, pero aporta una visión muy interesante de cómo es considerada la arquitectura dentro del arte. No sólo por parte del autor, si no también dentro de la visión de otros muchos, arquitectos, artistas y filósofos.
En algunas partes quizá se hace un poco difícil la lectura, pero aporta una visión muy interesante de cómo es considerada la arquitectura dentro del arte. No sólo por parte del autor, si no también dentro de la visión de otros muchos, arquitectos, artistas y filósofos.
July 18, 2025
Powerful and insightful ! This book is both philosophical proposition about the embodied nature of architecture and a critique of the making of architecture today.
What is most astonishing, is that the book is in itself like the art and architecture that it describes: an embodied experience. So it requires a different pace. If you try to rush through it, it would not make sense. If you sit in a quite place, with a cup of tea, and you read each line slowly, you will find each sentence true and powerful.
What is most astonishing, is that the book is in itself like the art and architecture that it describes: an embodied experience. So it requires a different pace. If you try to rush through it, it would not make sense. If you sit in a quite place, with a cup of tea, and you read each line slowly, you will find each sentence true and powerful.
January 31, 2023
Juhani Pallasma makes a case for rethinking the world colonised by the image industry that mass produce commodified and passivating image which "imagines on our behalf" and seem to threaten our capacities of imagination.
In his book, Pallasma takes us through his thought process starting from the role of image in the contemporary world, to architectural imagery and its mediating and structuring role in human experience and conciousness.
It is heavily referenced with wide variety of art and artists, such as movies, paintings, sculptures, poetry, prose, and philosophy. Among them, Gaston Bachelard, Michelangelo Antonioni, Tarkovsky, and Ezra Pound are frequently quoted and referenced. It calls on these references to great arts in other forms to make a case for Architecture.
One of the more interesting reference early on is of Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notredame passage "This Will Kill That". Pallasma provided a continuation of the notion that the printing press will kill Architecture (capital A), in which he suggest further ephemeral quality is ascribed to contemporary architecture through the fast and easy quality of images in media and social media today. And how irreconcilable and illogical it is for architecture to posses that quality.
It is a plea to the return of architecture whose role is not in servitude to 'the hegemony of the image'. It is a plea to architecture that welcomes the human body, not just please its retina. It is a plea for architecture that is less instrumentalized and aesthetisized, and more humanised.
"I wish to suggest that architecture does not merely arise from rationalisations of the building task, mere aesthetic aspirations or the desire for recognition and fame. Architecture also arises from the deepest of existential encounters and concerns. The task of architecture is not to beautify life, but to reinforce and reveal its existential essence, beauty and enigma"
Overall this is an inspiring and elightening read for me.
In his book, Pallasma takes us through his thought process starting from the role of image in the contemporary world, to architectural imagery and its mediating and structuring role in human experience and conciousness.
It is heavily referenced with wide variety of art and artists, such as movies, paintings, sculptures, poetry, prose, and philosophy. Among them, Gaston Bachelard, Michelangelo Antonioni, Tarkovsky, and Ezra Pound are frequently quoted and referenced. It calls on these references to great arts in other forms to make a case for Architecture.
One of the more interesting reference early on is of Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notredame passage "This Will Kill That". Pallasma provided a continuation of the notion that the printing press will kill Architecture (capital A), in which he suggest further ephemeral quality is ascribed to contemporary architecture through the fast and easy quality of images in media and social media today. And how irreconcilable and illogical it is for architecture to posses that quality.
It is a plea to the return of architecture whose role is not in servitude to 'the hegemony of the image'. It is a plea to architecture that welcomes the human body, not just please its retina. It is a plea for architecture that is less instrumentalized and aesthetisized, and more humanised.
"I wish to suggest that architecture does not merely arise from rationalisations of the building task, mere aesthetic aspirations or the desire for recognition and fame. Architecture also arises from the deepest of existential encounters and concerns. The task of architecture is not to beautify life, but to reinforce and reveal its existential essence, beauty and enigma"
Overall this is an inspiring and elightening read for me.
February 14, 2023
contabilizando leitura da faculdade também pq tá difícil
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews