DIFFICULT WHOLE
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA | FALL 2022
Visual Studies, advised by Nate Hume
Visual Exploration
“Gestalt psychology considers a perceptual whole the result of, and yet more than, the sum of its parts. The whole is dependent on the position, number, and inherent characteristics of the parts...The difficult whole in an architecture of complexity and contradiction includes multiplicity and diversity of elements in relationships that are inconsistent or among the weaker kinds perceptually...Parts can be more or less whole in themselves, or, to put it another way, in greater or lesser degree they can be fragments of a greater whole...Properties of the part can be more or less articulated; properties of the whole can be more or less accented. In the complex compositions, a special obligation toward the whole encourages the fragmentary part or, as Trystan Edwards calls it, the term, ‘inflection’ (Venturi 90).”
The assemblage, analyzed in the exploded axonometric on the right, was created using profiles (figure drawing on the left corner) distilled from the drawings of Campo Marzio by Piranesi. These profiles were extrapolated into three-dimensional forms through extruding, rotating, connecting, and scalling until individual profiles became complex forms implying movements and interconnections.
Once the overall form was modeled, various textures and materials were added with the intention of further both articulating and ambiguing individual parts. For instance, some patterns can only be found on certain parts, while others bridge between parts. Some areas are shown in ligher material to blend better with the background, while others are depicted in darker color and form new compostion. Three iterations were created to explore the possibilities of expression.