THE BISON CAMP
or
The Human Project
Prologue
Spring 2018
The project, the bison camp, is a scholastic design project, which undercovers the story of human species and their various adaptation throughout the history of mankind. The story is represented and narrated through drawings. The drawings, which will eventually culminate into the final, whole architectural project -The Bison camp or The Human Project.
Beyond the project’s anthropological, or rather futuristic, or even rather anthro-futuristic[1] characteristics, it has also got an ambition of being philosophical speculation, which reveals the myth of our being and time, how that myth can manifest in architectural composition and tectonics in order to address the deep architectural problems; the role of the drawing, as a representational medium, in the digital era and the narrative driven design.
The second title, the human project, refers to a hypothetical memorial of humans; their nature, their being, their achievements and failed dreams. This is a post-human place “built” by humans to leave their data in this universe and to tell the story of their magnificent spirit, yet flawed nature.
It is the story of our reason, and what it has achieved and could have achieved
This is the project of Emergence.
The Bison Camp is in the eastern Montanan, north of Missouri river and south of Malta. It the middle of the shortgrass parries – once the richest and biologically divers environment, topographically unchanged since the Plasticine. The key characteristics that fascinates anyone who goes there is the incredible, vanishing vastness and pleasant emptiness, behind of witch the very pulse of life beats. Within this unique geography lays another unique organization with a unique goal- the American Prairie Reserve- to bring and restore the biodiversity of the parries that existed up until the late 19th century. The roaming herds of bison and antelopes, gorging grizzlies, howling cities and majestic wolves were all present in this area and beyond.
The reason I have chosen this place is to understand and then demonstrate the very distinctiveness of vast, less-forested and non-urban, grassland areas, where no tabula rasa exists, and everything comes out of the ground and reaches the sky. Even the clouds become step-children of the earth in the parries as they glide and roll over it. The horizon is disturbed by the rolling hills that transition from white to green and then to golden throughout the year.
Everything changes and everything roars undetected and silently. And this very roaring silence is what I think is missing today’s human life and it is what I am exploring and then reflecting on to architecture and culture.
The biological and cultural layers, such as native American and the pioneers, reveal the richest tapestry of the interaction of humans and nature. We perceive the past in the fragments and moments as we come across the objects from the past, of which existence has vastly changed or has vanished entirely. They become memorable by the impact they leave. Uncovering this past, and slowly constructing it by means of the drawing, as an architectural representation, is what creates the myth upon which the design and composition qualities of the Bison Camp rests.
In this respect, it is important to construct the memories and moments, that ones we had and have now forgot. We must construct the link to the past in way the demonstrates the crucial of being and time.
Representational and Drawing Structure
The representation of the projects is done through a series of drawings structured in volume-chapter structure like a medieval summa. They represent the narrative structure of the project as well as the spatial or design qualities of the project.
Whole to parts and parts to whole.
The clarity of thoughts and qualities of spaces are clear and explicit. Or as Edwin Panofsky put it: “Clarification for clarification sake “
The drawing’s unambiguous complexity employs conventional or unconventional techniques and representational modes to build up “non-contradictory arguments” for the sake of rationalism, which is backbone of the project’s conceptual foundation. The drawings are mimetic or even rather memes, deploying the ideas clearly and evoking something deeper, philosophically significant. They act like parables, which eventually turn into a story – the human project.
Drawing Structure
Theoretical Foundation
The project’s ethical and intellectual speculation echoes the enlightenment values and rationalist mode of thinking. These speculations, given the tradition of (medieval) rationalism, are ought to be self-evident as the reason is the solo means to understand the reality. It is in direct opposition to idealism and promotes objectivist knowledge over subjective experience.
The direct opposition this project comes against is the idea of tabula rasa. This opposition opens another idea, the idea of emergence (აღმოცენება); that is the thing are part of the evolutionary process directed by natural, barely detectable forces.
Nothing comes from nothing, but everything emerges from something. Something that we hardly know, but only can know as we go forward and reason it out.
Individualism emerges as we fight our biological destiny, our contextual being and inherit tribal tendencies. We become rational beings not only by fighting against our destiny and context, but also utilizing the reason to grasp the metaphysical reality.
The bison camp is indeed at war against these forces. It comes out, emerges from ground, with inherited data and evolutionary vibes, and goes upwards.
There is no nothingness but maybe there is lessness and it can be found in the prairies.
Politics
In its political compass the project fallows, anarcho-libertarian, a bottom-up political and socioeconomic patterns. However, it does not suffer from any sorts of orthodoxy.
Emergence
Crossbreeding and overlaying cultural layers
or
Biology and adaptation as an artifact
Crossbreeding ideas, drastically different from each other, was part of my thesis work when I studied under Perry Kulper, who I consider one of the most prominent “cross-breeder of ideas” in architecture as of today. Other influence was Douglas Durden’s book - ”Condemned Building”, which also uses this methodology for formal manipulations. Each object carries symbolic characteristics associated with the site, culture, geography or environment where he places his project.
There many benefits to utilizes this methodology; discovering new ideas, defining new ways of visualization of ideas, formal manipulations etc. Expected anticipation of outcomes are sometimes unexpected in its new qualities.
In my case it has come extremely handy while dealing with different cultural and natural (biological) layers of the parries. In it core this methodology is deeply biological and evolutionary. The biological categories and boundaries are clear and important; however, they always leave a room for unfixed events and changes where boundaries slowly dissolve and turn into new species.
In my case it has come extremely handy while dealing with different cultural and natural (biological) layers of the parries. In it core this methodology is deeply biological and evolutionary. The biological categories and boundaries are clear and important; however, they always leave a room for unfixed events and changes where boundaries slowly dissolve and turn into new species.
The new boundaries emerge.
Lines and boundaries are important insofar as they change in order to define and create a new. This is the vary quality of the prairies. Its vastness seems to borderless, which is in fact right. However, the boundaries there do exist, but they are local, small and undetectable. They neighbor alongside with each other creating the patters and cells acting autonomously, but still obeying overall geographical of biological laws.
The for this purpose I have used a series of animals and objects, related to the prairies one way or another. I have split them into three categories:
1) Biologically significant – the bison, the coyote and the sage grouse.
2) Cultural significant – the bison, the plains Indian cultural threads and the late arrivals; the pioneers.
3) Geological/Geographically significant – the plains, the wind, various eras and layers under the ground that tells the story of the nature and our species.
1) Biologically significant – the bison, the coyote and the sage grouse.
2) Cultural significant – the bison, the plains Indian cultural threads and the late arrivals; the pioneers.
3) Geological/Geographically significant – the plains, the wind, various eras and layers under the ground that tells the story of the nature and our species.
First studies
Bison
Coyote
Sage Grouse
Overlaid Cultural and Spatial Layers
The process
In sketch I have overlaid and crossbred the animals and categories to achieve desired outcome. The design is set into the ground and compositionally attempts emerge out of it. It is juxtaposed into geological and cultural layers, which feed the spatial qualities of the architecture.
The iconic prairie animal; the bison, the coyote and the sage grouse are merged to symbolize the inseparable biological chain of prairies where all species depend on each other. All these creatures had had a vital meaning for the lives of native people.
The Gothic temple is symbol of the western technology and reason, forcibly imposed to the culture, which later become an integral part to understand the scientific side of this environment and ethics of utilizing it. It has aslo brought the structure thoughts of reason.
It is a data capsule that carries the data of our species. (see Vol 5 for more details about the data capsule.)
