1 : daydream2 : the condition of being lost in thought
"The importance of such phenomenological [ a philosophical movement that describes the formal structure of the objects of awareness and of awareness itself in abstraction from any claims concerning existence ] inquires lies in the complete illumination of the awareness of a subject who is struck with wonder by poetic images. This awareness, which modern phenomenology tends to associate with all the other phenomena of the psyche, seems to us to give a durable, subjective value [ Subjective : characteristic of or belonging to reality as perceived rather than as independent of mind : phenomenal — compare objective 1b 1b b : relating to or being experience or knowledge as conditioned by personal mental characteristics or states ] to images which often have only a doubtful or ephemeral objectivity. By obliging us to retrace our steps systematically and make an effort toward clarity of awareness with respect to a poet's given image, the phenomenological method leads us to attempt communication with the creating consciousness of the poet." (Gaston, 1)
"In times of great discoveries, a poetic image can be the seed of the world, the seed of a universe imagined out of a poet's reverie." (Gaston, 1)
"The poetic image is in no way comparable, as with the mode of the common metaphor, to a valve which would open up to release pent-up instincts. The poetic image sheds light on a consciousness in such a way that it is pointless to look for subconscious antecedent [a preceding event, condition, or cause b plural : the significant events, conditions, and traits of one's earlier life] of the image." (Gaston, 3)
"As soon as a poetic image renews itself in any single one of its traits, it manifests a primitive simplicity." (Gaston, 4)
"Faced with images which the poets bring us, faced with images which we could never have imagined ourselves, this naivete of wonderment is completely natural. But in submitting passively to such wonder, one does not participate profoundly enough in the creating imagination. The phenomenology requires that we participate actively in the creating imagination. Since the goal of all phenomenology is to situate awareness in the present, in a moment of extreme tension, we are forced to conclude that, in so far as the characteristics of the imagination are concerned, there is no phenomenology of passivity." (Gaston, 4)
"...we often stated that one could scarcely develop a psychology of the creative imagination if he did not succeed in distinguishing clearly between imagination and memory. If there is any realm where distinction is expecially difficult, it is the realm of chilhood memories, the realm of beloved images harboured in memory since childhood. These memories which live by the image and in virtue of the image become, at certain times of our lives and particularly during the quiet age, the origin and matter of a complex reverie: the memory dreams, and reverie remembers." (Gaston, 20)
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the more i think about it, it seems that you are describing a method.
ReplyDeletethe image you are after is a haptic and poetic image. it is not a goal in itself.
Steven Holl in the preface of the eyes of the skin says that the very depth of our being is on thin ice. the world that immediately surrounds us seems to be flattening out.
i think a lot of the concern today is the lack of this depth, that architecture can reveal.
think of a space in a church as the axis goes forward, but then there is the possibility to sit on the side, and in the middle the cupola establishes an axis upward, towards the sky. the space is anything but rectangular box. it is a believe system set in stone.