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Architectural
Body. Madeline Gins and Arakawa.
"Isolating persons from
their architectural surrounds leads to a dualism no less
pernicious than that of mind and body."
This quote helps to see Arakawa
and Gins's thinking behind the "architectural body",
a concept that extends from the duos artworks, be they written,
seen or inhabited. Summing up this short, poetic book is
difficult, as it begs to be illustrated to further explain
the lofty ideas of the artists. A good companion would be
Architecture: Sites
of Reversible Destiny (published by Academy Editions),
where computer renderings visualize their concepts of landing
sites, ubiquitous sites, tentative constructed plans, reversible
destiny, and others that find a continuity in their work.
In each book the reader is required to abandon all that
is ordinary, be it space, surface, or even life, and try
to realize the integral nature of a person and her surroundings.
Upon this realization, communal experimentation could lead
to humankind reversing its destiny and being able to live
forever, the authors contend. Regardless of the reader's
belief in their argument, Arakawa and Gins's assertion that
architecture is the greatest tool available to humans is
apparent and ultimately infectious.
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