Truth is 24 times a second!

Jean-Luc Godard

C i N E M A R C H I T E C T U R E

Film is an allied art to architecture: the two disciplines are complexly related. The settings for film are within the space posited by architecture. By the very nature of film, these spaces are synthetic. They are 'fabricated' out of the multitude of vignettes provided by architecture within the world (and within imagination). Film is able to manipulate, recompose, and juxtapose these spaces/settings almost at will. The viewer is held 'captive' to the direction of the view, to the sequence and to the frame. Architecture, by contrast, seems to be somewhat held captive to the 'whims' of the participant. In their architectural interdependency film's heroes and sets investigate issues of CiNEMA and ARCHITECTURE. Architecture has much to learn from the brief historical record of film for the many ways that film 'manages' the built environment.

The special program being attended to is the program of FILM projection in general, and the program of CINEMA - a place for showing film - in particular. Including all the issues raised when thinking about ARCHITECTURE and CiNEMA, you will be asked to arrive at designs which provide for the showing of film. Our MODERN CINEMA attempts to look at the apparatus free from the constraints of the economy, and free from the constraints of the stereotype.

The studio's working methodology will involve: 1) Exploration of various kinds of architectural drawing and the invention of a drawing system in pursuit of our own discovery of an architecture responsive to current understandings of the dynamic nature of the world, and 2) The design and production of a fully functional in terms of technology, to true body scale, operable and inviting participation apparatus for the showing of film.

DESIGN FIVE

DESIGN FIVE (D5) is an intermediate-level design studio with an emphasis on theory and research. The D5 studio challenges each student to develop clear working methodologies, formulate a design thesis or hypothesis, and test intention through iterative making. Each student will generate a body of work resulting from a fifteen week interrogation. The content of the work is spatial, experiential, temporal, and structural. D5 will open up the potential for architectural invention.

D5 includes a studio component and a seminar component. The seminar is topic-based, and introduced with a question and working methodologies. The studio supports the topic and theoretical content of the seminar. The seminar sessions will be held every Friday 1-3pm. Every students will be required to present a topic and a number of texts form the studio reader to the class and lead a discussion for the duration of the seminar session. Prior to the class, namely by 8am on Fridays, all students will be required to post comments and questions on the course's electronic reserves site. This site is accessed through the University of Texas at Austin Libraries link or at ww.lib.utexas.edu ( HYPERLINK "http://reserves.lib.utexas.edu/eres/" http://reserves.lib.utexas.edu/eres/).

The required reading for this studio is available in the Readings in CiNEMARCHITECTURE packet and will be available for purchase at Speedway Copying & Printing at Dobie Mall.

In addition to the required list of readings and their in-class discussion, an important ingredient of our designs will be multitudes of additional readings and discussions, as well as film screenings and research, all of which will accompany our studio endeavors and provide the supplementary source material for program development.

A collective place to keep reference material for the class (books, compendiums, and other reference material), the accumulated Studio Library , will provide a "set of instructions" on how our cinemas are organized spatially and give form to building spaces in terms of the variety of actions and interactions that take place within it.

Finally, the studio carries with it a belief that the production of architecture benefits from the involvement of the "non-singular author/participant". The working teams formed within the studio will allow the work to be born from dialogue, not monologue, to be produced from multiple, not singular efforts, and to be physically crafted from many hands and eyes instead of two.

The instructor (with invited guests) looks forward to a productive semester, and to the collaborative inquiry of issues raised by CiNEMARCHITECTURE.