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The Search Obsession
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Architecture of Israel #
105
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May
2016
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page
english
Woven into heavy industry, the activity is
motivated by manufacturers who exploit the
need to be updated in order to manipulate
a real time data base for an optimum match
between consumers and suppliers. Led by
gods like Google, Facebook and Ways, the
search engines act like a giant flywheel that
determines our rhythm of life, and worst of
all - its shallowness. Since this binds us all to
catching up and renewing - without missing
an opportunity to acquire the last word - this
social change commands a significant price
in many ways, of architecture in particular.
One of Confucius’ wise sayings was “Life is
really simple, but we insist on complicating
it”. From personal experience, I know that
the tendency to complicate stems from the
natural need for excitement.
However, the constant obsession with
being updated, even while moving, actually
undermines the boundaries of a place,
blurring the difference between near and
far. Furthermore, in a situation in which the
distance factor no longer affects speed, the
conventional formula of V = S / T collapses.
And this has an effect on every social
framework, starting from school that has
lost its exclusivity as a source of imparting
knowledge, to the family structure that
disintegrates more easily in the face of
temptations painfully available on the Net.
The most tangible outcome of this is the
loosening of the relationship between society
and its space. And in our case - the entry
of a new player in the architectural arena,
which severs it from its traditional goals of
seeking answers to defined questions.
It is no coincidence that the relationship
between time, space, mass and energy
was the focus of Einstein’s first version
of the theory of relativity. Published at the
the search obsession
what you see is not
what you get
The search for love, friends, intimacy or just a thrill has recently taken on the dimension
of OCD. Based on a new social code, this behavioral disorder usually consists of five
key questions: what's going on? where? why don’t you call? where are you? and even
if it's ten o’clock in the morning - are you awake?
beginning of the 20th century, it attempted to
explain difficulties in understanding the light
phenomenon. Einstein’s explanation (later
changed) was that speed of light is consistent
(299,792,458 m/sec) and independent of the
relative speed of other bodies. This is not the
place to analyze the physical explanation of
the phenomenon, which undoubtedly would
have been explained differently in the cyber
era, and evidently - in 1915, Einstein himself
changed his attitude in his General Theory
of Relativity, claiming that every mass
“distorts” the relationship between space
and time, as evidenced by light changing
course when influenced by other masses.
The by product of this was that a straight
line is not really straight. And in more poetic
words - things we see today, we have not
seen before, which is what we are now
dealing with.
Economist Thomas Robert Malthus had
already brought us to a more earthly problem
in his late 18th century publication titled:
An Essay on the Principle of Population.
Malthus argued that while food production
grows arithmetically (rising as 1.2.3.4...),
population growth is multiple, doubling itself
every 25 years.
While one might argue with this sweeping
claim (for example, in Germany, where
natural growth is negative (because who can
think of children when busy with Facebook),
it served as a platform for the “Survival of
the Fittest” theory, the underlying aspect of
Darwinism.
Whether we are talking about “Natural
Selection” or “Natural Creation”, the battle
for survival has a say, even in Cyber time,
and this has a lot to do with architecture.
The act of searching is a fundamental factor
in architecture, whereby the explicit stands
in opposition to the implicit. That is, what
ought to be clear and understandable for
orientation, versus what should be left subtle
and obscure - for privacy, for instance, or
simply in order to ensure that what you see
is not what you get.
A fine example of the relationship between
implicit and explicit in architecture is seen
in the Chu Chi 250 km long tunnel system
of the Vietcong, built on three levels, which
could be disconnected when necessary.
The structure which included air vents
camouflaged as termite mounds, and smart
techniques to disperse cooking smoke,
actually accelerated the entry of the US into
the Vietnam War - after the French failed to
deal with its sophistication.
And what has this to do with architecture in
the cyber era?
Well, Einstein said that only fools repeat the
same procedure, expecting to get different
results. In light of the sharp social change and
the spatial confusion it creates, one should
perhaps ask whether it is not preferable to
abandon anachronistic thinking in light of
the new situation.
Pure logic suggests that key questions
in architecture based on paradigms that
preceded the communication revolution
must be re-examined, particularly in light of
the fact that social interactions are no longer
place dependent.
Much has been written here (and elsewhere)
about the widespread addiction to the
smartphone, in public and even in bed,
when interest and curiosity about what is
happening to others, is more compelling
than those beside us.
In a situation where there is a constant
search for the unknown, each question has
Dr. Ami Ran
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