Abstract:
This architectural thesis intends to provoke introspection. In a general description, the project is a reflection on the mind-body problem and it operates through notions of fabulation: the creation of an imagined world based on a projection of the world as understood from the Anthropocene. The main focus of the work is a discussion toward posthumanism and the project investigates themes around the conflict our intellectual heritage, many of which are found in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. The scenario of this fabulation is one where the mind-body problem is accentuated as humans develop the means to separate and upload consciousness from their existing bodies. The mind-body problem, investigated within a branch of philosophy known as philosophy of mind, describes various approaches by which thinkers have attempted to explain and frame consciousness. This mind-body problem is discussed to address an intrinsic inference that a separation occurs between mental phenomena and the body. An architectural accentuation of the mind-body problem allows the thesis to provoke analysis on the significant, but otherwise largely unnoticed, impact of various ontological approaches. The project intends to bring attention and introspection to conditions that affect how we observe, think and, subsequently, design architecturally. Through the exploration and discussion of poststructuralism and philosophical posthumanism the primary purpose of the thesis is to dissect the manner in which we historically and unnoticeably adopt modes of observing and thinking that are essentialist, reductionist, or of intrinsic bias. Through the process of drawing, this thesis will investigate architectural design. The drawn work comprises architectures that act as a prosthesis to house a mind unable to exist independently without a material body. The drawing aims to exemplify a struggle with intellectual heritage and demonstrate repercussion as various ontological approaches persist. This thesis is neither utopian nor dystopian. Yet in an essentialist sense, the thesis presents itself as a disruption of the ordinary. The fabulation intends to celebrate an unveiling of our contemporary human condition.