Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Oneiric House

Machine for Navigating the Cosmos, September 2009, JB
The house is a "metaphysical instrument, a mythical tool with which we try to introduce a reflection of eternity into our momentary existence." Juhani Pallasmaa
It's "an instrument with which to confront the cosmos." Gaston Bachelard
"To make their home in the world, that is, to build, human beings must gain more than physical control, they must establish spiritual control. To do so they must wrest order from what at first seems contingent, fleeting, and confusing, transforming chaos into cosmos." Karsten Harries

4 comments:

Nicola Masciandaro said...

Yes! And I am also interested how this dwelling, this cosmosis, demands continual creative destruction, entropic letting be, desperate rearrangement, and an ecstatic mess-making. Which is why I like this photograph, that it is at once home and wilderness, chthonic hovel and bridge across a watery void.

jacky bowring said...

Thanks Nicola (Mr Whim?) ... marvellous commentary on dwelling as continuous dialogue with entropy. Perhaps one could say, Being is Becoming.

bruno said...

Hi Jacky
The Karsten Harries quote rings like a bell, even at this distance.
Hunkered round the hearth, telling stories, brewing tea, as storms fly and planets realign.

Thanks,
Bruno

jacky bowring said...

Hi Bruno,
Yes there's something about the juxtaposing of the infinite and the intimate in these words. Also brings to mind Solaris and 2001 A Space Odyssey ... those sometimes seemingly simultaneous existences of the domestic and the truly cosmic...
Hope all's well there, Jacky