Peter Goche - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Peter Goche

The natural space of Iowa was reinvented in the nineteenth century as a reflection of the rationa... more The natural space of Iowa was reinvented in the nineteenth century as a reflection of the rationality of capital production. This resulted in the overlay of a grid system of surveys that indiscriminately subdivided the land subduing its embodied natural and cultural characteristics. The grid provided the structure whereby farms, towns and cities were created to cover the entirety of the state and established a network of agricultural and industrial production. This modern landscape also produced the culture of the family farm, which, until the mid twentieth century, was the dominant production unit in Iowa. In the twenty first century, Iowa is experiencing significant challenges on social, economic and environmental levels that accentuate the tension between the modern cycles of production and the sustainability of the social and natural environment. This research is an attempt to negotiate this tension by proposing a spatial regeneration scheme for Iowa that is developed through in...

This thesis assesses the traditional mealtime rituals of a people. Our engagement of such constru... more This thesis assesses the traditional mealtime rituals of a people. Our engagement of such constructed environments within a particular material culture is affected by the physical items associated with defining its setting. The purpose of this method of inquiry is to develop a fuller comprehension of 'place setting' as customary observance (rite) and interlude (ritornello). Our engagement of such constructed environments within a particular material culture is affected by the physical items associated with defining its setting. This work will demonstrate the role of place setting as agent in our perception and conception of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, substance and attribute, fact and value as it relates to the human experience of the mealtime ritual. In the field of architecture, 'building use' is referred to as program. In this sense, the work of an architect is the orchestration of prescribed activities within an anticipated building. Using the house for example, it is assumed that the residential building type will in some way offer certain provisions relative to shelter. In this thesis, I will examine the programmatic phase of making and evaluating architecture. I will: (1) consider current notions of program within the discipline in order to establish its meaning; (2) demonstrate a method of research that is based on conceptual considerations (what is known), as well as, perceptual observations (what is sensed); (3) propose the development of a more comprehensive use of human behavior/material culture specific to a particular occupant set (a people).

Architecture is about constructing the event as much as it is about providing the shelter for its... more Architecture is about constructing the event as much as it is about providing the shelter for its associated rituals. Our disciplinary chore, as it relates to the Arts and Humanities, is to mine the gap that exists between the logic of objects and that of its figure; between a people and their anticipated surroundings. Our obligation as disciplinarians is to reestablish our methods of production in effort to construct artifacts that elevate the importance of a dynamic experience over theoretical ideals.

Anthropology is the science that studies peoples past and present, their cultures, and their hist... more Anthropology is the science that studies peoples past and present, their cultures, and their histories as groups. When anthropologists undertake a study of an unfamiliar culture, they typically write ethnography. Ethnographic studies look at the patterns of interpretation that members of a cultural group invoke as they go about their daily lives. An ethnography is a highly descriptive overview of a group's knowledge, its beliefs, its social organization, how it reproduces itself, and the material world in which it exists.3 In short, ethnography is a process referred to by Clifford Geertz as "Writing Culture". The purpose of this ethnographic field report is not only to describe and explain, but also to unfold a view of the world in which cultural alternatives can be measured against one another and used as a guide for the production of space.

Anthropology is the science that studies peoples past and present, their cultures, and their hist... more Anthropology is the science that studies peoples past and present, their cultures, and their histories as groups. When anthropologists undertake a study of an unfamiliar culture, they typically write ethnography. Ethnographic studies look at the patterns of interpretation that members of a cultural group invoke as they go about their daily lives. An ethnography is a highly descriptive overview of a group’s knowledge, its beliefs, its social organization, how it reproduces itself, and the material world in which it exists.3 In short, ethnography is a process referred to by Clifford Geertz as “Writing Culture”. The purpose for preparing ethnographic field reports is not only to describe and explain, but also to unfold a view of the world in which cultural alternatives can be measured against one another and used as a guide for the production of space (i.e. Design). Disciplines Architecture | Social and Cultural Anthropology This conference proceeding is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/arch_conf/39 Title Drawing Culture: an architectural agenda Conference 33rd European Studies Conference: Anthropology Great Feast1 David Wagner Megan Lueneburg

This presentation will consider the role of observation in an interdisciplinary practice that see... more This presentation will consider the role of observation in an interdisciplinary practice that seeks to comprehend the experiential nature of place and, thereby, unfold a more acute view of the world. My perspective is anthropological with specific interest in material culture, ritual and vernacular grounds. Like the anthropologist, the architect develops an understanding of the nature of lived space, not by imposing a theory, but by letting the revelation derive from the act of recording observations.i An act to which I refer as staging; the assembly of a framework used in reconstructing the nature of place. This process of inquiry is informed by the production of writing, mapping, modeling and drawing culture in effort to define the criteria for making place based propositions. This methodology is the embodiment of an interdisciplinary agenda that has to do with authenticating the architectural essence of lived space and, thereby, produces a more sustainable basis for reconstructing our inherited landscape.

Black Contemporary serves as an experiential laboratory for ongoing investigations intended to ex... more Black Contemporary serves as an experiential laboratory for ongoing investigations intended to expand our knowledge specific to the study of atmospheric logics and the American agricultural landscape. The field station is located two miles south of Ames, Iowa. Using experiential perceptions as spatial conditioners, current studio projects focus on the act of making and curating a series of research assemblies within a dormant seed-drying facility constructed in 1979. Based on a series of modulated experimental actions, the foundational body of work provides a material/visual reflection on the contemporary social configuration of a Midwestern sub-cultural context. Each staging is driven by the nascent possibility of a persistent desire to intercourse with existing material surrounds pursuant a philosophical position that leverages perceptual notions of chiaroscuro in the practice of understanding and generating a set of spatial valence within the material culture of a post-industrial...

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The authors co-taught and organized a semester-long study abroad program for 48 students in Rome,... more The authors co-taught and organized a semester-long study abroad program for 48 students in Rome, where our College maintains a full-time studio and facilities on the Piazza Cinque Scuole, a location in the heart of the old Jewish Ghetto. In parallel with several charrette studio offerings and traditional sketchbook and history classes, we offered a two-week introductory project that operated on two levels. On a practical level, we wanted to provide students with a framework for exploring the city, for getting beyond the centro and figuring out Rome’s patterns, major routes, and transit on their own. On a deeper level, however, we wanted students to gain exposure to the layered history of the city, and to confront the dichotomy between experiential and abstract notions of space. We wanted them, right away, to understand the city as both an archeological and a navigational situation, and to reconcile the often considerable gulf between historical information and lived experience.

Our experience as occupants of a particular setting begins with the impulse to instantaneously sc... more Our experience as occupants of a particular setting begins with the impulse to instantaneously scrutinize everything. This impulse is sustained through an often precisely choreographed threshold. As architect and artist, my goal is to assist the occupant in maintaining their initial ontological wakefulness through staging, often-temporary assemblies within a host space and thereby enhance its topographic fidelity. Each inquiry is part of a process by which the humanity and sensual experience of a particular setting is revealed. The resultant staging yields what Joan Simon calls a socio-graph, a support system for the occupation of an environment. To this end, the act of making observations assists in cultivating place-based knowledge. It is an embodiment of an interdisciplinary agenda that embraces the artist as craftsman, choreographer and scribe in an effort to cultivate the cultural essence of lived space. The space of Iowa has been reinvented in the nineteenth century as a reflection of the modern rationality of capital production. Communities in Iowa continuously adapt to changes in the agricultural production processes. Since its start in the nineteenth century, this production process was lead by family farmers – a form of farming in which labor is supplied primarily by family members. Family farming has become a consolidated social symbol that Iowans are attached to which is based on a form of independence through private farm property and its production process. This form of independence is also translated through social distance whereby farmsteads are equally spaced across the landscape leaving ample fields between farming families. This sense of spatial and symbolic independence has largely defined the quality of life in Iowa. However, this spatial and federally advocated form of independence was associated with economic dependence on market forces, food industries and federal policies. Given that family farms have been consistently mechanizing and increasing production, the demand for more farmland has also been increasing, which resulted in “successful” farmers purchasing production ground from other less successful farmers. This has made the family farmer’s space unstable as it is consistently under market competition pressure and trends of federal policies. This economic condition has produced spatial and communal instability because it has caused frequent reconfiguration in the living space. For instance, some farmers have rented their production grounds and continue to live on their farmsteads away from public services and employment opportunities that they have become increasingly dependent on. The impact of farming development has been even more apparent whereby vacant farm sites along the various roads are a common scene. Black’s Seed Farm is one such dormant farm site in which a body of work is being developed as part of an ongoing effort to examine the past character and future shape of Iowa’s inherited landscape. Current studio projects focus on the act of making and curating a series of research assemblies within a dormant seed-drying facility using ethno-specific logic and perceptual practices as spatial conditioner. This work might best be understood as a site-adjusted set of objects or trace that indicates the presence of, and makes clearly recognizable, its context as referent rather than source or setting.

Anthropology is the science that studies peoples past and present, their cultures, and their hist... more Anthropology is the science that studies peoples past and present, their cultures, and their histories as groups. When anthropologists undertake a study of an unfamiliar culture, they typically write ethnography. Ethnographic studies look at the patterns of interpretation that members of a cultural group invoke as they go about their daily lives. An ethnography is a highly descriptive overview of a group’s knowledge, its beliefs, its social organization, how it reproduces itself, and the material world in which it exists.3 In short, ethnography is a process referred to by Clifford Geertz as “Writing Culture”. The purpose for preparing ethnographic field reports is not only to describe and explain, but also to unfold a view of the world in which cultural alternatives can be measured against one another and used as a guide for the production of space (i.e. Design). Disciplines Architecture | Social and Cultural Anthropology This conference proceeding is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/arch_conf/39 Title Drawing Culture: an architectural agenda Conference 33rd European Studies Conference: Anthropology Great Feast1 David Wagner Megan Lueneburg

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