Beatriz Colomina Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The Screen of Colomina Reviewed: Images In Cities and Their Masks:
Mask has been a part of architectural discourse within the context of arguments revolving around the concept “modern”. It is mostly defined –as a concept- through products that are related to the surfaces of buildings, the boundaries they create and the relationship between interior and exterior that these boundaries form.
In this study, Colomina’s definition of the “screen” has been a starting point; with this definition, it is then expressed how the mask is located over the surfaces, and what kind of a role it takes –also how- concerning the relationship between inside and outside.
Various arguments related to the mentioned concept in architectural discourse have been considered while forming this definition of mask. Also, this study essentially discusses the rift within and between the modern individual and his/her public-private character, and reads this rift as analogous to the inside, outside and the in-between surface of a building. This thesis study, focuses on the concept of “screen” and aims to expand the arguments concerning the “mask” over a different axis.
The mask, by itself, is quite a powerful concept. It helps produce place and meaning by forming a boundary, which it constructs through the conflict that its contradictory nature poses. The mask, creates inside and outside. Inside is where the change takes place. The mask is both the provider of the privacy of the change that is hidden behind and the establisher of the relationship between inside and outside. All of these tasks imbue it with a divine power, thus, it is sacrosanct.
The creation process of the mask is an issue that demands attention. The decision of creation is something that is made by someone or something; thus the mask is made by adhering to an agenda. Yet the mask, later, thanks to its contradictory nature and the power it takes from the ambiguity of the flow of change that goes behind it, takes control. From then on, it becomes the one –the thing- that is in charge. So, although it is important why it has been created, it cannot be made certain if it will serve its purpose of creation – in other words, it is hard to decide surely whether it will serve its purpose or not.
This study takes on the works in architecture that is concerned with the concept of mask, asserting that the concept itself has not been thoroughly studied. There is still a need to study the concept and track its roots and relations wherever they may lead. In pursuit of this, certain related concepts have been concerned and studied. Approaching the concept with such a broad perspective, the study aimed to put forth how these different concepts form relationships with the concept of mask. Later, in order to provide a conceptual frame, a base is finally formed.
After this step, the modern thought and its place concerning the concept of mask is concerned; because the concept of the “screen” has its foundations in the modern thought. To expand on and to discover novel ideas over the individual was not the aim here, rather, it has been tried to understand the individual via mask. Concerning all of these, the strategies that the actors in the city, form and practive over themselves and among each other have been put forth. It is also questioned why there is such a need for the use of these strategies. This line of questioning, forms the very focus of this thesis.
The study is focused on two separate time periods. The first is the second half of the 18th century and the 19th century, which is considered as the second phase of modern thought. The reason behind this pick is to be able to make a reading on mask in everyday life in such a period that the notion of the modern individual -which provides the basis for the concept of screen- is formed.
The concept of “screen” is traced back to the modern individual, yet it is a concept that is produced for today. Thus, the second period that is picked is; 1980 onwards – which can be accepted as the third phase of the modern thought, and can be named as the 2nd Industrial Revolution. At this very age that Modernism is claimed to be fallen apart, it can be asserted that the perception of reality has changed and to search for meaning turned into getting lost.Thus, the masks that are defined by these two different periods are separated from each other. The masks that are created in order to reach for the reality, are flattened today, with the loss of the very thing they have searched for.
The study asserts that the mask creates an atmosphere – an aura- and defines a new area, thus, forms its own concept of boundary. It is also asserted that the mask that is considered along the concept of the screen, becomes flattened through the realities that hyperreality sets forth.
The study relates the flow of change with reality, and asserts that in the age of hyperreality, this flow too, has become flattened. Also, the actuals have been turned into moments that are detached from time and context, and are copied. These masks act more as barriers between spaces, than elements allowing dialogue between them; and instead of trying to understand how these flat masks work, it has become a primary concern to this study, to determine why these masks exist.
In this study, the causality of the creation of the mask is related to the mechanisms of dominance, and it is stated that the concept of “screen” lacks this approach. Also it is asserted that, ignoring dominance plays a supportive role in favor of oppressive power; thus, it becomes an element, a piece, within authority models. The authority models are explained and argued over discipline, safety, and states of exception, in this context.
In the second chapter, concepts such as place, meaning and dilemma are covered. Also, through five stages of change, five definitions of masks(imitation, simulation, dissimulation, transformation, figure) are made.
These five masks have played a guiding role for the third chapter, which takes on current cases and practices. It has been questioned and explored what these masks are left with and what they are turned into after the act of flattening, in terms of spatiality; a classification (replica, cover, quarantine, mystery, purgatory) that is parallel to these five states have been made.
In the final and concluding chapter of the thesis, the premise that the mask is a strategy that is produced against dominance, is accepted. By accepting this, it is aimed to set forth that in order to have a say in the city, one has to either tear or take off the mask. Tearing the mask is considered as equivalent to exposure, and taking it off is considered as becoming clean of strategies. One is interpreted as a revolutionary and the other an evolutionary attitude.