(10.7) electromagnetic architecture
brian carroll
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(10.7) electromagnetic architecture -- context
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this essay is veering into an area I would like to explore
so i am going to sketch out a few ideas about what an
Islamic infrastructure might be, in the next 13 drawings,
to sketch some practical examples of applying the ideas
mentioned thus far. the 'architecture of electricity' thesis
covers the background in more depth, yet some mention
of its general premise is required for looking into issues of
Islamic infrastructure, as it is based upon an architectural
context which has evolved over the last 2 millennia, which
it is argued has evolved from an architectural ordering of
cultures into an infrastructure ordering which connects &
can differentiate various peoples/places at world-scale.
so to enter into this idea of how there may be a shared
ordering at the world-scale, which could be equated with
the wooden distribution poles and metal towers of the
electromagnetic infrastructure, it would be to imagine
all those poles and towers are descendants of an idea
which drove (western, yet world) architecture over the
centuries, to do with structural ordering devices which
established a sense of time, place, and common space
via aesthetics and physical forms: this architectural order
is essentially a column and capital which function as a
structural system to span distances or to carry a load.
the basic idea is that, from the theoretical 'first' column -
which was used to hold up things like buildings or as an
object in itself (for worship, etc.) - it has evolved over the
centuries into highly refined cultural forms of many of the
civilizations on the planet. e.g. China and Japan each have
their own ordering devices, as did Rome, Greece, etc. and
the story goes (if remembering correctly) that the 'western'
model (i.e. western classical/antiquity) was an evolution of
this architectural ordering from Egyptian civilization, which
had carved its columns out of stone and added ornament
to the 'capital' by way of various types of leaves/vegetation
at the top of the column, in addition to information added to
the column itself as hieroglyphs or cultural detail/decoration.
so this ordering device was both universal (the structural
column) and localized (Egyptian) which cross-pollinated to
influence the later development of architectural ordering in
Greece, thus Rome. the main point of this is, firstly, what
was once 'temporary' became permanent in subsequent
development of such an ordering system: such that, the
architectural capitals in Rome also had organic leaves as
part of the detailing of their capitals, yet eventually these
became carved permanently in marble/stone (which may
also have been the case in the evolution of the Egyptian
architectural order, that they went from organic, firstly to
a permanent design where vegetation was built in stone).
