:: incomplete thoughts // 2010 ::

:: societal entities (change/fusion/stability/separation) form a system of

the four basic
strange attractors; each entity shifts around each of the other entities; the result is an
apparent chaotic system

:: this happens through the numerous characteristics of each entity; in a self-organizing

process, shifts occur; as a result of even slight shifts, the entire model rearranges itself
through a further self-organizing process
:: the whole model is therefore an autopoietic system
:: the effect this constantly shifting system has on any society is one of social/existential
angst, moral panic and other fears and phobias

:: please note:
:: the concept that “things” happen because someone/something makes them happen is something
of a fantasy;
systems consist of many interacting parts; no part controls the whole or
can control another part outside the influence of the rest of the system

:: human societies are in themselves prone to dynamical instability; they display

fractal-type power law relationships :: all societies revolve around conflicts of
interest and “are held together by shifting mixtures of dominance and cooperation”1

:: when a system has a great many independent agents interacting with each other and self-
organizing themselves amongst themselves, then the system is complex,
especially as the system has created itself (nobody caused it) and sustains itself through its own
self-organizing interactions
:: when the system continuously creates itself, if only because the characteristics of the system
are continuously changing/shifting yet at the same time allowing the system to continue, and if the
changes are produced by the characteristics themselves, then the system is autopoietic
:: society is an active self-updating collection of characteristics capable of informing and
shaping their surroundings and itself, so creating and shaping a world through its own history of
structural interventions and couplings with it

:: society, in being, doing, and knowing, defines the world

in which it lives and is therefore autopoietic ::

1
compare “sexual paradox: complimentary, reproductive conflict and human emergence – rape of the planet
and genetic holocaust”

:©: francis safaie-brown :: francisbrown@yahoo.com ::

 :: incomplete thoughts // 2010 ::

:: the meaning of life ::

:: according to absurdism, humans historically attempt to find meaning in their lives :: people
may create meaning in their own lives, which may not be the objective meaning of life but still
provides something for which to strive :: one must always maintain an ironic distance between this
invented meaning and the knowledge of the absurd ::

:: beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious :: it is the source of all true
the most
art and science :: -albert einstein ::
:: we do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the
mental institution of the universe :: -goethe ::
:: whenever people agree with me i always feel i must be wrong :: -oscar wilde ::
:: i think it would be a good idea :: -mahatma gandhi (when asked what he thought of western
civilization)
:: if a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so ::
-thomas jefferson ::
:: the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history :: -georg wilhelm
friedrich hegel ::
:: technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going
backwards :: -aldous huxley ::
:: art is either plagiarism or revolution :: -paul gauguin ::

:©: francis safaie-brown :: francisbrown@yahoo.com ::

 :: incomplete thoughts // 2010 ::

:: FAITH AND BELIEF IN ARCHITECTURE ::

:: apologies for styles, grounded in associations and belief ::

:: modern movement buildings ignore the culture, the wishes, and the meaning of
the people they were designed for ::

:: visual art: see that strange thing? it's psycho-architecture ::

:: twittered nihilistic tweets ::
:: melodic death metal :: incongruity and irreverence :: exmortem nihilistic
contentment :: nihilistic existentialism :: pseudo-environmentalists =
nihilistic nuts :: nihilistic denial :: politics = mastery of using words but
attaching no meaning to them, the crux of the nihilistic strategy :: white trash
encryption algorithm :: cthulhu mythos :: fleeing from nihilistic repression
might also morph into an embrace of the pleasures of the petite bourgeoisie ::
w3f8chat we are witnessing is theplunging of an entire region into a nihilistic mass
psychosis :: nihilistic technofetishist :: is diversity a form of nihilism :?:
nihilistic ravings of insomniac bohemians :: south korea doesn't want nihilistic
robots :: nihilistic kaos :: i enjoy smoking because it is an inherently nihilistic
displacement activity :: nihilistic joke - knock knock :: who's there :?: no one ::
nihilistic delusion --> delusion of negation :: is black sun nihilistic :?:
useless beings in nihilistic dreams :: martin heidegger is considered gloomy and
nihilistic because of his emphasis on anguish and death in being and time :: after
marx :: the left-handed fall into nihilistic destruction ::

:©: francis safaie-brown :: francisbrown@yahoo.com ::

 :: incomplete thoughts // 2010 ::
:: CuLTuraL perception of cities :: 2

:: CuLTure is a confusing term  it’s a bundle of activities and values that shape the
character of a people :: “mind takes form in the city and in turn urban forms
condition mind” : : urbanity = city = civilization : : therefore cities are both a
3 4

reflection of a larger CuLTure and a creator of that CuLTure  urbanity

emphasizes differences rather than communalities = that is why new york is
such a CuLTuraLly dynamic place ::

:: then of course there is freud’s city  the collective oedipal revolt against the
past and the conservative present = birthing nonconformist art and society in
contradiction to CuLTure = major industry in old cities ::

:: then there is urbanism as a slow evolving process at all times an urban frontier ::
:: so :: cities are a collective, shared place :: or that is what they are supposed to be
– thomas wolfe considers the public realm as a turd on the urban stage surrounded by
emotionless steel and glass boxes ::

2
source?
3
probably “the culture of cities” lewis mumford, 1938
4
compare eduardo lozano “community design and the culture of cities” 1990

:©: francis safaie-brown :: francisbrown@yahoo.com ::

 :: incomplete thoughts // 2010 ::
“when space existed as a separate category ,
architecture was the art of space” :: “until
very recently, architecture kept pace with knowledge – today architecture is burdened
by its materiality – it no longer embodies the leading edge of our world-view :: yet
architectural heuretics and poetics still rigidly and canonically emphasize a euclidian
architecture of form, space and an ideology of presence and absence in a post-
ptolemaic-copernican-galilean-keplerian universe of subatomic particle
trajectories, gravity waves, and colliding black holes”5 :: in a world capable of practicing
deliberate mass genocide, a world in the pursuit of weapons of multiple global overkill
= blind domination of the nature within human beings by human beings - - or ::
“why hunger, poverty, and other forms of human suffering still persist despite the technological and
scientific potential to mitigate them or eliminate them altogether”
:: what then is the art of architecture ::

5
compare “ctheory: transmiting architecture”

:©: francis safaie-brown :: francisbrown@yahoo.com ::

 :: incomplete thoughts // 2010 ::
:: irrationalism – cynicism – nihilism of postmodern theory ::
beware of the
“transcendence at the interface :: the architecture of cyborg utopia - - or - -
cyberspace utopoids as cargo cult”6 - - or :: 1984 adopts a brave new world - -
or :: the art of restructuring // reconfiguring space – time – matter – information ::
:: art – architecture – anthropology – archaeology ::
:: if architectural theory is left to art historians then aesthetic principles are
distinguished as high architecture from mere buildings :: much as a zoologist might only care
for beautiful animals {!}  architecture is a constructive continuum ::
:: time is a container of all our social activities (= monotonic culture) :: and :: time is
culturally determined :: culture = composes the rhythms of society ::
:: dimensions of cultural times :: monochromic // polychromic :: dream //
cyclical // linear // unordered {orientation towards} past // present // future7 //
manana :: sacred // profane :: the pace of culture {speed of life}

6
compare david porush, rensselaer polytechnic institute
7
or :: there is no present, only future and past, for the moment the future arrives it instantly becomes the past

:©: francis safaie-brown :: francisbrown@yahoo.com ::