aaa_breuer marcel about the eye

8/3/2019 AAA_breuer Marcel About the Eye

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I IBI l IIEIE' III SUBtllEl. IIC1lHlTI

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hey are alive. like people. They have also their cyclesof vigor, strength, beauty and perfection. They have lJlsotheir s'TUF'e with age, with decline. with circulation troubles.with saggirllf muscles, with wrinkles. There is one differencethough: They can be beautiful even in old age, even in ruins.

Here is where the eye may fool us , and let me say a few words.aoout our visual perception. The eye is the most comprehensiveafour s enses: An image is received with the speed of light,

. with absolut e speed. It is a most influential something, the eye.It may register notions before we can think; of all OUT senses,it is clos est to our consciousness . In primitive languages ,songs, and proverbs . eyes ight is the mos t precious possessionof man. TIle split se cond of eye reception is, i t seems ,automatically linked with an emotiona l appraisal of the object :,M t only whether it is big or small, blat;:k or white, curved orstraight, but whether it is threatening or fr i endly , pleasanl ornol, beautifu l or not , The eye is a powerful informer; tt fo rmsan esthetic judgment 01a g lance and, while buildings should beuseful, well constructed and in harmony with our human- socialwor ld, tne f irs t impact -s-th e ey e impact--is perhaps a precondi-tioning of our sympathies.

Now, we /mow that, again, our esthetics arc preconditionedby custom, by precedence, by preconceived opinion, by varied ,experiences of varying individuals.

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IUCEL lUlU All lSSICUtES, lICilTECn -3-

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In a sense, 1 see the est1}etic quality as a most abstractone, the most inner quality , aUhough it is often adorned withglamor, with drabness, with rules of tradition, with excesses-. ofweaUh,' with fashionable s logans , with moralizing, withpomposity . How ever, esthetics should be too good to becamouflaged.

Buildings should be not moody, but reflect a general,durable quality . Architecture should be anchored in ueefulness ;its attitude should be .more direct , more directly responsible,more directly socia l, more technic-bound, more independent;symmetrical or non-symmetrical. The designer should fee l

. f ree to be simi kJ. r; and equally f ree to turn his back 0 11precedence. He should be f ree to be scientif ic , f ree to be human,fr ee to bBfnon-traditional. The rapid esthetic of the eye should:...- . .

.'. be in balance with the other aspect s of architecture, with itsliving aspects , whether this balance is 50-50 or 10 to 90.

There are buildings of past historic periods. Theycommunicate to us to a greater and greater degree through theeye, less and less by rational and other qualities . Usefulness,details of long past human demands canno t be reconstructedand fade into tile unknown, whereas the eye is still active.Esthetics become independent of everything else. The phaiographof a mis erable s lum may be so beautiful that, unconsciously , weforget s lum conditions . The s low-motion fi lm of an atomic..' . ..


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aaa_breuer marcel about the eye

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