Time is haptic
Exploring a tactile connection to forgotten histories in Utrecht’s Domplein
G.D. Kirby (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Sabina Tanović – Mentor (TU Delft - Teachers of Practice / A)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Current approaches of abstraction and conceptuality in the discourse of memorialisation can be useful to commemorate contemporary events, but the inherent flaws and
shortcomings in the misuse of abstraction are insufficient in the quest of establishing a connection with the distant past. This thesis acts as a call for a different direction for the
crystallisation of memory. By looking beyond contemporary history, we can understand more about our spiritual connection with our ancestors from bygone eras. To aid the
strengthening of our spiritual ties to history I have diagnosed a new spatial typology of memory; the encounter-monument. The encounter-monument is the accidental monument; the fossilised memory; the physical and spiritual encounter with history. The encounter-monument is the scar tissue etched into stone that has survived, morphed and re-moulded over the centuries. The encounter-monument is the relic that we may come across in our day-to-day lives that jolts us back through history. They are the encounter with a stranger’s signature and date in the cover of a book that has been lying in the attic for decades. They are the slowly dissolving names on forgotten gravestones. Encounter-monuments are the sense of histories both recent and distant, passing before our very eyes. They plug us into the timeline of existence. This thesis explores the Domplein in Utrecht as a case study for the ineffective use of abstraction to commemorate its profound history, and through the use of various artistic media, propose a new direction for its focus. Through photographs, plaster casts and frottage drawings, I present a spiritual argument for tactility as a method of commemoration.