Angelus Novus

TIME, SPACE, EXISTENCE EXHIBITION 2023 Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy

Quantum-Cinematic Storytelling via 360-degree Filmmaking

The conventional languages of verbal and even geometrical representation are not suited to communicate quantum thinking in a perspicuous and persuasive manner. Pure quantum states have no external interactions and no sense for the direction of time therefore cannot be conceptualized from a single fixed-point perspective. Single fixed point of view emerges from observing the tangible functionalism of classical physical systems. Quantum thinking, however, requires the imagination to give up the single fixed perspective of the classical observer and assume a dynamic, 360-degree, non-anthropomorphic, or environmental perspective to break with the common sense and tangible object fetishism habitual to the mind and use our imagination counterintuitively to be able to capture systems of non-tangible relationality. What we need for quantum thinking is the new architectonic rhetoric of 360-degree filmmaking that allows environmental perspective and relational and non-directional spatial-temporal conceptions. Our research film communicates concepts of quantum physics perspicuously and persuasively not only between experts but also from experts to the public. The innovative virtual reality filmmaking will use cinematic storytelling based upon architectonic-geometrical as opposed to verbal-conceptual thinking. Our architectonic dramaturgy is drawn from the dramatic staging of scientific demonstrations, experiments and dramatic animation of digital simulations of quantum phenomena.

ANGELUS NOVUS – Études for Cupola in Instinct and Algorithm

Inspired by Klee’s iconic angel of innovation and Brunelleschi’s legendary dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore, the Form Finding Lab and the UCHV Research Film Studio of Princeton University together with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill will present an installation of a study on cupola-assembly with a projected cinematic fresco designed to assist sensory learning about architectonic invention. Klee’s Angelus Novus (1919) breaks with the classical object-oriented conception of space bound by the orthogonal standard of fixed single point perspective. Klee’s angel of innovation – being plunged into the unbound space-time continuum – is condemned to incessant renewal by balancing between biological (mimetic) and machine intelligence (technē) as depicted by the three overlapping yet transparent optical planes each respectively outlining the human form, a bird and an airplane. Our exhibition will show that architectonic invention in the interface of biological and artificial intelligence – or instinct and algorithm – does not only drive evolutionary adaptation to the shared spatial-temporal conditions of our existence but is also ultimately responsible for shaping our common sense that seeks stability in architectonic – geometrical and conceptual – patterns in an incessantly readjusting balancing act while in movement. The architectonic invention of the cupola, for example, must have contributed to the conceptual challenge that slowly upturned the reassuring common sense knowledge that the Earth was as flat as the floor of one’s home. The full dome provides human imagination sensory assistance to contemplate the spherical framing of human existence with no fixed, orthogonally framed perspective. The dome instead intimates a higher order of dynamic balance in a curved grid. Our installation in the garden of Palazzo Mora will make perspicuous for our audience the architectonic master-trope of Brunelleschi’s self-balancing cupola that not only adapts to gravity but conquers it by implying its architectonic opposite: levity. We will install a design-trope of a self-balancing dome adapted to the space of the palazzo’s garden as an opportunity for deep spatial sensory learning. Architectonic innovation can never stop recreating the sensus communis in a reliably disciplinary manner in order to reflect the ever-extending scientific understanding of the spatial-temporal articulation of our shared home, the universe. This is why our interdisciplinary Princeton University research group will present our “interthinking” about the adaptive and constitutive evolution of architectonic invention in the medium of a cinematic fresco projected on a partial dome structure. The fresco-film will juxtapose the scientific story about the architectonic creation of the early universe with the story about the invention of the self-balancing masonry dome.

TIME, SPACE, EXISTENCE EXHIBITION
Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy
Architecture Biennale
May 20 to November 26, 2023

Inspired by Brunelleschi’s dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore and Klee’s artwork Angelus Novus, the Form Finding Lab and the UCHV Research Film Studio of Princeton University, together with architects and engineers at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), present an exhibition that explores new possibilities for the self-balancing vault—a construction method that has enabled centuries of architectural innovation. In the garden of Palazzo Mora, the Angelus Novus Collaborative displays a self-balancing masonry vault constructed using augmented reality (AR), and a digital film-fresco that is viewable in two ways: on an LED panel, and on the vault itself via an interactive AR application.

In self-balancing vault construction, the balancing emerges from the local interactions between the bricks without any external support, even during the process of assembly. This invention was prompted by the 1418 architectural competition that stipulated that the vaulting of the main dome of the Florence Cathedral should have no supporting buttresses. Brunelleschi, the winner of the contest, went even further: his engineering solution eliminated the need for the expensive, temporary external supports traditionally used in masonry construction during the settling of the mortar.

Beyond a practical solution for sustainable and safe construction, Brunelleschi invents a new natural order of balance in a curved grid. The dome assembled this way not only adapts to gravity but conquers it by implying its architectonic opposite: lightness. It is an engineering feat with no fixed blueprint, yet the Angelus Novus project manages to capture it in form of mechanics-based algorithms. When these algorithms are animated by AR technology, the visualization can guide today’s masons in efficient material use and the reduction of waste. Constructed by hand using an AR interface to guide the placement of each brick, the vault structure at Palazzo Mora shows the potential of combined human and machine intelligence. Similarly, Klee’s painting, in which Angelus Novus is depicted by the overlapping contours of a human, a bird and an airplane, imagines human invention flying on the wings of mimesis and technology.

Both Brunelleschi and Klee break with the classical object-oriented conception of space bound by a fixed, single-point perspective. They both teach us how to think outside the box in a curved grid. Brunelleschi’s vernacular engineering solution anticipated the design revolution of the early twentieth century, in which the conventional difference between architecture and structural engineering is dissolved; the clarity of a tight, minimalist economy of structural relations informs the engineering performance of a self-balancing choreography at the intersection of architecture, engineering and art. Thus, art becomes architectonic, while engineering becomes art.

One of the multiple functions of architectural structures, from caves to cupolas, is to communicate ideas persuasively to the public. The film-fresco entitled “Assembly & Disassembly” visualizes the analogy between architecture and the architectonic language of the universe, transforming NASA images and arthouse film clips. The film-fresco is also mapped onto the bricks of the vault so that the same interactive AR technology that was used to aid the masons in construction can guide the visitors’ imagination in the virtual construction of a full dome.