The Embodied Image: Imagination and Imagery in Architecture
Juhani Pallasmaa

All artistic and architectural effects are evoked, mediated and experienced through poeticised images. These images are embodied and lived experiences that take place in 'the flesh of the world', becoming part of us, at the same time that we unconsciously project aspects of ourselves on to a conceived space, object or event. Artistic images have a life and reality of their own and they develop through unexpected associations rather than rational and causal logic. Images are usually thought of...

In our current global networked culture that puts so much emphasis on the virtual and the visual, the mind and the body have become detached and ultimately disconnected. Though physical appearance is idolised for its sexual appeal and its social identity, the role of the body in developing a full understanding of the physical world and the human condition has become neglected. The potential of the human body as a knowing entity - with all our senses as well as our entire bodily functions being structured to produce and maintain silent knowledge together - fails to be recognised.

It is only...

Druhá básnická sbírka Pavly Vašíčkové je plná hříček se slovy, s jejich hranicemi, s obzorem řeči a vzlety do bezmeznosti: Jelikož čteme písmena, ale ne vždy myšlenky, píšeme písmena, ale ne vždy činy, létáme na nebi, ale ne v něm. Cítíme přiléhavý tlak snů, mléčné objetí mlh. Neznajíce sytost hladu hladovíme sytostí, celý svět hladoví sytostí. Zbídačeni vědomostmi, obtěžkáni zkušenostmi, než se ve vzdálení budeme ještě více vzdalovat, budeme se muset rozhodnout, zda stát, nebo jít. Propast důvodů. Saháme po holi – opřeme se,...

At the Classical Gardens of Suzhou in China, surface transforms into space; walls become landscapes. In her journey through this UNESCO World Heritage Site, Swiss French photographer Helene Binet captures the traces of environmental influences on built structures. Her impressive series of photography shows how weather and time have turned blank walls into vivid depictions of nature. In Binet's images, architecture becomes the frame for imaginary landscapes. By interweaving foreground and background, the artist tells stories that shift between the two dimensions of the plane and the three...