01-22-2014
Memory and Measure: A Conversation with Anthony Viscardi
Solar Flare Constructs, Anthony Viscardi
For over twenty years, the practice of tracing shadows has informed the architectural investigations and pedagogy of Lehigh University Professor of Art & Architecture Anthony Viscardi. His drawings and constructions, derived from the direct observation of the passage of light over time, navigate a conceptual landscape between two- and three-dimensional space. Below, is a brief conversation between Viscardi and his former student Kevin Cannon, a Senior Associate at FXFOWLE Architects.
Kevin Cannon: Tony, it has been many years since I took your studio at Georgia Tech, and seeing your recent work has been truly enjoyable. For me, your studio was the first really open-ended architectural exploration focused on process over product. Your methodology of teaching through the exploration of drawing engaged your students to both examine and discover solutions that would not have otherwise been apparent.
The work currently on view in the FXFOWLE gallery is very striking. I find "The Bachelors" particularly compelling in the way that the depiction of the original construction leaves a void. For me, the piece really articulates ideas of memory and measure that occupy your work. Can you speak a bit about your process and when you first began to cast and capture these spatial projections?
Centrifuge, Anthony Viscardi
Anthony Viscardi: Your comment about articulating ideas of memory and measure serves well to introduce the premise of my investigation into my collection"Tracing Time to Measure Space." My initial drawings trace shadows as they are cast during the time I concurrently construct its object, the "Shadow Projecting Machine". The memory of the passing moment is concretized through the measure of the shadow as it is recorded at three intervals, morning, noon, and evening. The Machine is then dismantled, leaving only a Shadow Map from which a new object may be derived. The significance of the original object exists only in its role as the precipitator of its trace, or shadow field, which holds infinite possibility.
I suspect, as children, we were all mesmerized with the shadow's ability to shift shape as it traverses walls, steps, or a landscape. When captured, the shadow records memory, as in the early legend, The Maid of Corinth, where a young woman traces the outline of her lover's profile on a wall so that she can recollect his presence, after his departure. This story is often credited as the origin of drawing. In my own experience, as an only child, I often played with my shadow, observing how it could become much taller than me, disappear into another shadow, or cease to exist on a cloudy day. It ignited imagination. My childhood fascination with the shadow resurfaced years later when my architectural practice focused on designing sustainable architecture. Now, as a professor of architecture, the shadow informs my teaching and forms the basis of my artistic inquiry.
Dark Clouds, Anthony Viscardi
KC: In your years of exploration into the hand craft of drawing, how do the transparencies, pencil on Mylar, relate or differentiate themselves conceptually to the more permanent ink on paper drawings?
AV: Orthographic projection, the drawing technique taught during my early architectural education as form of construction, immediately establishes an association between plan and section. This correlation can be analogous to the relationship between the object and the shadow but only in reverse. An object lends its shadow to a two-dimensional surface in the process of its playful construction. Designed objects are then projected from two-dimensional plans (the shadow) to create three-dimensional forms (the object).
After each shadow tracing is completed, the object from which it derived is dismantled leaving only a map of its former existence, and the potential for it's re-construing. The map can now be used to decipher new and imaginative reformations of the shadow into two-dimensional palimpsests of drawings and three-dimensional constructions. The large ink drawings, the Primitives, are the first iteration drawn from the shadow, now detached from its object. These ink drawings become the generative form from which future drawings and constructions are interpreted.
Shall We Dance, Anthony Viscardi
The Palimpsests, pencil drawings on Mylar, derive through the manipulation of line or smears of lead in a formative interaction with one of the Primitives. While intuitively engaged in an additive and subtractive process, the image reveals itself, celebrating the parts and the process of its own genesis while retaining the history of the shadow. Transparency establishes a synergistic perception of different spatial planes in a complex palimpsest drawn of shadow with the capacity to construct form as the focus of the eye moves nearby and far off to reveal an "intimate immensity," as Bachelard terms it.
KC: How do these explorations relate or inform your methodology for teaching?
AV: Mapping the sun has been a process that humankind has engaged in to understand the cosmos as well as to live and thrive on the earth. It is at once a spiritual ritual as well as a practical compass for the prosperity and evolution of our existence.
As a practitioner of architecture, the projects I designed always considered the interplay of sun and shadow in sustainable building practices that emphasized the importance of living in concert with our planet. Now, as a professor of architecture, my visual and theoretical investigations form the basis for studio design projects that apply shadow casting as a form generating technique in the production of architectural projects. The exploration and translation of theoretical ideas into architectonic principles that can be used to generate design strategies are fundamental to my research and teaching. Admittedly, design thought of in this manner necessitates a willingness to take risks and wander through unpredictable realms of exploration that lie outside the traditional venue of architectural production and education. The discipline of architecture lies within a creative dialogue that inspires us to think anew, to bring to the threshold ideas and to inaugurate their meanings in form.
The Architect, Anthony Viscardi
Anthony Viscardi's exhibition, "Tracing Time to Measure Space" is on view in the FXFOWLE Gallery from January 23rd through March 21st, 2014.
Kevin Cannon: Tony, it has been many years since I took your studio at Georgia Tech, and seeing your recent work has been truly enjoyable. For me, your studio was the first really open-ended architectural exploration focused on process over product. Your methodology of teaching through the exploration of drawing engaged your students to both examine and discover solutions that would not have otherwise been apparent.
The work currently on view in the FXFOWLE gallery is very striking. I find "The Bachelors" particularly compelling in the way that the depiction of the original construction leaves a void. For me, the piece really articulates ideas of memory and measure that occupy your work. Can you speak a bit about your process and when you first began to cast and capture these spatial projections?
Centrifuge, Anthony ViscardiAnthony Viscardi: Your comment about articulating ideas of memory and measure serves well to introduce the premise of my investigation into my collection"Tracing Time to Measure Space." My initial drawings trace shadows as they are cast during the time I concurrently construct its object, the "Shadow Projecting Machine". The memory of the passing moment is concretized through the measure of the shadow as it is recorded at three intervals, morning, noon, and evening. The Machine is then dismantled, leaving only a Shadow Map from which a new object may be derived. The significance of the original object exists only in its role as the precipitator of its trace, or shadow field, which holds infinite possibility.
I suspect, as children, we were all mesmerized with the shadow's ability to shift shape as it traverses walls, steps, or a landscape. When captured, the shadow records memory, as in the early legend, The Maid of Corinth, where a young woman traces the outline of her lover's profile on a wall so that she can recollect his presence, after his departure. This story is often credited as the origin of drawing. In my own experience, as an only child, I often played with my shadow, observing how it could become much taller than me, disappear into another shadow, or cease to exist on a cloudy day. It ignited imagination. My childhood fascination with the shadow resurfaced years later when my architectural practice focused on designing sustainable architecture. Now, as a professor of architecture, the shadow informs my teaching and forms the basis of my artistic inquiry.
Dark Clouds, Anthony ViscardiKC: In your years of exploration into the hand craft of drawing, how do the transparencies, pencil on Mylar, relate or differentiate themselves conceptually to the more permanent ink on paper drawings?
AV: Orthographic projection, the drawing technique taught during my early architectural education as form of construction, immediately establishes an association between plan and section. This correlation can be analogous to the relationship between the object and the shadow but only in reverse. An object lends its shadow to a two-dimensional surface in the process of its playful construction. Designed objects are then projected from two-dimensional plans (the shadow) to create three-dimensional forms (the object).
After each shadow tracing is completed, the object from which it derived is dismantled leaving only a map of its former existence, and the potential for it's re-construing. The map can now be used to decipher new and imaginative reformations of the shadow into two-dimensional palimpsests of drawings and three-dimensional constructions. The large ink drawings, the Primitives, are the first iteration drawn from the shadow, now detached from its object. These ink drawings become the generative form from which future drawings and constructions are interpreted.
Shall We Dance, Anthony ViscardiThe Palimpsests, pencil drawings on Mylar, derive through the manipulation of line or smears of lead in a formative interaction with one of the Primitives. While intuitively engaged in an additive and subtractive process, the image reveals itself, celebrating the parts and the process of its own genesis while retaining the history of the shadow. Transparency establishes a synergistic perception of different spatial planes in a complex palimpsest drawn of shadow with the capacity to construct form as the focus of the eye moves nearby and far off to reveal an "intimate immensity," as Bachelard terms it.
KC: How do these explorations relate or inform your methodology for teaching?
AV: Mapping the sun has been a process that humankind has engaged in to understand the cosmos as well as to live and thrive on the earth. It is at once a spiritual ritual as well as a practical compass for the prosperity and evolution of our existence.
As a practitioner of architecture, the projects I designed always considered the interplay of sun and shadow in sustainable building practices that emphasized the importance of living in concert with our planet. Now, as a professor of architecture, my visual and theoretical investigations form the basis for studio design projects that apply shadow casting as a form generating technique in the production of architectural projects. The exploration and translation of theoretical ideas into architectonic principles that can be used to generate design strategies are fundamental to my research and teaching. Admittedly, design thought of in this manner necessitates a willingness to take risks and wander through unpredictable realms of exploration that lie outside the traditional venue of architectural production and education. The discipline of architecture lies within a creative dialogue that inspires us to think anew, to bring to the threshold ideas and to inaugurate their meanings in form.
The Architect, Anthony ViscardiAnthony Viscardi's exhibition, "Tracing Time to Measure Space" is on view in the FXFOWLE Gallery from January 23rd through March 21st, 2014.