CHELSEA COLLEGE OF ARTS / GRADUATE DIPLOMA: INTERIOR DESIGN

Reflective writing

Unit1 : Commodity& Design

Project II: Window of contemplation

Xinrui Li

26/11/2020

The window of contemplation, in architecture, often represents a conversion port for interaction and breathing, a communication channel of breath, with light and shadow has a richer meaning. Contemplation, on the other hand, is deeper thinking, in a state of nothingness and chaos, on which the first image that comes to my mind is Plato’s allegory of the cave.

Although Plato’s intention and later interpretations have explained different aspects of this fable from multiple perspectives, I think of it in this project because it gives me the most direct thinking is to remain skeptical, so it is undoubtedly a suitable source of inspiration for me.

And to speak, as it were of a condition which, through one’s conscious action, produces a phenomenon directly, is the field of phenomenological inquiry.

I studied Husserl’s theory of phenomenology, according to him: “which is essentially the systematic consideration and study of phenomena occurring in the structure and behaviour of consciousness. Secondly, in its most basic form, phenomenology attempts to create the conditions for the objective study of what is usually regarded as a subjective subject: consciousness and the content of conscious experience such as judgement, perception, emotion, etc.”

A typical example of this is when we read a poem by a poet and all kinds of subjective assumptions come to mind. It contains the paradox of a phenomenology of the imagination, which is: how can an image, at times very unusual, appear to be a concentration of the entire psyche? How with no preparation can this singular, short lived event constituted by the appearance of an unusual poetic image, react on other minds and in other hearts, despite all the barriers of common sense, all the disciplined schools of thought, content in their immobility?

It actually is phenomenology of the imagination, by this should be understood a study of the phenomenon of the poetic image when I t emerges into the consciousness as a direct product of the heart, soul and being of man, apprehended in his actuality. So, we should have to say that poetry, rather than being a phenomenology of the mind, is a phenomenology of the soul.

Pierre-Jean Jouve writes: “Poetry is a soul inaugurating a form.” The soul inaugurates. Here it is the supreme power. It is human dignity. Even if the “form” was already well-known, previously discovered, carved from “commonplaces,” before the interior poetic light was turned upon it, it was a mere object for the mind. But the soul comes and inaugurates the form, dwells in it, takes pleasure in it.

To conclude, Plato’s cave is the origin of the whole project, and the tone of the project is the poetry in space, which is my conception of the window of contemplation.

So I have conceived the window as a cave and the sun, which is the symbol of truth in the fable, is the main body of my scheme, you can see that the circle fills the whole window, it’s actually a light, the area is very dark and it’s the only source of light and then at the centre of the circle, there’s a small round hole through which you can see outside and I will set up a VR shot here to completely simulate the outside. The environment, but in fact it is a virtual image, and I will be based on the principles of Kepler’s telescope, so the imaging in the VR will be upside down, to return to my theme of keeping the questioning, a place where you can look directly at the truth, but present the exact opposite effect, which is my reason for doing so. The four curved corners outside the circle, which can also be seen from the outside, are just glass, so a normal representation of the outside space will be seen, which also intensifies the idea of the outside environment being torn apart by opposition to each other, further expressing the intent of the whole project. The other uses of the space are simple, subjective and poetic in their expression of atmosphere and arrangement.

Reference

Bachelard, G. 1994. The Poetics of Space. Beacon Press.

Husserl, E. (2013), The Idea of Phenomenology: A Translation of Die Idee Der Phänomenologie Husserliana II, Springer Science & Business Media, available at: (accessed 3 December 2020).

Andrea Nightingale. (2017), “Cave Myths and the Metaphorics of Light: Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius”, Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, JSTOR, Vol. 24 No. 3, p. 39.