a short fiction story published in Kaleidoscope #5 (Feb-Mar 2010)

[images: Drawings from SITELESS: 1001 Building Forms, The MIT Press, 2008 François Blanciak]

In The Architectural Cognition Laboratory, research is done on one of the most remarkable professional tribes known to man: architects. A team of neurobiologists, psychologists, ethnographers and an odd-ball theorist are interested in this tribe’s social and cultural practices, most importantly to reveal how the architect thinks. In the lab, an architectural studio has been recreated containing a group of architects working under the regime of a design competition. The Big Brother house for architects have eagerly surrendered themselves to the familiar practice of competition; the reward is vague but suggests the celebration of genius for those who win. All the ingredients are there to keep the architects entangled in the dynamics of their game. With regular intervals the subjects are taken apart so a researcher can interview him or her. 15 is called to come to the completely white room. 15 sits down at a table and hears a researcher’s voice over the speaker.

“15, I would like to ask you a question” the researchers voice said calmly “Can you tell me what your thoughts are made of?” “Hahaha. You expect me to just tell you this?” 15 said surprisingly. “Why not? Have you never wondered about how you think, what it is you think with?”, “Well no, not really, I never consciously thought about my own thinking that much. Isn’t it your job to find out?” “Yes, but I don’t have your brain. So you’ll have to help me out a bit here” “But how? I hardly understand what sort of answer you’re expecting. What do you mean when you talk about what ‘it’ is that you think with?” “Let’s say that when you’re designing, what then are the things you are manipulating?” “I guess I manipulate drawings, images, sketches, foam, 3D models, diagrams; those sort of things, but they are outside my brain” “Is their a difference, if it’s in or outside your brain?” “I think so” “What can you do in your brain that you cannot do on paper?” “Well I can imagine in my mind what a space should be like. Or I have a shape or organization in mind, but I can only go so far in the mind. It’s like a universe of half-formed thoughts, impressions, memories, shapes, patterns and structures that seem disparate” “good, go on” “ok, errr but I can only make sense of all these disparate thoughts when I start drawing, modeling, trying to get my premature associations and connections between these thought out of my brain into the world as a sketch or something. Then I have it before my eyes. Then I can progress. It’s kind of like, as if the paper and my pen are an external memory drive, like external RAM, outsourced working memory. Ha! Never thought about it like that” “Very good 15, tell me more about how this process of progression works” ” I guess that when I have something on paper it makes room for new thoughts. My head is like a hotel that can only hold so many thoughts at a time” The fluorescent light in the room flickered; a buzz slowly intensified and the lights popped. The researcher laughed “divine intervention … , we’re getting too close to the truth.”