SOPHIEWHITFIELD [THE BODY AND PERCEPTION]
CONCLUSION.
'Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to enquire - In the midst of myriads of the living and the dead worlds, stars, systems, infinity, why should I be anxious about an atom?' - Lord Byron [BAKER, J., 2003:31]
This research has been an exploration of the ancient philosophical and cosmological ideals that have shaped our mentality towards our perception of significance within the Universe and how we create truth and reasoning towards the surrounding reality which we find our being; through our senses and the inner void of the human body.
The influence of the past and the human condition of need for total truth and understanding has influenced our state of bodily consciousness in everyday modern life. It is these fundamental questions regarding the universe that has led to our existential questioning of the self in this privileged space-time dimension of life. As the tactile world disintegrates, the darkness of the inner body grows leaving empty space in realms of experience for inner truth and understanding. As our intelligence grows as beings, so does our expectation of life.
Fig. 1: Artistic interpretation of Metaphysics- Hazel Gelman.
It is human nature not to merely ‘dwell’ but to seek to define our own being within the universe; to be united with the senses portrayed through place and experience, which have been dismayed through the solemnity of everyday modern life. We must ask ourselves ‘To what degree does manufactured diversity embody a desire for uniformity’ [DOVEY, K.,2010], to what point will the rationale of science and technology rise and how long will it be until all majestic beauty has gone, leaving mathematics, deprivation and economic greed as a replacement?
The phenomenologist approach to architecture and the self, the importance of cultural context and the relationship of the body in place; hold all justification into the mentality and physicality of perceiving ultimate knowledge and truth of an experience. The thought process and the body are the organisms that hold together our tactile senses; enabling us to give ourselves to a manifestation of perception. To this day, the expansion of aesthetic materials and ideas enables the experience to be sensual, unique and memorable; as without the innovations of a century of mass production, structuralism and engineering, an experience that encapsulates all the senses would not be possible.
The Essence of place can never be altered, the beauty of the untouched world remains indifferent; it is only our being that can define whether or not we are enhancing or extracting from the metaphysical world of the cosmos.
‘The scientist has marched in and taken the place of the poet. But one day somebody will find the solution to the problems of the world – and remember – it will be a poet, not a scientist’ – Frank Lloyd Wright. [As quoted in The Architecture of Perception: 2006]