»Syntopia 1—Soma I Body«

»Syntopia 1—Soma I Body« is an exploration of the formation of space by the human body. Using a hand-based augmented reality (AR) framework a filament-structure is spun by hand which gradually envelopes its maker.

»Syntopia 1« is part of a collection of architectural prototypes investigating the notion of syntopy, a term which was coined in biology by Luis René Rivas in 1964. The term is a combination of the Greek words syn*meaning together and *topos meaning place. To develop Syntopia thus means to create designs sourced from and situated within a specific site—a topos (Rivas 1964).

The project is a constructive critique of the current-day use of industrial robotics in architecture since this entails a high use of material and energetic resources. The project proposes a return to human handcraft with only the minimal necessary application of electronic technical devices which are required for data streaming. This reduction of machines is also in favor of a bodily sensing of matter’s own inner activity, thus fostering the interlacing of Body—Matter—Machine.

»Syntopia 1—Soma I Body« has been installed in the Veterinary Anatomy Theater (Tieranatomisches Theater, TA T) in Berlin where horses were killed for anatomical analysis. The prototype was part of the exhibition DAOULA I sheen which featured silk-production in West Africa. In this context, the structure is also echoing with the theme of bodily transformation: horses die and are transformed into objects of scientific study, silk-worms change in their cocoons from one developmental stage to another. Soma (Greek: Body) thus becomes an entity of transition.

References

Rivas, L. R.: A reinterpretation of the concepts »sympatric« and »allopatric« with proposal of the additional terms »syntopic« and »allotopic«. Systematic Biology, 13(1-4), 42-43 (1964).

Project Authors

SYNTOPIA 1—SOMA I BODY

Elaine Bonavia, Jessica Farmer, Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten, Karola Dierichs

weißensee school of art and design berlin, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Matters of Activity Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2022

Part of the exhibition DAOULA | sheen, a project of the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity. Image Space Material« at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), curated by Laurence Douny, Karin Krauthausen, and Felix Sattler with a film installation by Thabo Thindi