Rapport 99-00_final - Canadian Centre for Architecture

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Robert Kirkbride Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro During my residency at the CCA, I continued an investigation of the Renaissance studioli from the ducal palaces at Urbino and Gubbio, Italy. These two intimate, image-filled chambers, with their perspectival compositions and mnemonic underpinnings, were the centrepieces of my Ph.D. thesis in the History and Theory of Architecture (McGill University, 2002). Constructed between 1474 and 1483 for the renowned military captain Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino (1422–1482), and his young son, Guidobaldo (1472–1508), the studioli may be described as treasuries of emblems: they contain not things but images of things, rendered with remarkable perspectival exactitude. Through a close reading of these “contents” and their arrangement, I demonstrated how architecture and its ornament prepared a quattrocento mind with metaphors for wisdom and methods for learning. My residence afforded opportunities for advance on several fronts, particularly in transforming and transmitting the findings of my research. During my stay, I composed a series of short historical fictions illustrating how the Montefeltro studioli were used in everyday circumstances of diplomacy, dialectical inquiry, civil judgment, princely education, and leisure. By the end of August half of these fictions were complete and the others were outlined: several were read aloud during my seminar. Fictions demand exactitude. The more I wrote, the more I discovered that this mode of investigation complemented the scholarly research in ways unforeseen. Were woodpeckers and thrushes found in quattrocento Italy? Was gout truly caused by a rich diet, or were symptoms perhaps the byproduct of a failed assassination à la Borgia – by poisoning? Did Marsilio Ficino prescribe hallucinogenic medicines? To this end I greatly benefited from the CCA’s extensive resources and polymathic librarians and staff. If specific sources were not available they were not 30 only tracked down, they were promptly acquired. Such uprooting and fact-checking stimulated new lines of inquiry: several were sketched into abstracts, and await opportunity for further development. Over memorable meals, drinks parties and impromptu coffee-breaks these minutiae and alternative structural arrangements were discussed with fellow scholars and colleagues, to whom I am grateful for their patience and candour. Should the fictions be embedded in the research to foreshadow or highlight historical details? Or, should they be gathered into a separate, slender volume that accompanies the scholarly analysis? In company with these fictions, I had been developing the notion of a collaborative web-based project to translate the research into an interactive digital environment. At the time of their construction, the studioli embodied the leading edge in technologies of visual representation, through the arts of intarsia (wood-inlay) and perspective. Translation of this research into the digital environment would be a natural extension of the studioli, offering a case study of how advances in interactive technologies might reactivate and transform ancient architectural metaphors for thought and learning. Previous research had focused on what the studioli mean, presenting them through isolated plans, elevations, and photographs that assess the chambers’ contents iconographically without offering a cohesive sense of how the images were composed to work in concert. A digital construction, on the other hand, would convey the interactive essence of the studioli more successfully than words or diagrams alone, in a medium complementary to the mnemonic workings of the studioli. Through conversations with Victor Burgin, Mario Carpo, Jean-Pierre Chupin, Andrea Guardo, Martin Kemp, Alain Laforest, Phyllis Lambert, Indra Kagis McEwen, Dirk de Meyer, and Alberto Pérez-Gómez, among others, I considered various interactive
modes for presenting this research. Elaborating on several overhead views introduced in my dissertation, I am currently devising a series of line drawings and diagrams of the studioli that demonstrate how constellations of images would have accompanied various circumstances throughout a typical day at the Urbino court. In a digital environment, these “icons” and diagrams, along with hypertext, will illustrate the research while facilitating navigational crossreferencing in a manner consistent with the chambers’ role as associative engines. At the end of August 2004 the idea of constructing virtual studioli gained momentum in concert with a related endeavour – publishing the dissertation. During my final week, I applied for and later received the Gutenberg-e Prize from the American Historical Association, in conjunction with Columbia University Press (specifically, the Electronic Publishing Initiative at Columbia). This award, “designed to explore the potential of the digital environment to provide innovative models for the publication of peer-reviewed scholarly works,” enables me to present the studioli research in the engaging manner discussed at the CCA. Scheduled to be launched in March 2007, this e-publication, provisionally titled The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro and the Architecture of Memory, will also be available in printed format. At present, it seems appropriate that the fictions will appear in a separate volume. In January 2005, I accepted a fulltime appointment at Parsons, the New School for Design, and soon after began to outline a new seminar/studio titled “Sites of Inquiry,” which will investigate physical settings where knowledge has been gathered, dissected, recombined, and reactivated. The Montefeltro studioli will offer the inaugural case studies for this interdivisional course, which will include students from design, media studies, music, business and management. Throughout the semester, students will examine the roles of design, material craft, and perceptions of space and culture in the shaping of knowledge. In particular, we will investigate artistic, scholarly, and scientific “sites of inquiry” in which knowledge has been gathered, defined, and disseminated across history. Students will work in interdisciplinary teams to analyze the contents and composition of a selected site/study/studio, proposing educational products and interactive media complementary to its original uses. Each semester, new knowledge-sites will be investigated, among them anatomical theatres, observatories, artist studios, laboratories, libraries, museums, and memory theatres. Several articles related to, or as a consequence of, my work at the CCA have materialized. In January 2005, “Architecture as a Model for Thought and Action,” a paper presented in Helsinki, was published in the proceedings of the 2003 ACSA International Conference. While at the CCA I was also able to refine an interview with Dr. Anne G. Tyng for a special issue of the Nexus Network Journal (vol. 7, no. 1: Spring 2005), available in print and online at http://www.nexusjournal.com/Kirk-Tyng.html. In late October 2005, I will represent the NNJ at the conference “Urbino and Perspective,” held by the Accademia Raffaello at the University of Urbino, tying together several lines of inquiry pursued during my residence. 31
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Page 20 and 21: Samuel D. Albert And Was Jerusalem
Page 22 and 23: Jean-Pierre Chupin La scène emblé
Page 24 and 25: Maarten Delbeke The Sacred History
Page 26 and 27: Jean-Philippe Garric Les modèles i
Page 28 and 29: Katja Grillner The Writing of Lands
Page 32 and 33: D. Medina Lasanky Redefining Modern
Page 34 and 35: Wallis Miller Architecture on Exhib
Page 36 and 37: Amy F. Ogata Object Lessons: Design
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Rapport 99-00_final - Canadian Centre for Architecture

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