Abstract
This chapter coins the concept of fourth space as a cinematic methodological tool for architectural design and interpretation. Fourth space deals with the in-between activities and events that socially construct space. As an extension to Edward Soja's theory of third space, which is the socio-mental and physical experience of space, fourth space illustrates the metaphysical narrative articulation of space, i.e. how individuals tell the story of such experience. Similar to cinematic images, it portrays temporal and spatial narratives that are subjectively composed by the viewers. The chapter puts fourth space into practice by highlighting two workshops co-organized by the author in two different institutions. Though both workshops differed in the nature of the output, the participants were asked to cinematically comprehend and reconstruct the reality and spatiality of the surrounding environment. Eventually, the author establishes fourth space as abstracted representational thinking in the design process.
TopIntroduction: When Homer And Kubrick Conversed
When describing space from an academic point of view, it is necessary to mention the importance of narrative in constructing that space. In the organic form of the word, space is not merely a physical entity dominated by users conducting a specific action, but rather space, especially within the postmodern description put forward by French Philosopher Michel Foucault in his 1984 essay ‘Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias’1, is the central horizon of our concerns, ideologies, cultures, and systems (Foucault, 1984). Hence, space has become a tool to narrate the underlying themes of individuals’ aspirations and agonies. To illustrate this, the article begins by highlighting two epic works that metaphorically deal with spatial narratives. The first is the Greek poem Odyssey written by Homer, and the second is the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Told through 24 books, Odyssey tells the story of King Odysseus, ruler of the island of Ithaca, who has left his home to fight in the Trojan War. Following Odysseus’s victory, he sets out for home with a crew of men where they encounter one predicament after another. A journey that was supposed to take a couple of weeks, but instead it took 10 years. Meanwhile, back home, his faithful wife Penelope is still waiting for her husband, not wishing to marry any of the suitors who occupied her house. Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, a 20-year-old young man who has never seen his father, sets out on a sea voyage, with the help of the goddess Athena, to see what has become of Odysseus. In the end, Odysseys and Telemachus journey back to Ithaca, defeat the suitors, and are reunited with Penelope and Odysseus’s father Laertes. Fast forward to 1968 American Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick made 2001: A Space Odyssey which is an epic voyage through time and space. The film moves from the past to the future through a black structure, the monolith, which, after being discovered on the lunar surface, forces a couple of astronauts and their revolutionary supercomputer HAL 9000 to set out to unravel its mysterious origins. HAL begins to display strange behavior, leading up to a tense showdown with the astronauts, and this sets the way for a visual mind-breaking trek across temporal dimensions.
The overlapping reflections in both works have been the subject of several scholarly writings, among which were Jerome Agel’s 1970 book, The Making of Kubrick’s 2001, and Leonard F. Wheat’s 2000 book, Kubrick’s 2001: A Triple Allegory. Both authors mirror the characters’ journeys and aspirations in their literary and the film works, with Kubrick paying literary merit as a source of inspiration for his movie’s title (Agel, 1970; Wheat, 2000). According to Agel (1970), Kubrick’s appreciation of the mystery and remoteness that space embodies for future generations is quite similar to that of Homer’s stretches of the vast sea. Homer and Kubrick explore a diversity of themes, of which both overlap in the idea of unraveling lost time and space, where the events during the Post-Trojan War period in Odyssey were referenced in the time after the discovery of the monolith in 2001. Furthermore, 2001’s depiction of David Bowman entering the Stargate, when he is sent to a far future, very far that he reappears as a Star Child, is an analogy of the bag of winds in Odyssey that was opened by Odysseus’s crew sending them far away from their destination restarting their whole journey back home.
As an extension to this interpretation, the author highlights the idea of narrative fragmentation that resulted from the different themes in both works. Fragments are universal in their nature and are not bound by laws or forms, hence, according to a quote mentioned in the Spanish novel Rayuela and re-mentioned by Chatzivasileiou (2001):
…there is no Logos which gathers up all the pieces, hence no law which attaches them to a whole to be regained or even formed. (Cortázar, 1966)
Key Terms in this Chapter
Heterotopia: A concept put forward by Michel Foucault referring to spaces embodying certain cultures that are contradictory or intense with what is outside. Examples he gave are cemeteries, bars, and prisons.
Semiotics: The science of signs and meaning-making. A sign is defined as anything that communicates meaning to the interpreter.
Mise-en-scène: A theatrical concept that refers to the design of all that is behind the camera, e.g. storyboarding, cinematography, art direction, and the arrangement of actors for the scene.
Post-structuralism: An intellectual movement that emerged in France during the 1960s and 1970s claiming that any work is not the result of experience or pre-determined cultures, as these can be misinterpreted. Instead, to understand any work, one must study the systems that produced this work.
Formalism: In film theory, formalism is an approach that focuses on the synthesis of the technical elements of a film, i.e. sound, set design, colors, composition, lighting, and editing.
Flânerie: Deriving from the French word ‘Flâneur’, flânerie refers to the act of strolling and wandering aimlessly.