Brookes77, Jencks 1/27/09

“The Emergent Rules” was a very interesting reading. It spoke about our view of old and new values and rules in art and architecture. Throughout the list of 11 the “historical continuum and the relation between the past and present” stuck out to me the most. About the description there was a redevelopment project in London. This was interesting to me because I just spent the past semester in London where one can see the old art and architecture and the new combined together. An example of this would be Oxford Circle where there are many old classical style buildings surrounded by huge bill boards and a huge glass buildings, it is classic yet modernized. To some the classical style in Oxford Circle looks tainted, yet to me the combination with the old and the new was beautiful and a real life example of the different styles of art and architecture throughout time. The reading gives an example of how Anna and Patrick Poirier capture “ this logic of dreams in their fragmented constructions which combine archetypes, half-remembered myths and miniature landscapes”. ( 286) I find it interesting that the reading explains that it is a inconsistent genre, and a “narrative without a plot”. In London I found that the old with the new is beautiful and with these styles combined, it is not original yet a different style of art and architecture, that is unique.
Another Rule that stuck out to me was urbanism. “ The urbane way of life is simply better than is the disassociated and over centralized city” (285). I agree with this because I think it is important to have a proper balance between essential elements such as “ public to private work to living monument to infill….etc.”. I think it is important to have balanced city lay out yet at the same time a city could turn into a “Pleasantville” type of city where everything is planned out to make a perfect city. It would be welcoming, yet it would not be real.
“Things fall together and there is no centre, but connections” is the ending quote. This is a very significant quote, it states that throughout time it is the connections that link the modern world with the past.