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EKPHRASIS: REFLECTING ON AN IMAGINARY TOPOLOGY
Retroactive Structure of Rear Window

Workshop

Don Kunze at the Virginia Tech Washington Alexandria Architecture Center (WAAC) focusing on an analysis of "Rear Window". 2022

Year

2022

Envision an image: a meticulous rendering of a vast, circumscribed urban environment, encapsulating the multifaceted, kaleidoscopic lives within. Inspired by the well-articulated insights from Don Kunze's 2022 paper, "Retroactive Structure of Rear Window", this image could be perceived as a visual essay, narrating the nuanced complexities and dynamic topology that the paper discusses.

The viewer’s eyes are initially greeted by a plethora of windows, akin to the opening scene of "Rear Window". Each rectangular portal is an epitome of myriad stories, a collage of various moments in the lives concealed within. The sheer density of these windows provides a resonating echo to the circulatory, constrictive nature of the “interior 8” topology Kunze details, enigmatically folding the outside inwards and vice versa, ambiguously entwining the dichotomies of private and public spheres.

Just as Kunze postulates the wall's transformative capacity as a "condenser or capacitor," each division in the image between one narrative and another – whether it be through a literal wall or a conceptual one – serves as a potent condenser of stories, experiences, and desires, capturing the spatial and emotional distances amidst the physical proximity of the residents.

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