Friday, March 20, 2009
Baudrillardian Humor
A few minutes ago I was in the conference room working on the specifications for a couple of projects in our office. One of the architects, to whom I was not connected before working here, and who thinks of architecture quite a bit differently from myself, was in the adjacent room talking to the secretary about something. The architect popped his head in the conference room: “Jason, did you see this?” Jason: “See what?” Architect: “The building I designed…here…on the secretary's computer.” Me: (walking toward the secretary's computer): “No.” The architect went on to explain about the color of the doors and the sun screens and some other stuff. Eventually I asked, “Did so and so do these renderings?” Architect: “No, these are photographs.” Me: “What? These are photographs, of the actual building!?”
And I wasn’t joking. I thought they were virtual renderings. I felt bad for a minute, because in my own head that said something about my judgement of the building. Generally I think that if its a good building, no one will mistake a photograph of the building for a virtual rendering, whereas if someone DOES make such a mistake, it clearly says something about the building, especially these days, in light of, for example, Baudrillard. Anyway, then I felt bad because I was thinking ironic thoughts about which the architect guy in my office, standing next to me, was clueless (uuhh, hence the irony). Then I felt bad that I had said something out loud that reflected the silent irony. Then I felt bad because I saw no hope of a way to communicate clearly about the misunderstanding. NOR did I see how it would help the situation if I were to say, "Oh wait, I didn't mean anything by that comment about the renderings." That would only give him a clue that our conversation would have lead to a negative judgement of his building in my head! Babylon...is wierd. And I am still confused about how I should have handled it.
Now maybe I can giggle about it instead of feel bad.
And I wasn’t joking. I thought they were virtual renderings. I felt bad for a minute, because in my own head that said something about my judgement of the building. Generally I think that if its a good building, no one will mistake a photograph of the building for a virtual rendering, whereas if someone DOES make such a mistake, it clearly says something about the building, especially these days, in light of, for example, Baudrillard. Anyway, then I felt bad because I was thinking ironic thoughts about which the architect guy in my office, standing next to me, was clueless (uuhh, hence the irony). Then I felt bad that I had said something out loud that reflected the silent irony. Then I felt bad because I saw no hope of a way to communicate clearly about the misunderstanding. NOR did I see how it would help the situation if I were to say, "Oh wait, I didn't mean anything by that comment about the renderings." That would only give him a clue that our conversation would have lead to a negative judgement of his building in my head! Babylon...is wierd. And I am still confused about how I should have handled it.
Now maybe I can giggle about it instead of feel bad.
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