October Reflection

It’s been a pretty cool month overall I would say. I started the month thinking about how powerful sounds are. And I still believe in that premise, but I’ve also come to accept in the premise that perfection actually exists, to the un-investigated eyes. I remember a time when I debated with a friend that in reality nothing is perfect. And I finally concede defeat. Maybe it’s because I’ve never truly learned how to love another person completely with all our flaws, but I was constantly in the mindset that everything can be improved. 

Although I believe everything can be improved through practice, with skills, by means of human conscious effort, but life itself is a miracle that I can never truly describe. What I can’t describe is perfection in my perfect little intricate brain that can rationalize knowledge. And I’ve come to realize I really am just a person trying to find meaning with all this abundant knowledge that is flowing in infinite directions. Information flowing to allow for mythologies to exist is something that has captivated my mind for a long time.

I had a grandfather who truly awakened my exploring self when I was a teeny kid. I used to be captivated by his ability to tell stories. This was before tv got in my head. As I was born in Bangladesh, TV wasn’t a huge influence till later in my life. During my early childhood years, I was most captivated by the stories my grandfather told me. I just remember all these vivid pictures popping in my head whenever he told any stories. I probably can’t tell you what those stories are, since it was such a long time ago for me, but those stories set me out to explore.

Sometimes I wonder how the human hippocampus evolved at such a rate. Our prefrontal cortex obviously interacts with the hippocampus in a very perfect fluid manner. And the notion that the more you use your brain, the better it becomes, has been stuck with me since I stumbled into the study of human behavior, or psychology. But I’m starting to become skeptical of psychology, but obviously I’m not a scientist, so I’m probably very biased. But overall I do appreciate the approach that modern behavioristic/neuro-cognitive psychology brings.

Ultimately, I wish I actually wrote more often. This month has been pretty bad writing-wise. But it’s taught me how easy it is to get stuck with routines. Once any routine is rationalized as worthy in the brain, it’s hard to let the flow of words come out when the mind becomes rigid. And not to say, I wasn’t writing personal thoughts, but my inner critique got the best of me and my writing seemed more jumbled up than usual. But alas, I’m probably the only one who vaquely understands what I’m writing, as of right now. 

But to anybody who does read this, I appreciate your time. I have great respect for writers and storytellers. By any chance, if anyone does ever read this, please tell me the name of some books that have opened up your imagination. It can be either English, Japanese, or Bangla. 

Worth

Worth by precious metals

"Mukashi mukashi no monogatari” or back in the old days, the gift of choice would have been the metals that are the rarest to attain. Being able to communicate with distant foreign tribes meant exchanging gifts in order for peace. I’m probably simplifying this to a millionth degree since “history” is such a vast concept. But I just want to discuss how worth has changed over the course of history. What was once worthy, because it was hard to find, now can be found at an abundant pace. When scarcity disappears, worth also devolves. 

Worth by Money

Nowadays the rare metals such as gold, silver, ruby, emerald, etc are still very valuable but their worth is also derived with the concept of money. “Money” actually means, for my curiosity, in Bangla phonemes, "what does it mean?” As an aspiring linguist, just loving languages, I’ve noticed the role of communicating with our peers is signified by how we trade, so this means money is a foundational worth currency for trading purposes. 

I think being able to consciously count has led to the evolution of money. For tribes that don’t have a trading currency, the trading methods for food, cloths, and shelter are dependent by the social hierarchy of each person in the group, thus age plays a more significant role. But because in our 21st century society, money is so abundant, we have started to place an enormous worth in “money”. This has allowed for many to monopolize “money.”

Worth by community

I believe, again a simplification, worth is ultimately a product of our community. I recently lost my belief in money’s worth till I realized money is a method of enhancing your current belief systems. But worth ultimately is made by noise, in my opinion. For example, in this current election season, Trump and Clinton are both making a lot of noise. Thus they have a lot of influence and power. But because Clinton has a harder time advocating for herself in an emotional manner, currently Trump seems to have an edge as he is very very vocal about his opinions. Even if they are filled with conspiracy theories and whatnots, it does attract the obsequious people who have been primed by soothing words of comfort.

Worth in languages

“Fear doesn’t create worth, sound creates worth” (Raihan)

My realization that fear is a transitory state of being in fight or flight mode and being super aware of one’s surrounding when danger is present is what led me to my exploration of sound. Sound is what stays in our unconscious, this is also a simplification. What we frequently hear eventually becomes potent and arrives to our conscious mind at a rapid pace. Thoughts are very dependent on our belief and senses about people and the environment. Ultimately our trust in people and people trusting us, based on our communication with each other, is what leads to real worth. My analysis on this topic is at a very early stage, but I’m starting to see, listen, hear, and understand the potentiality of how conscious sound formation has brought us to our current reality.

Power of Belief

Intro

Today I want to discuss how our beliefs are essential for living. I used to question the nature of why people needed to believe in all powerful beings. There are tribes that exist that potentially don't believe in the supernatural like the Piraha Tribe. But I have come to realize the rationalization in believing. I believe that thoughts calm down and migrate to the unconscious when faith is present biologically in a person.

People generally start forming beliefs by looking through things through their eyes. So I was naturally curious in how our belief system evolved to entail so many bizarre unobservable phenomenons. It was very interesting to realize that beliefs are what keeps the conscious mind from going out of focus. I believe one needs to have trust in the laws of nature in order to maintain a homeostasis in the mind. The conscious mind is a curious little thing that meshes together all the monotony of life and then it gives us thoughts. 

Priming

We live in a world where information is growing in exponential abundance. But that also means we are being primed by more and more people everyday, whether that’s by social media, television, or by your local peers at your favorite restaurant. So "how does this relate to consciousness?" you say, I think it’s very very important to our rationalization of reality. Whether we like to believe it or not, I think words linger in our memory based on the recency effect. The association of words is a rather complex subject that potentially, from my perspective, has exponential theories. But I believe that words affect the consciousness in very realistic ways. The conscious mind is not our primary organ through which we evaluate the world. It is theoretically said that our frontal lobe develops at the age of 25. I believe, as recent research in neuroscience has proven, that the conscious mind can evolve even further. That means, because of plasticity, we can develop new neurons and ideas even as we become older. Age is a number that’s been created to evaluate time. The evaluation of time is a crucial element in understanding our reality. But that also limits our potentiality to people who fall into the paradigm shift of a concrete beginning and an ending.

Believing through Seeing

Naturally, seeing, at least I believe, is one of the most primary methods of evaluating the world. What we see can further include the integration of the functions of our senses. And when the senses combine together to create thoughts, we also see our perception of selective reality. It amused me to find out, when I read Mastery and Daniel Everett, the Piraha Tribe don’t have collective knowledge of the past. So they evaluate the world from their senses. They don’t record anything about life in literature, at least from my understanding. So their beliefs are formed by the perception of the space that they live in. They have the skills necessary to live but at the same time they don’t consciously complicate life to the extent that the rest of the industrialized nations have. I believe their consciousness is very complex for the tasks that they do, but I also think they probably have more systems for understanding sounds than us. At least that’s how it looks from the distance.

Believing through Religion

I believe religion has profound significance to the conscious mind. As a person that has been exposed to several religions, I see the value and community religion provides. It’s a form of seeing the world when nothing else can logically provide answers. Thus when something becomes impossible to logically solve, the only next solution is having faith in the process of life. When an individual goes too far into rationalizing without having a grounded faith, then reality starts to distort itself. I truly believe that people are meant to believe so the consciousness can focus on the more important things in life. When food and shelter are within our reach, the next step to a curious mind is belief. When belief is met in a logical sense, then the potential of the world becomes limitless.

Belief in Languages

This is something that’s been popping up in the back of my mind. So I’m going to start investigating similarities in languages in regards to the formation of belief. I think it has to deal with how traditionally languages have become mixed in our history. So I’m just curious if there are similarities. From my perspective, our unconscious, or our fight or flight mode depends on our ability to distinguish sound automatically. So association does play a role in our perception of reality. Thus what pops up in our mind during instant moments is crucial for our survival. I believe language also evolved in similar levels even in different languages.

Similarities in language:

Words: 

English:

To see, To understand, To believe, To give

Bangla:  

দেখা (deka), বুজা (buja), বিশ্বাস করা (bichash kora) , দাওয়া (dawa)

Japanese

見る (miru), 分かる (wakaru), 信じる (shinjiru), あげる (ageru), くれる(kureru)

Consciousness Minor Clarity

I’ve been pretty focused on understanding how the consciousness works for a pretty long time now. I suppose it’s been almost 7 years since I became interested in the nature of the development of the consciousness. My definition of consciousness is about trying to understand how the frontal lobe arrives at our conscious perception holistically. But I’ve come to realize the majority of the work that arrives in the consciousness is predetermined based on our mental state. Thus how we emotionally deal with the environment based on our perception is what arrives to our conscious mind. So far in my life, I’ve been defining the unconscious, everything that isn’t in our conscious thoughts, as this big hidden mechanism. Although, that’s true, our unconsciousness needs to be divided into greater depth, at least for my sake.

Thus instead of just talking about the conscious and the unconscious, I want to discuss how the conscious mind evaluates the complexity of the unconscious. Since we are meant to only really truly know around 150 people, based on Dunbar’s Number, I want to start discussing how our tribe influenced the evolution of our conscious mind. I think it’s only recently, through the internet, that human society as a whole have become so accustomed to abundant knowledge. Before this, people generally weren’t meant to be thinking consciously for a long time. I can kind of see how the people who have discovered the most about our reality are the people who were the most conscious. Thus people who can see reality with abundant clarity are the people who can be conscious for a very long period of time. These are the people that break way from the habits of regular life. This means the people who are consciously deciding their fate with conscious action are making the most impact within our reality.

It’s interesting to realize that the world is filled with never-ending patterns. I know this is very vague, but I think it’s interesting to realize that more fact based knowledge doesn’t necessarily equate to more influence. I think human beings have grown to deal with the unpredictability of the world. Thus instant reactions are more useful than conscious slow thinking. People who are clear about what they want to do have more influence. Which pretty much means the confident person rather that the contemplative person will have more influence. But this happens because, generally, the confident person has a greater belief system than the person who slowly responds from contemplation. However, I think, when the contemplative person truly believes in their ability, they can become confident and will thus have more influence.

At what point does contemplation evolve? That’s a question that I’m kind of working on. I suppose when one can be in the present moment without having to rationalize future scenarios is the moment that a person begins to have greater control. The ability of a curious mind that’s in the present moment will have the greatest influence. Being able to respond to another person without hesitation is a great trait in my opinion. I think this trait, when one is truly curious about another person, is what can have the greatest influence to our evolution of consciousness. When the “ego,” the part that Freud describes as the self-centered part of our brain, lets go of its control over the conscious mind, this is when the consciousness can evolve to another level.

I think all people are same to an extent. Which pretty much means that people generally have similar pathways in the brain. There’s a pathway that reacts with fight or flight, the part of our unconscious mind that is based on our heart’s awareness of our environment. The person who generalizes danger the fastest probably has the best chance of fighting or running away. The categorization of reality is super important to survival. If one can’t categorize, choosing will take too much conscious effort. However, conscious realization of our environment can help an individual understand more of our reality. And with that, I’ll conclude for today.

Gratitude

After two full years, I finally feel pretty content. This may be a very general statement, but I have only thought about my personal afflictions for the past two years. I forgot to be grateful for everything I had. I thought about the worst-case scenarios rather than all the opportunities that reality is filled with. In an earlier blog, I reasoned that taking a different perspective was a very difficult task because of the unconscious hierarchies that are ingrained in our brain since childhood. However, coming to a conclusion, I think gratitude and believing in the innocence of mankind is what will ultimately lead to a healthy life. 

The definition of healthy is something I would like to dive into. I always thought reason was the main tool for understanding reality. But that’s a very rigid perception of life. In my opinion, I believe there are way too many layers of thoughts that are sprinkled throughout the unconscious. And when certain thoughts will pop up in the consciousness is something only “god” knows. I have questioned the concept of a higher being for a long time. But I’m starting to believe that there is a force that comes through reality by just the concept of believing. And when I say “god”, in this sense, I’m talking about the complexity of how the frontal lobe integrates thoughts from all the other lobes.

A few years earlier, I realized that monkeys and some other mammals do have the concept of consciousness. Though their ability to abstractly think is very limited compared to humans. I started wondering, “how did language evolve?” Until recently, I wasn’t very sure about this. A lot of animals, like baboons and monkeys, have a social hierarchy that allows for many types of communication. Robert Sapolsky is an evolutionary behavior expert that studied baboons for over 20 years. His understanding of how animals behave in a social hierarchy is very illuminating. From his lecture on youtube, I’ve realized understanding the human consciousness could take longer than we currently imagine. Because the questions that are answered in Psychology always lead to thousands of more questions. The evolution of virtual reality is another concept that could change the logic of reality.

So back to the question of "what is healthy?” I believe it’s healthy to forget things. When the consciousness becomes super occupied with a task, the conscious tends to forget things that are not relevant. I would never want to remember everything, that’s why having faith, I think, is crucial for survival. Thinking too far into the future could hurt our current society. Thinking about trips to Mars is something that could illuminate what is possible to a whole new level. But thinking that far, I think, makes us very fallible. Living for the moment becomes a distant memory. When one thinks too far into the future, the enjoyment that the current moment can provide dissipates. 

Anyways, that’s why I’ve decided to stop questioning reality and start living it. In school, I learned the benefits of having a critical mind. What I didn’t learn was the concept of being grateful for this moment that I have. I kind of wish recess continued till the end of high school. That would have been great. After losing recess in 7th grade, reality started changing for me. But I digress, I’m grateful for having this outlet.

Conjecture on the Nature of Relationships

Hi dear readers,

Today I want to discuss the nature of how we relate to each other. As I was talking to my niece the other day, I realized we always act differently based on our situation. This may be a given fact, however, the way we speak to our friends and the way we speak to our parents or teachers are two different things. A hierarchy developed at some point that is truly ingrained in us. The complication of the hierarchy, definitely, varies based on the individual.

And to the people who say, life is all about how we view ourselves, I won’t say it’s false, but there are so many unconscious layers of hierarchies through how we define reality, that it’s very difficult to view ourselves logically with our consciousness.

In a previous blog, I talked about mirror neurons. As kids start modeling the world based on the people around them, they also start categorizing people that are close to them. This categorization of how they should behave with certain people persist for a long time. The categorization happens in everything in life actually. I mean our perception is also a categorization based on our individual experience of reality.

But there is a hard categorization that can develop based on our early experiences. I was always very shy with my teachers. I believe that’s because I viewed the teachers as supreme authority figures that would yell at me if I did something wrong, in my case I was traumatized by getting hit by a teacher when I was a little kid in Bangladesh. My categorization for teacher-like authorities thus devolved into caution. 

I used to never notice what my body did. It’s amazing to notice and realize that we are a being that is controlled by trillions of cells. Our body is a compilation of different groups of living creatures from all walks of life. And we are just a complex being created by little organisms working in a hierarchy. Categorizing the world and then responding based on the hierarchy is a law of life in my opinion. Even stereotypes are just a categorization of different people. It’s created so people don’t have to consciously think about how to react to new people they see. 

Our brain is really primed for taking shortcuts. The reason we become better at everything we do is because we start taking shortcuts. And these shortcuts appear in the form of habits. And the habits are ingrained in our unconsciousness. Just like walking or running, we can start to notice new things as the things that were once difficult become habitual.

And thus relationships between human beings are the same, we become who we are close to. We mimic what the other person does and slowly we notice the slightest change in the other person.  

Translation

What I mean?

I feel like everything is abut translating. I started writing because I want to translate all the great stories I’ve read and heard into my own language. Because the translation process of how we experience the world seems to change dramatically as we grow up. I’m at a point in my life where I have options but I can’t seem to choose any of them. How I translated the world when I was younger and how I translate the world now seem to be so different. But in reality, I think it’s really not, I just have a tendency to believe that it’s different.

Childhood Experience

When I was a kid, everything was exciting. Everything had a potential to be a fun experience. It didn’t matter where I was, I just wanted to move my body. My translation of the world was very immediate. It was about my capacity to do things. I remember taking turns jumping. There were times when racing was all I wanted to do. I remember playing marbles, a game of carrom, playing soccer, and just wondering about. Everything that I was translating was through the anticipation of moving. My translation of the world depended on the immediate necessity to do something that increased my adrenaline. But I’ve forgotten a lot of this since recently. 

Adult Experience

As an uncle of 4 nieces, I’ve learned how babies and little kids translate the world, from the perspective of a supposed adult. I remember talking to my oldest niece a couple of months ago, it was just another day. But the way she described the world in front of her caught me off guard. 

I was just walking on the road, the same place that I’ve walked through for 16 years. This is where my school bus came everyday when I was a younger. So when my 6 year old niece started describing all the things that you can do in the space, I was startled to realize it was true. She started talking about hanging around the little pond that was nearby, going for walks in the grass, running and playing tag, and hiding behind trees.

She was very positive about the possibilities that the environment in front of her brought. I’ve become pretty oblivious to what’s in front of me. So it was very inspiring to realize that there are so many possibilities. 

I realized after some moments, that I stopped translating the world in that way at some point. I used to love playing tag when I was younger. I used to get excited about pretty much everything. I was even excited to be learning how to make buildings when I started college. But somewhere along the way, that excitement faded. 

Babies and kids also pretty much model the world through observation, though their perception of the world is highly magnified. That’s why kids nowadays love listening to and watching youtube videos all the time. I mean adults do it too, but the kids watch it at a different level. 

Before a certain age, it doesn’t matter how many times something plays, babies seem to enjoy the sound and the movement with a different intensity. Obviously they also like moving, but they also love watching a simple action or tune over and over again.

Psychological Experience

As a student of modern psychology, it’s very interesting to realize that the mind always wants to seek out novel experiences. How interesting something is depends on the brain’s exposure to the event. Babies first start by crawling, then walking, then running, and then jumping, and on and on. Eventually the experiences that they seek out broadens.

Learning how to do things by oneself becomes learning how to do things with other people. It’s a never ending process of learning by perceiving and observing. I realize I stopped looking at things, and just started creating. And that’s a flaw on my part. Because creating something new is the same as learning how to model something. It’s the same as learning how to run for the first time.

When something is new, the process, the state of flow takes over. And everything becomes exciting. When thoughts stop, and the body just starts moving, that’s when you know you’re enjoying the experience. That’s, I think, why roller coasters still can induce such excitement cause you’re just experiencing the movement. 

The prefrontal cortex, or our consciousness, is loaded with so much information nowadays. It’s easier to see why cooperation will be the norm of society, but as a result, individuality will be lost. The excitement that is lost in the process of conformity as we become adults is something I want to study. I believe cooperation is key for society, but I can’t accept how individuality has become such a commodity. 

Architecture Experience

I believe, the process of modeling the world, is diminishing at an astronomical rate as we become older. The 9-5 jobs that have become the standard is making us very robotic. Robots are good with routines, I remember during college, I would get into a routine of just trying to create, eat, sleep, make stuff and just repeat. It bothered me how my routine each day was becoming my habit. That’s one of the reasons why I have a harder time enjoying the moment nowadays.

When I was in college, the first two years, we spent a lot of time studying what was in front of us. We measured and made models based on what we were exposed to. However, that initial exploration went 180 for me. By third year, we started copying modern buildings and stopped copying nature. The traditional norms of how buildings are built became our routine. The exploration slowly diminished for me.

It became harder for me to create by modeling regular buildings. There was no innovation. I started thinking about how light came through, or how people walked through the space, or how color affected perception of the space. When I started realizing that all buildings are so simple, it started bothering me why the complexity of life was being diminished so much.

Final Thoughts

As technologies connect us, the individual is starting to have an outlet for his/her view of reality. However, the technology is also a huge propaganda machine that is conforming society to polarized opinions. I believe the world today is significantly better, in terms of quality of life and experience. But what we’re exposed to on a regular basis, for example on tv, are the moments that are highly emotional. 

We remember these events, while forgetting how much more access we have. If the individual doesn’t creatively explore and translate what’s in front of them, then we will literally become robots. With AI technology, AR and VR just around the corner, the ways an individual will explore the world will change drastically. If the individual doesn’t take conscious control, people in control of the technology will eventually prime us to be more robotic.

But I don’t think that will happen if we can really creatively imagine and translate what’s in front of us. The creative individuals can take charge of the technology. It can lead to greater innovation. At least, that’s my hope. I want to translate what I see into new experiences. Through my writing, through my example and through what I build, I want to become a person that consciously translates my environment.

Fable's Story: Prologue Part 1

Fable ran through the forest, anticipating the breakfast that he plans to cook. 

Fable is an adventurous soul that recently moved into an organic modern-hut next to a river. His mind is very curious but recently he’s begun pondering about the reality of life, or at least the view that has become the norm, since his venture into the past. 

As his mind was taken over by heavy breathing, Fable knew he was close to his destination. He got up at 6 o’clock in the morning,  thankfully he still has a solar cell that tells him the time. 

Before his move to the hut, he was living in a condo in a modern suburban town. Fable recently realized he was practically a grown person. But he didn’t fully realize what that meant. Life has  been one big roller coaster as far as he can tell.

As Fable saw the halo of the sun, he realized he would finally soon get out of the forest. He’s actually been running for more than an hour today. It’s become a habit for him to run every morning at 6 o’clock. But Fable doesn’t actually understand why he’s been running everyday.

It all began 2 years prior to today’s event. Fable was curious by nature. He’s been told all his life what to do. But since he was so curious, he was always questioning every action. But in the year, 2150, when Fable was 22, he somehow warped into the past. 

This began his long journey. But for now, Fable just wanted to make breakfast, he could see his hut. As he slowed down his speed, he could see the river and his hut mingling together. It was a great site, it’s only been in recent decades that these huts have become the norm.

-Short Story, to be continued...

Philly Space

Fairmount Park

When I lived in Philly, I used to go running in Fairmount Park fairly often. It’s a very harmonic space because there’s different types of spaces along the way. By human nature, people tend to like ecotones. Ecotones are transitional spaces between two biological communities. I really liked running next to the Schuylkill River in the morning as it gave me energy to start my day. The environment changed my mindset and allowed me to experience Philly in a whole new way. Usually I was stuck in university buildings that don’t really value nature. 

Habits

I’ve been talking about habits in a negative light so far in the blogs because habits usually make us oblivious to our environments. However, habit formation can be really good for us as it makes us more functional as a byproduct of allowing our consciousness to have more freedom. When the unconscious takes over the rudimentary tasks, the consciousness can potentially have the option of focusing on tasks that are more difficult.

I remember noticing the complexity of Fairmount Park as my running pattern became habitual. There were days where I would automatically go to Fairmount Park to run, and then I would notice things that I usually would ignore. When something becomes a habit, one is able to notice the complexity of the environment. I’m intrigued by the adaptation of the consciousness because it’s really cool to know that we can always investigate and notice what’s in front of us even after looking at something hundreds of times. 

For example, I realized the intricacy of the bridges that were nearby the park. The patterns that structurally made the bridge strong became more apparent the more I looked at them. I also noticed the river sides and how at one point in time people probably bathed in the river. There are all sorts of history and ideas that come about when the same object is investigated with a different perspective. The cool thing about nature is the knowledge that it’s always changing.

If buildings are able to mimic this change, then the capacity for new experience is also exponential. I initially wanted to write a blog about my progress with the organic wissahickon model. But I don’t have any habitual ideas on how to create it yet. So exploring habits and the types of spaces in Philly has given me new knowledge about what can be a possibility. Maybe repetitive emulation is key in the beginning for creating a habit, similar to how I started running.

Expectation and Exploration

Hi blog readers,

Today I want to continue my discussion of creativity and how I plan to integrate it with architecture. 

The interesting thing about creating something is the product that one produces. I never fully realized the power of creativity till I actually really started making architecture models. What you expect to create and what you actually make are two different things. When you begin to create something, the process takes over. What you conceptualize initially changes over time to something that mirrors your conception. But the concept that initially sparks the creation changes. Now you have a model that is spatially developed. This development creates new ideas that wasn’t noticeable beforehand. In reality, I don’t think creating organic space will be difficult, but rather it will be an extended iterative process, where building multiple layers of the same idea will produce variety of results. Because creativity comes from many attempts of the same process.

So far, in my previous blogs, I’ve been talking about all the flaws of architecture and the creative process. But there are a lot of things that work. Just the process of creating allows the mind to explore what is possible. When I was younger, I used to go to the roof of the building that I lived in, and wonder in awe of the sheer heights of the buildings and the different types of housings that existed. It was really cool looking down and seeing how people created all sorts of things. What amazed me was the fact that people built the structures with their hands.

Everything starts step by step. Say one brick at a time. Or one piece of wood at a time. The processes that we use in architecture usually starts one piece at a time. One of my favorite models is the Wissahickon model that I worked on. I was really captivated trying to mimic the shape of nature. I think I spent a month fully developing the model so that it looked like a natural rock. At the time I was just trying to copy the curve of the rocks. But now I realize, this simple process of one piece at a time allowed me to create something that was even better than the rock that I was basing it off from.

Wissahickon Model

For this blog, I’m going to attempt to recreate my Wissahickon model that I created from planer plywood. I remember spending two nonstop full weeks in the woodshop to build the model. It was a really fun experience for me even though it took a lot of time. The process of what I was doing wasn’t really difficult. But rather, creating the individual planer pieces took a lot of time. I had to measure the piece, then I had to cut it and sand it till it became the perfect size. And I did this for over 100 pieces. The simplicity of the process created a model that looked beautiful to me. I was very proud of what I created because I could see everything I did in front of me. Because of this step, I’ve decided to mimic this process throughout all the other models that I created during architecture school. Hopefully I’ll develop some cool models in the upcoming weeks.

Role of expectation

For today, I worked on developing a top view, a front view, a left view, and a right view. My expectation is to build upon the complexity that I created throughout my model. I did learn a lot every semester in architecture school. During the semesters though, I deviated from integrating the prior semesters and focused more on the main concept of each new semester. So my expectation for this exercise is to build upon what I’ve learned in architecture school and integrating it. I think if I keep exploring, my idea for what I think is organic will slowly evolve. The fun part will be the exploration.

Observation

Hello dear readers,

Today I want to transition from talking about perceiving something to the idea of observation. Once one analyzes something, at what point does one receive enough information to call it observation. Is observation and perception the same thing? Observing something requires conscious thoughts, but you can perceive unconsciously to an extent. However, perceiving something will eventually lead to observing something, by nature, if the cue is prominent. Though there’s a lot of variation regarding when one becomes conscious of something. The unconscious and priming controls a lot of what we perceive and observe. Our moods and emotions control the level of perception and observation.

The eyes

Recently, I re-read some sections of Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. I was curious about how the speed of thoughts increase depending on the nature of what you’re looking at. I was intrigued by the notion of the eyes dilating when a problem is difficult, and the eyes constricting when a problem is simple. So the more conscious effort a problem requires, the more dilated the eyes become. The eyes also seem to dilate when one looks at objects in the distance. And they constrict when one looks at objects that are close. The dilated eyes also find information more intriguing/beautiful because the mind is in observation mode. Unconsciously, the dilation causes the frontal lobe to be more active.

As I read more, I realize the eyes can say a lot about what we’re looking at. The environment controls the body’s actions and thoughts. And what we’re exposed to, at the photon level, affects our human consciousness. There have been studies that show that a person is more conscious under blue light. And the power of colors can have a profound effect on a person. But at any given moment, our unconsciousness knows everything but our consciousness is not aware. At what point does the realization occur that some things are more important? 

I know Sherlock Holmes can observe really really well. That means, at any given moment, his consciousness is always on point. He can also rely on his unconscious to a large extent. He is very aware of what he sees unconsciously. Every dilation that occurs is also engraved into his consciousness. Or he has access to more synapses that cross-wires his brain. He can recall and visualize at an extraordinary level because he can locate what his unconscious is doing. I suppose he’s a super conscious being with a crazy working memory.

But that doesn’t explain why observation is not the same for different people. Can one train to become better at observation, like training the working memory? I guess the obvious answer is yes, but what actually happens that causes the brain to focus on specific cues. Is it all related to childhood? So what we’re exposed to as a child and what we pay attention as we grow up is highly correlated. My questions arise because I want to understand how can we allow the consciousness to observe without conscious effort. One thing about Sherlock Holmes is that he is always alert. But being alert takes a lot of toll on the conscious mind. And human beings have a natural tendency to form habits as a result of wanting to decrease the conscious mental load.

Perspective

Studying how people observe can be a very effective method for understanding how we react to different shapes and forms. Because I want to study organic architecture, I want to understand how a person starts caring for his/her environment. A lot of what we see is imbedded already in our mind. The new environment that is created will impact the individual based on their perception and observation of the whole environment. If all environments start to look the same, then the mind stops caring for it. Working with lights, materials, and different forms will affect how individuals react to a certain spaces. However, habituation does always take control eventually. And space can become dull. So maybe directing movement to make people observe specific forms can change their perception of the environment.

Looking vs Perceiving

I want to explore the concept of looking today. We live in a world where seeing is everything. Seeing also seems to be the most crucial element for perceiving reality. But is it really? To me, looking at something doesn’t really trigger significance. Rather, when I am perceiving the event, I actually start caring about the event. I want to explore the concept of when we actually start noticing what’s happening in front of us.

Looking can be a very unconscious event. I want to explore when the consciousness takes over and looking at something turns into the concept of perceiving something. Because perceiving requires conscious effort. You have to use your senses to perceive something. It’s not the same as judging, but rather being aware of what’s there. Judging requires analysis, I want to understand what’s in front of us after the fact of looking but before the act of judging. Because judging is also pretty automatic once you perceive based on your senses. But does that mean the judgement is ingrained automatically in the unconscious based on the environment?

Recently, I watched a Ted talk by James Howard Kunstler. And I agree with his analysis of the ghastly tragedy of the american suburb. When I studied architecture, I was surprised at how much I focused on the architecture itself and not the environment that it was located in. I studied in Philadelphia, so when we designed, the environment was occupied with the mundane elements of everyday life. It was packed with apartments, houses, and shops that are the norm of cities. Because it was so normal, everything was meshed together, I started disregarding the environment and started focusing more on how people would react once people arrived at my design. 

But I realize now that perceiving the environment and then looking at my design go hand-in-hand. Since I was copying the environment without realizing that the environment also needs to start inviting people in, the environment has to be a space where people can relax. My problem with Philly architecture is with its design of fitting people inside rather than allowing people to experience the space. Apartments are generally compact, divided by roads and major destinations. There’s very little interaction outside besides people walking from place to place. And major destinations, like center city and old city, are where people congregate. And I want people interacting everywhere.

When I went to Tokyo, I was surprised at how people were more likely to be outside at all times. The train system allowed for bustling people at all times. There were people riding bikes in all spaces. Of course, there were also cars, but there was a hierarchy that made it more acceptable for the cars to exist. But in american cities, cars generally overwhelm all types of spaces.  Especially in places like Philly, where it bothered me that there were so many cars. I used to bike all the time in Philly, so I have more experiences with the roads, but overall the space designed for people to live in generally were bounded by big roads. It would be nice if there was more of a hierarchy between where people walk, bike, drive, and interact.

Now with the discussion, regarding perception, I think generally we do perceive a great deal the first time we arrive at a destination. We look at the surroundings, we get familiar with what stands out, all the different shapes, and the movement of the space itself. But that happens the first few times, and then we slowly become used to the space. I want to lessen habituation and increase perception. The idea that our transportation systems and the noise of our environment taking control of our space should be erased. The architecture that I designed became bulky and standardized because at the time I wasn’t able to realize how interacting with the outside was crucial. I was focusing on the interior space without realizing that the exterior was already having unconscious effects on the individual. 

It becomes hard to justify designs that deviate from the norm. Architecture nowadays still exist mostly in rectangular shapes because the process to create structure is easier that way. This doesn’t solve the problem of people interacting with the space though. If people keep building space with just looking and using it as shelter, then the interaction between human beings is going to diminish. If people continue to stay inside and not interact with each other, then we’ll be living in a future with thousands of vertical skyscrapers but no interaction between people.

Sources used:

http://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_suburbia?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tedspread

William James meant when he wrote, “My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind.”

Downfall of being Authoritative

Authoritativeness

When I was really young, around the age of 6, I remember getting hit by a thin narrow piece of stick on my hands for not being able to do something in class. It was a long time ago, so I don’t remember specifically, and this was in Bangladesh. But it was standardized for a teacher to have the sticks as a form of authoritative control. This was so to ignite fear into the students that disobeyed. So today, I feel like discussing the authoritativeness of systems that still exist throughout the world. I want to specifically discuss why this is killing creativity and how it’s developing the wrong mentality for people that exist in less affluent societies.

Creativity

The notion that telling kids to do stuff rather than teaching them is something that troubles me. By using physical pain as a method of deterrence, kids are still taught in some countries to follow orders rather than how to think independently. Being authoritative works to calm down a group of people, as a leader. Which is understandable, since people trust an authoritative voice when they’re unsure about what to do. But when it comes to the individual, without empathy, authoritativeness just attracts miscommunication. When individuals follow laws just cause they know otherwise there’s punishment is a fallible philosophy. The existence of laws is something that’s needed in today’s society. But I think they should be rules that people should follow because they understand what it means rather than it being a form of punishment. 

Creativity is lost

By having a strict authoritative figure, I believe people in general lose creativity. That’s because of the existence of mirror neurons. I discovered mirror neurons while reading Ramachandran’s Tell-Tale Brain. I was very intrigued by the idea of neurons, cells of the brain, reacting to something that’s happening to somebody as if it’s happening to oneself. It made me question all of reality to an extent. I realized babies learn by modeling the world. Baby’s look at their surroundings and mimic everything they see. The sounds, the actions of their parents, and the actions of others. So in this case, it seems like babies have very high reactive mirror neurons. But, it seems to me, that mirror neurons don't diminish as we grow older, but rather, we are desensitized by society based on what we are exposed to. 

I still react very badly to blood when I see it, but I think my extreme reaction is a result of the pain that I endured because I broke my leg 3 times. So seeing blood, is mentally traumatizing for me. So my mirror neurons are still very active in that regard because I have a specific memory that I go back to. But in our current society, people are exposed to everything because of tv. Some of the worst things that happen nowadays are amplified because you can visually see it in front of the tv. But I don’t think mirror neurons are highly reactive, in this regard, because we’ve been desensitized by the concept of tv that everything in tv is foreign to us. When we can personally relate to an event, then the mirror neurons act up. So personal related memories are crucial for the activation of mirror neurons. Which means mirror neurons are specifically activated and grow based on experiences.

Now back to the topic of creativity, I believe when we are young, the more authoritative of an environment we are raised in, the more desensitized we become to the idea of exploration. Our mirror neurons value the authoritativeness to the point where we stop questioning the validity of authority. Our mirror neurons grow to the point where fear is embedded based on what we were exposed to as a child. So having a fear based authoritative figure actually hinders our ability to grow as people. I’ve come to the conclusion that it actually lessens empathy. Because if fear is embedded into our minds, then the ability to creatively take the perspective of another’s mind is also hindered. Our ability to question authority disappears and we become followers because fear has made it possible for our mirror neurons to not react.

Empathy

Empathy

Empathy happens because of mirror neurons. At least, from my understanding of cognitive neuroscience. I believe empathy occurs when we can relate to another’s action. When somebody does something, we can realize what they're doing because we’ve gone through similar situations. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we had the exact same situation. But it means that we can creatively think through what the possible scenario is. Empathy requires listening to the other person. It requires understanding emotion. Mirror neurons are activated at a higher rate when specific emotions are detected. So it makes sense why people remember the happiest, saddest, angriest, and all the other emotionally enhanced memories more than memories when we are content. By empathizing with people, we learn to cooperate more. And as the world becomes a big forum, it'll be interesting to see how the cooperation of different nations proceed. I think ultimately, the people who are creative and can empathize will be the people who initiates the cooperation. People who are desensitized by authority probably will have the hardest time cooperating. Because they will have a harder time understanding other people's point of view. Because they have been exposed to the harshest authoritative people. Change thus becomes something that they fear because creativity was under-developed from childhood.

Resources used during writing:

Creativity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGLUzYUKhTs

Ramachandran

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/do_mirror_neurons_give_empathy

Value of Exploration

Exploring is cool

Exploration

I love exploring. It’s fun to find something that you’re not looking for. That’s why I used to watch a lot of cartoons while I was growing up. I wanted to explore all the worlds that imagination brought to reality for me. As I grew up, I realized that exploration can come in many forms. You can explore the world, or you can explore what’s in front of you. I wanted to explore the process of why I became interested in certain things and became repulsed with other things. Eventually I wanted to explore why creating something gave me pleasure. I was intrigued by things that caught my attention. And that’s when it hit me, everything that I’ve done till now can have meaning, or it can be valueless, it just depends on my phrasing and my level of curiosity.

Attachment from exploring

Creating something of value requires effort. And what you create becomes something of value because of the personal attachment that was formed as a result of the endeavor. I understand, in retrospect, the value of thinking like an architect. The process is difficult, but the value of the final product makes all the difficulty seem trivial. The pride that comes with building something is incomparable to the effort used with it. It’s fun exploring the concepts of why you’re going to build something, when you have an end goal in sight. Justifying the process in the end becomes easy because that’s all you think about during the process of creating. It’s not hard work because you have actual finished product that justifies your process.

Internet allows exploration

When I was younger, I never really wrote anything unless it was needed for school. I didn’t write for self-exploration. But I used to read in order to find out what I didn’t know. I was the youngest in my family, and it seemed like everyone knew more than me but they didn’t really question anything. So I became the person that questioned everything. Especially after coming to America from a 3rd world country, I realized the differences that existed everywhere I looked. It astounds me how there are 7 billion people on this planet, but the amount of people that have true access to modern resources are so limited. Thus, I think the influence we have as an individual is a lot more than we give credit to ourselves. If placed in the right environment, the individual has knowledge that can baffle a nation.

How audiobooks changed my perception

I used to listen to books nonstop during college, every morning when I went for a run. I was curious about everything because some of the questions that were asked of me during critiques, in architecture, baffled my mind. I just wanted to know why things happened. There was one book that I read, called Mastery by Robert Greene, that made me really curious about how practice and repetition can impact an individual. I remember reading about Daniel Everett and how he went into the Amazons to study the Piraha tribe. I was very intrigued by Everett’s ability to observe and eventually communicate with the tribe. He was the first person, that we know of, to have interacted with the Piraha tribe because of his unrelenting curiosity. He was able to interact with them to the point where he realized they don't actually have a creation story. I used to question why we needed a creation story, but after reading and figuring out that a tribe doesn't necessarily have to have a creation story to cooperate gave me an understanding that will probably last a lifetime. Because I've realized everything in language was created through evolution. And as we grow, our ability to understand will also grow because of the curiosity of individuals.

Why listening helps

By nature, human beings are driven by animalistic desires. So as a society it’s understandable to see why creation stories exist; to create a sense of community through stories of the unknown. Because we are so prone to acting out as individuals, like stealing when we’re hungry and have no other choice. By restricting ourselves with divinity, to an extent, places boundaries on the people. Because as a collective society, we gain more intelligence for humanity when we cooperate as a group. But that doesn't mean that all stories are correct. I want people to listen. Exploring and understanding the world is my primary goal as a person. I used to accept everything for what it was. I didn't really question the motives behind why people said certain things. I didn't really understand all the different perspectives that existed in the world. But every person experiences life in a different way, thus every individual has a perspective. If we learn to listen to each other, I think the world can be an amazing place.

Resources used during writing:

Networking

http://www.wired.com/2013/09/how-successful-networks-nurture-good-ideas-2/

Piraha People 

https://ffrf.org/outreach/item/13492-the-pirahae-people-who-define-happiness-without-god

What is Organic?

Intro

As I go deeper into my exploration of organic architecture, I realize it’s easy to say that organic architecture is a great idea. But fundamentally making it work in reality is going to be a very difficult process. As for my case, I want to research and input ideas into how the concept could potentially become a reality. I want to explore different patterns that exists in nature. There are already some great architects that have tried implementing nature’s laws into buildings, like Gaudi, Ito, Kuma. My problem with architecture right now is how traditionally rectangle it is. I don’t know if I have the right to critique architecture, but I do think the norm of the built environment will have to change in the future. 

The process with how buildings are built is going to get better with new technology. There have been materials recently discovered that are stronger than diamond. If that’s possible, what’s the premise that buildings will always be rectangular. I want to believe that the norm can be changed if methodology is there. Because there are already artificial insects that can scan and report back to humans.

In the end, I may be kidding myself with all this organic architecture blog, but isn’t thinking about the future part of reality. If nobody thinks about it, and people just live in the moment, which is not bad, then how will the planet survive. Anticipating the future is important for understanding how reality will unfold. 

Organisms: Trees, plants, animals, and anything that moves

Trees and plant life are essential for architecture to contribute to nature. It’s difficult to pinpoint and define the nature of organic architecture because of the complexity of organisms. With digital programs nowadays allowing for complexity to occur, it shows that it’s not too far into the future when architecture starts taking a very different shape. It may begin in spaces where there’s no traditional architecture. But it’s going to change form as new materials grow in resources. For example, 3d printers allow for direct expressions of digital models. If this can be replicated in a  large scale, then the form of architecture will probably change on a large scale as we move into the future.

Curvature of nature

Nature isn’t created in a linear fashion. Even though I’ve been hinting that curvature shapes could potentially be more part of nature than linear shapes. it’s actually not necessarily true. Nature is important because curves are created as a result of nature’s complexity. Organisms are everywhere, we’re even organisms, but the complexity of nature is vast. And natural shapes exist in infinite abundance. Thus a shape that's linear can also be organic, however, the complexity that occurs within could be highly varied.

Biomimicry 

Implementing natures biological laws into architecture is another method of creating organic architecture. Nature has perfected the laws of physics over billions of years. So finding and implementing their mechanisms is probably the best way to introduce natural energy into space. But biomimicry still needs a lot of exploration as well, I will have to do more research on this topic as I move forward.

Sustainable Architecture

Making architecture that sustains itself is pretty difficult from the outset. I probably shouldn’t talk about this because I haven’t actually built real architecture. But it would be pretty cool if reality allowed for architecture that would be in perfect condition for a long time. Architecture in Japan is rebuilt around every 20 years. Does that mean that they have less sustainable architecture? Or does that mean, life itself is sustainable to the extent that you label it. So being sustainable for a specific amount of time can also be called sustainable architecture. I'll have to do more research on this subject as well.

Key of Translation

Iterations

It’s interesting to see the direct correlation between going from one concept to the next. This is something that I learned during the first semester of arch school. Going from a collage, to a chipboard model, and then to a MDF model taught me the simplicity in the process of translation. The problem that can arise sometimes with this process is the excess of iterations. Sometimes there are so many directions that you can go, that the resulting iteration totally loses it’s initial concept. In this sense, when you look at the original collage, the final model doesn’t look similar. 

However, Iterations are key to getting new ideas. Even if the end result doesn’t match the initial collage, you still bring the memory of the work you produced. If the story is justifiable, then in the end the iteration is a success. By repeating the same process with a simple change, you get a different result. This result’s success all depends on the user’s justification of what the process meant. New ideas come about through experiementation.

My Experience

When I created a collage, for the first time, as I got into Temple, I had no idea the complexity it would represent. But as I slowly got different iterations and drawings, I realized how complex ideas can become just through repetition. 

i started my collage with a bunch of pictures of buildings that Morphosis built. I collaged their work together to create an image that I was satisfied with. Afterwards, I picked a distinct section of the collage, and created a physical chipboard model. The light and darkness created diversity in height throughout the model. This allowed the 2d space to become 3d. The first time I did this, I was amazed at the translation process because every step was dictated by my thoughts.

The model I created after the chipboard model had a similar translation system. But this time, we created a a more complex 3d model from a small 3d model. By using MDF, the thought process behind the initial chipboard model had to be thought out beforehand. Because MDF could only be cut in the wood-shop.

Occupants and Iterations

One concept that I didn’t explore is the idea of iterations with the integration of occupants. I was really encapsulated by the shapes that I designed during the iterations. I forgot to include how people would react to the different shapes. Maybe shape is a too simple a word to describe form. Form is better than shape because then you can start to understand that rectangular shapes don’t have much form. They’re just spaces for living. Not spaces that affects the mind.

What is form?

I’ve been describing space as rectangular. This is the best way to surround space to create shelter. But I want to move from just creating shelter, I want to create space for the sake of progress. If space is understood as a way of automatic detection for certain activities, then the space has to accommodate that activity. Space has to have a fundamental role in preserving nature. Artificial space needs to mimic nature so that it can be a place for us to grow. If we don’t have access to actual nature as we know it, we have to create that nature in our shelter. The definition of what a shelter does has to evolve.

Natural Shapes

There are some really cool shapes in nature, they’re mostly patterns that exists as a result of evolution. Since mathematics seem to explain a lot of different phenomenons, I think the way we behave can be explained by how we perceive the world. That’s where the idea of natural shapes, things like the golden ratio, can have an effect on creativity. I think it’ll be pretty cool to introduce natural factors into actual buildings. 

What is the Golden Ratio?

The golden ratio seems to demonstrate the constant growth in nature. When something has 1.61 proportionality growth, that means it’s growing at an even rate. The growth seems to symbolize the fundamental effectiveness of the organism. So their DNA is in good form, thus allowing for constant growth. The constant growth shows the complexity of nature. The replication process that exists in nature is beyond comprehending because it starts from such a small scale. The patterns that are detected are seen from a large scale.