Monday, February 21, 2005

Transparency: Literal and Ethereal

On Materiality and Ephemerality


e·the·re·al (ĭ-thîr'ē-al) adj.
Characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; intangible.
Highly refined; delicate. See synonyms at
airy.

Of the celestial spheres; heavenly.
Not of this world; spiritual.
Chemistry. Of or relating to ether.
[From Latin aetherius, from Greek aitherios, from aithēr, upper air.]
e·the're·al'i·ty (-ăl'ĭ-tē) or e·the're·al·ness n.e·the're·al·ly adv.

In Maha-Bharata, an Indian war Epic, there are references to the illusory qualities of architecture and at the center of the epic’s lies an incident that literally sets the stage for the ‘great war’ that follows. The story relates that the newly appointed rulers, the five brothers (Pandavas) invited their stepbrother Duryodhana to their new palace complex with its beautiful gardens, fountains and interiors. Duryodhana entered an area where the architect had designed an illusion - the floor that appeared to be water but was not! Duryodhana, unaware of this, entered hitching up his trousers and felt stupid upon landing his foot on solid ground. Determined not to get fooled again, he carried on and continued towards a patch that in appearance was solid ground but turned out to be water! Sinking knee-high he was mocked by the wife (Draupadi) of the Pandavas and felt insulted.For centuries, the transient nature of transparency has been the preoccupation of literary minds, artists and architects. However, unlike the literary folks, the latter two have been more concerned with the materiality of transparency rather than Eephemerality.