Eisenman's Unfolding Events
In “Unfolding Events” Peter Eisenman discusses a change in architecture in terms of reality and experience and the existing urban environment. He states that architecture can no longer “be bound by the static conditions of space and place” (3) because of the fact that media has affected the “time of experience” of the public who is too busy to even acknowledge the artwork that exists today. New relationships must emerge and new readings of terms such as “figure/object” and “ground” which had previously explained the totality of urbanism. These changes occur in the form of the “fold” which signifies a displacement between new urban structures and existing structures.
In comparison to the study of hypertext or electronic literature it seemed like an interesting analysis. On page 6, Eisenman writes, “The fold is not merely a formal device but a way of unfolding new social organizations from existing urban environments.” It seems almost as if this “fold” can stand for hypertext and the change it brings to existing ideas of literature. It suggests that perhaps there really is nothing truly “new” in life but just certain qualities and differences that emerge from existing phenomena. Hypertext just seemed like a natural occurrence or step from conventional literature thanks in part to the media as was the same point Eisenman made in regard to artwork.
Eisenman also says, “The fold becomes the site of all the repressed immanent conditions of existing urbanism, which at a certain point, like the grain of sand that causes the landslide, has the potential not to destroy existing urbanism but to set it off in a new direction” (6). This particular quote stood out for me specifically because of the ideas of hypertext or electronic literature that were going around in my head. Hypertext gives different ways for authors to express their work and for readers to enjoy a story within a different experience. The emerges of these new options do not “destroy” the old ways of reading or producing literature but what they do is offer alternate routes.
