Courtney Sparling - Jencks

I really enjoyed reading this article! Although somewhat challenging at times and a little lengthy in providing us with eleven most significant canons, I found that reading about the different ways that art and architecture can be applied to postmodernism and our understanding of the theoretical changes among us as we enter new stages of life and continue to develop along with and against technology and humanity/nature.

I was really captivated by the 7th canon, double-coding and I felt that I grasped this idea better than the other ones, where "present style and technology are accepted as valid realities, but not required to over assert themselves; it is a case of peaceful, not antagonistic, coexistence." I can understand how the continuity of the past meets with the new face of the present. In my head, I picture an architectural structure that it an old Victorian-style home that is having some rooms renovated. The home will still have the feel of the past, but with the inclusion of new modern conveniences and styles. I see it as two worlds colliding: the past meeting the present in a peaceful harmony, although I know it is possible for the two worlds to collide.

The quote from that passage that struck me was: "This form of double-coding allows us to read the present in the past as much as the past in the present, as if history proceeded by a gradual evolution of permanent forms rather than a succession of revolutionary styles each one of which obliterates its predecessor." I really got the connection that Jencks is trying to convey here. The past is reflected in the present and in the past we can see the future as it develops into the the present, through innovation and the way times and people change. The past is still with us and can be seen in the evolution that never actually disappears.

I imagine it in a sense that the present is built on the past, just like with artictecturhe and building structures; it takes time and effort. There needs to be a foundation for a structure/building to be stable enough to stand. It cannot stand alone without a foundation, just like the present could not exist without the past.

I was interested in further learning about Jencks, so I googled him and found the image (right) which is part of  The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, which began to take shape under Jencks' direction in 1988. Jencks designed the       garden to celebrate nature, but at the same time included modern elements of science. Just looking at this image of the stairs built into to natural landscape, slowly descending into the water helps me connect to what he talks about with the 7th cannon. For me, it makes sense! I also see the stairs "going into the unknown," also known as the future. The stairs are like the steps taken into the future, along with the past and simpler life right behind it, represented by the natural foliage and environment. Jencks design here really helps me to make sense of the concepts in both his theory and architecture and the connection that he meshes into his designs and writings.