nations, people, networks and hererarchy

Arata Isozaki was in town last week, complements of both Harvard's GSD and MIT's SA+P. I thought it was interesting how his work touches the idea of heterarchies. From his proposal for a floating Olympic network host hosted by all Asian nations together, to his non-directional performance space in the Akiyoshidai International Arts Village conceived of with Italian composer Luigi Nono in which there is no one central composer, to his Kashi Plan for an offshore capital island that grants no group favor, each work is influenced by confederation, willful union of equals, by heterarchies.

When he compares his non-hierarchical theater to traditional 19th century models, he highlights the centralized authority of the conductor, and the position of the royal box. The Akiyosidai performance space (1) has no central node, no axis implying a power structure. It is to be filled collaboratively, with musicians dispersed in the audience so that everyone is close to the music.

The traditional, 19th century social unit was prescribed by the distance feet (ours or horses') could take us. Now our networks are flung across continents and the globe. The 20th century has proven that the social structure of foot traffic is not entirely appropriate for modern scale. Maybe our new scale of activity requires a new format for interaction.