I have never liked that these complex architectures, wondrous as they are in their variegation, were designed to subsume the laity, delimiting personhood and becoming. Awe is unwelcome if its cost is any amount of self-abnegation. The numinous, of which we are all undifferentiated, gives sup to flourishing. Parodying its splendour in order to dominate is to my mind a great sin.
Yes, these buildings and soundscapes weren’t neutral at all. They were built to manage bodies and feelings, to make ordinary people feel small so the institution could stand in for the numinous. Awe gets ugly fast when it’s tied to erasing personhood.
BUT, it never fully worked. The same spaces meant to keep everyone in line were also full of spillover....markets, gossip, confraternities, misheard sermons, people making their own meaning. We need to admire the splendour without surrendering to it, to listen for the ways awe was weaponized, and also for the ways people in and around these buildings kept stealing it back for themselves.
Structures are key. Even, and especially, if the architects themselves feel part gifted with the knowledge to construct them. Flora may reach high and wide above the earth but, without their fearless routing in darkness no balance would nurture them.
Fascinating, and wonderful to have all the recordings.
Thank you 🖤 I’m really just trying to bring what I did in the classroom over to Substack, and I hope it comes across in the same way.
I have never liked that these complex architectures, wondrous as they are in their variegation, were designed to subsume the laity, delimiting personhood and becoming. Awe is unwelcome if its cost is any amount of self-abnegation. The numinous, of which we are all undifferentiated, gives sup to flourishing. Parodying its splendour in order to dominate is to my mind a great sin.
Yes, these buildings and soundscapes weren’t neutral at all. They were built to manage bodies and feelings, to make ordinary people feel small so the institution could stand in for the numinous. Awe gets ugly fast when it’s tied to erasing personhood.
BUT, it never fully worked. The same spaces meant to keep everyone in line were also full of spillover....markets, gossip, confraternities, misheard sermons, people making their own meaning. We need to admire the splendour without surrendering to it, to listen for the ways awe was weaponized, and also for the ways people in and around these buildings kept stealing it back for themselves.
Structures are key. Even, and especially, if the architects themselves feel part gifted with the knowledge to construct them. Flora may reach high and wide above the earth but, without their fearless routing in darkness no balance would nurture them.