schematic plan.

juke joint and cajun kitchen interplay at the heart of the vessel. smells and sounds interweave and travel throughout. beside|below, seismographic|geological exploration studios.

wetland garden growing into inhabited spaces as well as breaking down into trail left behind watercraft. submerged mud being sculpted by the river currents, to then be used to collect traces of river in petri dishes.

pontoon structure in conjunction with steamship construction methods enables ship to remain floating while bits of it travel submerged. stage at bow to pic out snag logs.

lookout column, accumulating observatory reflecting aerial view of travels, in conjunction with cyanotype images embedded within the surfaces. spaces within visual history of journeys.

port side, two deck hold reserves for approaching watercraft.

loss of understanding regarding thresholds of inside and outside throughout. continual collaboration of art and science apparent in every pocket and crevice. mutual reliance of nature and culture. through scientific explorations, producing cultural arts rather than just remembering them.

a method of discussing.

naming the thing.

satisfying the desire for a name. something to call it. a sign with which to give meaning and understanding. then, using that as a means to be more specific about the thing itself however, no term feels right.

this thing is not a raft. that term implies that it is temporary and happenstance and merely a perpetually growing collection of debris that just happens to be floating in or around its path.

it is more dynamic and chaotic than that. a form of flow and flux produced from the fusion of varied elements. from this state of continuous change and development, a system of order emerges with which other becomings can be explored.

a visceral architecture creating this environment, willfully reconstructing the landscape. a wet technology that can sense and respond to change.

i need to show precisely how the system works. then to describe it.

the voice of the parable

as she walked through the empty workshop, she looked over each of the curiously created contraptions. she remembered the experiences of place and the people she had encountered and eventually loved there. she appreciated the stories forever locked within her mind, regardless of how they would grow and change with age. she smiled at the fantastic creations and the ingenious absurdities, each more enticing than the last, and she appreciated the time that she had spent on this River.

leaving this place behind was such a bittersweet involvement. all at once, she stared back into the hull of the vessel, realizing that the River’s voice had never been the one that would teach her to listen. its vibrant currents would never whisper in her ear as she had imagined in their first encounter. the people, these characters whom she had encountered on her journey _ worked with. played with. laughed with. argued with. been astounded by. it was that history that enabled her to continue with such vigor. the voice of the parable was the ingenuity and life apparent in every person.

the body of this itinerant voyager seemed to have pockets and crevices for each individual that would take part in this anthology, the space for each exploration and adventure inherent in every curve. it was astonishing to understand the complexity hidden within each gesture and she wondered if she had known the true nature of the voice in her assembly of this watercraft. here, in this structure, was the possibility that the River would never be her guide, but purely the magnificent course of expedition from which she would benefit.

maybe she had known it all along.

carving through time

many years later as she stepped onto the traverse, she was to remember the faraway, unmistakable morning when she happened upon this energetic waterscape, listening for the voice of the mighty, muddy Mississippi.

contemporary technology

in the 18th century, denis diderot spent much of his life gathering the extents of human knowledge to be put forward in his encyclopedie. he revolutionized the manner in which information is presented, merely listing it alphabetically instead of every other subject following theology. this consolidation and presentation of knowledge in an empirical manner articulated a unique sociological perspective. [one of human progress and capacity for critical thought.] diderot, presenting knowledge as a religion of humanity itself, believed that an easy, impartial retrieval of information allowed people to be able to seek knowledge for themselves, to help us all learn to improve our world.

today, the endless amounts of information readily accessible on the internet allow for an even more pervasive intellectual society. search engines place the world at your fingertips within seconds. with so much information and consequential knowledge readily available to us, what type of new conditions, solutions, and worlds can you create through the information at your disposal?

how crucial is the lesson that your education is in your hands? even from the youngest of students. how valuable is the capacity to link seemingly unrelated fields to one another within the mind? the geology lesson this morning with the history lesson at noon. the political science discussion in relation to journalism. younger versions of this as well. social studies to geography to literature to recess.

every bit of the consumed knowledge extending into a greater understanding of people. the complexities and contradictions inherent in human nature. knowledge leading to acceptance and genuine curiosity. how can the built environment contribute to these conditions?

the start of the story

the magnitude of the mighty, muddy mississippi is a spectacular thing to behold. if you were to stumble upon the banks while wandering through the wilderness or pass over its white capped currents while crossing to the other side, you might pause for a moment and linger in its strength and splendor. only just for a moment. you might watch a passing barge with a feeble curiousity or listen to the music emanating from the anchored tankers. soon, most likely, you would move on, drifting through the day with very little further thought as to the power that had just swiftly shifted your understanding _ for what you had just been exposed to was merely a miniscule surface of distinction in relation to the forces racing underneath.

what you might not see in the moments in which you happened upon this River are the far reaches of its territories. you might not see the traces of place, carved from dominions hundreds of miles away aand carried down stream. you might not grasp the surfaces of geological past deposited throughout the varied alluvial waterscape on which you were standing. you might not hear the hopeful resonances of jazz and blues musicians as their expression of life and human survival spread up river, the currents flowing backwards. you might not understand the political forces keeping the tides in check or appreciate the seeds of revolution sprouting within the agriculture of the surrounding fertile soils. yet, all of these things are embedded in or affected by the latent energies furiously swirling below the pulsing, shifting surface before you.

for a moment, a girl had stood in a place similar to where you may have been standing. animated, she watched the rushing currents race towards open waters. fascinated, she scrutinized the bustling industries headed for distant ports of call. untroubled, she gazed down into each muddy maelstrom. she heard the sounds of the thunderous territory and it seemed as though the River had something particular to tell her _ something she might be able to hear if she listened very carefully. perhaps, something she did not already know or maybe could not even understand yet. something truly beautiful which was still awaiting her.

cultural narrative

"seen on the scale of millenia, human passions fuse. time neither adds to nor removes anything from the loves and hates felt by people, their involvements, their struggles and their hopes. they remain the same as they were in the past. randomly removing ten or twenty centuries of history would not affect, in a meaningful way, our knowledge of human nature. the only irreplaceable loss would be the works of art those centuries gave rise to, because humans only differ through their works and even exist only through them. just as a wooden statue attests to the prior existence of a tree, so works of art provide proof that throughout history, amongst people, something actually happened."

regarder. claude levi - strauss

_for the revolution

the power of the people. the capacity for change and the constant struggle that comes along with that. frustration. motivation. understanding the way the world truly is. appreciating the individual perception of the world. the will to power and the ambition in each of us.

_for the gospel

the influence of music and that expression of strong religious beliefs. a desire for freedom. the lifestyle itself as a creed. faith in the people. faith in the saints. faith in the city. understanding a set of guidelines and then living by intuition and improvisation.

_for the political

dependence of political infrastructure on cooperation of overlapping industries. different desires of each influencing layout and priority of initiatives. agriculture. wildlife and fisheries. oil and natural gas. tourism. each responding to the next. each dependent on the other.

_for the juke joint and the rambling shack

the reason behind the music. the rhythm. human survival and expression of life. the music goes beyond self pity. overcoming hard luck. saying what you feel. ridding yourself of frustration. letting your hair down. having fun.

the origins of jazz and blues in a region. in a city. then, traveling and literally being communicated through the river. the river flowing backwards. so much more than an infrastructural conveyor of industry.

laissez les bon temps roulet.

incessantly it ran

cheerfully, she looked into the rushing river. never before she had liked a water so well as this one. never before she had perceived the voice in the parable of the moving water this strongly. and beautifully. it seemed to her as if the river had something special to tell her. something she did not know yet. which was still awaiting her.

there is no time. the river is everywhere at once. there is only the present for it.

_for the cajun kitchen

the sensuality of cooking. the combinations of various ingredients. the colors and intensity of flavors. a mixing pot of a vast assortment of nourishment. comfort food. reminiscences of place. the explosion of the savory and the culture of experiencing that pleasure .

_for the surfaces of past

the history of the earth lies dormant in the geological layers surrounding the river. millennia of deposition render a section through the landscape a vast indication of conditions through time. the weight of this palimpsest that exists beneath the surface. insurmountable. i am attempting to break through that barrier and reveal the earthly modifications as transparent images of past. data to be revealed, transformed and challenged.