University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Formless accident: a happening towards the fall

Valderrama, Ana Maria

Content Files
Ana Maria_Valderrama.pdf
Beating.m4v
Excavation.mp3
Fluctuation.mp3
Migration.m4v
Pulse.m4v
Slip and Adherence.mp3

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/44223

Description

Title
Formless accident: a happening towards the fall
Author(s)
Valderrama, Ana Maria
Issue Date
2013-05-24T21:54:42Z
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
  • Hays, David L.
  • Robert, Riley B.
  • Claudio, Vekstein
Department of Study
Landscape Architecture
Discipline
Landscape Architecture
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.L.A.
Degree Level
Thesis
Date of Ingest
2013-05-24T21:54:42Z
Keyword(s)
  • Nature
  • Artefacts
  • Indeterminacy
  • Landscape Architecture
  • Design
  • Jungle
Abstract
My research explores the relationship between nature and artefacts in unstable territories, taking as a site of experimentation the Middle Paraná Delta in Argentina. The purpose of the research is to build a theory of design generation from conceptualization of and speculation about that specific site, to apply that theory to pedagogy, and to imagine its contribution to professional practice of design in landscape architecture. The Middle Paraná Delta is characterized by its dynamic physical condition, in which the forces of nature make evident the irrelevance of Biblical and Platonic paradigms through which many contemporary landscape architects still understand the relationship between nature and artefacts. To ensure the authority and transcendence of the designer, Biblical and Platonic paradigms inform systems and methods for producing artefacts based on composition and determination, both characterized by their detachment from natural processes−including social processes as part of nature−and their ability to replace those processes with fixed forms. My research introduces an alternative paradigm–the jungle; a model to operate on it–formless accident: a happening towards the fall; and a series of procedures based on indeterminacy. Paradigm, model, and procedures propose a dissonant subject-subject relationship between artefacts and nature and a process of design as a sequence of finding-transformation-becoming. In this context, the purpose of artefacts is to reveal and allow the manifestation of processes over the time under which there is neither total control nor prediction of final configuration. Ultimately, my hope is that such contributions will positively impact the way humans relate with the rest of nature as well as with other humans.
Graduation Semester
2013-05
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44223
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2013 Ana Maria Valderrama

Owning Collections

Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois
Dissertations and Theses - Landscape Architecture