Metastructures, Vols. I-II (Draft): Transformational Ontology in the Arts.

摘要

This thesis submitted to the Harvard University Graduate School of Design for the Master in Design Studies degree with a concentration in the History and Philosophy of Design represents a cross-disciplinary approach to identifying the transformation of meaning from the disciplines of architecture, philosophy and the related arts (e.g. contemporary music, film and painting). Research includes the formulation of an original theoretical framework, derived from Western philosophical tenets on the "new" ontology as a means for discerning processes of "transformation" that are both manifest and immanent in the arts. A central feature in this theory of transformation is the Basic and Ontological models and their significance, which represent the transformative behavior in art at various stages or "levels" in which an example of art and its interpretation changes over time and history with respects to changes in its meanings. The Ontological model consists of a combination of Basic models to represent the "complexity" of meanings attributed to an example of art through various interrelated "levels" of transformations. The goal of the theory of transformational ontology is to derive an understanding of the complexity of meanings in art across disciplines in order to establish a new foundation for the interpretation of trans-disciplinary art, i.e. the development of a new epistemological method for generating an "emergent knowledge" of new meanings on contemporary art.;The organization of this thesis consists of the theory and analytical studies divided into two volumes with four sections: each section examines different aspects of "transformational processes": Section One in Volume I consists of an introduction and description of the theory of transformational ontology with a substantial portion devoted to an explanation of the transformative process of meanings in the arts.;Volume II is a draft version of analytical studies, with Section Two consisting of examples of transformation in the arts, including: 1) a brief history and study of transformation in the "visual music" by the German painter, Hans Richter and his sketches for the Universal Language; 2) Bernard Tschumi's architecture as "praxis" for social transformation and the role of the diagram; and 3) the abstract works of the British painter, Howard Hodgkin. Section Three of Volume II consists of examples of historical precedents on theories of meaning in the arts---several (e.g. the Husserl, Patocka) relate more to transformational processes than other writings; moreover, not every study on the nature of meaning supports the theory of transformational ontology. Section Four consist of a summary of the research findings to this thesis.