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THE CONICAL LODGE AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH-SKY WORLD
Tim Ingold
University of Aberdeen
Department of Anthropology
School of Social Science
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen AB24 3QY
Scotland, U
tim!ingold"abdn!ac!#$
December 2%&%, revised A#g#st 2%&&
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected] -
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I
'n the gro#nds of (roms) *#se#m, a conical tent or lodge had been erected of a $ind
traditionally #sed among indigeno#s, forest+delling peoples right aro#nd the
circ#mpolar -orth ./ig#re &0! (he frame as made of long, sto#t ooden poles that
converged at the ape1, b#t splayed o#t at gro#nd level aro#nd the perimeter of a
circle! (his as covered ith laborio#sly prepared reindeer s$ins, caref#lly sen
together! (ho#gh e1tending all the ay to the base of the frame, they reached not
#ite to the ape1 b#t to a level #st short of it, leaving the ape1 itself #ncovered!
ntering thro#gh the door+flap, ' fo#nd myself in a remar$ably capacio#s, interior
space, at the centre of hich as a place for the fire! ' $nelt on the gro#nd! 't as still
daytime and the light as streaming in thro#gh the ape1, hich remained open to the
s$y! 5oo$ing #p, it made me blin$ ./ig#re 20! At the same time, thro#gh my $nees, '
felt the clammy depth of the earth hich gave me s#pport!
'n a moment of revelation, ' #nderstood hat it meant to inhabit a orld of
earth and s$y! 't as to be at once bathed in light and rapt in feeling! B#t it also
daned on me ho closely the idea of landscape to hich ' as acc#stomed from my
on #pbringing is lin$ed to a partic#lar architect#re6 to the habitation of rooms ith
hard floors belo, ceilings above, and indos set in vertical alls! 'magine yo#rself
as the resident of a modern s#b#rban apartment, ith large pict#re indos that
afford a commanding, panoramic vie of the s#rro#nding co#ntryside! 7hen yo#
loo$ o#t from the indos yo# see the land stretching o#t into the distance, here it
seems to meet the s$y along the line of the far hori8on! 'nside the lodge, hoever,
there ere no hori8ons to be seen! arth and s$y, far from being divided at the
hori8on, seemed rather to be #nified at the very centre of my emplaced being!
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nrapped ithin the lodge ' nevertheless felt open to a orld! B#t this orld as
not a landscape b#t hat ' shall henceforth call the earth-sky!
/#rther reflection led me to thin$ that hat is at iss#e here is not #st a
partic#lar architect#re b#t the very idea of architect#re itself! /or more than five
cent#ries, it has been both the claim and the conceit of the architect#ral profession that
every b#ilding is a mon#ment to the geni#s of its creator, standing as the end#ring
realisation of an original design concept! 'n the mid+fifteenth cent#ry, in his treatise
On the Art of Building in Ten Books, 5eon Battista Alberti had painted an
#nashamedly self+aggrandising portrait of the architect as a man of 9learned intellect
and imagination:, ho is able 9to proect hole forms in mind itho#t any reco#rse to
the material: .Alberti &;
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poer of reason, the other dependent on preparation and selection: .&;
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hich it is displayed or 9set off: to best advantage! (ogether, the mon#ment and its
landscape are #nderstood to comprise a totality that is complete and f#lly formed!
?ere, land is to scape as material s#bstance is to abstract form, and the land is shaped
by their #nification! As historian Simon Schama rites, introd#cing his magn#m op#s
onLandscape and Memory, the scenery 9is b#ilt #p as m#ch from strata of memory as
from layers of roc$ it is o#r shaping perception that ma$es the difference beteen
ra matter and landscape: .Schama &;;6 =, &%0! 'f the bedroc$ of the physical orld
provides the matter, then the h#man mind contrib#tes the form! 5and+scape, in short,
e#als matter+form!
7ith these reflections on the meanings of architect#re and landscape in mind,
let me ret#rn to the conical lodge! 'n hat follos ' arg#e that e mis#nderstand the
lodge by imagining it as an instance of architect#re6 that is, as a str#ct#re b#ilt to the
prior specifications of a formal design, and set #pon the stage and amidst the scenery
of a landscape! (hose ho hold s#ch a vie @ and they incl#de a s#bstantial maority
in the fields of ethnology, c#lt#ral anthropology and material c#lt#re st#dies @ do
recognise, of co#rse, that as an e1ample of hat is called 9vernac#lar: architect#re, the
lodge manifests a design that is attrib#table to the geni#s of c#lt#ral tradition rather
than individ#al creation! (he b#ilders of s#ch traditional str#ct#res, according to
architect#ral theorist Ehristopher Ale1ander, do not $noingly implement designs of
their on ma$ing b#t rather s#bmit to the reprod#ction of forms sanctified by eight
of tradition! (heir b#ilding is, in this sense, 9#nselfconscio#s: .Ale1ander &;F46 3F0!
-evertheless, the f#ndamental ass#mptions of the hylomorphic model remain! (hese
are that hile the ra materials of the lodge are s#pplied by nat#re, the form is added
by c#lt#re, carried #n$noingly in the minds of the people and passed from
generation to generation thro#gh force of c#stom and habit! 't is s#pposed that in
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b#ilding the lodge, this ideal form is proected #pon the s#bstrate of the material
orld!
(he alternative vie, hich ' shall no attempt to establish, is to comprehend
the process of b#ilding not as a proection of form onto matter b#t as a binding
together of materials in movement! (h#s the lodge, far from being b#ilt #p #pon rigid
and impervio#s fo#ndations, is stitched into the very fabric of the earth! 'nstead of
thin$ing of the lodge, then, as a material artefact set in a landscape, it o#ld be better
#nderstood as a ne1#s of materials in a orld of earth and s$y! (o establish this vie,
' ill proceed in fo#r steps! 'n the first, ' e1amine the difference beteen to ays of
thin$ing abo#t b#ilding6 as the assembly of elementary solids and as the eaving and
splicing of fibro#s material .'ngold 2%%%6 F4+ 2%&&6 2&&0! 'n the second ' consider
the essential m#t#ality of earth and s$y, and hat it means to say of the lodge that it is
both of the earth and of the s$y! 'n the third step ' lin$ the idea of the earth+s$y, in
contrast to landscape, to that of smooth space, and sho ho this lin$age is
manifested in the materials of the lodge! /inally, ' e1plain the conical form of the
lodge as an #pended spiral @ the envelope of a process of groth and regeneration!
II
7e are contin#ally being told, these days, that the orld e inhabit is b#ilt from
bloc$s6 not #st the orld that e o#rselves have made @ of artefacts or the b#ilt
environment @ b#t the orlds of nat#re, the mind, the #niverse and everything!
Biologists spea$ of the b#ilding bloc$s of life, psychologists of the b#ilding bloc$s of
tho#ght, physicists of the b#ilding bloc$s of the #niverse itself! So pervasive has this
metaphor become that e are inclined to forget ho recent it is! ' had not even
realised this myself #ntil a year ago, hen ' chanced to read a little boo$, entitled The
F
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most beautiful house in the world, by the architect#ral historian 7itold >ybc8yns$i! 't
as not #ntil the middle of the nineteenth cent#ry, >ybc8yns$i tells #s, that the
metaphor of 9b#ilding bloc$s: came into common #se, along ith a domestic
architect#re @ of prospero#s homes e#ipped ith dedicated n#rseries @ in hich
b#ilding ith bloc$s co#ld literally become child:s play .>ybc8yns$i &;
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originally referring to the or$ of the carpenter b#t s#bse#ently e1tended to b#ilding
or ma$ing in a more general sense! 't goes bac$ to the Sans$rit taksan, hich signified
the craft of carpentry and specifically the #se of the a1e .tasha0! C#r #estion, then, is
abo#t the balance @ or the relative priority @ of stereotomics and tectonics in the
b#ilding of things!
(his as a #estion that m#ch preocc#pied the historian of art and
architect#re, Gottfried Semper! 7riting in the middle of the nineteenth cent#ry, #st as
the stereotomic idea of b#ilding bloc$s as on the rise, Semper arg#ed in #st the
opposite direction, namely that the threading, tisting and $notting of linear fibres
ere among the most ancient of h#man arts, from hich all else as derived,
incl#ding both b#ilding and te1tiles! 9The beginning of building:, Semper declared,
9coincides with the beginning of textiles: .&;
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binding and $notting threads or fibres, are engaged in the activities of the same
general $ind ./rampton &;;6
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force of gravity b#t that it sho#ld not be sept aay by the ind! (his leads him to
compare the all of the tent ith the sail of a ship, or even the ing of a glider, the
p#rpose of hich is not so m#ch to resist or brea$ the ind as to capt#re it into its
folds, or to deflect or channel it, in a ay that serves the interests of h#man delling
./l#sser &;;;6 F0!
7hat if e ere to follo /l#sser and commence o#r #nderstanding of alls
by thin$ing abo#t, and ith, the ind6 by flying $ites rather than b#ilding ith
bloc$sJ >ather li$e Semper before him, /l#sser disting#ishes to $inds of all
.corresponding to WandandMauer0, thescreenall, generally of oven fabric, and
thesolidall, hen from roc$ or b#ilt #p from heavy components! 7itho#t going
into the #estion of relative antecedence, this for /l#sser is the difference beteen the
tent and the ho#se .&;;;6 F+=0! (he ho#se is a geostatic assemblage of hich the
elements are held firm by the sheer eight of bloc$s stac$ed atop one another! (he
force of gravity allos the ho#se to stand, b#t e#ally can bring it t#mbling don!
7ithin the cave+li$e enclos#re formed by the fo#r solid alls of the ho#se, /l#sser
arg#es .&;;;6 =0, things are possessed @ 9property is defined by alls:! (he tent, by
contrast, is an aerodynamic str#ct#re that o#ld li$ely lift off, ere it not pegged,
fastened or anchored to the gro#nd! 'ts fabric screens are ind alls! As a calming of
the ind, a loc#s of rest in a t#rb#lent medi#m, the tent is li$e a nest in a tree6 a place
here people, and the e1periences they bring ith them, come together, intereave
and disperse in a ay that precisely parallels the treatment of fibres in fabricating the
material from hich the tent:s screen alls are made! 'ndeed the very ord 9screen:
s#ggests, to /l#sser, 9a piece of cloth that is open to e1periences .open to the ind,
open to the spirit0 and that stores this e1perience: .&;;;6 =0!
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As ho#se is to tent, then, and as the containment of life:s possessions o&er and
againstthe orld is to the eaving together of life+paths inthe orld, so is the
clos#re of the solid roc$ all to the openness of the indblon screen all! 9(he
screen all bloing in the ind:, /l#sser rites, 9assembles e1perience, processes it
and disseminates it, and it is to be than$ed for the fact that the tent is a creative nest:
./l#sser &;;;6 =0! Cf co#rse, li$e all seeping generalisations, this is far too cr#de,
and any attempt to classify b#ilt forms in these terms o#ld immediately collapse
#nder the eight of e1ceptions! (here are tents that incorporate roc$ alls, and ho#ses
hose alls are screens! Cne has only to thin$, for e1ample, of the screen alls of the
Kapanese ho#se! Laper+thin and semi+transl#cent, these alls defy any opposition
beteen inside and o#tside, and cast the life of inhabitants as a comple1 interplay of
light and shado! (he traditional Kapanese ho#se, as the architect#ral historian
enneth /rampton has observed, belonged to a orld that as oven thro#gho#t,
from the $notted grasses and rice stra ropes of domestic shrines to tatamifloor+mats
and bamboo alls ./rampton &;;6 &4+&F0! 'ndeed in its commitment to the tectonic,
Kapanese b#ilding c#lt#re stands in star$ contrast to that of the estern mon#mental
tradition ith its emphasis on stereotomic mass!
(he general contrast beteen the geostatics of the roc$ all and the
aerodynamics of the ind all remains, hoever! 'ndependently of /l#sser, b#t
draing directly on the earlier or$ of Semper, /rampton ta$es #s bac$ to the
fo#ndational distinction beteen stereotomics and tectonics, and to the #estion of the
balance beteen them! (raditions of vernac#lar b#ilding aro#nd the orld reveal ide
variations in this balance, depending on climate, c#stom and available material, from
b#ildings @ s#ch as the Kapanese ho#se @ in hich the earthor$ is red#ced to point
fo#ndations hile alls as ell as roofs are oven, to traditional #rban dellings in
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-orth Africa here stone or m#d bric$ alls arch over to become roof va#lts of the
same material, and in hich br#shor$ or bas$etor$ serves only as reinforcement
./rampton &;;6 F+=0! 'n the former case the stereotomic component, and in the latter
case the tectonic component, is red#ced to a minim#m! 'n some instances, materials
are transposed from the one mode of constr#ction to the other, s#ch as here stone is
c#t to resemble the form of a timber frame .as in the classical Gree$ temple0, or here
bric$s are not so m#ch heaped #pon one another as bonded into co#rseor$ that has
all the appearance of a eave! /rampton:s interest, hoever, lies in the 9cosmic
associations evo$ed by these dialogically opposed modes of constr#ction that is to
say the affinity of the frame for the immateriality of s$y and the propensity of mass
form not only to gravitate toard the earth b#t also to dissolve in its s#bstance: .ibid!6
=0! 'n these associations, the b#ilding is revealed as a marriage not of form and matter
b#t of earth and s$y, and as the cons#mmation of their #nion! (o thin$ of the b#ilding
as s#ch is to sit#ate it in an earth+s$y orld!
III
't is in these terms, then, that ' propose to consider the conical lodge @ not as an
artefact in the landscape b#t as a partic#lar synthesis of earth and s$y that allos
h#man life to ta$e root and gro, draing s#stenance from the earth even as it
breathes the air! 'n order to #nderstand the nat#re of this synthesis, let #s start from
the gro#nd! ' have already noted ho the idea of 9b#ilding bloc$s: pres#pposes a
gro#nd that is level and rigid6 a fo#ndation #pon hich the obects of o#r interest, or
that afford everyday life, are mo#nted! 'n his manifesto for an ecological psychology,
Kames Gibson compares the s#rface of the earth to the floor of a room! 5i$e the floor,
he arg#es, the gro#nd is 9the #nderlying s#rface of s#pport: on hich all else rests
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.Gibson &;=;6 &%, 330! Yet a bare gro#nd, devoid of feat#res, o#ld be no more
habitable than an #nf#rnished room! (o be rendered habitable, a room m#st be
f#rnished ith the miscellany of obects that ma$e possible the everyday activities
carried on in it! Similarly, the gro#nd can harbo#r life only beca#se it, too, is
f#rnished ith obects of one $ind and another! 9(hefurnitureof the earth:, Gibson
insists, 9li$e the f#rnishings of a room, is hat ma$es it livable: .&;=;6 =
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(he anser ' ish to propose is that the lodge is not an obect at all b#t a
thing! (he obect e1ists as an entity in a orld of materials that have already
precipitated o#t and solidified in fi1ed and final forms! 't stands before #s as a fait
accompli, presenting only its congealed, o#ter s#rfaces to o#r inspection! (he thing,
by contrast, is ever+emergent as a certain gathering or intereaving of materials in
movement, in a orld contin#ally coming into being, alays on the threshold of the
act#al! 7hereas the obect, as /l#sser notes, 9gets in the ay: and bloc$s o#r passage
./l#sser &;;;6
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orld, b#t of a $not hose constit#ent life+lines, far from being contained ithin it,
contin#ally trail beyond, only to mingle ith other lines in other $nots! (he conical
lodge, ' s#ggest is s#ch a thing ./ig#re 20!
As s#ch, to ret#rn to o#r earlier #estion, the lodge is neither on the earth nor
in the s$y! /or far from being confined to their respective domains by the hard s#rface
of the gro#nd, in the constit#tion and dissol#tion of things earth and s$y contin#ally
infiltrate one another! 7herever life is going on, indeed, the interfacial separation of
earth and s$y gives ay to m#t#al permeability and binding! (he painter La#l lee
bea#tif#lly evo$ed this binding in the image of a seed that has fallen to the gro#nd!
9(he relation to earth and atmosphere:, he rites, 9begets the capacity to gro (he
seed stri$es root, initially the line is directed earthards, tho#gh not to dell there,
only to dra energy thence for reaching #p into the air: .lee &;=36 2;0! (he groing
plant is not mo#nted uponthe gro#nd s#rface b#t rooted init! /or that very reason it is
sim#ltaneo#sly earthly and celestial! 't is so, as lee pointed o#t, since the
commingling of s$y and earth is itself a condition for life and groth! 't is beca#se the
plant is of.and not on0 the earth that it is also ofthe s$y!
(he same applies to the conical lodge! 't, too, is at once of earth and s$y6 a
place here earth and s$y are bro#ght together in the groth and e1perience of its
inhabitants! vidently, then, the gro#nd of the lodge is no mere platform! 't is rather
an enveloping matri1 that both anchors and no#rishes the lives of its inhabitants, #st
as the gro#nd beyond its circ#mference n#rt#res the vegetation that gros there and
the animal life that feeds on it! (h#s, the gro#nd o#tside the lodge does not resemble
the gro#nd inside beca#se it is similarly f#rnished ith obects! >ather, it is the
gro#nd inside the lodge that resembles the gro#nd o#tside, since it provides shelter
and no#rishment li$e the s#rro#nding earth! 't is inthis gro#nd and not on it, as
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?eidegger p#t it @ in this earth, this 8one of groth and transformation @ that 9man
bases his delling: .?eidegger &;=&6 420! 'n an admittedly florid passage, ?eidegger
describes the earth as 9the serving bearer, blossoming and fr#iting, spreading o#t in
roc$ and ater, rising #p into plant and animal: .ibid!6 &4;0! Yet this earth, ?eidegger
insisted, is #nthin$able itho#t also thin$ing of the s$y, and vice versa! arth and s$y
are not, then, separate hemispheres hich, p#t together, add #p to a #nity! >ather,
each binds the other into its on becoming! (he earth binds the s$y in the tiss#es of
the plants and animals it s#stains and no#rishes the s$y seeps the earth in its
c#rrents of ind and eather! And at the centre of this orld of earth and s$y lies the
conical lodge!
IV
ven if this arg#ment is accepted, hoever, e have still to acco#nt for the specific
ay in hich earth and s$y are bro#ght together in the conical lodge! ?o, for
e1ample, does the lodge compare in this regard ith the traditional dellings of
people ho lived by farming and forestry rather than by pastoral herdingJ Cne ay to
thin$ abo#t this difference might be in terms of a distinction, introd#ced by
philosopher Gilles Dele#8e and psychoanalyst /Ili1 G#attari, beteensmoothand
striatedspace! (his distinction ta$es #s bac$ to hat /l#sser called the screen all of
the tent, and more partic#larly, to the material of hich it is made! >ecall that for
/l#sser, the tent+all is a oven fabric that gathers, holds and disseminates the lives
of those ho dell ithin! As s#ch, it epitomises the very 9thinginess: of the lodge, in
?eidegger:s terms! 't is 9open to e1periences:, /l#sser says .&;;;6 =0, and dras
people in! B#t does it reallyJ Semper, after all, had ass#med to the contrary that the
f#nction of the oven all as, first and foremost, to enclose .Semper &;
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As the all of the fence or pen, oven from stic$s and branches, enclosed crops or
herds, so that of the traditional ho#se, hose oven alls might have been plastered
ith attle and da#b, enclosed its people!
7riting more than a cent#ry later, in &;
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animal hides, as indeed as the case in the lodge from hich ' began, clothed as it
as ith a patchor$ of reindeer s$ins! Dele#8e and G#attari are #ic$ to assimilate
the patchor$ @ 9an amorpho#s collection of #1taposed pieces that can be oined
together in an infinite n#mber of ays: @ to their idea of smooth space .2%%46 2F0! 't
is li$e felt in having no consistent direction, or lines of striation! (he #se of fabric as
tent covering, hoever, presents more of a problem! (he nomadic pastoralists of
-orth Africa, for e1ample, $no nothing of felting, nor do they cover their tents ith
animal hides! >ather, they #se ool to eave their tent+cloth! ?o can e ta$e oven
fabric to be a hallmar$ of agrarian life, hen it is fo#nd e#ally among pastoral
nomadsJ
(o get aro#nd the problem, Dele#8e and G#attari displace their initial
distinction beteen felt or patchor$ and fabric onto one beteen to $inds, or
conceptions, of fabric, corresponding respectively to the striated and the smooth! Cn
the one hand, they arg#e, among sedentary farmers @ inhabitants of the striated @
fabric enfolds the body and the o#tside orld ithin the confines of the immobile
ho#se! ?ere, its f#nction is to enclose! (he fabric of nomads, on the other hand,
9inde1es clothing and the ho#se itself to the space of the o#tside, to the open, smooth
space in hich the body moves: .2%%46 20! K#st ho one might disting#ish a fabric
of the first $ind from one of the second is hard to say, and ith no means of doing so,
the arg#ment does s#ffer from a certain circ#larity! -evertheless, ith this
#alification, the respective claims of /l#sser and of Dele#8e and G#attari, apparently
in contradiction, can be readily reconciled! 7e have merely to ac$noledge that
/l#sser:s 9screen all: @ open to e1perience, spirit and ind @ is a oven fabric of the
second $ind! And the implication is that as the setting of fabric shifts from tent to
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ho#se, so the open screen becomes a closed solid all or, more probably, a all+
covering or tapestry that hangs from it!
1actly the same happens ith the carpet, another invention of tent+dellers,
as /l#sser goes on to sho! (he carpet, he rites, is 9to the c#lt#re of the tent hat
architect#re is to the c#lt#re of the ho#se: ./l#sser &;;;6 ;0! 'nitially, hen carpets
entered the ho#se, they ent #p on the alls! >ecall that even Semper referred to
carpets as all+hangings and to carpet eavers as among the first all+fitters .Semper
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.as in eaving0 and to#ch at a distance .s#ch as on a $eyboard0! (hey are rong,
hoever, to e#ate the opposition beteen the haptic and the optical ith that
beteen the smooth and the striated! 't o#ld be closer to the mar$ to recognise that
the optical and the haptic correspond to to ays of striating space! (his, indeed, is
hat disting#ishes the modern sense of the landscape from its medieval prec#rsor
.'ngold 2%&&6 &340!
(he landscapes of modernity are striated, b#t not by the arp of the loom, the
f#rros of the plo#gh or the mar$s and c#ts of masons and carpenters, hether etched
in stone or folloing the grain of timber! >ather, they are striated by the abstract
lineamenta, and by the ratios and proportions, of proective geometry! (hese
striations, then, are of an entirely different order! (o amplify the difference, e can
ret#rn to /l#sser:s idea of the screen all! 7ith this idea, /l#sser is primarily thin$ing
of the oven fabric of the tent covering! /or many contemporary readers, hoever,
the ord 9screen: is more li$ely to bring to mind the opa#e screens of proection @
s#ch as in the cinema or conference room @ #pon hich are cast images of one $ind
and another! E#rio#sly, /l#sser .&;;;6 =0 believes that they, too, assemble and store
e1perience, in #st the same ay as the fabric alls of the tent! (his, hoever, is
precisely hat they do not do! 'n the cinema, the movements of life are proected onto
the screen, not dran into its fabric! (he screen itself remains blan$ly impervio#s to
the images that play #pon its s#rface! 5ight, so#nd and feeling, the f#ndamental
c#rrents of sensory e1perience for the tent+deller, are red#ced in the orld of
cinematic representation to vectors of proection in the conversion of obects to
images!
'ndeed the difference beteen the screen as a oven fabric and as a s#rface of
proection precisely parallels the contrast in ays of thin$ing abo#t b#ilding, beteen
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the gathering together of materials in movement and the proection of ideal form onto
material s#bstance, that ' have so#ght to establish! 9(he #navoidably earthbo#nd
nat#re of b#ilding:, rites /rampton .&;;6 20, 9is as tectonic and tactile in character
as it is scenographic and vis#al:! Cnly in the former sense co#ld it be said, ith
/l#sser, that the screen all is 9open to e1perience:! (his leaves #s ith one problem,
hoever, that has still to be resolved! ?o, e1actly, does the perception of nomadic
pastoralists, the archetypal deni8ens of smooth space, differ from that of sedentary
farmers in their hands+on activities of shaping the landJ ?o do the gatherings and
eavings, and the sensory engagements, of smooth space differ from those of the
striatedJ Cnly hen e have ansered this #estion can e finally p#t o#r finger on
the specificity of the ay in hich earth and s$y come together in the conical lodge!
V
All life is lived #nder the s#n, and in this, the farmer is no e1ception! Leople ho
rest a living from the land have also to contend ith the vagaries of ind and
eather, hatever their mode of s#bsistence! 9't is evident that the peasant:, rite
Dele#8e and G#attari, 9participates f#lly in the space of the ind, the space of tactile
and sonoro#s #alities: .2%%46 3%+&0! (his is not an optical space @ a space of
proection @ herein the orld is revealed to the beholder in a manner a$in to images
on a screen, nor is it a haptic space of close+#p engagement ith the materials of life!
't is rather atmospheric, a space of light, so#nd and feeling that inf#ses the body,
sat#rates aareness, and both constit#tes and #nderrites the capacities of inhabitants
to see, to hear and to to#ch! (o inhabit the atmosphere is to see ith the light of the
s#n, to hear ith the so#nds of the elements and to to#ch ith the breath of the ind
.'ngold 2%&&6 &340! B#t hile nomad and peasant may live #nder the same s$y, and
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imbibe the same atmosphere, their respective relations to the earth are f#ndamentally
different! /or in the peasant:s labo#r of shaping the land, the earth presents itself as a
field not of forces to be harnessed b#t of resistances to be overcome! ?ere, earth and
s$y meet not in #nison b#t in discord @ a discord played o#t in the constr#ction of the
delling, as e have already seen, in the opposed principles of stereotomics and
tectonics! 7hereas in the tent of the nomad, earth and s$y meet at the hearth, in the
ho#se of the peasant they are divided beteen the stereotomic mass of the alls and
fo#ndations, hich gravitate toards the earth, and the tectonic frame and covering of
the roof, hich mingles ith the s$y! 'n the division beteen roof and alls, the
peasant delling is divided against itself! (he orld of the peasant, e might say, is
not so m#ch an earth-skyas an earth'sky! (o highlight the contrast, let me introd#ce
another comparison, beteen the farmer:s life on land and the mariner:s at sea!
(he ocean is s#rely smooth spacepar excellence! (he mariner ensconced in
his vessel, feeling the aves as they lap the h#ll and catching the ind in his sails, all
the hile scanning the s$y for the movements of birds by day and of the stars and
other celestial bodies by night, is a point of rest in a orld in hich all aro#nd is in
movement .Gladin&;F46 &=&+20! 'n striving to rein in the forces of the elements he is
the precise opposite of the farmer ho bends m#scle and sine to co#nteract the
friction of an immobile and often #nyielding earth, dragging himself and his
e#ipment over the hard gro#nd and inscribing trac$s and pathays in the process! (o
describe the mariner:s s#rro#ndings from the farmer:s perspective, as aseascape
.Eooney 2%%30, o#ld be to confer on aves and tro#ghs, or on becalmed or t#rb#lent
aters, a permanence and solidity that they lac$ in reality! Setting sail, the mariner
does not simply relin#ish one set of s#rfaces, of the land, for another, of the sea!
>ather he enters a orld in hich s#rfaces ta$e second place to the circ#lations of the
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media in hich they are formed! ?ere the gro#nded fi1ities of landscape give ay to
the aerial fl#1es of ind and eather above, and the a#atic fl#1es of tide and c#rrent
belo! (hese fl#1es, and not the s#rface of the sea, absorb the mariner:s effort and
attention! (he orld he inhabits is not, then, a seascape b#t an ocean-sky(
Eo#ld the same not be said of the nomadic pastoralistJ *#ch as mariners ride
the aves, nomads ride the past#res, carried along on the indsept e1panses of
sand, steppe and sno, and responding in their movements, at every moment, to real
and imaginary forces, both celestial and s#bterranean .'ngold 2%&&6 &330! At home in
the lodge, the nomad feels the earth ith his body as his ga8e mingles ith the s$y!
As a centre of stillness and a calming of the inds, the conical lodge is indeed
comparable to a vessel at sea, and not #st in the fact that the covering of both boat
and lodge is stretched over a tectonic frame! 7e have reports of *icronesian mariners
lying on the bottoms of their canoes hen travelling far o#t of sight of land, sensing
the sell ith their bodies hile ga8ing directly heavenards .*ac$ 2%%=6 &33+40! 'f
for the mariner in his boat, the orld is a blend of s$y and ocean, then for the nomadic
pastoralist in the lodge, it is li$eise a blend of s$y and earth! (his is to thin$ of the
land as smooth rather than of the sea as striated! (here are s#rfaces in the earth+s$y
orld, of co#rse! B#t they are s#rfaces of a different $ind! (he landscape, carved and
striated, has t#rned against the s$y! 't is, as Dele#8e and G#attari say .2%%46 3%0,
closed off and apportioned! B#t in the smooth space of the earth+s$y, the s#rfaces of
the land @ li$e those of the sea @ open #p to the s$y and embrace it! 'n their ever+
changing colo#rs, and patterns of ill#mination and shade, they reflect its light they
resonate in their so#nds to the passing inds, and in their feel #nderfoot or #nder+hoof
they respond to the dryness or h#midity of the air, depending on heat or rainfall! 'n
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smooth space, to contin#e ith Dele#8e and G#attari, 9there is no line separating earth
and s$y: .2%%46 42&0! Cne co#ld not e1ist itho#t the other!
'n his Tristes Tropi)ues, Ela#de 5Ivi+Stra#ss lin$ed the birth of architect#re to
the invention of riting, and both to the creation of cities and empires ith their
attendant str#ct#res of poer and e1ploitation .5Ivi+Stra#ss&;6 2;;0! Both riting
and architect#re strive for hierarchy, mon#mentality and permanence! (heir forms are
stereotomic, assembled from bloc$s and made to last! 'n the tectonic orld of the
earth+s$y, hoever, nothing lasts6 there are no indelible records, end#ring mon#ments
or rigid hierarchies! /rom an architect#ral point of vie, the b#ilt forms of the earth+
s$y orld appear ephemeral @ as ephemeral, even, as spo$en ords! 't o#ld seem,
indeed, that the mon#ment is to the lodge, and the landscape to the earth+s$y,
precisely as riting is to speech! K#st as the ords of oral narrative dissolve in the
very act of their prod#ction, so the binding of materials in smooth space is alays
accompanied by their #nbinding! And yet the lodge, as e have seen, is a thing, and
the thing @ to recall ?eidegger:s ords @ carries on 9in its thinging, from o#t of the
orlding orld: .&;=&6 &
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mi1 and mingle ith air and moist#re from the atmosphere in the ongoing prod#ction
of life! As a gathering place of forces and materials, the lodge is not closed over! 't
does not t#rn its bac$ on #s! 't is open6 a confl#ence of persons and materials, dran
together in the movements of its formation! At the generative heart of the lodge is the
fire+place, the hearth! And here life binds, in the groth of living things, fire
#nbinds, in their comb#stion .'ngold 2%&&6 &220! 'n the smo$e of the fire, materials
no#rished by the earth, and bo#nd together in life, are released once more to the s$y,
hence they ill f#el f#rther groth! (o concl#de, ' ant to s#ggest that it is in
relation to this perpet#al cycle of binding and #nbinding that e sho#ld #nderstand
the conical form of the lodge! 'nstead of thin$ing of this form in terms of p#re
geometry, as a Llatonic solid set #pon a plane, e sho#ld perhaps regard it as the
envelope of an #pard spiral @ that is, as an #pended vorte1 ith the hearth as its eye!
(he spiral is a movement that goes aro#nd and #p, rather than a s#rface that divides
inside from o#tside! 't th#s signifies groth and regeneration rather than enclos#re! 'n
short, as a vorte1 in the c#rrents of earth and air, here the smo$e from the hearth
rises to meet the s$y, the conical lodge brings to a foc#s the generative fl#1es of the
orlding orld!
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Reference
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*ifflin!
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2F
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lee, L! &;=3!!oteboooks/ &olume 0* The nature of nature, trans! ?! -orden, ed! K!
Spiller! 5ondon6 5#nd ?#mphries!
5Ivi+Stra#ss, E! &;! Tristes tropi)ues, trans! K! and D! 7eightman! 5ondon 6
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*ac$, K! 2%%=! (he land vieed from the sea!A,ania* Archaeological 1esearch in
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Clig, ! 2%%
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Fig!re
/ig#re &
(he conical lodge, vieed from the o#tside, in the gro#nds of the *#se#m! (he
people standing beside it give an idea of the scale Mperhaps e sho#ld say ho they
are, and give some more details of the provenance of this partic#lar tentN
/ig#re 2
5oo$ing #p thro#gh the ape1 of the tent, the linear poles intereave to comprise a
comple1 $not, from hich each nevertheless contin#es, reaching #p into the open s$y!