voi Ceswhat questions emerge, how to go on, what possible actions come into view, why is this
important? The process of modelling and simulation has already begun.
theme 4: modelling and simulationin architecture a model generally represents how something is or could be. it may be
descriptive (to demonstrate what something is like), conceptualizing (to investigate how
something could be understood), or prescriptive (to suggest how something should be).
But abR, as often in technical and natural sciences, requires more operative modelling
strategies – active tools that do something: ‘what would happen if ...?’
modelling as an active tool closely relates to simulation as an investigating-
constructing pursuit. as it is largely based on spatial and lateral thinking instead of
a linear structure of thought, it helps in composing and re- arranging the enquiry and
contributes to performance processes. modelling involves materials, representations
and technical working devices and is engaged in communication on several levels:
models can act as machines in scenarios; they influence the situation but are, in their
own turn, changed by it; and they can function in the critical (re-)examination of
conditions, parameters and relationships in the research set- up. Thus they take part
in the formation of the operational framework, in different kinds of dialogues, and in
developing research as a collective practice.
apart from investigating materialities, spatial thinking in modelling and experimen-
tation can also stage locations, heterotopias and liminal states. michel Foucault defines lo-
cations as the ‘internal relationships between points and elements ... mutually irreduc-
ible and entirely unable to overlap each other’. in the architectural or abR situation
this may identify key points or strategic set- ups of special interest. Correspondingly,
heterotopias are locations that carry a complexity by connection (direct, referential or
conceptual) to other places (Foucault 1999 [1984]: 176ff.). such complexities may be
difficult to grasp through logical thinking, but they may be investigated through the
artistic modelling activity and, possibly, revealed in their richness of information and
connections.
Through simulation/simulation the situation, or parts of it, can also be placed in
temporary seclusions, liminal states (Turner 1982: 26; dyrssen 1995: 136ff.) namely
temporary ‘as if’ circumstances, out of ordinary space- time, in a marginal position or
between one context and another. To situate a problem in a liminal state, possibly
under extreme conditions, allows for other performances or games to be set up, and
from which it can come to interplay with a ‘real’ situation. But a liminal state is also
without time, which can imply that the research situation can be allowed to ‘float’ in a
transitional state and intermediate zone, comparable to the concept of terrains vagues
in a city, vague landscapes that allow for different programs or actions to take place and
shape further change (solà- morales Rubió 1995). it gives the researcher a space for
contemplation and deeper investigation. Certain components can be distinguished and
placed in different relationship to their surroundings. Thus, the simulation/simulation
can work as an abstraction, in the sense of pulling conditions or aspects out of their
initial contexts. This may be used in experimental stagings or as part of a critical activity
further discussed below.