The Other Method

Software. Game Environment.

Exhibited as part of the Caution! Slippery Ground exhibition curated by Yelta Kom, in Istanbul Modern in May 2015.

The Other Method (TOM) is a drawing application for Windows, a piece of software that utilizes the first person view found in computer games as the only gaze available for design. There is no ‘god mode’ of total access to space, there is only a gaze of a grounded subject.

The main aim of the proposal is to examine the act of design as a procedure dependent on organized vision. Intention is to problematize the prevalent role of non-subjective views: planimetric projections (plans, section, elevation), and active perspectival projections of 3d modeling programs in design procedures. A disembodied ‘hand of the architect’ hovering above its creation becomes an active hand found in the lower right corner of the screen. The premise is that design organized by non-subjective views enforces the rationalizing mode of vision and produces effects of alienation. First person view, on the other hand, introduces a subjective element to vision, and prevents ‘total access’ to space. A totalizing operative vision affecting objects from the outside becomes replaced by the subjective vision of a creator, allowing her to take part in and inhabit the creation.