Thesis Defence: Dennis Tang

Of the thesis entitled: Sprezzatura

Abstract:

The dramatic spectacle is dazzling, alluring, and seductive. Glimmering, it draws you into a maze of turns, distractions, and clues. The sparkling veil conceals objects of desire, while displaying them with pride.

Slits entice desiring glimpses revealing moments of clarity in a shimmering cloud. These glimpses paint a picture of the world beyond, with your imagination finishing the partial image. Never is everything apparent; a centrefold would destroy all illusions.

As your interaction continues, however, alluring images carry on growing. Sensual portraits expose swathes of tantalizing inner layers. Before long, these pictures establish a rhythm. The tempo is now guiding the experience, like the marching of a drum. With each moving surface, the edges once united and connected split, like the parting of a kiss.

In its finale, the performance exposes your grandest desires. The elongated experience rewards an intensified and satisfying climax. You care not for curated, edited, or designed moments. For the dramatic build-up was enough, regardless of omitted or concealed details. 

Through architecture, searching the spectacular, the dramatic, and the seductive uncovers a diminishing language. One created with a corporeal reading of space. The investigation favours an elongated flirtation over a full-frontal exposure. 

The proceeding passages are analogous experiences, known as Fragments. They engage an arousal with viewers and users of buildings. Interspersed throughout the tome, descriptive Elements provide a method of interpreting these experiences. Elements are clues of a mystery, deciphering enigmatic experiences of an erotic architecture. The combination of Fragments and Elements coalesce to create this nostalgic journey.