The Psychodramatic Scripts of Condemned Building

 

Early draft of the psychodramatic script of Night School

Exploring the works of Douglas Darden in Condemned Building, one will note firstly that Darden does not refer to his architectural designs as "designs," "buildings," "proposals," "projects," or any other term architects might use to denote their projects. Rather he calls them "allegories." The title image illustrates this best, whereupon the guillotine is written: "Plans, Sections, Elevations, Details, Models, Ideograms, Scriptexts, and Letters for Ten [--] Allegorical Works of Architecture." In the Forewards, Darden further states: "The buildings are an admission of rhetoric, not knowledge. Instead of solutions, they offer allegories."

So... what does that even mean?

Firstly, we should acknowledge that Darden is incredibly systematic in the creation of Condemned Building. Each allegory is treated equally, with the exception of Sex Shop. For instance, each project has a Dis/continuous Genealogy, even projects that were created prior to 1987, roughly the time when he first conceived of the idea of creating these Dis/continuous Genealogies. Saloon for Jesse James and Museum of Impostors were created prior to 1987, yet he made sure they also had a Dis/continuous Genealogy. This is because the D/cG was not a generative element to the allegory, but creating a D/cG was essential to its narrative, and ultimately the narrative of Condemned Building.

Thus, each allegory of Condemned Building has the following aspects (Museum of Impostors as an example):

• A Name (e.g. Museum of Impostors)
• A Subtitle (e.g. A Portrait of Last Identity)
• A Canon (e.g. Architecture posits the authentic)
• A Reversa (e.g. Architecture posits the fake)
• A Description (site history and aspects, project aspects)
• An Appendix (e.g. the letter from Sarah Wilson)
• A Dis/continuous Genealogy
• Plans, Sections, Elevations
• Photographs of a model with a telescopic lens
• Quotes from Hamlet
• A Psychodramatic Script (e.g. Identities and Acts)

All the projects in Condemned Building more or less have these elements, sometimes other contributing elements, such as site photos or some other sketches, but these are more the exception than the rule. All these are variously categorized as con-texts, sub-texts, pre-texts, and archi-texts.

Now, most of these aspects listed above are either self-explanatory or I have previously written about them, with the exception of the "pscyhodramatic script." What the hell is that?

Psychodrama is a form of therapy that was developed by Jacob and Zerka Moreno in the early 1900s. Effectively, it was a means for individuals to explore inner issues, relationship disputes, feelings, trauma, et al in a theatrical format, i.e. on a stage with props, character identities, role playing, &c. It is intended to be improvised, and in many ways psychodrama is the mother of improv theater.

Now, Darden does not call attention to his adoption of a "psychodramatic" narrative or script; he never calls it this openly. It is only by perusing the project files that one will find him using this term. The first time I find Darden using this term is in a letter to Kevin Lippert (publisher at Princeton Architectural Press) on 1 November 1988 concerning the materials he is preparing for Condemned Building:

"Each project is comprised of exquisite drawings and with model photographs, a dis/continuous genealogy, and a psychodramatic text script. Taken together, the projects form an architect's Kamasutra with the mock negative. Condemned Building is a treatise on the tragicomedic nature of unfulfilled desire. and of loss."

By using this term "psychodrama" is indicative of a few things. Firstly, it pays tribute to Darden's undergraduate background: he held a bachelors in literature and psychology. Second, it is a clever way for him to explain his project without giving a standard project description one expects in an architectural monograph. It is a means for Darden to render the project description as a narrative — not just a narrative, but a dramatic narrative. In a way, this is compatible with the quotes from Hamlet, a dramatic play.

One can play with the ideas that Darden is exploring by rendering the project description as a drama. The building elements are not just inert, static features in a building, but rather dynamic characters, props, stage sets, &c, and the functional uses and movement through the projects are dramatic scenes and acts, as in a play. Suddenly the architectural elements of each building is no longer just a building element, but something more alive, active, animated, like a ballet, which Darden practiced. The silos in Museum of Impostors are no longer just static building features, but characters that are part of a dramatic narrative, active participants in action with a literary purpose.

Furthermore, a psychodrama is supposed to be improvised; they are supposed to be revealing subconscious feelings and opinions — almost associative, stream-of-conscious revealing of under-conscious feelings. While it is clear that these psychodramatic scripts are edited and undergo several revisions, they give the impression of how Darden subconsciously associated his designs with certain theatrical aspects. For instance, the psychodramatic script for Confessional gives insight into Darden's subconscious perceptions of the act of confession from both the priest's and the confessor's points of view.

All this comes back to the nature of allegory. Darden is making commentary, and is inviting us to look beyond his stunning drawings and contemplate a deeper dynamic in his work. In a way, this how psychodramas work: participants act out and represent feelings and ideas within themselves, which opens up a dynamic interaction/conversation between the participants. Allegories, likewise, are a dynamic representation of deeper ideas which opens up conversation. So for Darden to call his theoretical works of architecture "allegories" is apt and fitting. Such cannot be denied. It is simply worth contemplating further how the psychodramatic scripts contribute to these allegories.

It might be worthwhile to explore one psychodramatic script. Since we used Museum of Impostors above, we will continue that here:

Identities I
Fort McHenry, formerly a pine forest
Channel Marker, buoy with painted stairs and stripes commemorating Francis Scott Key
Naval Barricade, thirteen strategically-placed sunken ships, War of 1812
Bombardment, continual artillery fire, 6 August 1814
Commemoratives, inexpensive souvenirs of local military history
Lazaretto, 19th century quarantine house for immigrants

Identities II
First Silo, encasement for two non-indigenous trees
Second Silo, encasement for windmill-powered music box, playing Key's favorite sonata
Black Rock, sheer wall with 13x4 shipping containers, exhibiting individual impostors
Hall of Stairs, lattice of fire stairs, curtain wall, and untouchable floor
Namesakes, plaster tablets at stair landings, presenting fact of impostors' lives
Wooden Raft, pick-up point from museum, built of quarantine remains

Acts
Act 1    Declaration: descent by narrow path from ravelin of fort onto stair passing under the sea
Act 2    Confirmation: two trees acknowledge central axis
Gap A   Cave diverts axis into hall of stairs
Act 3    Passage: binary travel on either side of rock wall; stair landing with tablets of facts, exhibitions of impostors' lives
Gap B  Second Cave leads underwater to second silo
Act 4    Delivery: ascent by ship's ladder to music box, descent by rope ladder to wood raft

Due to the formatting limits of this platform, I cannot show the Identities side by side, but what one is examining is history participating with architectural elements. The First Silo encases trees while Fort McHenry used to be a forest. The encased trees are non-indigenous, playing further into being impostors. These identities play out their roles in Act 1 by moving from the fort, under the water, and into the First Silo. The Second Silo sits out in the water and plays Francis Scott Key's favorite sonata on a giant music box, while out in the water is buoy painted with stars and stripes to commemorate Key himself (shown in the D/cG). These identities interact in an intermission (Gap B, though an early draft calls this an intermission) into the Second Silo. Then into Act 4, ascending a ship ladder through the music box, only to descend a rope ladder into a raft (and Identity) sitting out in the harbor, which is made from wood remains of the quarantine facility that used to be at Lazaretto Point (another Identity) across the harbor. Et cetera.

Darden makes specific use of the term "gap." The harbor itself he calls the "Water Gap." He makes extensive use of concepts of reaching and desiring (across gaps), but also being denied and falling short. The Museum of Impostors does not bridge the harbor, it does not bridge the history between Fort McHenry to Lazaretto Point. It desires to bridge the Gap, but fails to do so. These concepts, brilliantly explored here in the Museum of Impostors, are ultimately laid out in Darden's Six Aphorisms that conclude Condemned Building.

In short, the building designs of Condemned Building are allegories, and the psychodramtic scripts create a dynamic narrative to enact this. The allegories are a play of history, site, architectural elements, and concepts (such as identity, impersonation). Other designs of Darden's have very different psychodramatic scripts. For instance, Night School is just Lessons, whereas Melvilla utilizes Characters and Plot Lines. These obviously play into the narrative of his allegories, and I encourage Darden enthusiasts to explore them more.