What's the manifesto for a downturn? Art + Necessity
Philosophy in Jest? Architect Shohei Shigematsu once joked that he was "doomed to live with the downturn." He was making light of hitting many of his life's significant milestones at times of global economic distress. In a less individualized way, we're all doomed to live with a downturn. The pandemic can make a person worry the entire human race is doomed. On a personal level, any of us nodding acquaintances with our own mortality is familiar with the downturn. And then there's the whole shebang, the whole enchilada: our world's ecological catastrophe. Why does architecture make me think about mortality in a way most arts don't? Does building in this day require optimism, resignation, blindness, pragmatism? Are we like bees with their hives and termites with their mounds, who can't help but build? Or is it the same as the artistic drive to paint, even when the resulting painting will never be seen in public? What kind of necessity is that? Is the crea