The empty concept: (sur)realism of the virtual

Abstract

This dual title refers to the very production of and with the architectural concept. The technology of translating the architectural object from one form of existence into another, in successive and simultaneous projections, comprises the hyper-specificity of the methodology of the architectural project. '(Sur)Realism of the Virtual' indicates a possibility for a different understanding of the terms "virtual" and "realism" in the sense of destabilizing the "reality of the virtual' and introducing the novel into the very notion of the virtual. René Magritte explicitly demonstrated that the object never matches its projection, just as words do not match the text they explain. (Sur)Realism of the virtual refers to my idea of creating a new conceptual potential at the point of absence, lack or inexistence of the architectural object.

In thematizing actualization or realization of the empty concept, I follow the ideas of Thomas Aquinas that all substances seek their own perfection and everything is directed towards their final end: a fully realized state ofexistence or actuality. A virtual field represents the necessary conditions under which real experience is actualized, such that actualization and the object belong to the virtual. All these relations explain processes of production of the architectural object and show nearly mathematically the differences among the modalities of the object's reality across diverse status: potential, act, movement, and force.