Stalker: Sculpting in Time

In his 1979 film Stalker, Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky challenges normative notions of space and temporality. He refers to this as “sculpting in time”, arguing that a filmmaker—like a sculptor—redacts, excavates and curates material to reveal a final product. In relation to architecture, time is typically considered as the linear trajectory of continued existence, and temporality is the perception of experienced time by an individual. Tarkovsky, however, proposes that ‘polyscreen’ cinema - showing multiple perspectives of the same scene simultaneously on several screens - provides a filmic opportunity for experiencing multiple temporal realities all at once.

The way we look at architecture is typically through a single temporal and spatial lens, which by default masks the multiplicity of temporal conditions that an architecture may represent and a visitor to architecture may experience.

This thesis examines how speculative architecture can challenge architecture’s normative notions of space and temporality and simultaneously engender a multiplicity of temporal conditions. Using Tarkovsky’s film Stalker as a generative framework for an allegorical architectural proposition, the principle aim of this design-led research investigation is to investigate ways in which architecture can challenge normative notions of space and temporality by “sculpting in time”. Building upon and translating Tarkovsky’s filmic methods to architectural experiment, the principal research objectives are 1) to explore how excavation can redefine place identity through spatial and temporal relationships; 2) to explore how redaction can simultaneously establish multiple spatial and temporal conditions; and 3) to explore how curation can be used to re-present the allegorical implications of multiple spatial and temporal conditions.