TRANSCENDENCE: Being on the Edge of Meaning

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dc.contributor.authorCrowder, Jordan
dc.date.accessioned2024-05-13T20:46:54Z
dc.date.available2024-05-13T20:46:54Z
dc.date.issued2024-05-13
dc.date.submitted2024-04-25
dc.description.abstractThe erosion of the body, the other, and the tangible world now permeate all facets of contemporary existence, extending beyond the confines of a debilitating disease—a mode of non-existence until death. We are separating ourselves from the human condition, encapsulated within a server; we are no longer present, instead existing in a palliative state where information proliferates, yet being diminishes. Servers, both physical and digital, become central to our existence, embodying non-real forms that collapse into one another, displacing both the real and us with it. Our existence becomes inauthentic, with no alternative to exist outside of it. Without presence in the server, one does not exist at all. Man is enslaved in this state, celebrated as progress erasing him from the picture, until there is no longer a picture to erase. Instead, a virtue signaling for more control, sedated from a disease that is life, until disappearing entirely. Greater anesthesia is induced, keeping him in a coma, only to need more. When an individual is presented with his own condition and a series of unavoidable losses, he is compelled to ask and reflect – to fight an incurable condition; one akin to the server that alienates one from the body, the other and reality. Man however finds himself searching for meaning in a world devoid of it. To embrace one’s pain and suffering where the other has removed it entirely; here one brings man towards death and the other hides it away, both however pull towards disability. This frustration, born from the desire for freedom only to be constrained by his condition, signifies a descent into non-being, lacking both a functioning body and, potentially, mind. Conversely, a mode of existence the world too becomes, that a collective complies towards. For man however, falling into both results in a double disappearance. The condition, while physically and mentally debilitating, serves as an opportunity to confront more clearly the realities of life and death, independent from the server’s palliation of it. The server’s nature offers an escape to realms beyond, liberated from a hyperreal and disabled existence. The rooftop, both metaphorically and physically, connects to reality, offering a liminal vantage to reflect on the essence of being one is increasingly pulled away from. Here, man transcends the body’s limitations, the notion of access, and the reality of disability. He surpasses the server’s digital and physical confines and his condition, reconnecting with the remnants of the real world and its corporeal existence. The rooftop clarifies his condition and the underlying loss of being. Although man’s fate remains inescapable, this distancing from non-existence rekindles his freedom to that when he was a child, while drawing him as close to heaven as possible, so that when death does occur, he is already there. In this realm, man falls in love with being in the very places he should not.en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/20559
dc.language.isoenen
dc.pendingfalse
dc.publisherUniversity of Waterlooen
dc.subjectadrenoleukodystrophyen
dc.subjectadrenomyeloneuropathyen
dc.subjectalienationen
dc.subjectanomic societyen
dc.subjectarchitecture as commodityen
dc.subjectarchitecture as simulationen
dc.subjectauthenticityen
dc.subjectauto-ethnographyen
dc.subjectbeing as machineen
dc.subjectbeing towards deathen
dc.subjectbody as machineen
dc.subjectburnout societyen
dc.subjectthe city is a machineen
dc.subjectthe city is a serveren
dc.subjectconsumer societyen
dc.subjectcrisis of meaningen
dc.subjectdeath and beingen
dc.subjectdesert of the realen
dc.subjectdwelling disableden
dc.subjectexistential phenomenologyen
dc.subjectflatness of experienceen
dc.subjectfreedomen
dc.subjecthuman conditionen
dc.subjectidea of progressen
dc.subjectjunkspaceen
dc.subjectlonelinessen
dc.subjectloss of bodyen
dc.subjectloss of meaningen
dc.subjectloss of memoryen
dc.subjectloss of timeen
dc.subjectmap precedes the territoryen
dc.subjectmeaning in lifeen
dc.subjectmeaning through sufferingen
dc.subjectmemoiren
dc.subjectnarcissistic societyen
dc.subjectnon-placeen
dc.subjectobsession with experienceen
dc.subjectobsession with imageen
dc.subjectpalliative societyen
dc.subjectpending disabilityen
dc.subjectphilosophy of technologyen
dc.subjectphotobooken
dc.subjectphotographyen
dc.subjectpost-human conditionen
dc.subjectreclamation of the bodyen
dc.subjectrethinking the bodyen
dc.subjectrethinking the cityen
dc.subjectarchitecture and representationen
dc.subjectbeing and represenationen
dc.subjectrooftopen
dc.subjectrooftop to transcend disabilityen
dc.subjectrooftop to transcend serveren
dc.subjectrooftoppingen
dc.subjectrole of bodyen
dc.subjectrole of death in lifeen
dc.subjectrole of the imageen
dc.subjectserver as disabilityen
dc.subjectserver cityen
dc.subjectserver farmen
dc.subjectsimulated citiesen
dc.subjectsimulacra and simulationen
dc.subjectsociety of the spectacleen
dc.subjectsociologyen
dc.subjectphilosophyen
dc.subjecttechnological slaveryen
dc.subjectthe body is a machineen
dc.subjectthe city is a serveren
dc.subjectthe server as disabilityen
dc.subjectthe decline of the westen
dc.subjecttransparency societyen
dc.subjecttranscending access and abilityen
dc.subjecturban-explorationen
dc.subjectviolence of the imageen
dc.subjectwhat it means to be humanen
dc.subjectAlbert Camusen
dc.subjectAlberto Pérez-Gómezen
dc.subjectByung-Chul Hanen
dc.subjectErnest Beckeren
dc.subjectFriedrich Nietzscheen
dc.subjectGuy Deborden
dc.subjectJean Baudrillarden
dc.subjectJuhani Pallasmaaen
dc.subjectMartin Heideggeren
dc.subjectMaurice Merleau-Pontyen
dc.subjectOswald Spengleren
dc.subjectDavid Leatherbarrowen
dc.titleTRANSCENDENCE: Being on the Edge of Meaningen
dc.typeMaster Thesisen
uws-etd.degreeMaster of Architectureen
uws-etd.degree.departmentSchool of Architectureen
uws-etd.degree.disciplineArchitectureen
uws-etd.degree.grantorUniversity of Waterlooen
uws-etd.embargo.terms0en
uws.contributor.advisorVan Pelt, Robert Jan
uws.contributor.affiliation1Faculty of Engineeringen
uws.peerReviewStatusUnrevieweden
uws.published.cityWaterlooen
uws.published.countryCanadaen
uws.published.provinceOntarioen
uws.scholarLevelGraduateen
uws.typeOfResourceTexten

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