Slavoj Zizek on Architecture and Aesthetics 

Slovoj Zizek is the personification of a shot of espresso.

I like how he can relate 'shit', 'fucking' and 'Lacan' to almost anything

Modernity is a beast. We have to preserve existing historical buildings as well as nature and create new buildings as invisible to the natural and build environment as possible - ideally, modern buildings have to imitate the environment and the culture around them and not the other way around, because the core problem with modernity is that those 'machines', we call 'architecture', treat us equally the same as machines = It is a legacy of the industrial revolution that we wrongly try to paint away with liberal and / or socialist colors. This is nobody's fault, the goal of life and civilization is self-development. People crowded in cities in the 1920s would do anything to live in projects with running water and heating, we consider modern architecture ugly (which is justified), but we have also spoiled ourselves a lot since then. Trying to find an aesthetic in Brutalism is an interesting experience as we have a general natural fascination with monumentality, but there are other ways to make architecture more pleasant. Only true masters and artists can master minimalism, it should not be sold as a product and it should definitely not be mass produced as an alternative architecture. Architecture is not about creating a free aesthetic as in the liberal arts, architecture is simply an imitation of society that uses "form" to create an experience. In addition to art, which has an ideal-aesthetic purpose, architecture also has to fulfill a practical one, but I agree that we have to preserve culture and harmony when designing a building, but creating beauty in a practical form comes into conflict with it Economic and Modern Constraints. So these "classical" principles we see in pre-modern architecture were reserved by a minority of elites and their gods - since 10,000 years the absolute majority of the human population and craftsmen, relied on vernacular, conventional and/or vulgar buildings. They didn't have the luxury to enjoy the beauty of architecture as we do it today (Ironically we have to blame liberty, secularism and democracy for today's architectural ugliness). The point of architectural beauty was to legitimize divine power over a minority, to give society a supernatural and/or divine experience. The only reason classical relics like the Pantheon, the Taj Mahal or the Porcelain Palace still exist is because their beauty and/or cultural significance saved them from destruction.

I try to watch things like this every few days - and everything I have to reestablish my grip on what reality actually is. Capsulization is interesting when you merge it conceptually with duality and contrast nonduality or singularity.

Jesus! The mute language of buildings. That was beautiful.

Architect Miel said it as a rule in his design of buildings, “Less is more” he was right in his thinking. Less means more room to think further. It is what is left out of a drawing for example that gives an artist drawing its powerful effect, let the viewers complete a drawing with his/her own imagination. Let’s suggest not impose and dictate. Man’s ego don’t allows much room in the act of free thinking, this is why most what is said in the world is a repeat of a repeat and comes to nothing other than boring. Zizek says more by his suggestions of thinking the opposite of what the words pretend to say and look at things from the reflection of a mirror with many distortions. Complete the image by yourself, don’t let the reflected image dictate your thinking solely from what appears since what appears is never the essence of the things under observation.

Z's lectures are always interesting...面白い...

for a while i have believed that a new architecture could cause a new society, a new form of a school, a new psychological basis of society...so much of the collective unconscious comes fromthe earliest forms of buildings (and their uses)

running the mouse over the timeline is like watching him talk at regular speed

an important mind in post-political times.

Hello, would you be okay with me showing parts of this clip at a congress in Germany?

I wish we could have seen the slides that you had on your laptop.

People talk of him in such a way that leaves me wondering where the man they’re talking about is 😅 I think they’re more entranced by his accent than what he says

"things that we know, but we don't know that we know them".....hmmmmmm, but then we can't see the flies in our eyes, because the flies in our eyes are keeping us from seeing the flies (Catch -22)...mas por menos...Interesting!

I live in ost berlin and i have a toilet like this that Slavoj is describing... I can see my shit clearly...die Dinge of Emm. Kant, i can enrich my Bewusstsein/consciousness and report to my beloved Hegelian State the fact of a possible illness..

Haven't you seen any other zizek videos. He always does that.

Charity without philosophy is murder. If we only say, 'let us help the have nots', often that becomes, 'let us use violence to spread the american model', etc.

The mute language of buildings. Wow.

Is this 3. space what Joshua Meyrowitz calls 'middle region'? A space, that we exactly use in reality-tv?

fortunately he has written a book or two.

23:00 Such a room that is not in a plan of a house is also (I imagine, haven't been there) a building of Bergheim in Berlin... The psychoanalysis of it is the same - obscenity? Tabu?

More is less in the flags. people divided themselves with a few colors and shapes.

26:20 The Silesian philharmony is in the reverse order

The general public is powerless to principles believed in by the alienated. The general critique of his ideas: if such a thing ever occurs as a possible direction or development; regards certain principles of the dominant conception as facts of nature, but argues that certain knowledge is impossible. This makes them unable to rationalize solutions to problems that they have created themselves like the global economic network that contributes increasingly to climate sensitivity because of the rate of change of globalization.

Interesting that he critiques Frank Lloyd Wright. He’s punching up

He's like an intellectual "Hobo With A Shotgun". (a b-movie parody)

Hand Brake we need bakers too :)

50:00 sic vic pacem para bellum

an intellectual makes a simple idea into a complicated one. an artist does the opposite .if you examine history you will see that most dangerous and distructive forces were created by intelectuals

For your info, he never did drugs. Taking into account you are coming from South America it is probably normal you see coke everywhere.

less and more, eh! the reality (un)principle of minima morelia, or what ~ either/or > or what? .... betterthan, materially and economically speaking requires an Or What, no? How else does indeterminacy and the drive for economic extreme commensurability avoid aesthetics ~ the wrapping paper of life, as a misre-present-nation of, Of-ness of Having-Being?

How arrogant to make 6 consecutive comments only one person cared about.

I'm stating the obvious as anyone here can confirm.

79 positives to a totally vapid remark - which tells us sth about the level so many of us have been dummed down to

word -salad level 10

He has good ideas and arguments but, it just takes him too fucking long to get to the point.

It amazes me that people can't understand žižek and so instead of trying to make an effort to understand, they just sit there agape staring at their monitors and then comment, "this doesn't make any sense, stop smoking weed bro XD" Things tend not to make sense when you don't know what the other person is saying. Writing looks like strange abstract scratching to the illiterate.

they should put subtitles on this. and is he on coke? he keeps sniffing and rubbing his nose, and he looks like hes twitching out a little too lol

Kiitos

He says more interesting things about architecture than art historians or theorists. It is always people outside the field that can really do that. You can say a non-specialist is free of the ideology of the profession that determines what can be thought and said about architecture. It is close to Bataille also.

His anecdote about Ben Hur reminds me of the time i taped Clockwork Orange, the tape ran out as Alex threw himself out the window, I feel like it felt better tied together ending there, and still left you questions. That's actually even earlier in the book than in the movie so Kubrick had already been trimming the ending for a similar effect

I have an entire playlist for Slavoj. It's entitled, "Slavoj".

LOL, phenomenology of the toilet...

Wipe nose, wipe hair, pull at t-shirt. Repeat, but never rinse.

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Zizek Zone.

"DERRRR" - Everyone here

Two things I would love to see: Slavoy cleaning his hair^^ and him being more detailed if it comes to his thesis. I agree with him in many points, and enjoy each of his talks, but I think his speaks lack of more detailed examples and arguments.

I wonder if the house serves as an allegory for Lacan's triad: - outside of house = Symbolic - inside of house = Imaginary - plumbing = Real Any thoughts?

Im an artist... Now i get it. Don't complete your work,and they will call it a pice of art one day :-) The same is in sex,leave incomplete your work and partner wil began to hunting you for one more time.. Ho ho who is mr.wanted now?

restless genius! I really like the part with toilets in conclusion, 51'30'' Thank You mr. Žižek!!

The part about the toilet at the ZKM is not correct: Instead of a prerecordet tape, the camera is constantly filming but just a miniature replica of the actual toilets. The miniature is also located there. Just incase anyone was wondering... after 11 years :D

Thanks to Lacan I wear my socks inside out without guilt.

I could listen to this guy alllllllll dayyyyy.

MR Zizek!!! the quote you referred to by Donald Rumsfeld is not actually his, it's by a Persian Poet ''Ibn Yamin'' in the 13th century (The one who knows and knows that he knows....), Also Confucius has the similar short quote like that.

This is exactly what Zyzz followed, this is the philosophy of Aesthetics lol. strong unaware/10

7000 views not bad - not as good as the gopher thing but its getting up there.

one of the smartest people alive. thanks for uploading :)

I live in Tokyo...the toilets here talk to you! Shieeeeet!

45:33 And the patient's name? George Costanza!

"All this is contained in this narrow space" No. It all collects and is re-verbalized by politicians. as you said, "the ilving dead". ------------------------------------------------------ Zizek: note for your pop - culture scrapbook? quote: "A pre-recorded tape, I saw..."-Zizek Answer from the pre-recorded tape: "The way OUT is the way in" - W.S. Burroughs me: As long as people are 'cattle', (google cattle loader) partisan BS exists. When, self-determination appears, you'll see the access..

the real meaning is less 'material' to get more 'spatial' , this is spoken on the age of crystallization architecture as spatial art. i don't think he understand about architecture by say less means no-thing...

👍👋

You are repeating yourself. I don't mind an occasional repetition, but reiterating a totally empty remark should give reason for concern.

He is a political thinker, that is his whole point, we have been convinced into thinking that things are post political when in reality...everything is political still.

i agree with that , i like great art but i felt for the rich whose patrons it was the appeal was "owning" peace, wisdom, and philosophy.

i am curious to know what of his writings deal most strongly with his obsession with the between ("third") space

18:30 I guess he didn't check the power window option in his Yugo

21:08 RM Brown ruined me

Ten minutes long in the video and I'm guessing he is not gonna talk about architecture.

Thanks BangkokJohnny Royaume de Thailande

man, after 15 mins I am exhausted...

Best Game of Thrones season 8 reaction

xD Funniest comment in a long time

my own genocide? rly?

Subtitles would be nice though.

anyone know who hes referencing at min 33? apollo?

lol

Errr...huh?

WOW. I WILL NEVER LOOK AT A TOILET THE SAME WAY

less is more .... less material more spatial !!! you fool

4:10 you can see this in the vaporwave genre in music. Instead of just going down the formulaic boring process of making edm, which is just plastic commercial kitch, they took old melancholic and nostalgic snippets of music, sometimes just some random background music from an elevator, and slowed them down, made them sound distorted, etc. The lower the quality the better. And it is the freshest thing that happened in music in the past 10 years or so. And it had nothing to do with skill or money. It was an honest creative endeavor because they weren’t concerned with sound quality, target audiences or fitting in. It rebels against the old stale notions of what is supposed to be music. Some vaporwave songs only took 10 seconds to “make”. In by that I mean they took old music somebody else made and just slowed it down, nothing more. To me that is far more artistic than most things in music today. At least it is honest, at least it challenges culture, at least it isn’t scared into submission.

51:10

Žižek doesn't know, that he knows, he is scratching his nose.

Cocaine... Cocaine everywhere...

what the hell is he talking about...

OK...I agree on the responsibility of architects to incorporate all the above into their design and the importance of this responsiility...I don't quiet get how and from which viewpoint we could adress this issue though. Is it the socio-political, the economical, the functional one or even all together and to what direction... To push towards a revolution through or with architecture? He just said that "we", architects, are "by nature" there to simply translate the zeitgeist into mute-speaking volumes... Was this talk just a critisism of architecture? I do not see a personal opinion from mr Zizek on the subject as he does on skiing fo examle.

he is high))

can someone pick english subtitle on this ?

I'm ten minutes in and this man is making no sense to me at all.

thanks, made my day (I try to read one piece of BS everyday in order to remind myself of human stupidity)

It’s amazing how stupid a person can get. Thanks for the great post!