During the seminar week, each student (students from Bachelor’s, Master’s and MAS Program in D-ARCH ETH) was asked to take 1,000 photographs of ornament every day. At the end of the week, they had to give a 100 second presentation from these many thousand images, and explain how and why they had made their selections: voila various perspectives.

Muster

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Tobias Tommila

Ornaments can be conceived in many ways; they appear in different places, colours, scales and patterns. Various are also the reasons to use ornaments, sometimes they are planned, sometimes they occur unintentionally – certainly, however, they are part of the local culture. But maybe ornament is also defined by the personal cultural background of the observer, by his or her way of looking at the world? That’s what this video is about.

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Stephanie Schenk

In my presentation I asked myself if the door represents the importance of what is behind it. I found out that this is generally true. However, there are situations in which the door itself becomes an ornament, even though it only leads in to a chamber. This is the case if the door is included in a representative wall or situation.

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Shivani Chakraborty

<From geometry and signs into the movement of inscriptions>

From more geometrical abstract ornaments made out of small blue tiles but also carved directly into the stone, little signs in big stone blocks caught my attention. They led me to the inscriptions, which I found on many surfaces and out of different materials. Fascinated by the movement of this script I started to collect them like ornaments and landed by the scribbling on walls from our time, which are more abstract again.

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Elias Binggeli

My focus in this short sequence of pictures is on the transitions between ornaments. I recogniced that the fields of ornaments are determed by the architectural shape and framed in specific ways. This framing method is underlining the architecture and it illustrate the direct connection between the surface (the ornaments) and the formed body of the architecture. In standing further away from the objects the frames themselves often became an ornament, because the used collers and the grain size of the different ornaments are nearly the same and only the bigger framework remains readable. Instead of beeing a completion of an ornamental field sometimes the framework itself become an ornament.

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Peter Boller

By observing the different examples of ornaments in Esfahan, I found three thematicfields:1. the play with light, shadows, reflections – but it’s not only a game, it’s more akind to govern or diciplinate the light, to allow or forbid it to come in to acertain time and place and to lead it a certain way.2. all the circles and endlessly repeated paterns remember rules, a web or networkor the show maybe the confidence in an endless circle. (or it’s a way to handle theendless…, what can’t be counted, the abundance itself.)3. at last, there are a lot of practical things of daily use with ornaments. thereis probably no other reason for this ornaments than to make the user glad, to makethe everyday special.

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Lorraine Hausmann

<Light>
I asked myself, what importance does light have in ornaments and  looked for certain aspects.

1.    The direct light source generates a scene.

2.    Fascination of light and the play with shadows.

3.    The play shows itself on the facade and also in the room, and becomes an ornament itself.

4.    The play with electric light and ornaments.

5.    Spatial effect.

6.    Plasticity through light.

7.    Reflexion.

After a few days I saw the play with light everywhere I went. You can  also see it in every day situation, and there it can also be called an  ornament.

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Sarah Bolliger

During my stay in Isfahan I was diving into a wonderful world of oriental ornaments. Modern architecture so far has attracted me with pure functionality, simplicity and purity mainly. Hence an ornament at the first glance would not fit with my conception of good architecture. The more I was impressed with the huge richness and variety of Isfahan’s ornament world, I started to question my stereotype mind set in that matter and started to see an analog to the chaotic structure of images, that one can see in daily life. I became aware that these patterns can come close to well designed and organized ornaments. A group of people, an accumulation of green beans, mix of spices or even a bunch of rubbish can have the character of an ornament.

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Mihye An

<Rubbing Ornaments>

I had a strange urge to ‘rub’ ornaments with video camera, when I firstarrived in Isfahan. Delighted by the fullness of ornaments at every angle, Istarted from simple rotation and arbitrary movement in taking them. However,while developing myself to systematically rub the patterns based on thoroughgeometrical foundation (mostly circular lines), I felt somewhatclaustrophobic that there was no room for randomness or ‘mis-rubbing’. Theworld was too perfect, rational, serial and even minimal in itself.There was indeed a huge gap between this geometrical utopia and the realitystaying around it. No action of ‘rubbing’ was needed for the real, vividscenes. I just press the red button on the video camera and see what flowsinside.Neverthless, after one week, I reached a point where I stopped rubbingornaments and started rubbing the reality, thinking about simultaneouslytaking them as well (it appears at the last three fragments of this video):a small attempt to render the abundance of reality in an ornamental fashion.

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Rebecca Bornhauser

At first it seemed rather clear: ornament is a kind of decoration, usually colourful, on a surface or in space. Important seems its relation to light, reflection and shadow, the latter as its duplication or variation. But what about its representational value, its imagery, related to imagination, its symbols? And what if we don’t understand the meaning, do words become ornaments as well? And how is ornament related to geometry, symmetry and structure? And when does a structure become a mere pattern? And how do these pattern differ from the ones we know from nature? Is ornament related to purpose? And what about traces through use and time? How much ornament is there in the material itself?So at the end I got rather confused about what ornament really is, but maybe what Plato said about beauty could also be true about ornament: that it is in the eye of the beholder.

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Luc Joos

I put my focus on the so called Iwan. The Iwan can be an entry as well as a passage inside the building. As an objective observer, tourist, you never know, what you can expect behind these gates. There are full of ornaments, as a part of the whole ornamentic facade. You can see already the inside ornaments from the outside. The gates can be seen as a kind of a gate to a different ‘world’.

They are used for doors as well as for windows. Even the bridges are full of these iwans. So even the view into the landscape, nature is framed by ornaments. The windows are covered with additional ornaments by wood which is used, as sun protection.

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Ryan Lehmann

<Society as Ornament>

In this Seminarweek we looked at thousands of ornaments; ornament was everywhere, on a wall, on the floor; on each building we looked at, there was something on it. No “flat” surfaces, architectural decoration only.

I think that the ornament is not only given by the geometry of a picture or by an architectural element; people are also a very important part of it.

People become important to me when I realised that they were part of the architectural geometrical composition. The focus is no more on the architectural element that build the ornament, but people themselves. People are the ornament in the ornament; they also become more important than the architecture, more then the ornament design on a building. Ornament (of any kind) is nothing compared to people.

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Agata Muszynska

With this short movie I would like to show a fragment of my Iran journey. Actually –the second part of it. The part, that begins on the flight home.In my presentation I tried to concentrate on memories. What impact will this triphave on me? In what way will I remember Isfahan city: space, details, shapes,colours, sounds, quantities, limitations, possibilities? How does memory work? Howdoes it work in relation to abundance of ornaments? What is my memory strategy?

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Sabrina Mohr

When does an element become an ornament. What does it need to be perceived as anornament? Can every element or object through order or rotation, through repetition,reflection or layering become an ornament?

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Eveline Schneider

One thousand photos to be taken a day. Not just any photos, but pictures of ornaments. What a task. Where should I find a thousand different ornaments? A day?At the beginning of the week, I tried hard concentrating on capturing ornaments – or what I thought being defined as one. Bit by bit, more and more turned out to look like ornaments. After a while I gave up. Or did it just begin? I stopped directing my camera snd started letting my camera direct me. I even could observe myself capturing everything that appeared in front of my lens. I was after everything.Everything was ornament. Ornament was everything.It is the abundance in ornament.

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Nadine Spielmann

ONE PICTURE NO PICTURE. EVERY SINGLE PICTURE REPRESENTS ONLY ONE SPECIFIC SITUATION OF A WHOLE SYSTEM OR A WHOLE CLUSTER. THE CLUSTER IS ESSENTIAL FOR THIS WORK; IT IS NOT A SINGLE PICTURE THAT COUNTS, ONE HAS TO CONSIDER THE WHOLE SYSTEM CONTAINING EVERY POSSIBLE PICTURE.

VARIETY NO LIMIT. ENDLESSNESS. INFINITY.

CHANGE THE ORNAMENT IS NOT DEPENDING ON ITS LOCATION. IT IS FREE IN SPACE. ONLY A VERY SMALL CHANGE IN FOCUS OR DIRECTION GENERATES A WHOLE DIFFERENT PATTERN.

MONOCHROMIZE THERE IS LIGHT AND COLOUR. IF THERE IS SHADOW – A LIGHT CHANGE – THEN COLOUR CHANGES. BY ERASING THE COLOUR, ONLY LIGHT IS LEFT. IN BLACK AND WHITE THERE IS ONLY LIGHT AND DARKNESS, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. DEPTH IS CREATED ONLY BY LIGHTCHANGES, COMBINING 2D AND 3D HOMOGENUOUSLY. 2D MEANS ORNAMENTS AND SPACE IS 3D. BOTH SHAPE PATTERNS IN THEIR OWN WAY. COLOUR MAKES THOSE PATTERNS LOOK DIVERSE. BY TAKING THE COLOURS OUT OF THE IMAGE, BOTH FEATURES MELT TOGETHER. THE ORNAMENT BECOMES SPACE AND THE SPACE BECOMES ORNAMENT.

POSITION TAKING SEVERAL PICTURES OUT OF THE SAME PLACE, DOES NOT MEAN THAT THEY SHOW THE SAME VIEW. KEEPING ONE POSITION GIVES A CERTAIN RELATION. THIS RELATION CAN BE EXPERIENCED INDIRECTELY BY ZAPPING THROUGH A SERIES OF SHOTS CREATED FROM THE SAME POSITION.

PICTURING NORMALLY I TRY TO MAKE ONE OR TWO PERFECT PICTURES. IT TAKES ME LONGER TO THINK ABOUT PROPORTIONS AND DEPTH, LIGHTENING ETC. HERE, I DID, WHAT I NORMALLY WOULD NEVER DO: HIT THE SHUTTER OVER AND OVER AGAIN TRYING TO BE FASTER THAN MY MIND ALLOWS; THAT MEANS SHOOTING WITHOUT THINKING, JUST LOOKING, PRESSING THE BUTTON TO CAPTURE WITHOUT JUDGEMENT. CAPTURING WHAT? NO DEFINITION OR PREFERENCE ANYMORE. ACTING LIKE A MACHINE, BUT NOT REALLY MECHANICALLY, MORE LIKE FLYING, HEARING IN THE BACKGROND SOUND OF A CLICK. DRIFTING THROUGH SOFT IMPRESSIONS UNAWARE OF RESULTS, STEPPING OUT OF TIME AND SPACE. FINALLY THE AWAKENING BACK INTO CONSCIOUSENESS, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE CRAMP IN MY ARM OR MY FINGER, REMINDING ME OF NOT BEING A MACHINE.

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Carlo Wetzel

<Traffic as an ornament>
The ornament in the oriental world is meant to define space, to make space visible.The ornaments catch the light and transform it into an image, everything that comesfrom above will return to the sky. These ornaments are made to be regarded from astanding point of view of just from a slowly moving position. But as todaysmovements in the cities become faster and faster, these beautifully craftedornamental begin to vanish into a blur.The question is now how would be a new ornament, that suit these new conditions. Anornament, that represents the constant flow in the cities veins. My observations in Esfahan, showed me, that the traffic itself can be read andintroduced as an ornament itself.Traffic in Esfahan is like water, it is a constant flowing stream which organizesitself within some written and unwritten rules. Its an ever repeating pattern whichis organized in in a large scale network, but is almost unpredictable in smallscale.

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Francesca Wyser

ISFAHAN IS A CITY OF ORNAMENTS. They are to be found in the smallest corners, inevery architectural building and in its artwork. Tiny ornaments, when viewed as awhole, are then transformed into an entirely new pattern, bringing to mind akaleidoscope that shows endless combinations of forms, depending on the angle atwhich we look. And then again the composition of all these new patterns togetherforms itself anew into a vast ornament. ISFAHAN IS ORNAMENT. Ornaments areomnipresent, and are not only found in more obvious places such as in carved woodenartwork, in paintings, in metal handicrafts but also in shadows, in reflections instone and in water, in footprints in the sand. If you try to trace the visibleornament to its root, its solid matter will dissolve into dust and into light. NATURE IS ORNAMENT, ORNAMENT IS NATURE.

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Bettina Anita Germann

<Abundance in ornament | ornament and light>

How does the sun or light in general affect sculptural ornaments? How do they change their appearance depending on the light? These questions I asked myself when I chose the photographs for my presentation. Only by light the three dimensional ornaments become plastic. Only by light contrasts arise – stronger or weaker. Only by light they become alive. The sculptures cast shadows onto neighbouring surfaces, distorted differently through the day. So the light stages an interesting play of the ornaments.

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Nicolas Ganz

Ornaments might be nice to look at, but who thinks they are for  decoration only is wrong. The ornament is a way of defining surfaces  and spaces which is fundamentally different from the the western  definition. While the western world thinks of a surface as a flat  spacial expansion defined by (mostly) rectangular borders, the eastern  definition would call this a void. The ornament is the most appealing  way of filling this void and thus creating a surface out of it. While  westerners think about the lines around, easterners think about the  points within. Look at a wall near you, look at the video, look at the  wall again.