That Obscure Object of Desire: Autobiography and Repetition in the Work of Aldo Rossi
That Obscure Object of Desire: Autobiography and Repetition in the Work of Aldo Rossi
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那个模糊的欲望对象:阿尔多·罗西作品中的自传和重复
DOI:
10.1162/15263810260201599
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发表时间:
2002
期刊:
影响因子:
0.3
通讯作者:
Mary Louise Lobsinger
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Mary Louise Lobsinger
Toward the midpoint of A Scientific Autobiography and within the space of a couple of pages, the Italian architect Aldo Rossi repeats the phrase "the compulsion to repeat" three times. The first occurrence follows the observation that when he sees his most recent project-a temporary floating theater for the Venetian lagoon-he also sees the projects at Modena and Cuneo. To the self-addressed question-is this stasis a condition of development?-he replies, "The compulsion to repeat also represents a lack of hope, but it now seems to me that to make the same thing again so that each time it turns out to be different is a difficult exercise, as difficult as looking at things and repeating them."' This ambiguous claim is followed by the charge that change characterizes inconsistency.2 When the "compulsion to repeat" appears again, it is couched in almost identical terms, without elaboration or reference to what the reader assumes to be its psychoanalytical underpinning. In fact, throughout the text the psychoanalytical is more spurned than overtly embraced.3 The second encounter with the "compulsion to repeat" reinforces the first assertion and emphasizes its importance to the activity of making. The mention of the same three projects-the floating theater for Venice, the cemetery at Modena, and the monument for Cuneo-elicits the following response: "The compulsion to repeat may manifest a lack of hope, but it seems that to continue to make the same thing over and over in order to arrive at different results is the unique freedom to discover."4 Here repeating fulfills a productive function. To make the same form or idea is a decision consciously taken by the author, the aim of which is to produce difference. Further along in the paragraph Rossi identifies the formal trait he sees shared by all three projects: a cubic archetype-form. Rossi's claim that to repeat this form over and over begets difference and that within this repetition lies a unique