Erotic

As you hear the word “eroticism”, you would probably think of something relates to sexuality. Many people might think of book or movie. Eroticism in architecture is different from eroticism in literature or movie. However, there is one thing in common about the erotic, which is the impact on us. Architecture concept means nothing. Interpretation means nothing to architecture. Though, what really matters is the experience that people would feel inside. Touching, seeing, hearing and smelling and tasting are the senses that people would perceive. To perceive those senses differently from what we could perceive in daily life creates eroticism.

From the movie Fight Club, the main character decided to join fight club just to feel something different from his daily life. Once he joined fight club he get to feel something new, something different and experiencing something unpredictable. As time passes, that newness become old comparable to watching a movie. The first time you watch it, it is a surprise. Because we know nothing of what is going to happen next. However, if we comeback and watch it again and again. You know what is going to happen next in the movie. The same cycle happens with Brad Pitt in the movie. When he first join fight club, everything is exciting. Later, things are the same and the fight club experience becomes routine like replaying movie over and over. So he decided to fight outside of the fight club to get something exciting and unpredictable.

The senses that we perceive could never be erotic if we can predict them. So there is the idea of synesthesia comes up. Synesthesia is when you perceive one sense that sense refers to another sense. You perception connects with your background, knowledge and experience.

For example this chair when you see it, you can feel that it is soft and unstable. The chair that you would probably think as, if you sit on it, it would collapse. In fact, this is a chair made out of concrete. You background leads you to perceive it that way.  

Eroticism is to feel something, to realize something. The whole thing about eroticism is the alarm clock that wakes us up from doing the same routine over and over again. Eroticism is not a judgment that we have towards art and architecture but it is the way we approach art and architecture via sensation.