Flickering Pixels: The Skin We’re In

It’s startling to some to realize that the largest human organ is not the brain or heart or lungs.  They’re the sexy starlets that get the most media attention, but these gadgets pale in comparison to the skin, the quiet character actor.  And though most of the glory goes to the media systems that animate modern worship and communications, its easy to forget that the buildings in which they reside are a powerful medium in their own right.   It was with this in mind that I read Shane Hipps’ Flickering Pixels.

At the heart of Flickering Pixels is Marshall McLuhan’s now-familiar observation that “the medium is the message” in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.  A “medium,” for McLuhan, is anything that amplifies or accelerates existing processes, introduces a change of scale or pace or shape or pattern into “human association, affairs, and action” – buildings included.  While Hipps is focused on other technologies, it’s easy enough to draw a couple of implications for buildings.  Here are a few:

Unambiguity
uildings, like print, or other finite media, tend to distill the message they convey into a more concrete and less nuanced versions of the original.  I’ve written here before (The Unambiguity of Bricks, February 2007) )about the risk this creates for leaders of new churches.  Geometry, in the built world, doesn’t leave much room to negotiate.  In response, some architects look for ways to “de-materialize” structures or objects, designing them in a way that makes their edges, and even their presence, less certain.

Process orientation
It’s a rare church leader that doesn’t talk about community.  Rarer still is the building that contributes to the health of one.  Most structures used by churches serve best as symbols and shelters, rather than as nurturing environments.  That’s a tall order for any designer, but most church buildings focus on delivering people efficiently from activity to activity or place to place (even if its a Third Place), a linear process increasingly out of sync with contemporary culture.

Impact on Message
Architecture, more often than other media, is used intentionally to reinforce the message it conveys.  Hipps points to God’s use of media – the burning bush and the stone tablets – and wonders if the Ten Commandments might have been received differently if they’d been written by a skywriter on a breezy day.  Building designers routinely use rhythm and mass to emphasize or even exaggerate the presence or absence of purpose and power.

Any more parallels or applications come to mind?