CATENA AND GLOSSES. Textualization through Spatial Writing and Materiality

Abstract

Abstract Revisiting my research project from 19 years ago, which deals with notions of integrity in architectural creative processes, this article reflects upon the underlying techniques of forms of spatial writing, as part of my ongoing doctoral thesis work. I approach writing now as a process of ordering references and thoughts for inspection, in relation to the textile-like patterns that I created in the previous project and concluded with a licentiate thesis or halfway doctorate. To understand more about the differences between such textile writing versus the gathering of individual threads into the format of a book, I turn to, and use as my method, the medieval arts of memory, ars memoria, specifically with regard to books, textual systems such as catena and glosses, and illustrations, or bas-de-page. I use these formats as both an instruction for making and as a tool for a speculative evaluation of the result. In the center of this article is the question of how to create a book.