Fake News vs News אדריכלות ישראלית Architecture of Israel #136 February 2024 | | 60 food for thought fake news vs news Architect Dr. Ami Ran Painful October events with their following media denials illuminate this problematic age which characterizes the fake news reality, where what is shown and described has dozens of times counted more than what has really happened. In this bleak reality it is hard not to revolt against the exaggerated importance attached to photoshop-cooked renderings which are sometimes attributed with ten-fold importance compared to built structures, although they are nothing but shallow computer output that often overshadows the abstract, implicit ideas embedded in architecture. This is, in fact, one of the problematic traits characterizing the assimilation of digital content in physical reality, in all areas of life in general, and in architecture in particular. One of the most important roles of architecture is to dictate the way buildings are meant to overcome future realities loaded with expected and unexpected restraints over time. In light of this, fantastic images create unfair competition to structures which have suffered legal and budgetary constraints, as well as unbalanced power relations between the authorities, who do as they wish with private property. Since every design is based on an abstract programme, architecture, as a creativitybased discipline, requires a great deal of emotional involvement of abstract ideas, mainly latent ones, which receive formal expression in the designer's mind. He (and only he) can give it a one-time form in accordance with his selected parameters and preferences which no machine can make, whether stylistically, or prototypically. In a situation where much architectural form produced through computer software requires no obligatory point of departure, any computer image that is not a result of dealing with the real constraints of a specific context is nothing more than a meaningless presentation. Further, the great advances in rendering software enable the creation of absurd images and videos by which inexperienced architects receive greater recognition than well-known architects who designed and built more reasonable projects after years of struggling with planning bureaucracies. Although such a statement may seem confusing, architecture must be appreciated for aspects other than “visuality” alone, the argument here being that latent aspects are far more important than eye-catching ones. This is due to the fact that while the latter is sense-dependant, the first is perceived through all the other senses; namely sounds, taste, smell, touch, or rational or emotional involvement. It was Aristotle who phrased it best 2,500 years before the invention of the computer, denoting the synergic power yielded from cooperation between the five senses, as well as the sixth - common sense – forming the advantage which gives architecture its uniqueness as a multidimensional medium as opposed to all other arts expressing (at best) twodimensions. In such a situation, feeding architectural design into "Program Manufacturing Machines" based on drawing conclusions from the few parameters of previous events at the expense of neutralizing the synergic value – and based on the emotional aspects of life, such as thoughts and feelings, eliminates the main role of architecture as a creative art designed to interface with future planned or (preferably) random scenarios. The best known example of learning how to design from nature is probably found in the organic architecture movement led during the first half of the 20th century by Frank Lloyd Wright, who compared architecture to a living creature which constantly abdicated to an ongoing process of evolution. In such a process, most of the details express an existential need for certain environmental conditions, however, there are also significant details that have done their duty during previous developmental stages under other conditions, some of which become dispensable functionally yet remain as decorative, symbolic elements, such as the Triglyphs in Doric temple gables. Needless to say, when such details are missing, they may actually disrupt the latent activity that gives the organism its uniqueness. The most prominent example of this is the peacock’s tail, used in a previous period to visually increase its volume in order to discourage other animals, now being used by the male to denote the female as part of the courtship process, without which no animal can reproduce. Against this backdrop, it is worth emphasizing the principle of "revolution" which characterizes each stage of evolution, where one style is formulated in reaction to its previous style - replacement that negates the visible importance of previous situations. The best known example of this is the sharp transition from the modernist period, where function took a central place, to the
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