(Re)Thinking Primitivism, Cubism and the Agency of the Mask: Three Forms of Improvisation

This paper calls for a reassessment of three forms of improvisation: primitivism, cubism and the agency of the African mask. Towards the end, this essay will investigate the symbolic and cultural forms, which can be found specifically in the space of the African mask. Secondly, the essay explores the dynamic relationships of space found in African architecture, for example, the tripartite relationships of cosmology, time and community life that exists in Dogon architecture. Among the Dogon, hermeneutic spatial relationships point to reality above and beyond the ' conventional explanations of Euro-centric architectural theory. In my design studio, I ask students to explore the Dogon mask --as well as other masks - as an agent of design inquiry: students are also asked to make independent studies of the mask, and they are further asked to apply their findings to an architectural design problem and to improvise using their findings in the analysis and solution to the problem. My objective is to consider specific ways in which a student can rethink the process of design to engage new and important ideas, which will enhance diversity in architectural education.