Madeline GINS (1941-2014)

The future of philosophy lies in architecture ?

We alone among philosophers and architects have seen fit to declare this.

– Madeline Gins

Madeline Gins (born 1941) was an American artist, architect, and poet.

Her writings have been described by Arthur Danto as “like Einstein as adapted for Wittgenstein by Gertrude Stein.”

Gins studied physics and Oriental philosophy at Barnard College and wrote her senior thesis on the concept of Sunyata (Emptiness), graduating in 1962.

Her first published work, the experimental novel Word Rain or a Discursive Introduction to the Intimate Philosophical Investigations of G,R,E,T,A, G,A,R,B,O, It Says, (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1969), was heralded by many as extending and transcending the boundaries of writing and thought.

This was followed by What The President Will Say and Do!! (New York: Station Hill, 1984), an excursion into identity, language and free speech using the devices of political rhetoric. John Cage has said of the book that “any man, woman, or child who intends to lead itself into presidency should get a copy, reading it before taking any further steps.”

Gins went on to spend eight years staring directly into the East-West sun-moon to produce Helen Keller or Arakawa (Santa Fe: Burning Books with East/West Cultural Studies, 1994), an art-historical novel that ushered in a new form of speculative fiction.

In 1963, Gins began collaborating with Arakawa on the research project The Mechanism of Meaning. This research project and the architectural projects that stem from it, formed the basis of the 1997 Arakawa + Gins: Reversible Destiny exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum SoHo. The panels appear as a constellation of views concerning the nature of meaning.

In 1987, they founded the Architectural Body Research Foundation (formerly Containers of Mind Foundation), now called the Reversible Destiny Foundation. They have co-authored several exhibition volumes and books, including Architectural Body (University of Alabama Press, 2002) and Making Dying Illegal (New York: Roof Books, 2006).They also applied their theory towards the construction of works of procedural architecture- capable of engaging and transforming the cognitive affect of its users.

The Reversible Destiny Foundation actively collaborates with a wide-range of disciplines including, experimental biology, neuroscience, quantum physics, experimental phenomenology, and medicine.

They have built the Ubiquitous Site*Nagi’s Ryoanji* Architectural Body (1992-4; Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan),expansive landscapes such as Site of Reversible Destiny-Yoro Park (1993-5; Gifu Prefecture, Japan), individual residences such as Bioscleave House (2007; East Hampton, NY USA), and multifamily residences such as Reversible Destiny Lofts – Mitaka (In Memory of Helen Keller) (2005; Mitaka Japan). Reversible Destiny is currently working on plans for housing complexes and neighborhoods (Reversible Destiny Fun House, BOOM – LGBT Community, Reversible Destiny Module, and Hotel Reversible Destiny.)