STEREOMETRIC TRANSPARENCY

The stereometric method is what I would call a transparent approach to the forming of objects.  Gabo created a piece titled Two Cubes (Demonstrating the Stereometric Method.)  In this piece, one cube expresses the mass by forming literally a cube, with the six traditional sides.  The other cube of the piece expresses the cube’s inner space.  And this was the key concept;  he sought to depict the space of an object without depicting the enclosure of the object.  The concept of inner space thereby dissolved the boundaries of the object, which also sought to dissolve the designer’s perceptions of the object.

As I could not find an image Two Cubes that I could use without a licensing fee, I did a quick sketch of his artwork at the top of the page.  Feel free to Google Image the work, as a bunch of images will show up at the top of the page.  We can see that this is a very basic yet very clear constructive illustration of the Stereometric Method.  Try combining the two images so that you see them superimposed on each other.

With this image in mind, we cannot help but state that Gabo was interested in transparency so as to promote a holistic enclosure.  We can characterize Mr. Gabo as an early transparent thinker.  He saw the problem of continued fixation on enclosure at the expense of space.

Gabo was part of the Russian Constructivist movement which flourished from 1919 on.  Part of the movement’s goals was to provide a design backdrop for the Russian revolution.  The constructivists were keenly interested in sculpture.  It can be said that their architectural solutions were more sculptural than they were actual buildings.

Naum Gabo was an influential thinker in the movement thru his contribution of the Realist Manifesto, written in 1920.

“We assert that space can only be modeled from within outward in its depth, not from without inward through its volume.”

We saw this same theme when Le Corbusier was describing the design of a building in terms of a bubble.  He also wrote that they rejected the concept of a building formed principally as a closed mass.  Rather, they advocated “…plastic bodies shall be constructed stereometrically.”