ABSTRACT
Enjoying a mild rejuvenation on the contemporary American drug scene, our word ‘ecstacy,’ like the English words ‘derange’ and ‘delirium,’ has its history in spatial terms. The Greek ecstasis meaning to put outside, to put out of place, led to the notion of being besides oneself, of being transported. In moral theory (I have Kant in mind) the idea of acting against ourselves is often seen as imperative and the problem of distancing, if not removing ourselves from our passions and other inclinations, is compounded by our own questionable ability to recognize just when we have succeeded. In art, too, ecstasis has had its own place, especially as the self encounters itself as quotidian being. In this paper I will discuss what I believe is the role of ecstasis in recent architectural practice, specifically in the work of the American architect Peter Eisenman.
