Representations generated independently of the object: Bacon's “The New Atlantis”

Abstract

In the process from past to present, life has evolved in a changing world order. In prehistoric times, while basic needs were housing and nutrition, needs and expectations have changed with the developing industry. However, the changing order depending on the existence of humanity has led to the emergence of many flaws. While human beings always wanted to be in the center of life, they desire new worlds and a more perfect order as the parameters in life are continuously changing. Many thoughts that are known to be impossible to realize as a result of the desire to solve the difficulties that human beings face within the limits of their life constitute the utopias. Although it seems impossible for utopias to capture the reality, the individual should not put anything between the object and the object order to perceive the reality with the images envisioned by the individuals. Expressing the representations produced independently of the object through space, catalize the understanding of utopias and the attendance in them.

The designs that highlight the building, which is the object of today's architecture, have been introduced. The important thing in architecture, which is thought to bring a critical expression to this form of understanding, is actually the representation of the structure of the thought with various means, instead of the structure, which is important in architecture. Bacon's The New Atlantis is the sample chosen for a textual analysis within the scope of this study, which was prepared considering that it would add a different dimension to the architectural discussions. The representations of the texts, independently from objects, are dealt through spatial fiction. It is aimed to examine the spatial relations through the ideal society fiction and the unreal world that Bacon handles with his utopian expression. The aim of Bacon, who makes the social world and nature the object of design in his writing, is to dominate nature and to make it the object of human mind and science, with the representation of the places on the island named Bensalem. It is seen that the utopian connection in the formation of the space designs is constructed over nature.