Embodied Vision

Embodied Vision delves into a series of representations Fatehpur Sikri has been subjected to and concludes that there is an inexorable tension at its core embodied in the constantly shifting axes, complex rhythms, raising or lowering of the ground planes, juxtapositions of mythical symbols and the conflicting pulls of traditions and human will. The space of Fatehpur Sikri is revealed to us through perception more than through geometry. Professor Mehta’s unconventional interpretation of the architecture of Fatehpur Sikri emanates from his exploration of the history of architectural representation and leads him to conclude that the tools of designing, representation and analysis, which we normally use today, did not exist in sixteenth-century India when Fatehpur Sikri was built. These drawings, which assume our “mind’s eye” hovering above the city and taking in the whole of reality at once, have failed to represent the existential lived experience of inhabitation of architecture. Contents: Preface; The City of Victory; Feet on the Ground and Eyes to the Face; Flesh and the City; From Sensible to Intelligible; Four Representations of Fatehpur Sikri; The Embodied Vision; Time and Space of Fatehpur Sikri; Acknowledgements; Appendix; Extended Bibliography; Illustration Credits; Index.
Embodied Vision delves into a series of representations Fatehpur Sikri has been subjected to and concludes that its space is revealed more through perception than geometry.