A commitment to a Paper Practice does not come without intellectual entanglements. A Paper Practice requires severing our ties with the world and, as a consequence, with the material gains, greed, hatred, and delusions typically encountered in a practice guided by strict economic values; because it involves a voluntary renunciation from the world of the real, as well as an intellectual approach to formal objects of beauty, a Paper Practice makes one feel within the world and yet outside of it. This type of practice addresses the intrinsic possibilities of a professional existence in which the intellect is completely freed from mundane distractions to dedicate itself fully to the ethics of work and production. Such a sentiment of voluntary isolation awakens the senses and gives a taste of the riches, passions, power, and factual values in the heart of hearts. A Paper Practice requires the courage to live a glorious life in anonymity and isolation; in fact, as Paper Practitioners our lives are directed by the art of thinking, by patience, and by an unrestrained asceticism expressed in the production of basic geometries and unassuming architectural/urban forms.
A Paper Practice does not involve teachers and doctrines; it only requires the mature divine voice within our own hearts – the ever present fountainhead speaking loudly at the center of our minds. A Paper Practice assumes a position of withdrawal, a locus of moderation, discovery, pleasure, hours of meditation, and secret knowledge of self. This is not a practice where official business transactions, compromise, and servient behaviors are tolerated for the sake of economic gains and at the expense of the final results. Nevertheless, and let me be clarify my position, a Paper Practice is neither superior nor inferior: it is just a voluntary moral and ethical choice which, if taken as a collective project, would result in the absolute obstruction of the historic development of cities and architecture; let me emphasize that, under no circumstances would I be so arrogant as to argue for the halting of the global production of cities and architecture. As a choice, the excitement and potential intellectual fundamentalism of a Paper Practice should not be fitting to everyone. As Paper Practitioners we place ourselves outside of the real estate development game by means of self-imposed rules and professional attitudes of inquiry and discovery. This is a position of both power and action; a position which is limited to the individual; a position which is intimidating and filled with spectacular gestures – resulting from immersive hours of meditation on important problems of design.
In the second decade of the new millennium, a revolutionary global project has already begun. This is an urgent project of intellectual restoration where we urge design professionals to examine the voice of their own consciousness by engaging themselves in new kinds of autonomous and experimental projects. Our moral call to order is more than just an academic project for it is guided by supra-historical moral and ethical values; our moral call to order is filled with a fertile idealism which presents itself as a collection of empowering images; our moral call to order exists without the anxiety of production and possessions; our moral call to order is absolute, formal, and political. In the midst of a Paper Practice our only responsibilities are to allow life to be fully present in everything we do and to preserve the immortality of our human intellect.
A Paper Practice accepts no mindless substitutions.
