Punning as Process

The pun is a doubling of meaning, a layering on of content, communicating within communication. This paper reports on a recently opened exhibition of experiments into using syntactical arguments in design to investigate the double faced quality of puns in language. Paranomasiac presents an exaggerated environment, a space of mixed metaphors and misaligned referents. Using the techniques of comedy and improvisation as alibi, it deliberately confuses scale, material, and identity in an effort to recontextualize the architectural exhibition as a productive contrivance. The layering of meaning present in wordplay is used to choreograph architectural effects. The projects collected in Paranomasiac send out feelers on the many fronts of linguistics, comedy performance, precedent, and humor theory to develop parameters for how architects might begin to talk about funny things in a serious way. This paper will outline propositi ons for operating with a punning sensibility in architecture, in particular in how the structure of the pun might be leveraged for the communication of architectural ideas.

Volume Editors
Jasmine Benyamin, Kyle Reynolds, Mo Zell, Nikole Bouchard & Whitney Moon

ISBN
978-1-944214-28-9