Objets à réaction poétique

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Objets à réaction poétique [‘Objects of poetic interaction’] is a phrase attributed to Le Corbusier. With it, the architect refers to his practice of collecting commonplace objects which, in isolation, “exhibit little expressive potential” (Le Corbusier 1948), but when placed in proximity to one another according to subjective/creative criteria interact visually, inciting creative impulses. Architecture-theorist Fink Shapiro summarises Le Corbusier’s idiosyncratic practice as follows:

Fascinated at once by the products of nature as well as the products of industry— both of which are partly rational and partly mysterious—Le Corbusier collected particular shells, stones, bones, and machine parts that spoke to him of creative energy in its infinite potential. He grouped these things under the name Objets à réaction poétique. This “poetic reaction” was a release of potential energy, an imaginative impulse leaping from made things to things yet to be made. The collection was an impetus to invention. In these humble yet miraculous objects were hidden countless new ideas waiting to be released.