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2021 Architecture & Film Symposium
BALL STATE UNIVERSITY
Co-Chairs James F. Kerestes Dr. Vahid Vahdat
Graphic Design Jesse Lindenfeld Samantha Stapleton
Support for the screening of Uppland provided by ADVANCE at Washington State University.
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architectureandfilm.org
Welcome Film is a dynamic representa onal medium offering the ability to collapse me and compose visual narra ves frame-by-frame. Like cinematography, architecture and film maintain a symbio c rela onship that requires a constant state of adapta on. These two mediums reveal, reflect, cri que, and re-present cri cal issues of our me through the produc on of visual and spa al performances. The symposium’s theme, Of Movement, reflects the changing paradigms of these disciplines as they move, transi on, and respond to dynamic issues of social and environmental jus ce, the advent of emerging technologies, and the oversatura on of media in contemporary society. For the 2019 symposium, Of Performance, explored ideas that intersect at the development of concept, context, and making in the overlapping domains of film and architecture. This year’s theme, Of Movement, con nues this conversa on by exploring how the performa ve aspects of architecture and film transi on between each other at various scales and intervals. The symposium ini ates inquiry into how cinema c representa ons bring forth theore cal posi ons about the built environment and how architecture challenges the cinema c narra ve. Of Movement, focuses on the parallel and complimentary rela onships between architecture and film to generate the visualiza on of images and space. It offers a cri cal forum for presen ng crea ve prac ces and scholarship of historical, theore cal, realized, and specula ve work involving film, architecture, and design. More specifically, it endeavors to promote innova on in design theory, pedagogy, and prac ce.
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Editorial Board Submissions to the 2021 Architecture & Film symposium underwent a rigorous peer review process. Paper submissions were blind peer reviewed by a minimum of three scholars. The editorial board is comprised of an interdisciplinary group of scholars from around the world.
Paramita Atmodiwirjo Universitas Indonesia
Maki Iisaka Texas A&M University
Gemma Barton University of Brighton
Jacopo LeveraƩo Politecnico di Milano
Shannon BasseƩ Lauren an University
Marian Macken The University of Auckland
Laura Bilek University of California, Berkeley
Michael A. McClure University of Louisiana at Lafaye e
Graeme Brooker Royal College of Art
Pablo Meninato Temple University
Stanley Corkin University of Cincinna
Kevin Moore Auburn University
Lorella DiCinƟo Ryerson University
Alison Snyder Pra Ins tute
Chris Madrid French MILA Entertainment
Olivier Vallerand Arizona State University
Harriet Harriss Pra Ins tute
Kevin Walker Coventry University
Susan Hedges Auckland University of Technology
Yandi Andri Yatmo Universitas Indonesia
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Thank you The 2021 Architecture & Film Symposium co-chairs acknowledge the notable efforts of several collaborators including Dean David Ferguson, Melissa Wormer, Melanie Smith, and Valerie Morris of the Ball State University R. Wayne Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning. The co-chairs thank session topic moderators Zachary Tate Porter, Maryam Mansoori, Jimenez Lai, Mar n Summers, and Janice Shimizu for their service to the symposium. The symposium has been supported financially by a number of ins tu ons; publica ons have been sponsored by BSU CAP, the screening of Uppland is funded by WSU ADVANCE, and WSU Interior Design program sponsored student registra on, for which we are deeply grateful. Addi onally, the co-chairs thank Samantha Stapleton and Jesse Lindenfeld for their generous assistance with the graphic design and produc on of event materials. Finally, a very special thank you to Graham Harman for providing the Keynote to the symposium and to Edward Lawrenson and Killian Doherty for screening their short film Uppland.
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CONTENTS
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23 Get Pissed, Destroy Landmarks, City-Spaces, and ‘Punkspecta ons’ in Alex Cox’s Repo Man and Sid and Nancy Marko Djurdjic
Schedule Overview 12
Schedule Details 16
PAPERS 17 Strategy, TacƟcs and Victories of the Everyday in My Architect, ExhibiƟon and Koolhaas HouseLife Marianna Janowicz 18 Architectural Filth and the Heroic Passivism of Farhadi’s Salesman Vahid Vahdat 19 Embodied At-homeness Reflec ons on Dwelling Experiences Framed in Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story Roohid Novinrooz 20 Suburban Horror Story Occupying the Inters al Spaces of a Home James F. Kerestes 21 The Cultural Impasse of Past Futures and Future Pasts in Brazil and Westworld Will Fu 22 FleeƟng Structures, Vanishing Trajectories Marina Montresor
24 Mirrors of Mirror Architecture as the Expanded Picture Elena Rocchi 25 Memoirs of Spaces Cinema c Disposi on of SpaceInduced Retrospec ons into Cultural and Spa al Hegemony of Experiences C. Aparnaa and Sparsh Patlan 26 InfrasƟƟal Scenes Doreen Bernath and Sarah Mills 27 Bebop in the Underbelly Race, Space, and Embodiment in Paris Blues (1961) J. English Cook 28 The Crisis of AuthenƟcity Ver go and the Seagram Building Andrew Gleeson 29 Pedagogical and Epistemological Dialogues in Teaching Architecture as a Means Towards CinemaƟc Design Katarina Andjelkovic 30 The Eye of the Camera Patrick Till
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31 Permanent Sets Harry Oliver and the Introduc on of Filmic Grammar to the Built Environment Dave Go wald 32
MOVING IMAGES 33 Posthuman Cartographies Farzam Yazdanseta and Eva Perez de Vega 34 On Reading Wet Dreams Karen Lange and Nathanael Ramos, et al. 36 Pedagogy of the Fourth Wall Kevin Marblestone and Emily Whitbeck 37 FoundaƟon Design Video Thomas Forget and William Philemon, et al. 39 This is a Sick City JP Maruszczak and Roger Connah
40 Intricate IrritaƟons Gonzalo Vaillo and Gabriel Esquivel, et al. 42 Mech[Animal]Sitelessness Beta Branden Hudak and Ebrahim Pous nchi
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PECHA KUCHA 45 Tenebrous PoeƟcs of Cityscapes C. Aparnaa and Sparsh Patlan 46 The Gravity of PercepƟon Unearthing the Subterranean Films of Gordon Ma a-Clark Alan Webb 47 Cultural NarraƟves Unfolded Sarah Ra 49 A lot more than just Picturesque Exploring Func ons of Landscapes in Films Prachi Nadkarni 50 RepresentaƟon, Symbols, and Dreams From Modern Architecture to the Modern City Isabella Leite Trindade 51 From Object to Building Space, Form, and Movement Jason Scroggin 52 Shelter ShiŌ Jessica Colangelo and Charles Sharpless 54 Kinetoscopic Vision George Themistokleous
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KEYNOTE 57 The Sensual Character of the SpaƟoCinemaƟc Betwixt Graham Harman 58
FILM SCREENING 59 Uppland Edward Lawrenson and Killian Doherty
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Schedule Overview Saturday, February 20, 2021 12:00 PM
Welcome and IntroducƟons David Ferguson, Ball State University Overview of the Symposium Theme James F. Kerestes Co-Chair, 2021 Architecture and Film Symposium
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12:30 PM
Panel 1: DomesƟcity Moderator: Zachary Tate Porter University of Nebraska Lincoln
2:00 PM
Break
2:15 PM
Panel 2: Moving Images Moderator: Maryam Mansoori Washington State University
3:45 PM
Panel 3: Utopia/Dystopia Moderator: Jimenez Lai Bureau Spectacular
6:00 PM
Keynote Lecture Graham Harman SCI-Arc
Schedule Overview Sunday, February 21, 2021 12:00 PM
Panel 4: Memory, IdenƟty, & Space Moderator: Mar n Summers University of Kentucky
1:30 PM
Panel 5: Pecha Kucha Moderator: James F. Kerestes Ball State University
3:00 PM
Break
3:15 PM
Panel 6: SpaƟo-CinemaƟc Analysis Moderator: Janice Shimizu Ball State University
5:00 PM
Film Screening
5:45 PM
Closing Remarks Vahid Vahdat Co-Chair, 2021 Architecture and Film Symposium
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Schedule Details Saturday, February 20, 2021
12:00 PM — 12:30 PM INTRODUCTIONS
Welcome GreeƟngs David Ferguson Dean, R. Wayne Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning Ball State University Overview of the Symposium James F. Kerestes Co-Chair 2021 Architecture and Film Symposium Strategy, TacƟcs and Victories of the Everyday in My Architect, ExhibiƟon and Koolhaas HouseLife Marianna Janowicz University College London, UK
12:30 PM — 2:00 PM Panel 1. DOMESTICITY
Architectural Filth and the Heroic Passivism of Farhadi’s Salesman Vahid Vahdat Washington State University
Moderator: Zachary Tate Porter University of Nebraska Lincoln
Embodied At-homeness: ReflecƟons on Dwelling Experiences Framed in Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story Roohid Novinrooz M Moser Associates Suburban Horror Story: Occupying the IntersƟƟal Spaces of a Home James F. Kerestes Ball State University
2:00 PM — 2:15 PM
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Break
Posthuman Cartographies Farzam Yazdanseta, Eva Perez de Vega On Reading: Wet Dreams Karen Lange, Nathanael Ramos, et al. 2:15 PM — 3:45 PM Panel 2. MOVING IMAGES Moderator: Maryam Mansoori Washington State University
Pedagogy of the Fourth Wall Kevin Marblestone, Emily Whitbeck FoundaƟon Design Video Thomas Forget, William Philemon, et al. This is a Sick City JP Maruszczak, Roger Connah Intricate IrritaƟons Gonzalo Vaillo, Gabriel Esquivel, et al. Mech[Animal]Sitelessness Beta Branden Hudak, Ebrahim Pous nchi
3:45 PM — 5:00 PM Panel 3. UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA Moderator: Jimenez Lai Bureau Spectacular
6:00 PM — 7:00 PM KEYNOTE
The Cultural Impasse of Past Futures and Future Pasts in Brazil and Westworld Will Fu Princeton University FleeƟng Structures, Vanishing Trajectories Marina Montresor ETH Zurich, Switzerland Get Pissed, Destroy: Landmarks, City-Spaces, and ‘PunkspectaƟons’ in Alex Cox’s Repo Man and Sid and Nancy Marko Djurdjic York University, Canada The Sensual Character of the SpaƟo-CinemaƟc Betwixt Graham Harman SCI-Arc
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Schedule Details Sunday, February 21, 2021 Mirrors of Mirror: Architecture as the Expanded Picture Elena Rocchi Arizona State University 12:00 PM — 1:30 PM Panel 4. MEMORY, IDENTITY, & SPACE
Memoirs of Spaces: CinemaƟc DisposiƟon of Space-Induced RetrospecƟons into Cultural and SpaƟal Hegemony of Experiences C. Aparnaa, Sparsh Patlan CEPT University, India
Moderator: Mar n Summers University of Kentucky
InfrasƟƟal Scenes Doreen Bernath, Sarah Mills Leeds Becke University, UK Bebop in the Underbelly: Race, Space, and Embodiment in Paris Blues (1961) J. English Cook New York University Tenebrous PoeƟcs of Cityscapes C. Aparnaa & Sparsh Patlan CEPT University, India The Gravity of PercepƟon: Unearthing the Subterranean Films of Gordon MaƩa-Clark Alan Webb University of Toronto, Canada
1:30 PM — 3:00 PM Panel 5. PECHA KUCHA Moderator: James F. Kerestes Ball State University
Cultural NarraƟves Unfolded Sarah Ra Oklahoma State University A lot more than just Picturesque: Exploring FuncƟons of Landscapes in Films Prachi Nadkarni Indian Educa on Society, India RepresentaƟon, Symbols, and Dreams: From Modern Architecture to the Modern City Isabella Leite Trindade Ryerson University, Canada From Object to Building: Space, Form, and Movement Jason Scroggin University of Kentucky
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Shelter ShiŌ Jessica Colangelo, Charles Sharpless University of Arkansas Kinetoscopic Vision George Themistokleous De Mon ort University, UK 3:00 PM — 3:15 PM
Break The Crisis of AuthenƟcity: VerƟgo and the Seagram Building Andrew Gleeson Iowa State University
3:15 PM — 4:45 PM Panel 6. SPATIO-CINEMATIC ANALYSIS
Pedagogical and Epistemological Dialogues in Teaching Architecture as a Means Towards CinemaƟc Design Katarina Andjelkovic Atelier AG Andjelkovic
Moderator: Janice Shimizu Ball State University
The Eye of the Camera Patrick Till University of Texas at Aus n Permanent Sets: Harry Oliver and the IntroducƟon of Filmic Grammar to the Built Environment Dave Go wald University of Idaho
5:00 PM — 5:45 PM FILM SCREENING
Uppland Edward Lawrenson, Killian Doherty
5:45 PM — 6:00 PM CLOSING REMARKS
To be conƟnued.. Vahid Vahdat Co-Chair 2021 Architecture and Film Symposium
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PAPERS
Strategy, TacƟcs and Victories of the Everyday in My Architect, ExhibiƟon and Koolhaas HouseLife Marianna Janowicz University College London, UK This paper explores moving image representa ons of built environment through the lens of Michel de Certeau’s The Prac ce of Everyday Life in order to interrogate ways in which architecture has the capacity to carry meanings as wri en by bodies or physical acts. User’s rela onships with spaces are portrayed in the following examples: childish, subversive reappropria on in My Architect; an in mate and intense rela onship with domes c spaces in Exhibi on; and a housekeeper’s unusual and resourceful approach to an architectural icon in Koolhaas HouseLife. Michel de Certeau’s theory of strategy and tac cs is used as a way to open up the interpreta on of the aforemen oned prac ces. In Nathaniel Kahn’s film My Architect, the son writes his own memories of his father by following in his footsteps and visi ng buildings designed by him. Exhibi on amplifies the everyday life by portraying a couple of ar sts, their processes and the power dynamics between them. In Koolhaas HouseLife, the use of tac cs offers an alterna ve way of viewing high architecture, from the posi on of the ‘weak’ against the ‘proper’. The selected films share in common the portrayal of idiosyncra c prac ces inside spaces that belong to the imposed order of the architectural canon. Architecture as seen through these movies and via a corporeal experience is something temporal, dynamic and subject to transi ons. De Certeau’s ‘prac ces that invent spaces’ help shi the focus from who makes architecture to who uses it, providing an outlook that disrupts the status quo.
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Architectural Filth and the Heroic Passivism of Farhadi’s Salesman Vahid Vahdat Washington State University Architecture in Asghar Farhadi’s 2016 The Salesman is not a mere passive backdrop to an otherwise unaffected narra ve; it is an autonomous agent that takes part in the events that unfold, complicates the narra ve, and even occasionally defies the ideological posi on of the film. By analyzing architectural spaces, elements, infrastructure, and maintenance prac ces, I suggest that, 1) The fluid visual boundaries of Farhadi’s architectural se ngs are instrumental in blurring the borders of truth and morality—themes that are central to his film. 2) The ontological study of architecture, from the moment of excava on to its ul mate fracture/failure serves as a pathological medium to study the troubled masculinity of contemporary Iranian society. 3) Architectural infrastructure, as the materialized memory of the Film’s determinism, prophe cally hints at the inevitable tragedy that awaits. The architectural analysis of The Salesman empowers the audience with addi onal tools to reflect upon ques ons of masculinity and determinism. Architecture-asa-reflec on personifies the social filth that cannot be decontaminated through vain beau fica on strategies. Architecture-as-a-stage reflects the temporality of space and its incidental existence vis-à-vis the domina ng presence of infrastructural facili es. Architecture-as-a-confinement embodies the oppressive nature of a society in which restric on, surveillance, and control are imposed upon its residents.
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Embodied At-homeness Reflec ons on Dwelling Experiences Framed in Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story Roohid Novinrooz M Moser Associates Tokyo Story (1953) inscribes plenty of vigne es from everyday life of Japanese homes. Whereas various home visits, daily conversa ons and household chores paint the surface of the film, the roiling emo ons and transient rela ons, underneath this surface, give cue to how home environments are shaped from and out of the embodied rela ons with things. This research takes a phenomenological lens to look at the embodied rela ons that are mostly unconscious, contextual and omnipresent. The paper, firstly, demonstrates the frame-shaping techniques of Tokyo Story entailing associa ons with the context of dwelling experience. It then inves gates themes within the framed rela ons that imply temporariness and transience. The research hence signifies the atmospheric quality of home by ar cula ng what dissociates from it. That includes dwindling rela ons with the dwelling, as well as capturing the absences and par cular placements that haul out of the home environment. More generally, this research also aims to showcase the strength of film studies in examining how spaces are actually lived and what cons tutes the atmosphere of home.
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Suburban Horror Story Occupying the Inters al Spaces of a Home James F. Kerestes Ball State University This paper examines how pochѐ and other typically uninhabitable cavity spaces in tradi onal architecture are used as passageways in horror films to develop a terrifying narra ve. In 1974, the film Black Christmas effec vely frightened audiences by basing its narra ve around the concept of an intruder using the inters al spaces of a sorority house to threaten its inhabitants. The unwanted presence of an intruder, real or supernatural, inside the confines of a house eliminates all no ons of safety and security. By situa ng a horror narra ve inside a home, or more specifically, inside the pochѐ surrounding living spaces, the genre plays upon the human necessity for a safe sanctuary. As an element of architecture recognized for its superfluous and transi onal quali es, pochѐ can present design poten al when it is reimagined as func onal space. Using Black Christmas as a design impetus, this paper explores two case studies where tradi onal American architectural styles are reconfigured to accommodate a larger range of uses and lifestyles. The first study examines how a Midweststyle 1920s bungalow can reveal alterna ve methods for composing rooms and spaces of a domes c building typology. The second case study, working with a tradi onal American foursquare house, con nues inves ga ng ways in which inhabitants can further occupy newly formed pochѐ within the home. Both studies draw from an analysis of Black Christmas and previous inves ga ons on the topic of pochѐ.
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The Cultural Impasse of Past Futures and Future Pasts in Brazil and Westworld Will Fu Princeton University The dialec c a ribu on between utopia and dystopia is a tenuous thread of subjec ve judgment. In the films Brazil of 1985 and Westworld of 1973, the audience is presented with a pressing exacerbated contemporary condi on: the subordina on of progressing technologies to the repe on of past cultural forms. The stalled regurgita on of past cultural forms through special effects, character tropes, and historical references reflect a current condi on of angst and frustra on. In Brazil, the bureaucra c crutches of a ruling system invade physical spaces and condi on the psych of compliant ci zens represented through precarious logis cal systems, and degrading beaux-arts buildings. Within the backdrop of the Westworld, comes the first mobiliza on of computer graphic imagery and the collabora ve presence of computer engineers and animators in entertainment. Genre-specific amusement parks stage the social acceptance of past society’s violent delights. The essay will closely analyze the prevailing a tude of nostalgia and dystopia in these two films as sugges ve representa ons of the fragmentary contemporary: a space absent of cultural inven on, collec ve ambi on, and cri cal dialog.
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FleeƟng Structures, Vanishing Trajectories Marina Montresor ETH Zurich, Switzerland Tokyo is o en described as one of the first modern metropolises, due to its fast expansion following Second World War’s devasta on. It has also o en been deemed the quintessen al “city of movement”, not only for its sheer size, but also for its impermanent structures, hybrid character and centerless, dynamic configura on. In the 1980s Tokyo was a dense, vibrant city in full expansion, yet with an underlying sense of imminent decline. The text analyzes the original work of three filmmakers, each tackling the zeitgeist of ‘80s Tokyo from different angles: Chris Marker (Sans Soleil, 1983), Wim Wenders (Tokyo-ga, 1985; Notebook on Ci es and Clothes, 1989), Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, 1988), to highlight how a city of perennial, cons tu ve movement, together with cinema, the technique of representa on based on movement, can mutually reinforce each other through their specific agencies. Alongside the four movies, the paper refers to coeval impressions of Tokyo recorded by philosophers, writers and architects, aiming to provide a vision of a city which, with movement as its cons tu ve core, can only be represented by means of moving images.
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Get Pissed, Destroy Landmarks, City-Spaces, and ‘Punkspecta ons’ in Alex Cox’s Repo Man and Sid and Nancy Marko Djurdjic York University, Canada U lizing two of director Alex Cox’s ‘punk films,’ Repo Man (1984) and Sid and Nancy (1986), “Get Pissed, Destroy” looks at how punk, as a subcultural phenomenon, interrogates the dichotomy between urban and suburban spaces, and how punks occupy these spaces. With a par cular focus on landmarks, architecture, and the ‘city as background,’ as well the films’ fantas cal, dream-like endings, this paper engages with the no on of spaces and peoples on the fringes, both metaphorically and physically. Cox’s dis nct lack of reverence for cultural and architectural landmarks is shown through his subversion, reinterpreta on, and appropria on of city-spaces, emphasized by his rebellious punk protagonists. Although ‘punkspecta ons’ demand certain ac ons, reac ons, and consequences for those who prescribe to the subculture, O o from Repo Man subverts these expecta ons and accepts the ar fice and upward mobility promised by Los Angeles and its gli ering skyline. Conversely, Sid Vicious from Sid and Nancy walks away from New York CIty’s oppressive demands, and thus his own failures as a partner and ar st, fashioning himself as the first Punk Martyr in the process.
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Mirrors of Mirror Architecture as the Expanded Picture Elena Rocchi Arizona State University In his masterpiece Mirror (1975), Andrei Tarkovsky brings to life an autobiographical work following the associa ve laws of film and architecture. Among conven onal scenes as life, he inserts a series of mirror shots as memories — pain ngs in movement he renders using mirrors. They are the site of inhabitable abstrac ons the viewer experiences as part of the movie and the objects the director displays to construct a film as an expanded picture — as architecture. With the camera, these looking glasses form a kaleidoscope that intertwines three spaces as points of view in a triangular forma on. They are the film set containing the actors, mirrors’ surfaces, and Tarkovsky’s camera posi on. As the whole movie’s conceptual model, this associa ve device made of virtual and physical framing modes shows Tarkovsky’s interest in blurring disciplinary boundaries to change film into architecture. The paper’s body discusses Mirror’ kinds of mirrors — their significance in construc ng the movie as an expanded picture, like architecture. The conclusion offers a medita on: in juxtaposing the camera and the mirrors, Tarkovsky creates a tension between two contradictory modes of picturing the viewer’s rela onship to a movie (film) and the world (architecture.)
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Memoirs of Spaces Cinema c Disposi on of Space-Induced Retrospec ons into Cultural and Spa al Hegemony of Experiences C. Aparnaa and Sparsh Patlan CEPT University, India Places are transla ons of spaces in the built realm, an amalgama on of memories, and iden es formed as a consequence of the experience of spa al a ributes. Movies are o en the demeanors of such spaces comprehending a virtual scenario effec vely. Quite o en, films document and depict historically significant and evoca ve storylines imagined through the eyes of its characters (both real-life witnesses and fic onal characters) by media ng their iden es through such embodied spaces. They communicate personal narra ves a ached with a space that is metaphorically bridged through individual iden es transcending them into collec ve personali es. The paper highlights various domains of ar cula on about how there exists a dynamic correla on and interdependence between spaces and their memories. It concentrates on how the living experience is transforma onal and expresses a strong cinema c narra ve in today’s mes, the dynamic development and gentrifica on of spaces which o en get mingled with the iden fica on of percep ve spaces. It reviews how adeptly the reflec on of space is imbibed in a person’s mind cinema cally by scru nizing two films: Lion and Swades that have diverse frameworks to promulgate the interrela ons of the terms ‘memory’, ‘iden ty’ and ‘space’. These films are based in the Indian context and portray two dis nct kinds of affilia ons to one’s homeland as a result of transna onal experiences. They portray how memories and iden es are intricately linked with spaces where diaspora has played a crucial role in permea ng nostalgia in the character’s mind to accentuate their cultural affilia on with their homeland. The paper thus elaborates how these spaces redefine no ons of memory with me and should be a narra ve of itself where it beholds the strength to form an iden ty thus crea ng a memory of its own in the minds of the people.
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InfrasƟƟal Scenes Doreen Bernath and Sarah Mills Leeds Becke University, UK The paper ques ons the assumed opposi on between the immateriality of films and the material basis of architecture by unravelling a possible shared domain of ‘scenic’ constructs which can be considered as the material ar fice of films and the immaterial confluence of architectural spaces. In order to overcome the reduc ve dichotomy of material versus immaterial, the construct of ‘scenes’ is further complicated in the paper through the iden fica on of two dis nct processes – constella ng and gra ing – that relate, penetrate, translate and interrogate between filmic, scenographic and architectural prac ces. The no on of ‘infras al scenes’ is construed as the s tching of differences in the mode of ‘gra ing’ and the simultaneous transi oning in the mode of ‘constella ng’, both propelled by the mechanism of returning, essaying gaze shared between filmic and architectural experiences. Infra- implies that which is just below the horizon of awareness, and -s al implies the recogni on of the in-between, the intervening; the inten on to ar culate, apply and theorize these moments of disjointed, tacit and elusive transforma ons between spaces, bodies and consciousness is to resist the subordina on of such experiences by the dominant impera ve in conven onal architectural methods to objec fy, ra onalize and neutralize.
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Bebop in the Underbelly Race, Space, and Embodiment in Paris Blues (1961) J. English Cook New York University On paper, the film Paris Blues (Mar n Ri , USA, 1961) should have been a box-office knockout. Starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poi er, Diahann Carroll, the city of Paris, and the first-ever musical meet-up between Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, the film had the star-power of a cinema c hit. Yet the reviews were largely cri cal, and box office results proved meager. Why? This ar cle posi ons the film’s use of architectural framing, narra ve, and its musical score in the context of contemporary trends in architecture’s adapta on of phenomenological discourse. Ul mately, Paris Blues, like many other well-inten oned films of the decade, applies a spa al rhetoric that mimics the universalism of theorists like Gaston Bachelard, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Chris an Norberg-Schulz—to the detriment and displacement of its Black protagonists. Considering the resonance of 1960s racial poli cs with our own, this film points to the con nued need for a rethinking of phenomenology—or what Bryan E. Norwood has called “phenomenologies”—across crea ve fields.
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The Crisis of AuthenƟcity Ver go and the Seagram Building Andrew Gleeson Iowa State University Alfred Hitchcock’s Ver go and Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building are two artworks whose only objec ve connec on is that they both opened in 1958. Ver go, a film about an everyman who becomes involved in the machina ons of a complex murder plot. The Seagram Building, a perfected culmina on of the modernist glass tower. However, a close comparison between these two works reveals a deeper connec on. Both u lize the residual a er-effects of ghostly haun ng to uncover hidden depths. The ghost can be thought of as the lingering impression that reveals insights only a er the surface lesson is exhausted. What these artworks share is under this surface and includes: a paradoxical longing for metaphysical wonder; a desire for control in a chao c world; a medita on on the fluidity of me; a u liza on of self-reflexivity in order to synthesize a more inclusive “whole;” a frustra on of the limita ons of artworks; and a reckoning with unknowingness. Crea ve comparisons between two seemingly arbitrary ar facts reveals insights that would not have happened otherwise—a call and response, which can reframe the other and lead to deeper discoveries.
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Pedagogical and Epistemological Dialogues in Teaching Architecture as a Means Towards CinemaƟc Design Katarina Andjelkovic Atelier AG Andjelkovic Ever since the moving image technologies were formed, cinema c inspira on has been common in many fields of cultural prac ce triggering a profound change to be established in our visual literacy. Given that the 20th century was the century of the moving image, contemporary life has been completely formed by the impact of film on our ways of thinking, moving around and seeing things. It has ignited a surge of the knowledge acquired through film and requires to re-formulate sets of inquiries to configure new educa onal methods for understanding, thinking and designing space. In this paper, I will provide a theore cal insight into pedagogical and epistemological dialogues in teaching architecture with film by analyzing the research-based teaching curricula from the 1980s onwards. As the main focus of my research, I will take a series of workshops and architectural programmes taught at the universi es across Europe and the United States that perform cinema c design experiments, in the range from modernist discovery of spaces through movement towards the framework of our primarily mediasaturated urban condi ons of the 21st century. By interpre ng the key aspects of their epistemologies for teaching founda ons, the aim of this paper is twofold: to discuss the possibility of introducing cinema c design in teaching architecture, and to contribute to grasping cinema c design in rela on to a designer’s response to complex architectural and urban phenomena governed by rules of unpredictability, indeterminacy and temporality.
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The Eye of the Camera Patrick Till University of Texas at Aus n In the contemporary city, the vast majority of the popula on has access to a movie camera. As video imagery is now the environment we live in, it is worthwhile to examine the camera’s ability to show the truth. Dziga Vertov, the man behind the 1929 Man with a Movie Camera, proposed that the autonomous machine eye of the camera reveals the true nature of things (the Kino-eye). Decades later, the architects Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio experimented with the camera’s ability to distort and replace the world around us. Through careful manipula on of video and architecture, Diller Scofidio’s early work eroded percep ons of space and image. The language of film examined by these two dis nct crea ve projects can both reveal and distort. This tension is increasingly fraught as the human condi on is linked inextricably to image and video. This paper examines Dziga Vertov’s theore cal wri ng in contrast with Diller and Scofidio’s early experiments within the framework of Guy Debord’s spectacle. The camera is one of the most potent methods through which we par cipate in the spectacle. It is a complex tool in understanding space, rela onships, and the bones of our society – but its potency lies in its ability erode and complicate lived experience.
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Permanent Sets Harry Oliver and the Introduc on of Filmic Grammar to the Built Environment Dave Go wald University of Idaho In this paper I focus on one aspect of the rela onship between architecture and film—the power of the moving image to subsume our spaces. Instead of sugges ng how architecture challenges the cinema c, this paper notes the opposite—that filmic grammar, introduced into the built environment by the commingling of Hollywood art directors and architects in the 1920s, became the basis of a design language which is s ll with us today in the form of themed spaces.
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MOVING IMAGES
Posthuman Cartographies Farzam Yazdanseta and Eva Perez de Vega The film presented in this applica on for the 2019 symposium on Architecture and Film, is a collec on of student generated work that emerged from two different, yet interrelated, assignments: Machinic and Dri . The work was produced in the first semester of Degree Project by architecture students as part of a research seminar, which extends into the spring as a studio -currently underway- where final projects are developed and presented. The aim of our seminar, and subsequent studio, is to use cinema as a new mode of thinking about architecture and its performa ve dimension; exploring the poten al of mo on, percep on, me and space to create new conceptual frameworks from which to build future architectural proposals. This work is the founda on that will allow students to project new architectural futures into New York City’s urban environment, using cinema as a tool for exploring the city and rethinking the role of the human in near-future specula ve scenarios. Each Machinic film cons tutes a concise compila on of individual student research as manifested through drawings produced in the first four weeks of the seminar. For the movie, these drawings became animate representa ons to reflect the energy of the ideas and to materialize the various forces at play. A key aspect of each student short film is the inclusion of the performance their Kine c Model which was a construct that embedded mul ple states released through muta on and transforma on of its parts. In Dri , student teams of two were asked to reconstruct a por on of an emblema c movie filmed in New York City, by reenac ng and staging a scene from the movie. In addi on, students had to fulfill the role of a produc on team; each tasked to act as camera person, map maker, writer, photographer, diagram maker, and actor. This exercise was undertaken with the realiza on that rela onship between New York City and the way it is, and has been, portrayed in movies since the six es is profoundly forma ve of the city as it stands today. As such, students filmed on actual sites in the city to acquire adequate analy cal and documentary materials, which also opened them to a range of performa ve influences and transitory forces and flows. The film presented provides the viewer with a glimpse into the journey we embarked with our students: engaging with specific cinema c techniques of representa on and cartography that take into account the scale of the body in order to explore, rethink and re-make the city.”
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On Reading Wet Dreams Karen Lange, Nathanael Ramos, Renata Galan Hoffman, Fernando As azaran, Michael Jablonski, James Nguyen, Serena Guo, Ames Han, Elizabeth Evangelista, Ishita Gupta, Monica Mendoza, Gabriela Molina, Logan Gillis, Vivian Pham, Lucy Zhu, Mackenzie Bailey, Brian Chan, Ariq Chowdhury, Barnabas Luke, Jerrod Dockan To read is to converge in me and space with text, losing oneself in the words through the act of reading. To read in public is to share the transference and communica on of knowledge. A reading room is this space of simultaneity, and is the project brief for this installa on. Authorship of the installa on, Wet Dreams, belongs to 19 architectural thesis students who were tasked to design an experience for the objec ve of the reading of their thesis research books. The resul ng books were individually inves gated and wri en regarding 19 different concepts – the industrializa on of asteroids, a sex church, the democra za on of a golf course, amongst others. While all the books are different the students e their disparate ideas into a space for reading, a space that not only accommodates reading, but speaks to the concepts of their books and provides an atmosphere conducive to the engagement of the reader’s imagina on. Reading suggests; the mind is ac vated. Wet Dreams is an installa on based on the idea of floa ng. Flota on devices are both life saver and toy, allowing the par al removal of the user from the element of water, safe but precarious. However, taken in the context of floa ng in a gallery well away from water, the flota on device suggests a cocoon in which to share the architectural thoughts of the authors. The crea on takes over an exis ng gallery that serves as structure for the hanging inflatables. Pool floats hang tenuously by threads of plas c wrap crea ng an ethereal web of inflated objects caught between ceiling and floor. The colors of the flota on devices are muted by the webbing; their wings clipped to their sides; their sizes doubled by twinning.
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Video projec ons colorize and synthesize the exterior, punctua ng the interior through voids and holes. To read in a dark place requires light accomplished by individual light sources for each book. To complete the experience, the audio is a composi on of ambient noises, synthe c beats, and whispered excerpts from the books. The transi ons between these excerpts blend a series of extracted vocali es, estranged from comprehensible language. The tac le nature of the plas c material, the alien noises of the supple inflatables under human weight, and the mesmerizing images of projec ons culminates a synesthesia experience. Unlike the library where silence is the rule, Wet Dreams is about the sharing of knowledge and experience as a communal reading experience. As opposed to the scholarly solitude sugges ve of a norma ve library reading room, infla ng sound as well as reading becomes a new background.
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Pedagogy of the Fourth Wall Kevin Marblestone and Emily Whitbeck Contemporary design pedagogy has failed to produce architects that can operate effec vely within me-based global crises. In their a empts to address issues of sustainability and resiliency, architects have trapped themselves in a false binary, understanding structures to be either temporary or permanent. However, this considers only me-span. This shallow understanding of me has s fled the work produced by students and professionals today and reinforces the use of sta c mediums and conven ons of orthography. Architecture needs a new genera on of prac oners that can think differently about me. In order to engage the me-based urgencies of the Anthropocene that challenge the percep on of our environment, the profession must reevaluate its rela onship to me. Rather than rely on private organiza ons that profit off of the desire for sustainability, architects must rely on the profession itself to produce new structures of thought. This project focuses on rethinking the true beginning of the design profession, the moment of incep on, the first-year design studio. This fic onal studio course is structured as a pedagogical experiment that establishes a working methodology focused on me and percep on, rather than program and form. The curriculum engages a new cri cal eye on me, one that folds linear understandings of me in on themselves and acknowledges its cyclical, recursive nature. Addi onally, the course acknowledges that the media students work through impacts how they design, and the actual me spent working, day to day, week to week, semester to semester. This new framework around me mandates the use of me-based media at the very beginning of the design process. Students work through video, sound and material fabrica on to operate within concepts of cyclical me on mul ple perceptual scales, establishing the video edi ng process as an integral part of the student’s design workflow. The series of videos presented in this film, increasing in both dura on and complexity, are the results of this fic onal studio. The impact of propaga ng this pedagogy through an en re architectural educa on could produce a fleet of architects that are capable of addressing architecture through me. How could this then redirect the course of the profession?”
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FoundaƟon Design Video Thomas Forget, William Philemon, Noushin Radnia, Arturo Lujan This moving-image presenta on is a synopsis of a video making curriculum being developed within an accredited degree program in architecture. The primary author is working with colleagues to establish video making as a founda onlevel method of architectural thinking, introduced in first-year studios and developed in subsequent studios, culmina ng in the acquisi on of both a highly marketable job skill and a body of work that demonstrates the cri cal and crea ve capacity of video making, as well as its prac cal applica ons. The curriculum begins at the first-year level with a coordinated method that introduces a specific school-of-thought rooted in the research and prac ce of the primary author. That ini a ve was launched during the past year and will be iterated in future years. Eventually, as students advance through the program, the inten on is to integrate complementary sensibili es at other levels of instruc on through the input of different instructors and the objec ves and themes of different studios. The methods and objec ves of the first-year video curriculum mirror those of tradi onal first-year architectural design pedagogies, in which fundamentals of composi on and principles of abstrac on are introduced independent of the complexi es of site, program, and systems integra on. Video is posed as a medium through which to explore the construc on of spa otemporal composi ons, rhythms, hierarchies, ordering systems, scale, and human occupa on/ movement—in other words, the basics of architectural design; however, unlike tradi onal founda on-design pedagogies, the video exercises are rela vely open-ended and low-stakes, as opposed to procedural and laden with theore cal constructs. Precedents shown to students are drawn primarily from the PostWar experimental film tradi on (e.g., Brakhage, Snow, Gehr, Morrison, Clarke). The objec ve of the curriculum is not to execute an established understanding of the rela onship between architecture and film, but rather to explore the poten al of video making as a mode of cri cal inquiry. Our students’ media literacy and technological facility enable knowledge-building through video making. Through exercises, students learn lessons on process and gain insights into fundamental aesthe c condi ons and ma ers of cra and abstrac on, all of which are directly applicable to other design methods; however, we discourage assump ons regarding the literal transla on of videos into buildings, and encourage knowledge-building for its own sake.
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Associa ons between the videos and ma ers concerning the built environment are foregrounded, but video making is posed as a vehicle of design-thinking, not an instrument of a specific design process. As students trained in this curriculum progress into upper-level coursework, the founda onal lessons of this video curriculum may be applied to more discrete objec ves. The inten on of the first-year exercises is to open up possibili es for video making in mul ple venues—to integrate it into students’ tool kits as a ma er-of-fact and to avoid the marginaliza on of video making as an elec ve opportunity only for those interested in the established architecture-film discourse. The variety of the work a ests to openness of the curriculum. The presenta on will include a synopsis of the curriculum and clips of more videos than the complete ones shared in the Vimeo link; it is envisioned more as a workshop session than a formal presenta on.
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This is a Sick City JP Maruszczak and Roger Connah Even though this is already old as a concept, (its an updated version of WestWorld staring Yul Brynner) it would have been a reel to real proposal that had the poten al to generate gravity in an increasingly entertainment led society. Blind Reviewer 1 This is a city, mediated and unmediated where ER meets Westworld, a reality hunger of extracts and trends, of incoherencies linked together by pre-texts. Strategies do not conform with, or are in opposi on to, or even defined by, exis ng, freshly minted mediated discourse. Sick City seeks another currency. If Gaming is its obvious connec on to Sim-City then we suggest this interpreta on be cau oned as most of what we present has happened and will go on happening without us . Architects, urbanists, scholars, theore cians and planners - leaving us triumphantly outside the marginal discourse and sideswiped ci es of the 24/7 variety, those huddled agreements offering sleep preven on and depriva on models for an ideologically hankered re-calibra on of the capital of urban life. The Re-calibrators - there is no boundary today between the urban and the non-urban, between the language that controls it and the language that bounces off it, between mediated and unmediated, between the mall-of-beyond and the mall-to become. The cyborgs are already away with the fairies and the next ciné roman is being prepared. This is the pre-textual world where consensus can no longer work its seduc on on us. The post-consensual is already upon us; and we will be chased by Ambulance Architecture before we even realize”
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Intricate IrritaƟons Gabriel Esquivel, Gonzalo Vaillo, Finn Ra ana, Manuel Alvarado, Joey Reik As human actors, we lose ourselves to a cogni ve condi on related to the conscious awareness of ourselves. It is this obsession of we as objects, and the condi on of “I” or ego, that drives the specula on of this project. This condi on also lends our engagement to quali es, rather than objects themselves, thus lending the project to the media on of the “Jec ve”(Vaillo 2019) mereological system. In doing so, we u lize metaphor to speculate on the pursuit of unknown excess, in terms of the Other, and the trajectory of the Architectural Project beyond its manifesta on alone. We establish the project as an assemblage of parts with unfamiliar quali es, opera ng within the intrigue of unknown excess. Ul mately, this quality of the project begins to cross the lines of culture and nature, house, and garden, and subject and object. The project began within the framework of pursuing the space of abundance with regards to the rela onship between the Architect and the Architectural Project. The way we pursued this idea was to dive into the concept of “Jec vity” (Vaillo 2019) and u liza on of the process of Metaphor-Varia on-Repe on as ini al drivers for the project. Our approach led to an ontological treatment of Metaphors as mediators within the manifesta on of the project, which we redefine as the Jec ve-Metaphor, which allowed us to liberate the Project from the limita ons of subjec vity and objec vity through the connec on of these legible quali es. In doing so, we were able to establish the trajectory of the project and the metaphorical vehicles through which the metaphorical vehicles we pursued the unknown quali es of the space of abundance.
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ulping in the City 2019 John Maruszczak University of Texas at Arlington
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Mech[Animal]Sitelessness Beta Branden Hudak and Ebrahim Pous nchi Mech[Animal]Sitelessness Beta—here referred to as MAS-Beta, is a specula ve project-based research inves ga on, looking at the intersec on of storytelling, experience design (UX) robo cs, and anima on as a hybrid medium for urban design. Moving beyond urban planning and designing in “plan”—from the top view, MAS-Beta, revisits the no on of atmosphere and environment as drivers for spa al user experience in an urban context. Employing contemporary representa onal methods and pla orms such as 3D modeling, anima on making, real- me rendering and game design, this design research inves gates the poten al of these pla orms to reimagine parts of New York City as urban canvases for specula on, to receive specula ve/atmospheric projec ons. It is crucial to use a theore cal framework to guide the process, to develop cohesion throughout this specula on. Through contemporary readings of post-human philosophy and building upon earlier inves ga ons in the field of digital and physical anima on—in rela on to architecture, MAS-Beta borrows three main concepts from the exis ng bodies of research: 1- The concept of robo cs, as a mean for physical anima on (Pous nchi, 2018), 2- the idea of super-component as a part of an “object”—composi on, that is big enough to be an independent “object”—whole (Wiscombe, 2014), and 3- a different yet relevant reading of the no on of digital discrete (Retsin, 2019). Through the proposed theore cal frameworks, MAS-Beta revisits the idea of an urban fabric and context as a pla orm/canvas for storytelling and atmosphere crea on/ development through a “specula ve” urban-design and a short hybrid anima on movie. Building upon earlier inves ga ons in specula ve architecture and urbanism, ranging from “specula ons” on Utopia/Dystopia, to the conversa on about the aesthe cs of city through “Machine” vision/learning— in the work of Liam Young (Young, 2017) or Yara Feghali (Feghali, 2018) for instance, MASBeta employs storytelling and narra on as a medium to illustrate the power of “Atmosphere” as an urban design element. Using digital storytelling techniques through anima on and game-design, MAS-Beta visits an exis ng urban condi on and aims to modify, change, or augment exis ng/specula ve quali es of that context through atmosphere making. U lizing “actors” and “accessories” of the urban “scene,” texture, ligh ng, urban furniture, vehicles, buildings, signage, and many others, each of these elements grow into storytelling pla orms through which specula on/atmosphere-making becomes possible. Situated in a postapocalyp c world, MAS-Beta lives a hybrid life where part of New York City has experienced a radical shi of me, past the apocalyp c era and is restar ng a new life again. Through this rebirth, a robo c chunk of the city--the MAS-Beta
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machine, serves as an ac ve agent to this process. Collec ng and re-purifying the fuel, increasing the awareness through news billboards, and par cipa ng in the food-supply chain to feed the hunger in this newly born neighborhood, MASBeta operates in three modes. Using MAS-Beta machine and its performance/ opera ons, atmosphere-making through film, and specula on, as possible mediums for urban design, MAS-Beta project aims to study/design the urban fabric from the inside-out and through a close-up. MAS-Beta calls a en on to revisit the possible poten al of atmosphere, experience, and space, as crucial elements for an urban experience, beyond the parallel views of urban planning/ programming.
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PECHA KUCHA
Tenebrous PoeƟcs of Cityscapes C. Aparnaa and Sparsh Patlan CEPT University, India Juxtaposi on of cinema c proposi ons amidst the city-scape o en creates an impression on how the city behaves and what it could possibly offer. Geographies, physical manifesta on of infrastructure inhibit or encourage ac vi es that occur in ci es. Ci es are an agglomera on of physical & experien al exhibi ons, imbibing the dynamic inter-rela onship and over-lap of contradic ng no ons; of fantasies and nightmares. The 21st century witnessed rampant urbaniza on that dealt with construc on and deconstruc on of spaces in terms of its form, place-making, character of the area, access, legibility, mobility of the inhabitants to address the intent of how transforma ons within city spaces might arrive. The pervasive urbaniza on (and the concomitant sub-urbaniza on) conno ng the idea of moderniza on has led to gentrifica on of spaces, resul ng in the emergence of both public and private derelict places. It draws together strands of aggrava ng the intermediate spaces into mul -fold transient me-based spaces which reflect on the darkest facets of hollow, shady, crime ins ga ve spaces. The noir film genre is a cinema c evince of such spaces, depic ng both the prevailing sombre cityscapes as well as the envisaged utopian turned dystopian scenario. Dwelling onto the maneuvers of depic ng the aforemen oned concept, the poster illustrates both the physical and psychological elements of the noir genre, manifested through the unscrupulous conducts ensuing in the dark, tenebrous urban se ngs. Inspired by Robert Doisneau’s (1962) The Lodgers, the poster depicts the presence of illicit ac vi es in a whole building, as if it is owned by a mafia or don. It tries to highlight dark mise en scène in terms of old buildings, futuris c buildings in a dystopian world, dingy subways, crime areas, shady corners and the dreary sky as a backdrop. The trajectory of a vigilante as an individual, observing and protec ng people, is traced through the labyrinthine spaces and marked by literal and symbolic pathways. The tenebrous ac ons are emphasized through the blood-ridden hands and footprints and miscreants in the same hue set against the sombre backdrops. The emo onal implica ons coherent with as well as a consequence of such prevalent spaces are thus acknowledged through the u liza on of the pronounced ubiquitous percep ons of noir elements. The poster thus, is an accumula on of poe c dynamics that unhinge an individual from delusions to a more realis c dilemma of arbitrary circumstances.
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The Gravity of PercepƟon Unearthing the Subterranean Films of Gordon Ma a-Clark Alan Webb University of Toronto, Canada Filming as explora on, trespassing as documenta on, underground passage as a shadow dérive of free movement in the sunshine. The mul disciplinary ar st Gordon Ma a-Clark (New York City, 1943-1978) used film as a medium of percep ve inquiry, an approach he applied in an archaeological inves ga on of the underpinnings of our urban environments. In closely examining the two subterranean film works of Ma a-Clark, Substrait (Underground Dailies) (1976), and Sous-sols de Paris (1977), we may appreciate these works as discrete projects unique to the medium of film and gain a deeper understanding of the mul disciplinary ar st’s lines of inquiry. The improvisa onal works contain both a lament and a celebra on, of things past but s ll in existence, the remarkable archaeology of the everyday to which Ma aClark was so inexorably drawn. The reverse topography of these films illustrates the dense layers of accumulated history of a recently se led city such as New York as well as the rich layers of inhabita on, from catacombs to medieval caverns, to be found in Paris. The films allowed Ma a-Clark to con nue his cri que of the modernist project by modifying the rela onship between the contemporary and the historical, the architectural inside and outside, and by providing a counter-site to his works above ground. This crea ve cri que drew on an -monuments, the o en forgo en and hidden yet essen al structures that enable a func oning metropolis. Taken in isola on, these two films are remarkable documents of li le seen urban spaces and snapshots of a me in the 1970s when major infrastructure works were ongoing in New York and Paris. Placing these films in rela on to Ma aClark’s wider body of sculptural-architectural work, including Spli ng, Office Baroque, and Day’s End, they provide a complement that suggests other ways to situate the ar st’s interests and ideas in a richer context, and affording us an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the city as illuminated by the floodlight of a camera in the darkness.
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Cultural NarraƟves Unfolded Sarah Ra Oklahoma State University In Charles Renfro’s discussion of the influence of film in his work, he notes that, “any film with an edit has a point of view. It cannot simply be an index of a place”. The tools that we use to capture impressions, whether of culture or space, put their own unique filter on the message and provide students with a unique medium for engaging the ac ve spaces and people of other cultures. Renfro’s projects are about a site evolving with its context, about people moving and living in a space, interac ng with it rather than just looking. We can think of our experiences capturing spaces in a similar way. For our study abroad course, students unfolded these cultural influences by exploring and analyzing urban spaces and their rela onship with the socie es in which they exist. U lizing digital analysis tools such as film, photography, and sound recordings, students captured their experiences and observa ons, ranging from interviews, religious ceremonies, and cultural performances, to the movement of transit systems. Students not only had a pla orm to share their work, but the immediacy in informa on sharing of film, images, and social media provided a be er capacity for communica on and collabora on. Some film captured a moment to frame various types of cultural messages, while some were figure or composi onally oriented, ar s c, or more tectonic. While the students strived to focus their visual narra ves on the topics that they wished to address with their research, film revealed other issues that were perhaps subconscious, but which were brought to light with the medium. For example, one student chose to focus on green spaces, but ul mately captured compelling portraits of everyday people inhabi ng these spaces. Another student chose to extrapolate concepts by looking at the more tectonic nature of urban spaces, capturing transit and movement systems. They explored changing scenes and perspec ves, and the impact on the spaces created by these systems. These types of changing perspec ves were best captured through film. Another student took footage of the countryside near the Korean Demilitarized Zone, as the bus rolled through the barren landscape. Empty fields lined with razor wire were eventually punctuated with a lonely guard shack, seeming to reflect the spirit of isola on and discontent in this ‘in-between’ place. Film was necessary to capture the extent of the landscape, but also the in macy of the small stand, all in one segment.
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Film served as a dynamic medium, but it also forced students to evaluate their work, and to address unconscious emphases or issues that they captured. Cri que and development ul mately slows the process, wherein students can be er understand the work, and interrogate the meaning of what they have created. The edi ng is a key part of the learning process, and ul mately helped assess what students have gained and what their work can become. Beyond s ll image and sound, the aspect of movement allowed them to assess mul ple dimensions in a single medium.
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A lot more than just Picturesque Exploring Func ons of Landscapes in Films Prachi Nadkarni Indian Educa on Society, India Landscapes in their very defini on are referred to as natural physical features with a high visual appeal. The quality of picturesque is a ached to them and more o en, landscapes are viewed from an aesthe c lens. Landscapes, whether examined from a scien fic point of view or a crea ve filmic point of view, are a representa on of works of various forces in nature. They are dynamic. Although captured or recorded in films, they have the poten al to convey a lot more than what is evidently seen. They perform different func ons in films and unfold many meanings in the narra ve. This presenta on tries to examine the different func ons that Landscapes can perform in Films. While the research inves gates this idea through works of various writers, directors and film geographers, it is largely based on analysis and opinions produced by Chris Lukinbeal through his study on J.B Jackson’s essay tled ‘Landscape as Theater’. The presenta on intends to put together a diverse understanding of how landscapes perform different roles in a film and how they have been crea vely used by film-makers in order to enable, facilitate, empower and challenge the cinema c narra ve. The research further a empts to iden fy examples mainly from Indian Films and even others, and to co relate findings from the studies and comprehend the type of func ons performed by Landscapes in those examples which again dis nctly iterate the idea of Landscapes being a lot more than just ‘Picturesque’!
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RepresentaƟon, Symbols, and Dreams From Modern Architecture to the Modern City Isabella Leite Trindade Ryerson University, Canada This presenta on focuses on the interface between cinema and modern architecture. It is par cularly concerned with the ways in which ci es and their architecture are represented in movies, based on the premise that these representa ons can help us to understand how ci es and their architecture become a set of symbolic ar facts. A scenario built specifically for a movie is seen as a fic onal space, a space of imagina on filled with symbolic representa ons. This differs from the nonfic onal space built by architects, builders, and interior designers, conceived with specific use and transformed by the individuals who occupy it daily. Thus, scenography is part of an imaginary universe, while architecture is part of real life. One is temporary, the other, supposedly, las ng. What influence does one have on the other? Could fic onal space transcend the role of mere scenario? In this sense, scenography has mul ple func ons. First, it has a didac c func on introduced through shapes, color, objects, and style; second, a me-related func on: as it shows historical epoch with objects from other mes and place, seasons, or mes of day; and finally, it reveals the cultural iden ty of place as the material anchors of narra ves. This presenta on takes into account these categories of analysis, and is organized as follows: 1) an introduc on; 2) characteris cs of the Modern Movement as an aesthe c expression; 3) a cri que of modern architecture; 4) a cri que of the modern city; and 5) a conclusion. The interface between ci es, architecture, interiors and movies is a rela vely new, interdisciplinary academic field. This presenta on specifically engages with - and borrows analy cal tools from - a number of disciplines, including history and theory of architecture, and communica on and film studies. Through the analysis of key films, this presenta on seeks to inves gate modern architecture as a vehicle of interpreta on and sociological cri cism.
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From Object to Building Space, Form, and Movement Jason Scroggin University of Kentucky The Louisville Children’s Museum and Rainbow Massimal present two scales of architectural projects, the building and installa on, developed to inves gate the rela onship between color, movement, sta c form, and their resul ng experience. Each design presents an array of colors organized by its construc on technique that changes in gradua on based on the posi on and movement of the viewer. Similar to the organiza on of a zoetrope, an early precursor to film anima on which mobilizes a series of sta c frames inside a cylinder that when viewed from a sta c posi on portray movement, the Rainbow Massimal and Children’s Museum are sta c geometries that present a con nuous transforma on of color as you circumnavigate the object. In the case of the Children’s Museum, this is true from the city’s sidewalks and streets as well as the structural corridor enveloping the exterior of the building. The Rainbow Massimal is an installa on designed and fabricated u lizing a simple slo ed model assembly technique at full scale. As a large and unmovable object, it reconfigures spa al flow and creates a visual transforma on of color and shape as one walks around its exterior. Its inhabitable belly contains an atmosphere of varying hues and pa erns as light passes through its colorful egg-crate exterior. The Louisville Children’s Museum is a dynamic experience of color, light, and ac vity. It directly engages the site by wrapping the city’s sidewalk around its exterior as a ver cal playground. The building’s cylindrical form presents a con nuous façade that changes color as you move around its perimeter. Inside, the visitors experience the gradual color transforma on of the structural par ons as they move along the ramp containing five stories of gallery spaces. This extends to the roof garden 100 feet above ground presen ng commanding views of the city.”
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Shelter ShiŌ Jessica Colangelo and Charles Sharpless University of Arkansas “Shelter Shi is a pair of bus shelters designed by Somewhere Studio on the connector highways of Athens, Georgia. The project was the winner of a na onal call for ar stdesigned bus shelters for the county’s growing public transporta on network. The bus shelters are conceived as a dynamic visual object that shi s its color and appearance with the change of the viewer’s posi on. Inspired by primi ve mo on graphic devices such as periaktos and tabula scalatas, this project amplifies the effects of these techniques by wrapping the en re bus shelter in a len cular metal screen. The metal screen is designed with a repe ve “V”-shaped geometry in plan with a different color coa ng each side of the component. In combina on, the plan geometry and color coa ng produce an object that appears one color from one vantage point and another color from a second vantage point. The overall geometry of the shelter is regulated by the intersec on of two spheres with the perimeter screen. The front sphere establishes the opening for the primary entrance of the shelter. The addi onal sphere intersec ons create opportuni es for porosity within the metal screen, reducing the “V”-shaped unit into a single metal slat. This allows for daylight into the shelter and views out. Sited alongside mul -lane thoroughfares, the design works for wai ng as well as it does for passing. Looking through the shelter from different angles, one sees a constantly changing frame and layering of light and color through to the surroundings. The color-shi is heightened when speeding past in a car. But for the wai ng bus rider, the openness of the shelter provides a clear visual connec on between the interior sea ng and the approaching bus driver. Ini ally commissioned for a single shelter, the designers convinced the city of the value of producing mul ple shelters in different colors. The first itera on of the shelter was painted red, black and white to harken back to the spirit of the University of Georgia Bulldogs. A second shelter was commissioned in a color scheme that resonated with the Georgia state fruit: the peach. The complex form of each shelter was fabricated with standardized metal components. A bent metal frame outlining the circular openings forms the underlying structure of the shelter. The metal screen is achieved with a sandwich of individually painted metal slats around a standard 2” metal angle. This method avoided any complex bends in the metal components and simplified the pain ng process.
Bus shelters serve a variety of speeds of observa on. At one extreme, one sits for hours within the shelter wai ng for a bus to take us somewhere else. At the other extreme, drivers speed past these landmarks in their vehicles, barely no cing as their eye darts to the next thing coming. Somewhere in the middle, a bus shelter is a piece of urban furniture appreciated at the pedestrian scale as an object that gives iden ty to a suburban streetscape. Shelter Shi addresses all of these scales of mo on in two small construc ons.
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Kinetoscopic Vision George Themistokleous De Mon ort University, UK The kineto-scope (1889-92) developed by William Kennedy Laurie Dickson and Thomas Edison, is a pre-cinema c device. Kineto-scope derives from kinesis, meaning movement, and scopia, meaning to see, i.e. a movement-image. The kinetoscope emerged a er innova ons in the development of photography, which made it possible to record images on the kinetograph. The projec on of the moving images occurred in the same space as their recorded capture, i.e. inside the actual device through the peephole, as ‘the figures appeared to emerge from the screen’ (Michaud 2004, 51). In this experimental space the figure that entered the “set” of the kinetoscope was simultaneously converted into a moving image. Therefore ‘by burs ng into the image, the figure demonstrates his exclusion from any context’ (Michaud 2004, 51). The kineto-scope captured an ini al appearance of the body literally in and through film. Once the cinema c medium replaced the kinetoscope, the body of the recorded and projected subject was excluded from the process. As Michaud notes, ‘the figural proper es of filmed bodies’ marked a ‘moment of ini al elucida on that would brutally disappear from the world of commercial cinema’ (Michaud 2004, 51). The diplorasis, a mul -media installa on of my own making (2019) becomes a contemporary kineto-scopic experiment, exploring the simultaneous recording and projec on of an unaware par cipant through digital means. The set of the diplorasis is essen ally a constructed corridor. The inside of the corridor is composed en rely of mirrors. The outer shell of the corridor – the exposed mber frame - contains various cameras and electronic wires. The juncture between the outside and inside is nego ated via two-way mirrors. Upon entering the mirrored corridor the par cipant observes a sandblasted translucent screen at the far end of the corridor. Within this glass panel is a cavity in the shape of a human head with two peepholes. The par cipant walks towards the screen and posi ons their head inside the wall cavity. When the par cipant looks through the peep-holes they encounter stereoscopic projec ons of themselves from a previous posi on inside the corridor space of the installa on. The stereoscopic images are then being replaced with another view of the par cipant. When viewing the projected images, the visitor becomes aware that their image was captured when they were walking along the corridor, that is in the space behind them (at the very moment when they see themselves). The photographic cameras within the device are a ached to sensors and have been programmed to capture different views of the moving par cipant, and then to digitally split the images before sending them to screens that project the image back to the
par cipant. The installa on uses various so ware and hardware processes that are set up in rela on to the configura on of on another older medium, the Wheatstone stereoscope, invented in the 1830s. The diplorasis opera on by a emp ng to incorporate a live digital feed of the viewer’s own body as they have just passed through the installa on space, produces new ways to experience one’s self-image by synthesizing tkinetoscopic and stereoscopic vision.
KEYNOTE 56
The Sensual Character of the SpaƟoCinemaƟc Betwixt Graham Harman SCI-Arc Graham Harman is Dis nguished Professor of Philosophy at the Southern California Ins tute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles. Previously he was Dis nguished University Professor at the American University in Cairo, where he spent sixteen years on the faculty. He is a founding member of the Specula ve Realism and Object-Oriented Ontology movements, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Open Philosophy, Series Editor of the Specula ve Realism series at Edinburgh University Press, and Series Co-Editor (with Bruno Latour) of the New Metaphysics Series at Open Humani es Press. He currently lives with his wife Necla in Long Beach, California.
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FILM SCREENING 58
Uppland Edward Lawrenson and Killian Doherty Uppland is a short film tracing the complex rela onship between landscape, displacement and the global extrac ve industries, within and beyond SubSaharan Africa. It focuses on a new-town called Yekepa, designed and built by/ for a mining company prospec ng for iron-ore in the late 1950s, that exploited and transformed the indigenous landscapes of Yeke’pa. The film takes an architect and a filmmaker to the remote highlands of Liberia, once a thriving mining community, now a concrete ruin in the West African bush. Exploring the town, the researchers discovered promises of prosperity, abandonment and forgo en injus ces. Through the lens of Eurocentric architecture, insights about colonialism, racism as well as the spiritual/ environmental costs of mining are exhumed from indigenous Mano’s landscapes. The film is an inves ga on of the colonial encounters between European se lers and West Africans; an encounter that points to the extrac ve inequali es that exist between the developed and developing world. The film was selected to World Premiere in the Interna onal Compe on for Short Films at the 40th edi on of the Cinéma Du Réel fes val, held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2018, and has screened at the Venice and Seoul Architectural Biennale.
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