The Myth of Modernism | Manfredo Tafuri

Image Caption: A cartoon portraying the Thomas Jefferson as "A Philosophic Cock", attacking his relationship with Sally Hemings and satirizing his fake political proposal towards slavery.

3. Architectural History and Conservation | Mabel O. Wilson | Carceral Architectures | 2020

In the first chapter of Trouillot's book, he mainly tells his criticism of the constructivism of history.1 The first chapter provides us with a warning about how to view architectural history1, that is, we cannot use a single constructivist point of view to examine architectural history. Trouillot mentioned many pitfalls that we need to be aware of when browsing the historical process and narrative.2 Among them, I think that the most closely related to another article “Carceral Architecture” is his interpretation of the inequalities of power3 . It is caused by the differential exercises of power, from my view, which is a hegemonic perspective. The article of Carceral Architecture uses prison design as an example, exposing the slavery history behind it, as well as the unfair power caused by the dominance of Western perspectives.3

“Design became a vehicle of self-realization.”3 The article on Carceral Architecture mentioned that self-realization is a sign of entering modern society after the weakening of Christianity. Self-realization should be a manifestation of social fairness, but self-actualization itself has become a trap that exacerbates racism and injustice. The prison and judicial functions of modern society are born out of the contradiction between democracy and slavery. Some people get relatively fair under modern democracy, while some people gazed from a Western perspective are still being squeezed.

The hegemonic perspective is ubiquitous in human history3. Each type of hegemonic perspective is related to a certain social contradiction: such as the contradictions between men and women under the dominance of the male perspective; the racial contradictions under the dominance of the Western social perspective...... Each of us may have a hegemonic perspective at the same time while being gazed at from the perspective of others. Therefore, when we analyze any type of architecture or examine its history, we should abandon any of our roles as much as possible, get rid of the constructivism, and criticize it carefully and rationally.

1. Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1995). 2. Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World. (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). 3. Wilson Mabel O, “Carceral Architecture.” e-flux architecture, superhumanity, https://www.e-flux.com/architecturesuperhumanity/68676/ carceral-architectures/ (accessed March 1, 2021). 4. Chi Zhen, “The Freeroad of History.” China Economic History, http://economy.guoxue.com/?p=9312 (accessed April 20, 2013). 13