Phantasmagoria and the Neurosis/ Theory Thesis/ Architecture Master degree

Phant as magor i aandt heNeur os i s The or yThe s i sSpr i ng2 01 5 / TUDe l f t Ar c hi t e c t ur e ; Ma s t e r1 / 2 Kr i s t i naKups t a i t e

Kristina Kupstaite

1

Table of Content 1. Introduction 2. Phantasmagoria: Waxwork and the magical lantern 3. Walter Benjamin: The uncanny world of Parisian arcades a. Arcades b. Disappearance of the border between home and the external world c. Commodity (vulgarity and violence of the commodity) d. Fashion e. Advertisement f.

Photography

g. Entertainment h. Conclusion 4. From Las Vegas to Holland Village in Japan: Phantasmagoria of 21st Century 5. Impacts of the physical environment on physical and mental capital 6. Can technology become our ally, rather than destroyer?

7. Conclusion

Abstract Walter Benjamin appropriates the notion of phantasmagoria – the magic lantern entertainments of the 18th Century which were based on the supernatural and the occult – and reinterprets it to better understand the effect Parisian arcades of the 19th Century had on the modern individual.

As the Parisian arcades were seen as the precursor for the modern shopping mall they clearly have had an influence on the commodification and prevalence of consumer and capitalist culture. It is therefore important to understand the truth of Benjamin’s theory and how this can be used to inform us of the effects the built environment can have on modern man.

Kristina Kupstaite 1. Introduction

In this paper I will be attempting to analyse the built environment and its effect on the individual through the notion of the phantasmagoria. Phantasmagoria as a phenomenon was applied in relation to architecture, art, and the city (dweller) by the German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin in his work Das Passagen-Werk.i Further it will explore similar phenomena in the contemporary world primarily based on the explorations of Las Vegas by Robert Venturi and his colleagues undertaken in the late 1960s.

Additionally, evidence will be sought, to relate the phenomena of the phantasmagoria and the disillusion of humanity, to the mental and physical disabilities increasingly prevalent in modern society.

In the final part of this research it will be explored whether, abundance, availability and the all-pervasive technology of today’s world can be employed to reverse the cycle of selfdestruction.

This chapter will be predominantly based on the artists and architects whose work emphasizes the importance of social sustainability, which could be also considered as the primary issue of the Benjamin’s life work.

2

Kristina Kupstaite

3

2. Phantasmagoria: Waxwork and the magical lantern In this chapter, I shall investigate the origins of the phantasmagoria, to help us to trace back its profound influence on Walter Benjamin’s work and the all-embracing notion of uncanny that influenced the modern world.

Benjamin borrows the term Phantasmagoria from the showman Étienne-Gaspard Robertson who coined the term in order to promote his magic lantern public performances in the 1790s, calling them ‘Fantasmagorie’ – from the Greek meaning ‘assembly of phantasms’ ii. Marina Warner in her extensive research on the topic in the book ‘Phantasmagoria: Spirit vision, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century’ challenges the notion of the Phantasmagoria and the preoccupation/ fascination of man with gore.

She states that the origins of phantasmagoria can be traced to the Middle Ages, when monarchs of England were paraded before the general public after their death, the faces of their corpses were reproduced and adjusted with the help of wax to disguise and not enhance ‘the face of death’. iii The ritual was a sombre procession, of which the purpose was to emphasise the ‘immortality’ of the royalty and imprint a fear of god into the general public. The craft of embalming was locked away behind closed doors of craftsman for centuries (from the ancient Egypt period and intentional mummification), and did not find itself in the public domain until the second half of the 18th century. An exhibition of waxworks was open to the public by Philippe Curtius, a Swiss physician turned entrepreneur, in Paris in 1770 expositing contemporary personalities. iv His successor was world renowned Madame Tussaud, whose wax work exhibitions are one of the greatest tourist attraction around the globe today. Her first exhibition was opened in London (1835) before expanding to Amsterdam, New York, Hong Kong and numerous other locations.

Fig.1 Decapitated heads of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, wax and natural hair, displayed at Madame Tussaud’s, London, 1995.

The taboos that surrounded death and the secrecy of the body were lifted and became available as public entertainment. It would seem that the public had a taste for the uncanny, firstly in the aesthetic representation of the dead and alive personalities in 18th century, later with the not so aesthetically pleasing, as Madame Tussaud was continuously demanded to make exact replicas of the heads of the decapitated Jacobins during the years of Terror. v It is assumed that the first use of magic lantern appeared around the 16th century in the performance of Doctor Faustus vi in order to conjure the appearance of the devil. vii The first documented use of painted slides and magical lantern was in Rome by the Jesuit Athanaius Kircher in the 1640s. With a markedly different intention from its later application, Kircher did not intend to use the apparatus for the exposure of the evil and dark substances, but rather the opposite; his intention was purely religious, the illumination of darkness with the aid of shadow and light. viii From religious and deferential roots the development of the magic lantern phantasmagoria ‘progressed’ to an entertainment for the sceptical or gullible public. “…curiosity about spirits of every sort … have flourished more vigorously than ever since the seventeenth century (onwards), when the modern fusion of scientific inquiry, psychology, and metaphysics began.” ix

Kristina Kupstaite Interestingly, from this period, the application of the magic lantern, had changed its course, ‘the projections are almost always supernatural creatures, with looming devils and dancing skeletons predominating. Such supernatural subject-matter was chosen, as if it went without saying, to illustrate the power of the new machine of illusion.… grotesque, designed to excite fear as well as pleasure.…

They depict beliefs about supernatural – or what could be called hallucinations.’ x

4 armour of human minds, and slipping in and stirring up the sleeping tendencies to personate.’xii The waxworks and the magical lantern were not the only illusionary, terrifying tools that have brought fascination and doubt into human perception and understanding of the boundaries between the real and imaginary world throughout the centuries. The list may include Fata Morgana, Hypnosis, zombies, spirits, séances and many more… however, these two are the most relevant when considering the world view and philosophies within Walter Benjamin’s interpretation of the Phantasmagoria – the phantasma of the capitalist world.

Fig.2 grotesque and fear inducing demon-like creature projected from the magical lantern.

From this point onwards, the showmen travelled around Europe preying on the fascination of the human mind with things that were repulsive or despicable. The experience occupied the border between life and the supernatural, with the more realistic performances engrossing and fascinating the general public more. The leading exponent of the craft was also its inventor Étienne-Gaspard Robinson, who was capable of ‘resurrecting’ the most ‘despicable animals’, bringing the inorganic world into the organic before the eyes of his audience, which manifested in screams, moans and presumably some black outs. This inevitably led to the shattering of trust in vision, questioning of the eye’s ability to distinguish between truth and falsity. The phantasmagoria – the world of illusion, horror, and obscenity entered the living world and peoples’ minds.

‘As (William) James xi mused, ‘[there might be] in the universe a lot of diffuse soul-stuff, unable of itself to get into consistent personal form, or to take permanent possession of an organism, yet always craving to do so; it might get its head into the air, parasitical, so to speak, by profiting on weak spots in the

Fig.3 Phantasmagoria - The Dance of the Sorcerors’ from Wonders of Optics.

Fig.4 Robertson’s Phantasmagoria, from his Memoires

Kristina Kupstaite 3. Walter Benjamin: The uncanny world of Parisian arcades The term phantasmagoria, in its current form, originated in the late 18th - early 19th century Masonic rituals and referred to specific performances. These performances appear by all evidence to have been invented by the Belgian Étienne-Gaspard Robertson, where in a darkened room using candles (and later lantern projections) and smoke the performers were able to create the illusion of ghostly (phantom) matter. These illusions were designed to induce superstitious and psychological fears; a sense of the uncanny and foremost to provide an entertainment for a gullible audience. The lantern was hidden from the audience's view and manipulated behind a translucent screen, which created morphing spectral shapes which appeared to hover in the room. ‘The aim was to create a continuous “seamless” projection… One scene could turn into another, the day metamorphose into night, figures appear in the sky, and so on.’ xiii The phenomena of the phantasmagoria can be associated with contemporary video games, horror films, and may be seen as the origin of the all-pervasive media of the 21st Century xiv.

In his book, Das Passagen-Werk Benjamin relentlessly and scrupulously investigates Paris and particularly Parisian arcades of the 19th Century; their inception with the invention of the iron and glass structures, and (in Benjamin’s opinion) their hallucinogenic effect on the individuals, or the new type of individuals often referred to as the ‘flâneur’.

Benjamin saw a connection between 19th century Parisian architecture and these Phantasmagorias; he appropriated and reinterpreted the term for his book – an exhaustive manuscript and the outcome of 13 years work. Das Passagen-Werk was compiled using various sources from the 19th century, quotations from leading contemporaries (Marcel Proust, Paul Valery, Louis Aragon, etc.) and a vast number of notes made by

5 Benjamin himself. xv Interestingly the work of Benjamin – the structure of the manuscript, markedly resembles the subject that is analysed (and criticised) within it – arcades.

Within the Parisian arcades of the 19th century; the objects, sights, people, events, sounds, etc. are gathered together under mesmerising steel and glass structures – Benjamin notes the surrealism and illusory quality of these spaces and asserts that these are the new phantasmagorias. These spaces which combined aspects of interior and exterior within the structures were hitherto unseen and therefore became a novelty – they engulfed the individual sending him into the prolonged journey of dream, whilst stripping individuality, alienating him from himself and others and reducing him to the level of an object, a commodity. Similarly the book is an extensive collection of notes, quotations of varying length, periods of continuous prose, different languages (German and French), sometimes positioned together in a contradictory manner, it is a fragmented patchwork and reads like an encyclopaedia or a dictionary. So the reader ‘enters’ the world of Benjamin’s Konvolut xvi, similarly to the flâneur xvii, who enters the world of Parisian phantasmagoria.

Begun in 1927 and abruptly terminated in 1940 due to the author’s sudden death, the long and painstaking process involved in compiling this work could not yield a finished piece, which may account for the idiosyncratic and fractured ordering. The work and process of compiling it was described by the author himself in a letter of 1930 as “the theatre of my struggles and all my ideas”. xviii He investigated all aspects of the new city life, the distractive notion of the arcades, the notion of the departure from reality, the fetishistic obsession with commodities and at the heart of it Benjamin’s notion of the disintegration of the aura of art xix. Benjamin was a profound antagonist of reproduction, in an essay The Work of Art in the Age of

Kristina Kupstaite Mechanical Reproduction he demands ‘humanity’s self-preservation… by passing through them (the technologies)’xx. According to Benjamin, the arrival of technologies which allowed reproduction, and later photography and film, caused art to lose ‘…its present in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be’ xxi and brought about a ‘shattering of the tradition’ xxii , these link closely with the notion of the crisis of society and the numbing of its sensory apparatus. Benjamin believed in what he termed as ‘auratic art’; art was diluted if not viewed in its original state, by remaining in its original form it retained its power – with the consequence being that it is available to only ‘the chosen ones’ – the dominant classes. xxiii The cult of art held religious significance and a spiritual power which was diluted with reproduction. However it may be argued that this attack on the reproduction, or the inevitable cultural progress, was a provocation, and that the reluctance to accept that art, as well as goods (commodities), and entertainment should be available to all, no matter what status was an elitist position. This notion of reproduction shall receive further attention within a later part of this document, where it will be investigated whether the technological progress and abundance of the modern age can help us to better perceive our environment.

“Sorry, but your soul has just died” xxiv A quotation from Tom Wolfe captures the essence of Das Passagen-Werk – the unsettling notion of the spiritual crisis engulfing modern man in the capitalist world of 19th Century Paris. The rise of the commodity to be placed on a pedestal and conversely the slump of the human spirit to the level of a mere object through continuous stimulation that leads to numbness, and self-annihilation, a crisis of the spirit.

6

Fig.5 The Passage de l'Opera, 1822-1823

It would seem that the most crucial drive behind the Arcades Project and the rest of the Benjamin’s extensive writings was the perception of the loss of meaning in art (what Benjamin calls ‘aura’ xxv) due to economic rise, technological advances, commodification and reproduction. This subsumed all aspects of life including; architecture, art, entertainment, home environments and led eventually, according to Benjamin, to; dissolution, fragmentation of community, the loss of consciousness and amnesia. The human spirit, the individual, whom Benjamin refers to as the ‘flâneur’, is captivated by the myriad of stimulants, that surround him leading him to a dreamlike state of existence, dislocating him from reality and divorcing him from his past so that commodities and sensory experiences consume him. From this argument it is simple to draw the connection to phantasmagoria, where real and virtual meet and the boundary between the living and inanimate disappear.

From here arises the image of the uncanny, unsettled, and haunted existence of the zombie or marionette, trapped in a body and

Kristina Kupstaite played by the pull of inanimate things, where space and time no longer exist.

Benjamin also addressed the matter of the mass fetishism of the commodity as a tool of political power, used for the manipulation of the masses. In his eyes, and this has since proved to contain some truth, the commodity is a powerful tool of control. He insisted that the plentiful availability of these commodities was a tool that leading bodies were employing to anaesthetise the masses into the ‘joyful’ subconscious submissiveness, and this was their ultimate goal. xxvi Within this part of the chapter I shall dissect the work of arcades of Benjamin, based on quotations from his book, in order to attempt to distil the notion Benjamin’s Phantasmagoria, using the following structure: • Arcades • Disappearance of the border between home and external world • Commodity • Fashion • Advertisement • Photography • Entertainment

7

Kristina Kupstaite a. The arcades ‘In speaking of the inner boulevards;’ says the Illustrated Guide to Paris, a complete picture of the city on the Seine and its environs from the year 1852, ‘we have made mention again and again of the arcades which open onto them. These arcades, a recent invention of industrial luxury, are glass-roofed, marble-panelled corridors extending through whole blocks of buildings, whose owners have joined together for such enterprises. Lining both sides of these corridors, which get their light from above, are the most elegant shops, so that the arcade is a city, a world in miniature /Flâneur/, in which customers will find everything they need. During sudden rainshowers, the arcades are a place of refuge for the unprepared, to whom they offer a secure, if restricted, promenade – one from which the merchants also benefit’ /Weather/ This passage is the locus classicus for the presentation of the arcades; for not only do the divagations of the flâneur and the weather develop out of it, but, also, what there is to be said about the construction of the arcades, in an economic and architectural vein, would have a place here. [A1,1]’ xxvii

From this first passage of Convolutes it may be observed the power and draw of these edifices; these spaces that had never been seen before, offering the novelty of their unprecedented luxury – iron and glass vaults, ostentatious decoration, fashionable shops – all concentrated in one space – the comfort of a perfect retreat from undesirable elements.

These aspects all combine to manifest a different world; a world where the viewer is engulfed, suspended and paralysed by the glory of the edifices. The individual loses themselves, the body and soul are captivated and become no longer an autonomous being, but a part of this illusion of temporary escape from the real world with all its worries, troubles, daily chores and responsibilities. This reiterates the notion of phantasmagoria, the origin of the world, the illusion, where the border between the real and imaginary

8 dissolve; the magical lantern shows displayed moving images perceived to become real in the viewer’s eye, an analogous chemical reaction takes place in the brain of the ‘flâneur’ when they enter the arcades.

During the magical lantern shows the viewer is bombarded by intense stimuli depicting horror, whereas the arcades are a less violent attack on the human mind. Even so the effect of these edifices is so strong on the visitor – they inflict almost ungodly fear or paralysis, therefore one finds oneself agreeing with the ideas that Benjamin holds forth throughout the manuscript; the sense of the uncanny.

As mentioned previously, Benjamin felt a strong apprehension towards the technical revolution, and particularly reproduction and repetition; his argument was that the loss of the autonomy of art, the ease of availability and commodification were embodied in the arcades, they were cathedrals of mass production. ‘Shops in the Passage des Panoramas: Restaurant Veron, reacting room, music shop, Marquis, wine merchants, hosier, haberdashers, tailors, bootmakers, hosiers, bookshops, caricaturist,… /Dream Houses: arcade as nave with side chapels./’[A2,1] xxviii .

These are only few of myriad services, shops available in these arcades; the only barrier between the passer and the goods is the money. Inorganic matter holding all the power in the world, and unlike the authentic art that Benjamin glorified unattainability, the commodity is obtainable in vast quantities and varieties, becoming disposable – the object loses its essence and necessity. From these beginnings can be seen the development of the contemporary consumerist world, the disposability and excessiveness of today’s society.

As availability increases so the importance of commodities, it would be assumed, decreases, but the opposite has proven to be true – the individual attaches greater emotional desire to the object. Mario Perniola is his book The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic speaks about this matter extensively. From his perspective the individual is able have greater attachment to

Kristina Kupstaite an object than to another living creature. He states the reason as being, that the object gives itself away unconditionally and limitlessly – from this we again see the desire to escape from the real world, the world of burden, emotional exhaustion and vulnerability. However, there is a flip side to this interaction, “…Hegel claims that the inorganic world presents an essential porosity, a kind of radical vacuity that offers itself to infinite penetration… A porous world is multiplicity of openings. In it whoever penetrates is in his turn penetrated, without establishing between them a relation of mutual belonging. …, the link that connects those who penetrate to those who are penetrated, which remains superficial, the connection remains extrinsic.” xxix The notion of porosity is bilateral, the inorganic world allows itself to be penetrated, however it swallows the human and all its being, the person is ‘arrested’ by the ambivalent world of the inorganic, therefore becoming one with the commodity. xxx Another fascinating aspect of Parisian arcades is argued by W. Menninghaus in his chapter ‘On the ‘Vital Significance’ of Kitsch: Walter Benjamin’s Politics of ‘Bad Taste’’ xxxi Even though it was left unspoken, directly, by Benjamin – kitsch (or bad taste) was the invention of the 19th Century and this was made available by the prevalence of the arcades. Kitsch – something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste. xxxii The arcades were intended to welcome everyone, they pandered to every taste regardless of the quality of that taste. .... Through the doors of the shops, one spied dusky alcoves where sometimes a piece of mahogany furniture, the classic furniture of the period, would manage to catch a ray of light. Further on, a small bar hazy with the smoke of tobacco pipes; a shop selling products from the colonies and emitting a curious fragrance of exotic plants, spices, and fruits; a ballroom open for dancing on Sundays and workday

9 evenings; finally the reading room of Sieur Ceccherini, who offered to patrons his newspapers and his books." J. LucasDubreton, L 'Affaire Alibaud, ou Louis-Philippe traqué (1836; rpt. Paris, 1927), pp, 114-115 [A6a,1] xxxiii

Arcades were created, furnished and decorated to resemble upper class drawing rooms, so that everyone could catch a glimpse of paradise, arcades were attempting to replace the home environment by recreating an idealised version of it. Benjamin noted: ‘Surrealism was born in an arcade. And under the protection of what muses! [C1,2]’ xxxiv It may be assumed that Benjamin refers to the cultural movement that was developing during the years when he was writing his manuscript, the aim of the movement was to resolve the contradiction between dream and reality, by substituting the problems of reality with playfulness, or put another way with illusion. Therefore the threshold of the arcades became the gateway to the world of the surreal, the arcades were a path to the magical world of illusion, or the ‘horror show’ where the individual enters a state of paramnesia, the zombie state of body and soul.

Fig. 6 Captivation of the human eye, surrealist drawing

Kristina Kupstaite b. The disappearance of the border between home and external world (interior) ‘Nineteenth-century domestic interior.

The space disguises itself – puts on, like an alluring creature, the costumes of moods. … In the end, things are merely mannequins, and even the great moments of world history are only costumes beneath which they exchange glances of complicity with nothingness, with the petty and the banal. Such nihilism is the innermost core of bourgeois cosiness – a m00d that in hashish intoxication concentrates to satanic contentment, satanic knowing, satanic calm, indicating precisely to what extent the nineteenthcentury interior is itself a stimulus to intoxication and dream. This mood involves, furthermore, an aversion to the open air, the (so to speak) Uranian atmosphere, which throws a new light on the extravagant interior design of the period. To live in these interiors was to have woven a dense fabric about oneself, to have secluded oneself within a spider's web,… [I2,6]’ xxxv

10 object, the mannequin or the sentient waxwork on display, not dissimilar to that hat, piece of jewellery or the shawl that are seductively displayed in the shop windows in the arcades. As Benjamin stated: ‘The domestic interior moves outside. It is as though the bourgeois were so sure of his prosperity that he is careless of façade, and can exclaim: My house, no matter where you choose to cut into it, is façade. … . The street becomes room and the room becomes street. The passer-by who stops to look at the house stands, as it were, in the alcove. ‘Flâneur’ [L1,5]’ xxxvii

Fig.7 19th Century Great Parisian Drawing room

Similarly to the arcades, the domestic life of the Parisian inhabitants, has been equally effected by the ‘destructive’, intoxicating, uncontrollable desire of the luxury and glitter.

As the arcades – the domestic drawing rooms become like a stage of a play, the objects ‘on display’, the luxurious fabrics and furnishings, do not speak of the owner or their personality, but speak of the dull, subconscious slavery to the inorganic matter, which superficially satisfies the desire of owning, acquisition, but becomes master of the individual, take control of the person’s mind, body and soul.

Interestingly, one of the quotations in The Arcade Project refers to the museum as the perfect embodiment of the ‘dream house of the collective’ xxxvi, in this context, in could be said that the domestic home becomes the museum, the stage, the window display of nothingness, dullness and banality which aggressively denies the autonomy of the sentient being. So the human becomes the

From this it may be observed not only the annihilation of the individual, but also the disappearance of privacy, and the melting boundaries between private and public. If the home should be considered as a place where the individual can be themselves and rest from the daily pressures of urban life, then they deny themselves the last chance of escape, of sanctuary.

Home, museum and arcade become the same, the stage for the puppet play, where the individual is the mindless puppet, who is controlled by the master – the capitalist modernity. The illusion of happiness, joy, satisfaction that the individual supposedly experiences by participating in this ‘game’ of life gradually numbs the person, therefore, to satisfy the confused desire it requires an ever increasing level of stimuli, the individual even in his home environment is not able to find the peace and serenity within himself, as the ‘need’ of the commodities never ceases. c. Commodity (Vulgarity and violence of the commodity)

Kristina Kupstaite ‘In 1798 and 1799, the Egyptian campaign lent frightful importance to the fashion for shawls.

Some generals in the expeditionary army, taking advantage of the proximity of India, sent home shawls ... of cashmere to their wives and lady friends.... From then on, the disease that might be called cashmere fever took on significant proportions. It began to spread during the Consulate, grew greater under the Empire, became gigantic during the Restoration, reached colossal size under the July Monarchy, and has finally assumed Sphinx-like dimensions since the February Revolution of 1848." Paris chez soi (Paris), p. 139 (A. Durand, “ChalesCachemires indiens et français"). Contains an interview with M. Martin, 39 Rue Richelieu, proprietor of a store called The Indians; reports that shawls which earlier were priced between 1,500 and 2,000 francs can now be bought for 800 to 1,000 francs. [A10,2]’ xxxviii

We see from this quotation the inception of hysteria over commodity. The phenomenon of availability becomes the common obsession of the nineteenth century individual. The greater the availability the greater the obsession; similarly, as previously discussed, the desire to embellish your own home is part of the same frenzy, but it does not stop there, the human body and everything that surround it become victims of this manic beautification fever.

Benjamin had a strong preoccupation with the notion of auratic art – and how commodification and reproduction eroded its integrity. He also perceived that the movement away from the creative arts signalled the dissolution of society. As commodities become mass produced they become more homogenised and as a result lose a great part of their intrinsic spiritual/emotional value. ’The commodity has become an abstraction. … . It has acquired a 'ghostly objectivity' and leads a life of its own. … ‘Cut off from the will of man, it aligns itself in a mysterious hierarchy, develops or declines

11 exchangeability, and, in accordance with its own peculiar laws, performs as an actor on a phantom stage.’ [G5,1]’ As the objects become more lavish, exaggerated and grotesque, they become excessive marvels and ceased to appear what they originally were, but also acquire sentient features, they ‘sore’, ‘slump’, become ‘sluggish’ or ‘pick up the speed’. xxxix This anthropomorphism leads to the abstraction and the autonomy of everyday objects, henceforth they attain power over the individuals – the master becomes a slave.

Due to reproduction and the mechanised process of the production, the phases between raw material and the final product are disengaged, the product is isolated from humans and its origin becomes an unknown.

This mechanisation leads to the destruction of community traditions, also a growing gap between the blue collar workers and the bourgeoisie, who being the only ones with enough available capital to invest in large scale operations out compete the cottage industry for commodities that had previously existed before the industrial revolution. Even though the product is still made by human hands, the person becomes invisible, is treated as the machines (or is perhaps lucky to be considered equal to the machines) the object is idolised and the human is negated.

It is fascinating, how the commodity has come to hold power over its creator. The phantasmagoria, the magic lantern shows, were originally created as an entertainment, but achieved autonomy, and exercised control over the human mind. The boundaries between reality and fantasy dissipate and reality becomes the weaker member of this unity. The invasion of the fantasy submerge all aspects of the human into the state of dream, disillusion and mire of vaguery.

Kristina Kupstaite

12 perfectly captures Benjamin’s attitude towards contemporary living, its culture and its obsession for commodities.

Fig.8 Commodification in the modern world

In an essay by Benjamin, The Telephone, he speaks of the violence of the contemporary inventions, the apparatus on this occasion – the telephone – carries out an invasion of the home. These foreign objects have a profound effect on the human being, whether it is at home, in the arcade, or on the street; ‘…where it’s (the telephone) ringing served to multiply the terrors of the Berlin household. When, having mastered my senses with great effort, I arrived to quell the uproar after prolonged fumbling through the gloomy corridor, I tore off the two receivers, which were heavy as dumbbells, thrust my head between them, and was inexorably delivered over to the voice that now sounded. There was nothing to allay the violence with which it pierced me. Powerless, I suffered, seeing that it obliterated my consciousness of time, my firm resolve, my sense of duty.

And just as the medium obeys the voice that takes possession of him from beyond the grave, I submitted to the first proposal that came my way through the telephone.’ xl

A deeply evocative and thought provoking description of the effects of an apparently inanimate object - it evokes an awareness of the power of these objects that we surround ourselves with. This interaction between a young Benjamin and the telephone is evocative of phantasmagoria, stating that the object holds the power to take control of the individual. Even though the essay is not directly related to the Arcades Project, it

Kristina Kupstaite d. Fashion “This year,' said Tristouse, 'fashions are bizarre and common, simple and full of fantasy. Any material from nature's domain can now be introduced into the composition of women's clothes. I saw a charming dress made of corks.... A major designer is thinking about launching tailor-made outfits made of old bookbindings done in calf.... Fish bones are being worn a lot on hats. One often sees delicious young girls dressed like pilgrims of Saint James of Compostella; their outfits, as is fitting, are studded with coquilles Saint-Jacques. Steel, wool, sandstone, and files have suddenly entered the vestmentary arts .... Fashion is becoming practical and no longer looks down on anything. It ennobles everything.

It does for materials what the Romantics did for words. '" Guillaume Apollinaire, Le Poete assassine. new edition (Paris, 1927), pp. 75-779 [B3a,1]’ xli

Equally to architecture, objects and other aspects of the daily lives of the nineteenth century, the fashion was also brutally altered by the stimuli starved society. Similarly to the furnishing of the arcades and the private homes of the bourgeoisie, the attire started to mutate and become grotesque. Benjamin in this manner pinpoints the theme of the sex appeal of the inorganic, the fetishism of the object – he accords fashion with being the epitome of the all-pervading obsession with commodity; ‘…fashion is to some extent a bitter satire on love; all sexual perversities are suggested in every fashion by the most ruthless means; every fashion is filled with secret resistances to love.’ xlii In other words, it becomes an object that denies the human being from the natural, the real, the profound.

As Perniola argues in his book The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic xliii all body modifications bring the human body closer to the state of the thing, however the ambition is always cut short, becomes a sub-product of the organic and sinks into the mire of banality. In order to be different, superior or fashionable,

13 individuals manage only to depersonalise themselves; whereas the inorganic matter, the clothing becomes superior to the human and accordingly negates the autonomy and authenticity of the living being.

Fashion, especially this grotesque version of it may be closely related to imagery of the phantasmagoria. Like an opposing twin, if the phantasmagoria was performed in darkness and intended to induce fear and horror in the viewers’ eyes, the fashion was designed to amuse, to seduce, to flirt but managed to induce the same cadaverous illusion. Even though, Perniola does not completely agree with Benjamin’s assessment of sex or sexuality as the isolator between the organic and the inorganic with accessories or attire being allies, for Perniola, the fabric of the clothing and the fabric of the human skin become inseparable, the same matter.

Fig. 9 Fashion

Kristina Kupstaite

e. Advertisement ‘Fashion, like architecture, inheres in the darkness of the lived moment, belongs to the dream consciousness of the collective.

The latter awakes, for example, in advertising. [K2a,4]’ xliv

Prior the ninetieth century, advertising, as a powerful tool or sales pitch was rarely used; evidence of attempts to use advertisements can be traced to ancient Egypt, Greece, China and the Middle Ages, however due to only a low level of literacy, the promotional banners on rocks, papyrus and later on signs were kept to minimalistic drawings, simply identifying the trade; such as a boot, a hat, a clock, a horse shoe, a bag of flour and so on. xlv Therefore only in the 19th century, as a result of the public becoming more literate, was the benefit of promoting goods and services discovered.

Due to a boom of technical discoveries and reproduction, advertising blossomed in the western world – banners, posters and billboards became ubiquitous in Paris. ‘In those parts of the city where the theatres and public walks… are located, where therefore the majority of foreigners live and wander, there is hardly a building without a shop. It takes only a minute, only a step, for the forces of attraction to gather; a minute later, a step further on, and the passer-by is standing before a different shop.... One's attention is spirited away as though by violence, and one has no choice but to stand there and remain looking up until it returns. …[A12a]’ The trades discovered the power of the tool and exploited it to the extreme, ’often they are attached high up on the third story and reach down in sundry folds all the way to the pavement. The shoemaker has painted different-coloured shoes, ranged in rows like battalions, across the entire facade of his building. The sign for the locksmiths is a sixfoot-high gold-plated key; the giant gates of heaven could require no larger.’ xlvi Arcades became a cacophony of colour, shapes, words, everywhere the visitor turned, they were

14 bombarded by bold signposts promoting good and services. Undoubtedly, the banners and posters become more and more elaborate, here again they undermine the autonomy of the art, endow the commodities with aesthetical gloss, the public repeatedly is bombarded by glitter and shine of the persuasive unapologetic advertising and submits to the anaesthetic enticement. The individual loses its will, captured by the dazzling array of charming slogans, and enchanting imagery.

The same reoccurring theme is apparent, the individual becomes the puppet of the uncanny and manipulation, their thinking is paralysed and the individual is lead involuntarily in the slumber of the mass/ collective dream.

Additionally, ‘the sandwich-man is the last incarnation of the flâneur. [M19,2]’ xlvii This is another reoccurring motif, similarly to the effect of fashion, the sentient being comes closer to the state of inorganic, the human body becomes a part of propaganda, promotion of the commodity, the goods deny the superiority of the man, he – the flâneur, the solitary observer, the modern man of the nineteenth century Paris, falls into the pit of commodification and becomes a commodity himself.

Fig. 10 The sandwich man 19th C.

Kristina Kupstaite f. Photography ‘In Marseilles, around 1850, there were at most four or five painters of miniatures, of whom two, perhaps, had gained a certain reputation by executing fifty portraits in the course of a year. These artists earned just enough to make a living ....A few years later, there were forty to fifty photographers in Marseilles ....They each produced, on the average, between 1,000 and 1,200 plates per year, which they sold for 15 francs apiece; this made for yearly receipts of 18,000 francs, so that, together, they constituted an industry earning nearly a million . … [Y3a,2]’ xlviii

Just as architecture departed from the domain of fine art at the inception of the technological revolution, and became the domain of engineering, so too photography invaded the domain of art.

Benjamin’s notion of auratic art – art that carries a certain traditional and cultural value – was invaded by the invention of the reproduction; lithography, mass printing, and photography – which quickly captured the fascination of the public. Benjamin argues about the authenticity and the value of the photograph. In the essay The Works of art in the Age of mechanical Reproduction, he sees the rise of photography as creating disengagement between now and then, and there and here – time and space disappears. A contradiction exists within photography – the perfection with which it captures or mirrors the real world, contrasting with its causal nature, and arbitrariness. For Benjamin it never reaches the level of auratic art, because of the potential of reproduction, unlike auratic art which has its inaccessibility and a sense of longevity. Within his writing he spoke of the life of art, comparing the work of Greeks or Romans, and even though he did not deny the progress in modern society, he saw the reproduction as a dull externalisation, part of the numb drive for quantity over quality. As the photography rapidly superseded the visual arts due to the speed and cost involved, also

15 the growing demand, the obvious effects and symptoms of the disintegration of the dome of the fine arts were obvious.

‘From that moment onward, our loathsome society rushed, like Narcissus, to contemplate its trivial image on the metallic plate. A form of lunacy, an extraordinary fanaticism, took hold of these new sun-worshippers. Strange abominations manifested themselves. By bringing together and posing a pack of rascals, male and female, dressed up like carnival time butchers and washerwomen, and in persuading these 'heroes' to 'hold' their improvised grimaces for as long as the photographic process required, people really believed they could represent the tragic and charming scenes of ancient history ....It was not long before thousands of pairs of greedy eyes were glued to the peepholes of the stereoscope, as though they were the skylights of the infinite. …the badly applied advances of photography – like all purely material progress, for that matter – have greatly contributed to the impoverishment of French artistic genius,… [Y10a,1]’ xlix

From this quotation it can be observed the frenzy that took over Paris with the arrival of photography, individuals embrace the world of the illusion, the world of other, and deny their own reality.

Fig. 11 Parisian Frenzy with the photography 19 C.

g. Entertainment

Kristina Kupstaite ‘... This is nothing other than the number, the cipher, in which just at that moment luck will be called by name, in order to jump immediately to another number. His type - that's the number that pays off thirty-six-fold, the one on whim, without even trying, the eye of the voluptuary falls, as the ivory ball falls into the red or black compartment. He leaves the PalaisRoyal with bulging pockets, calls to a whore, and once more celebrates in her arms the communion with number, in which money and riches, absolved from every earthen weight, have come to him from the fates like a joyous embrace returned to the full. For in gambling hall and bordello, it is the same supremely sinful delight: to challenge fate in pleasure…[O1,1]’ l

Benjamin here paints the flâneur as overstimulated by the glitter, shine and exuberance of Paris, and in particular the dazzling arcades. He walks the interiors of these grand edifices with no purpose, no destination, with his only desire to be stimulated – he needs instant gratification.

The only places left that still thrill him are the gambling dens, and the boudoirs of prostitutes. Clearly these locations were not inventions of the 19th century; however they thrived throughout the era of the arcades in Paris.

If, to follow the theory of Perniola (The Sex Appeal of the Inorganic – discussed at the conclusion to this chapter) that human relationships are always conditional, a flâneur – exhausted from dullness, lost and dissatisfied – turns to something that he may give himself to unconditionally, the world of inorganic or those which act (or become) inorganic. In these cases the roulette wheel and the prostitute. Both offer only the temporary relief of primitive needs; desire, greed and lust. They are commodified and made available to those who have the money to purchase them. They are both an illusion and abstractions of power and love, but never come close to real emotion. By undergoing

16 these experiences, the individual comes closer to the state of the inorganic thing. li However in a contrast Benjamin selects a quote by Edmund Bergler who speaks of a passion of gambling as ‘an autoerotic satisfaction, wherein betting is foreplay, winning is orgasm, and losing is ejaculation, defecation, and castration.’ lii It opposes the notion of the submission and the transition to the inanimate matter. However it can be related to the intrinsic instinct of humans to desire power and sexual surrender. Either way, the thrill that is experienced is temporary and illusory (and most likely excruciating and shameful), yet offers escape from the restrictions and stresses of realty. This is a frequently repeated theme within Benjamin’s work, individuals seeking thrills, the escape from the mundane, embracing the new world of excitement, luxury and availability, but as a result trapping themselves in the limbo of Phantasmagoria – a horror show of the modern man. He submits to its allure, and dutifully follows his path.

Fig.12 Brothels of 19th C. Paris

Kristina Kupstaite h. Conclusion (of the chapter) As it may be seen from the above analysis, the arcades were a place to inhabit, the place to see and to be seen, or further – to follow the notion of Benjamin – the places of dream, illusion and a constant unconscious drift.

However the glory of these magnificent edifices did not last long, by the end of the 19th century, not even a century after their inception, the galleries started to decline, the shops were abandoned and the number of visitors declined. This following quotation sums it up neatly: "In Paris ...they are fleeing the arcades, so long in fashion, as one flees stale air. The arcades are dying. From time to time, one of them is closed, like the sad Passage Delorme, where, in the wilderness of the gallery, female figures of a tawdry antiquity used to dance along the shopfronts, as in the scenes from Pompeii interpreted by Guerinon Hersent. The arcade that for the Parisian was a sort of salon-walk, where you strolled and smoked and chatted, is now nothing more than a species of refuge which you think of when it rains. Some of the arcades maintain a certain attraction on account of this or that famed establishment still to be found there. But it is the tenant's renown that prolongs the excitement, or rather the death agony, of the place. The arcades have one great defect for modern Parisians: you could say that, just like certain paintings done from stifled perspectives, they're in need of air." Jules Claretie, La Vie it Paris, 1895 (Paris, 1896), pp. 47ff. [E1.5] liii

The abandonment of the arcades seems somewhat grotesque and poignant, especially the comparison between the abandonment of the arcades to stale air. Arcades over-reached, they overexerted their existence, in order to become bigger and better and more luxurious and glitterier – the ‘cathedrals’ of the commodity were gradually burned from

17 inside. However, no matter how dramatic the end of era of the arcades was, it has left a significant trace of the culture behind; the following centuries have inherited the desire for glory, glitter, colour, and abundance etc.

They have not only inherited it but exploited it to unexpected new heights. If the flâneur of the 19th century was not able to take in the glory of the arcades without losing himself and his mind, the ‘successors’ of the arcades are the living madness of the present day. The par excellence would be the City of Las Vegas, a place of total illusion; a dream world of lust, gambling, stimuli – all the vices contained within one city. This city will be investigated further later in this paper. If this example could be considered an exaggeration of reality or a unique example of the twisting of reality, we could turn our gaze to virtually any city in the developed world, and without great difficulty observe this ‘aura’ of illusion, temptation and abundancy; with its flashing lights, extravagant displays, the colossal abundance of unrequired commodities.

Fig.13 Delirious New York, 21st Century

‘The sex appeal of the in-organic’ was coined

by Benjamin in relation to the fetishism of inorganic matter. Mario Perniola, a contemporary Italian thinker, philosopher and author of the ‘The Sex Appeal of the inorganic: philosophies of desire in the modern world’ expanded upon this notion.

Summary of ‘The Sex Appeal of the inorganic: philosophies of desire in the modern world’.

Kristina Kupstaite The crucial difference between, organic to organic, and organic to inorganic matter relationships is that the former is always conditional, even when applied to, for example, unconditional love; it is always temporal, stuck in the limbo of life and often unsatisfying and therefore self-destructive as it relies on two separate and distinct sets of interests and experiences, while the latter is always one sided, as the thing, the inorganic matter, gives itself up to the man with no fear or hesitation. Therefore it may be assumed that the desire, the attraction of the man to the inorganic, or what the author call ‘the sex appeal of the inorganic’ comes from a desire to escape from the complicated or confused. The man in some respect, could be said to give himself up to the object, in order to immerse himself in the serene and uncomplicated relationship that ensues. In the same respect, with cybersex or virtual reality; the relationship between reality and the virtual reality is an uncomplicated one, as the Cyborg gives itself up to the receiver, the man, the link is permanent and always available, with no complicated tides and ebbs dictated by the real world. The permanence of the liaison between man and virtual reality is one sided, the latter is unintelligent matter and does not pursue its own needs or desires and in fact does not exist outside of the direct link with man – it exists only in the time and space of the man.

18

Fig. 14 ‘The Sex Appeal of the inorganic: philosophies of desire in the modern world’.

Kristina Kupstaite 4. From Las Vegas to Holland Village in China: Phantasmagoria of the 20th-21st Century Using a more contemporary example, a well investigated phantasmagoria is described in the book Learning from Las Vegas by Venturi, Brown and Izenour liv. In this work they analyse the city of Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world. It is profoundly flamboyant; the promise of a dream, escapism, and foremost the unapologetic denial of individuality. The sense of unreality is enhanced by contemporary technological possibilities; flashing lights, aggressive visual and audial advertising and the concentration of attractions within one relatively compact space, it is so overwhelming it induces a state comparable to psychosis – the complete loss of one’s self. Perhaps Las Vegas is an extreme example, but it is representative of a broader trend in society.

Similar examples may be seen in locations such as Disneyland, Hollywood, New York (in the USA) and Holland Village (China), also in Japan and Singapore with countless other examples existing. The issue is representation over content, as Ruurd Roorda states: “Does no-one grasp, that this demand for distinction contributes to an omnipresent domination, to hollow gestures, to intimidation, to arrogance, to disdain for other artefacts? This architecture leads to cities with buildings that shout: ‘Me, me, me, the rest may choke’, which in itself is a confirmation of the stuck state of capitalism - the ‘only ideology that is left’. In this architecture the emphasis on shape conceals an absence of content. This is the architecture of speed, of greed. To us this architecture evokes a perception of boredom, of exchangeability, presumably because its polymorphousness doesn’t relate to any vital meaning. This is the crux of the present-day crisis in architecture.

19 And what’s worse: Because of the obsession with the present day, with shape, with outward appearance, with ‘image’, with the surface, the essence of architecture has been hollowed out to a fraction of what it might eventually be: a mirror to, a motor of, a binding agent to society. An imagination of ideals.” lv In the case of Las Vegas the strongest sensorial theme is the constant bombardment of commercial information; signs dominate the city making it quite unlike the Parisian arcades – where architecture was the initiator of the spectacle, and only when one entered was one overwhelmed by other stimuli, such as signs, window displays, furnishings, panoramas and so on. The striking appearance of the Las Vegas strip, most likely, was a result of the approach or the movement through it.

While the Paris arcades were designed to be strolled through, the famous strip of L.V. was designed for access by car, the speed difference directed the need for a bold, quickly readable appearance. The car detaches the individual from the rest of the world, primarily physically, but also psychologically. An individual in a car is isolated and does not interact with their surroundings; the sights and landscapes zip past the eyes in split seconds – hence, the need for the bold and unapologetic appearance of the built environment. The car erodes the sense of distance, making accurately understanding the details of the city impossible, which presumably is a key element for a visitor to a new environment. Therefore as the individual enters the city they are disconnected from the built environment.

Kristina Kupstaite

20 the authors of Learning from Las Vegas, suggest that if the signs were to be removed nothing would remain, only the desert with a few sheds; no sign equals no place. When the night replaces the day, the signs become luminous, bringing an almost epilepsy inducing effect. The chaotic imagery of the street, largely composed of casinos, wedding chapels and petrol stations attempt to compete with or sometimes complement each other, creating a sense of disorder and chaos.

Fig. 15 Welcome to Las Vegas, a world of lust, light and leisure

‘The sign of the Motel Monticello, a silhouette of an enormous Chippendale highboy, is visible on the highway before the motel itself. This architecture of styles and signs is antispatial; it is an architecture of communication over space; communication dominates space as an element in the architecture and in the landscape.’ lvi From this short quote, a visual imagery can be built which bears the feeling of kitsch.

‘Chippendale highboy’ – the sign is a focal point, architecture being of secondary importance, no longer being required to communicate. Learning from Las Vegas authors (Venturi, Brown and Izenour) contrasts Las Vegas modern architecture with the eastern bazaar, where signs are not required to lead the individual to their intended destination as the communication happens through closeness, colour and decoration are of secondary importance and the pure form speaks for itself of its function. lvii The sensorial hostility of the environment is enhanced by the oversized dominating signs,

The great similarity between the Parisian arcades and Las Vegas may be seen in their functionality; both thrive on the human vices – lust, gambling, and commodity – the women, the lure of money, and the luxury items. The commonly known expression ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ speaks of a place that is outside any boundaries, a place where an individual is engulfed by that self-same place, becomes someone else or potentially something else. Unlike the exterior, which is dominated by aggressive signs advertising variety entertainment, services, flashing lights, and which disguise the anonymous shed-like architecture; the interiors of the casinos and hotels are expressions of calm and luxury. The two faces deliberately juxtaposed so that it may at first attract the visitor, then later it flirts with them by displaying the potential rewards which may be attained there. Thus the creation of illusion, escapism, and the phantasmagoria.

‘The gambling room is always very dark; the patio, always very bright. But both are enclosed: the former has no windows, and the latter is only open to the sky. The combination of darkness and enclosure of gambling room and its subspaces makes for privacy, protection, concentration, and control. The intricate maze under the low ceiling never connects with outside light or outside space.’ lviii Manipulation of the individual, completely isolating them from the outside/real world, his will is entrapped, the only thing that left is to focus on the task ahead him – gambling. It may be compared to the magical lantern shows, the original

Kristina Kupstaite phantasmagorias – the audience willingly entering the shows, but as the shows began they were captivated and imprisoned by the horror of the appearances. The comparison is potentially extreme, but Las Vegas neatly encapsulates everything that Benjamin described within his phantasmagoria; the uncanny, the surreal illusion of something else, the loss of identity, the escapism, the kitsch, the visual bombardment of lights, the disintegration of individual and hollowness.

21

Kristina Kupstaite 5. Impacts of the physical environment on physical and mental capital.

It appears that the phenomenon of the all engulfing phantasmagoria of today’s society has some culpability in inducing or hastening the prevalence of developmental physical and neuropsychiatric disorders. In the process of researching this paper I sought to understand the link between contemporary lifestyles, the built environment and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as ADHD. ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactive disorder is a collection of behavioural symptoms that include: • • • • •

A short attention span Mental agitation Restlessness Fidgeting Impulsiveness

It occurs in people of any intellectual or physical abilities. Those living with such a disorder stand a greater chance of developing supplementary disorders, such as sleep deprivation, anxiety and depression. The exact causes of ADHD are still unknown, further research is ongoing, but conditions show a causal hereditary link. Statistics show a recent growth in the numbers of those with ADHD, however it is difficult to say whether it is due to the greater research and understanding or an actual increase in the number of people with the disorder.lix

Fig. 16 Statistics of ADHD diagnosis

As the research into the disorder remains in its early stages it is difficult to pinpoint the reasons for the spread of this disorder. Walter

22 Benjamin’s observation of the effect of the commodity culture in nineteenth century on adults and children may offer some clues. An essence of ADHD may be seen in one of his personal reflections contained within the Arcades Project: ‘Awakening as a graduated process that goes on in the life of the individual as in the life of generations. Sleep its initial stage. A generation's experience of youth has much in common with the experience of dreams. Its historical configuration is a dream configuration. Every epoch has such a side turned toward dreams, the child's side. For the previous century, this appears very clearly in the arcades. But whereas the education of earlier generations explained these dreams for them in terms of tradition, of religious doctrine, present-day education simply amounts to the distraction of children.

[K1.1] lx

Inevitably, these are speculations on the subject, and whether the neuropsychiatric disorders such as ADHD have any relevance to the disillusion and isolation experienced between individuals and the built environment is difficult to assess. However, we do know that the built environment does have an effect on the physical health of its inhabitants; recent research into physical disorders has shown that there is a greater chance for women to develop breast cancer in developed countries, compared to those living in less industrialised zones. The hormone Melatonin lxi produced in human bodies supresses cancer growth, but due to the high levels of lighting in cities in developed countries, the body is not able to produce enough of this hormone, therefore causing an increase of cases. lxii Sensorial bombardment, it is assumed, would have a similar impact on neurological development.

Kristina Kupstaite 6. Can technology become our ally, rather than destroyer?

Does excess and abundance lead us to selfannihilation, or can the technological advances actually help us to find our place in the built environment, inhabit it as ours – to reappropriate these spaces for positive activities and the betterment of society. This has been attempted by many architects, artists and layman via various media.

For example: •

•

Minibar, based in Ankara, are youth organised meetings (carrying no activist or political agenda). The gatherings take place in nontraditional gathering spaces; sidewalks, low masonry walls, etc. The architecture plays little role in this action, but it provides a setting for the activities (which are of an altruistic nature). They are not dictated by set canons and don’t depend on advertising or any above mentioned distractions.

Project paraSITE, an intervention that was developed by the American artist Michael Rakowitz, the main target of the intervention was to deal with the problem of homelessness in today’s cities. Air-conditioning outlets of buildings were used as a heating mechanism for temporary shelters of homeless individuals. This project not only targets the issue of homelessness, but also challenges our perception of the dwelling, it takes the notion of living outside the ‘normal’ person’s understanding.

Fig. 17 paraSite by Michael Rakowitz

23

•

In Sao Paulo, Nelson Brissac Peixoto initiated projects of Arte/Cidade – a series (3) of projects where artists and architects were invited to perform/produce an intervention in abandoned buildings in order to inspire a new outlook and understanding of this giant metropolis.

But if, in the words of Benjamin, we have already attained obesity, and reached the crisis of humanity, there is a possibility that we as a species have gone beyond this and now must fight for survival. Maybe autonomy of art and its ‘aura’ (or absence) is not the issue facing humanity in this age. Benjamin’s notion of numbness and the disintegration of society and community may have been an issue during his time, but what if we have already reached that point of irreversibility, and the survival depends not in the emotional value of existence, but the actual matter of keeping us, as a species, on the planet. The all-pervasive capitalist world, over-consumption and the erosion of natural resources, is leading us not only towards emotional numbness, but actual self-destruction as the planet becomes less capable of sustaining society’s demands. At first glance it could be said that the two matters; Benjamin’s philosophical approach and demand for change, and the threat of selfcancelation through technical and social changes; compared to the more pragmatic issue of self-preservation as a species, are unconnected philosophical issues. However, technological advances are of the utmost importance in not only addressing the problem of the environmental depletion, but also through their creative work, with special emphasis placed on the new technologies and their possibilities for the built environment’s attempts to ‘establish a link between art, space, technology and the relationship between and with people.’lxiii Recent examples of the ultra-new technology that have been applied are the conceptual/environment based projects of the Smart Highway in Oss (Fig. 18) or The Van Gogh-Roosegaarde cycle path in Eindhoven

Kristina Kupstaite (Fig.19), both located in The Netherlands.

Both projects are a contemporary take on creative work, or art. They are directed towards capturing the audience’s imagination; their reproduction would be for the betterment of society. Benjamin criticised the commodification of art and eulogised on the importance of nature; commodification and reproductions of these creative projects would help to preserve nature.

Fig. 18 Smart Highway in Oss, The Netherlands, combining nature and technology for the good of humanity.

Fig. 19 The Van Gogh-Roosegaarde cycle path in Eindhoven, The Netherlands,

24 Previous examples cited in this chapter dealt with the issues of space acquisition through basic means (Minibar, Ankara), homelessness (pasaSite), reinvention of the outlook on the urban scape (Arte/Cidade), and the application of new technologies towards a greater level of environmentally aware living (Smart Highway, Cycle path in Eindhoven). These were all implemented on a relatively small scale, and do not provide a clear answer to the broader issue of whether we as individuals are able to perceive and participate in the real world.

According to Walter Benjamin we drown ourselves willingly in the world of commodities – the distractions around us make us numb to the external world.

Considering that Benjamin wrote this during the first half of the twentieth century, numerous further distractions closely resembling his notion of phantasmagoria have been introduced since his warnings; digital media, virtual reality, interactive TV, LED lights. In this century we are no longer only surrounded by the extravagant furnishings, beautiful and elaborate window displays or the banners and advertising of Parisian arcades.

The excess and exuberance of the Las Vegas Strip or New York’s Time Square, the so-called Augmented Space lxiv– space where virtual (digital technology) is amalgamated with the physical world, the apparatuses that we consider our daily objects, such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops – technology that takes us not only from reality but also disconnects us from fellow human beings; social networks, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. distract the individuals from interacting with the real world or physically with other people, within real surroundings. Virtual gatherings further distance individuals from reality. This minimal actual engagement with others erodes an ability to interact affecting the fabric of communities.

In nineteenth century Paris the urban scape became populated by advertising and tempting vitrines, the situation has not changed; instead it has become exaggerated.

Twenty-first century civilization can no longer

Kristina Kupstaite

25

imagine the urban scape without placards, banners, billboards and screens that constantly bombard us with product advertising. In Benjamin’s time and during the nineteenth century in Paris the advertising was of a static nature (except the sandwichman), nowadays dynamic digital screens leap out from many corners, they are often interactive, voiced, and of an intrusive nature.

The question facing architects, artists and urban analysts, is whether the augmented space has a potential to improve social, environmental, economic awareness or community and cultural values, in urban environments. The problem faced in bringing together the physical world and the virtual/digital reality is the potential for ‘an overflow of information, oversaturation of stimuli that in the long run leads to an indifference towards both information and space…(and) create only white noise and discomfort.’ lxv These are dangers that Benjamin expressed concern for almost a century ago.

Given the possibilities and risks, augmented reality remains underexplored, and, as it is a relatively new technology it is difficult to guess the exact outcome or consequences of its application, therefore further research must be conducted. Projects such as the Touch project in Brussels (2006), have shown the positive effect augmented spaces can have – enticing the public not only to participate with the technology but also encouraging social interaction. This does not imply that interactive digital media will provide salvation, however as humans are visually stimulated, potentially it is a means of raising the awareness of society, if applied properly. To reiterate R. Venturi thought, whether it is possible for architecture to enhance, instead of change what’s already there.

Fig. 20 Touch interactive urban installation, Dexia- Tower, Brussels and interactive station.

Kristina Kupstaite 7.Conclusion The interesting aspect which perhaps influenced Benjamin to embark on his exploration of the Parisian arcades and his profound criticisms of the all-pervading power of technology (the de-spiritualisation of art, and foremost the loss of identity) is the powerful and forceful movement within art, architecture and the society of his time lxvi. The early Twentieth century may be considered as the period when architects, artists and social figures turned away from the notion of art as an autonomous object and arrived at the conclusion that the work of art could no longer be disassociated from the economy, it therefore sped through the commodification of all aspects of human kind, a notion strongly opposed by Benjamin.

The foundation of the Deutscher Werkbund lxvii in Munich in 1907, had a great influence on Germany and the rest of Europe, it was the inception of a new concept - Nieuwe Zachlichkheidlxviii.

The fundamental philosophy of the era was the detachment from any historicism or traditionalism, a prohibition of any type of ornamentation – which was considered to be primordial and superfluous – this furthered the despiritualization of art and architecture, denied artistic individualisation, and gave primary attention to society as a community, and commodification. lxix The strongest influences of the time opposed Benjamin’s beliefs in the tradition of art and art as an autonomous agent, (what Benjamin referred as the ‘aura’ of art, which can only save the humanity from the total catastrophe. lxx) From this it may be assumed that the prevailing influences not only of New Objectivity, but also of other pluralistic phenomena (Modern Movement, International Style, De Stijl, etc.) around Europe at the time triggered Benjamin’s radical criticism of the modern way of life. The personal life of Benjamin, may have led him to pronounce himself as a ‘messiah’ and provoked his backlash – as a German born Jew, during the political upheavals and social discontent of Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.

26 If the conclusion of Benjamin’s phantasmagoria was a call for societal awakening, he already saw in the early 20th century the disillusion, fragmentation, ephemerality and chaos in society. In his book The Arcades Project Benjamin focussed on 19th Century Paris, in his opinion the location of the inception of commodification, following the arrival of industrial revolution. His call to save the tradition of auratic art could be interpreted as an attempt to encourage society to look back – an often prevailing tendency – a longing for the past, the return to simple austere living, untarnished by greed, gluttony and lust, a return to nature. The last of these is a prevailing theme, naturally so, as with the development of civilization, people migrated more to the cities, away from nature. These cities become steel and glass forests of alienation. Benjamin dedicated a whole chapter to analysing the new phenomena prevalent during the arcadia era – the panoramas, the visual arts; the illusion of being outdoors or of experiencing nature, especially the depiction of landscapes and cityscapes: ‘The interest of the panorama is in seeing the true city – the city indoors. What stands within the windowless house is the truth. Moreover, the arcade, too, is a windowless house. The windows that look down on it are like loges from which one gazes into its interior, but one cannot see out these windows to anything outside.

(What is true has no windows; nowhere does the true look out to the universe.)

[Q7a,7] lxxi

Similarly, as observed by M. Warner in the book Phantasmagoria, addressing the issue of photography: ‘Watch a group of family or friends taking pictures of one another: the image in the tiny screen of the digital camera is spellbinding to a degree that it eclipses the reality, as one person after another looks in enchanted absorption at the miniature picture, where life looks alive to a degree it somehow does not attain in reality’ lxxii

Kristina Kupstaite The representation overtakes reality, the picture, the image becomes the priority, sinking yourself into the world of representation, and neglecting the present / the reality. The instant photography opposes the meaning of here and now. Similarly the twenty-first century obsession with the digital media - smartphones, tablets, laptops – divorces us from reality.

If Benjamin was correct, and civilization has wrapped itself in a ghostly, uncanny, phantasmagorical bubble, a world of illusion, denial, and disillusion, the question is whether it is still possible to return back? Most likely not, there is no way back, civilization has progressed so far and the wheel of technological advancement continues to turn.

The erosion of natural resources and new technologies are part of our reality, there

27 remains a chance to salvage what we still have, or control the development of new technologies so that they can better serve bringing people back together. Examples cited in this paper, albeit on a small scale, have attempted to improve the world we live in. If they could be applied on a bigger scale there is a chance for civilization to save itself. It is impossible to gauge the impact of hypothetical solutions, the ever accelerating globalisation, global mobility, flexible accumulation and consumerist culture so prevalent would in all likelihood continue – but so would the benefits such ideas impart, perhaps the notion of phantasmagoria is a blinded view of what humanity may accomplish through technological innovation and the media that allows the faster dissemination of information and global communication.

Kristina Kupstaite Bibliography: 1. Altay C., Transgression in and of the City, Architectural Design, November/December 2013, profile number 226.

2. Benjamin, W., Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, (ed.) Hannah Arendt, Schocken Books, New York, 2007.

3. Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, (trans.)

Eiland H., and McLaughlin K., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002.

4. Benjamin, W., The Work Of Art In The Age Of Its Technological Reproducibility And Other Writings On Media, ed. Jennings, W.M., Doherty B., Levin Y. T., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2008 5. Benjamin, A., Rice, C. (ed.), Benjamin Walter and the Architecture of Modernity, re.press, Melbourne, Australia, 2009 6. van Bergeijk, H. (ed.), Aesthetics Economy: Objectivity in Dutch Architecture, BBA publishers, Delft ,2014 7. Buck-Morss, S., Aesthetics and Anaesthetics: Walter Benjamin’s Artwork Essay Reconsidered, October, Vol. 62 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 3-41, The MIT Press.

8. Buck- Morss, S., The City as Dreamworld and Catastrophe, October, Vol. 73 (Summer, 1995), pp. 3-26, The MIT Press.

9. Caplescu, A. O., Augmented Space, A Look Beyond Advertising, ‘Ion Mincu’ University of Architecture and Urban Planning, Bucharest, Vol.5, Nr.1, 2014, p.80 10. Delft Lectures on Architectural Sustainability, Reader Course year 2014-2015, TU Delft 2014 11. Duarte, F., Firmino, R.,J., Infiltrated city, augmented space: information and communication technologies, and representations of contemporary spatialities, The Journal of Architecture Volume 14 Number 5 12. Guynn, W., (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Film history, Routledge, New York, 2001 13. van Hal, A., The Merger of Interests 2.0: The Story Behind A Perspective Shift, Nyenrode Business Universiteit, The Netherlands, 2014 14. Perniola, M., The Sex Appeal of Inorganic: Philosophies of Desires in the Modern World, Continuum, Ney York, 2004

28 15. Rossell, D., The 19th Century German Origins of the Phantasmagoria Show, Paper given at the Lantern Projections Colloquium, organised by Ian Christie at the British Academy, 16 - 17 February 2001, Source: https://www.academia.edu/4609248/The_19_ Century_German_Origins_of_the_Phantasm agoria_Show, Accessed : 03/01/2015 16. Venturi, R., Brown, D., Izenour, S., Learning from Las Vegas, The MIT Press, 1977 17. Weston R., Modernism, Phaidon Press, 1997 18. Warner M., Phantasmagoria: Spirit vision, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century, Oxford University press, Oxford, 2012

Kristina Kupstaite Illustrations:

29

Cover.

Source:http://www.neromagazine.it/magazin e/index.php?c=articolo&idart=1111&idnum=& pics=0, Accessed: 4th June 2015

Fig.10 An artistic depiction of human billboards in 19th century London, by George Scharf., Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_billboard , Accessed: 22nd May 2015

Fig.1 Decapitated heads of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, wax and natural hair, displayed at Madame Tussaud’s, London, 1995. Source: http://toddlarkin.com/?p=370 Accessed: 5th April 2015

Fig.11 Disdéri. Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, Source: http://www.arthistoryunstuffed.com/thecult-of-images-and-celebrity/, Accessed: 25th May 2015

Fig.2/3/4 Source: http://skullsinthestars.com/2013/02/11/phanta smagoria-how-etienne-gaspard-robertterrified-paris-for-science/, Accessed: 14th March 2015

Fig.12 Prostitution in 18th and 19th Century France, Source: http://www.tikitoki.com/timeline/entry/287139/Prostitutionin-18th-and-19th-Century-France/, Accessed: 30 May 2015

Fig.5 The Passage de l'Opera, 1822-1823.

Courtesy of the Musee Camavalet, Paris.

Photo copyright © Phototheque des Musees de la Vi lle de Paris. Source: Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, (trans.) Eiland H., and McLaughlin K., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, p. 49 Fig.6 Eye, Source: https://dontworrydesignishere.wordpress.co m/category/inspiration/, Accessed: 1st May 2015 Fig.7 Parisians at home, Source: https://victorianparis.wordpress.com/, Accessed: 10th May 2015 Fig.8 Commodification in the modern world, Source: http://americanfront.info/2012/06/18/paulgoodman-commodification-in-the-modernworld/, Accessed: 12 May 2015 Fig.9 Fashion, Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, (trans.) Eiland H., and McLaughlin K., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, p. 67

Fig.13 Night time in New York, Source: http://ajpuppypal.deviantart.com/art/NightTime-in-New-York-190111405, Accessed: 2nd May2015 Fig.14 Source: Warner M., Phantasmagoria: Spirit vision, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century, Oxford University press, Oxford, 2012, p.130 Fig.15 Source: Venturi, R., Brown, D., Izenour, S., Learning from Las Vegas, The MIT Press, 1977, p. 12 ‘Tanya billboard on the Strip’ and ‘Lower strip, looking north’ respectively Fig.16 ADHD overview, Source: http://www.healthline.com/, Accessed 23rd May 2015 Fig.17 ParaSite, Source: Altay C., Transgression in and of the City, Architectural Design, November/December 2013, profile number 226.

Fig.18/19 Source: www.studioroosegaarde.net, Accessed 1st April 2015

Kristina Kupstaite

30

Fig.20 Source: http://labau.com/projects/touch/, Accessed 2nd June 2015

Endnotes: i

The original title of the manuscript, first published in 1982 ii ‘The terms ‘fantasy’ and ‘imagination’ originate in Greek and Latin respectively. Phantasia, in Plato, describes the world of appearance, with an emphasis on pictures in the mind’s eye, so that the cognate (generate) phantasmata, Plato’s word for image (including artists’ pictures), refers to vision produced by sensory stimulus or in dreams. This usage has inspired a range of words in English strongly tinged with the supernatural and the psychological: phantasms, phantasmatic, phantasy itself and phantasmagoria.’ See further reading: Warner M., Phantasmagoria: Spirit vision, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century, Oxford university press, Oxford, 2012, p. 147 (in the text), p.122 (endnote) iii Ibid, p. 25 iv Ibid, p. 142 v Warner M., Phantasmagoria: Spirit vision, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century, Oxford university press, Oxford, 2012, chapter ‘Anatomies and Heroes: Madame Tussaud’s’, pp.31-46 vi The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is a play by Christopher Marlowe, based on the German story Faust, in which a man sells his soul to the devil for power, experience, pleasure and knowledge. Doctor Faustus was first published in 1604, eleven years after Marlowe's death and at least 10 years after the first performance of the play.’ Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Faustus_%28 play%29 Accessed: 5th April 2015 vii Warner M., Phantasmagoria: Spirit vision, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century, Oxford university press, Oxford, 2012, p. 132 viii Ibid, p. 14, 137-138 ix Ibid, p. 10 x Ibid, p. 139 xi William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist who was also trained as a physician. The first educator to offer a

psychology course in the United States. Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James, Accessed: 10 April 2015 xii Warner M., Phantasmagoria: Spirit vision, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century, Oxford university press, Oxford, 2012, p.237 xiii Guynn, W., (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Film history, Routledge, New York, 2001 (pp. ?) xiv See further reading: Rossell, D., The 19th Century German Origins of the Phantasmagoria Show ( access on-line) xv See further reading: Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, Translator’s Foreword pp. ix-xiv xvi Konvolut – a term commonly used in German philological applications – it refers to bundle, a collection of printed material that belongs together. There is no adaptable translation to English – apart from ‘file’ or ‘folder’, which according to the translators of the English version of the manuscript, was inappropriate to the work, therefore the grouping of the alphabetised section of the manuscript is termed ‘Convolutes’ See broader description: Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, Translator’s Foreword pp. ix-xiv xvii Flâneur- "loafer, idler," 1854, from French flâneur, from flâner "to stroll, loaf, saunter," probably from a Scandinavian source (cf.

Norwegian flana, flanta "to gad about"). The term that Benjamin uses in order to describe the Parisian inhabitants.

Term source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flaneur, Accessed :1 May 2015 xviii Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, p. x xix See further reading: Benjamin, W., Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, (ed.) Hannah Arendt, Schocken Books, New York, 2007. Chapter: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction pp. 217-252 xx Buck-Morss, S., Aesthetics and Anaesthetics: Walter Benjamin’s Artwork Essay Reconsidered, October, Vol. 62 (Autumn, 1992), The MIT Press, p.

5 xxi Benjamin, W., Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, (ed.) Hannah Arendt, Schocken Books,

Kristina Kupstaite

New York, 2007. Chapter: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction p. 220 xxii Ibid, p.221 xxiii Benjamin, W., The Work Of Art In The Age Of Its Technological Reproducibility And Other Writings On Media, ed. Jennings, W.M., Doherty B., Levin Y. T., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2008, Chapter: He Production, Reproduction And Reception Of The Work Of Art

by Jennings, W.M., pp. 9-17 xxiv Ibid, p. 375. Quotation of witty remark that Tom Wolf, an American writer and journalist, made in referring to the contemporary technology and especially potential possibilities that the progress in technology will sooner or later undermine the free will of the living. xxv See extensive discussion on the matter of aura: Benjamin, W., The Work Of Art In The Age Of Its Technological Reproducibility And Other Writings On Media xxvi Benjamin, A., Rice, C. (ed.), Benjamin Walter and the Architecture of Modernity, re.press, Melbourne,Australia, 2009, p.122 xxvii Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, p. 31 xxviii Ibid p.37 xxix Perniola, M., The Sex Appeal of Inorganic: Philosophies of Desires in the Modern World, Continuum, Ney York, 2004, p.71 xxx See further reading: Perniola, M., The Sex Appeal of Inorganic: Philosophies of Desires in the Modern World, Continuum, Ney York, 2004, Chapter: ‘Hegel and the Thing as ‘also’’, pp.71-75 xxxi Benjamin, A., Rice, C. (ed.), Benjamin Walter and the Architecture of Modernity, re.press, Melbourne, Australia, 2009, pp. 39-57 xxxii Kitsch, Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kitsch, Accessed: 1 April 2015 xxxiii Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, (trans.)

Eiland H., and McLaughlin K., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, p.47 xxxiv Ibid, p.82 xxxv Ibid, p.216 xxxvi Ibid, p.406-7 xxxvii Ibid, p.406 xxxviii Ibid, p. 55 xxxix Ibid, pp. 181-182 xl Benjamin, W., The Work Of Art In The Age Of Its Technological Reproducibility And Other Writings On Media, ed. Jennings, W.M., Doherty B., Levin Y. T., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2008, p.78. Essay The Telephone, pp.77-

31 78 written for the 1938 version of Berliner Kindheit um neunzehnhundert; unpublished in Benjamin's lifetime. xli Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, (trans.) Eiland H., and McLaughlin K., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, p. 70 xlii Ibid, p. 64 xliii Perniola, M., The Sex Appeal of Inorganic: Philosophies of Desires in the Modern World, Continuum, Ney York, 2004, Chapter 12 Bodies as Clothing, pp. 45-49 xliv Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, (trans.)

Eiland H., and McLaughlin K., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, p. 393 xlv Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising, Accessed: 29 May 2015 xlvi Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, (trans.)

Eiland H., and McLaughlin K., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, p.61 xlvii Ibid, p.451 xlviii Ibid, p.676 xlix Ibid, p.691 l Ibid, p.489-490 li Perniola, M., The Sex Appeal of Inorganic: Philosophies of Desires in the Modern World, Continuum, Ney York, 2004 lii Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, (trans.) Eiland H., and McLaughlin K., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, p.510 liii Ibid, p.121 liv The book started as a research project in the studio at the Yale School of Art and Architecture in the fall of 1968. A research project in collaboration between instructors and students. See further description: Venturi, R., Brown, D., Izenour, S., Learning from Las Vegas, The MIT Press, 1977, Chapter: Preface to the first edition, pp. xi-xiv lv Delft Lectures on Architectural Sustainability, Reader Course year 2014-2015, TU Delft, p.44 lvi Venturi, R., Brown, D., Izenour, S., Learning from Las Vegas, The MIT Press, 1977, p.8 lvii

Ibid, pp.7-9

lviii

Ibid, p. 49

lix

Source: http://www.nhs.uk/, Accessed: 30 May 2015 lx Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, (trans.) Eiland H., and McLaughlin K., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, p.388 lxi Melatonin- Melatonin is a hormone, also known as N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine, it is a naturally

Kristina Kupstaite

32 lxvii

occurring compound found in humans, animals, microbes and plants. In animals and humans, melatonin levels vary during the daily cycle.

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/23213 8.php, Accessed: 23rd May 2015 lxii The City Dark (2012) / Ian Cheney- documentary about the loss of night. Accessed: 10th March 2015 lxiii van Hal, A., The Merger of Interests 2.0: The Story Behind A Perspective Shift, Nyenrode Business Universiteit, The Netherlands, 2014,p.62 lxiv Augmented space – term coined by the Lev Manovich - ‘the physical space overlaid with dynamically changing information.’ Manovich L., The Poetics of Augmented Space, Visual Communication, 2006. lxv Caplescu, A. O., Augmented Space, A Look Beyond Advertising, ‘Ion Mincu’ University of Architecture and Urban Planning, Bucharest, Vol.5, Nr.1, 2014, p.80 lxvi The period in which Walter Benjamin produced his major works could be considered from 1920 until his death in September 1940.

German Association of Craftsmen New Objectivity – the primer attention – functionality, standardisation, sterility and commodification of all aspects of existence. lxix See Further reading: van Bergeijk, H. (ed.), Aesthetics Economy: Objectivity in Dutch Architecture, BBA publishers, Delft ,2014, (chapters only in English) and Weston R., Modernism, Phaidon Press, 1997, Chapter one: Roots, pp. 20-57 lxx See: Benjamin, W., Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, (ed.) Hannah Arendt, Schocken Books, New York, 2007, Chapter: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction pp. 217-252.

Arguably, most prolific work in the history of modern aesthetic and political criticism. lxxi Benjamin, W., The Arcades Project, (trans.)

Eiland H., and McLaughlin K., The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2002, p.532 lxxii Warner M., Phantasmagoria: Spirit vision, Metaphors, and Media into the Twenty-first Century, Oxford University press, Oxford, 2012, pp. 375-6 lxviii