Post·ModemQtIe5ondSpoces
Edited by Sophie Watson and Katherine Glb,on RI?V;ewed byGrnhame Shane
Aner a period ofdrough •.• here isa welcome flood ofgood .extbooks and readers on the post.modt'm city. This new literature Incarl» rates theories critical of the cozy. fl'cl good . look good fonnulas of the 'C>Gllled (and singular)' ew Urbanism' of the 1980' • Urban designers fi03l1y have a chance.o mov" beyond the profoundly anti· urban. enciave-obse!soo earlier ern. They have the ch ance to exam. inesome orthc larger i"ueswhich have alWlly5 signillcanLly sh.ped LhC!Lr t3'sks. issues such as race. eco nomics. class syst.ems. and propertyownership. These issues b3~ always ha~ always .served as sublext tOC!'Y'e.n the mosrsuccessful d tybeau tification programs. fu$1·Moo<rn Cirl.. ond Spoct.S. Ctnt..,..nd Symbol oiOurTIm... edited
by Philip Kasiniu. and Rm<Ilnp In Urban Theory. edited by Fainst.in and Campbell . mark the arrival of a far more cricicalappreci.cion of the dl)'. Taken in conjunction with the recent arrival of Nan Hllin's romprehe.osivc Postmodcrn UrbanIsm. a summer reader faces a veritable iagara Falls of po t·modern critical analyses and anthologies. Within this larger field. fu$1·Mootrn CiliNond Spo,,,,dis'inguishes itseJfby carvi ngou. a h.ghly specIalized and valuable niell<. focusing on the concept of hetero.op,a. fle.ero.opias ought literally mean the plact'ofthcother.or 3 place ofdiffen:ncc. Anyone living 1Il
1.0> Angeles js imOledLllely fumiliar with this form of urbanity.• be utopian fragment dominated by a pa,rticular rildd order. or else seductive in its promise ofrrnnsgression or 'freedom" from codes. Michel Foucault describ<>d the rigid utopian VIsion. like the prison . as the 'heterotop,a of compensation: where mIDat.s nc-.ded com· pensalory discipline to keep order. Its lr.l.nsgrcssive opposite was .ilc ' hc •.cro.opi. orillusion: such as the stock marketonhe bordel· 10 (accele:r.uc:.od worlds or images and fetishism. when~ cveryth.i ng was a commodity with 3. COIlSlll.lltlyshirting. markct..c:lrivc.n price). Sine<! the mid·198o·s. post·modern theorists hove expanded on this conrfnumonpagt1
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PERMIT NO. 1041
Trafficking in Marginalia Forthis issue we compiled a reading list of suggestions from our friends and colleagues. As the titles came in, we noticed that the overwhelming majority bore no direct relation to conventional architectural discourse. It may be the summer, or it may just be that everyone blew their budget on S,M,L,XL.ln any event, we continue this sidesteppingof the mainstream and present reviews of books thatthemselves are disparate collections of essays on art theory, visuality and postmodern urbanism. Grahame Shane describes incursions made by alternate voices and views of the city in Postmodern Cities and Spaces, Joe Day argues for a broadening of architectural vision in a decade of pragmatism in his review of the Dia Art Foundation Discussion Series, while Kevin O'Brien poses alternatives to erudition in his review of
Compulsive Beauty. Meanwhil e, Tom Marble describes the materialization of a screenplay in the mind of a designer, while Arden Yang presents the architectural imaginings of a movie producer, In closing this issuewe remember the passing of a good friend. The newsletter has been redesigned, and we gratefully acknowledge the talents and generOSity of Richard Massey and Massive Design.
-the editors