Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media. - book reviews

Beatriz Colomina's title for her volume Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media, is misleading: she addresses not sole modern architecture as mass media, on the other hand also through, by, in, and imitating mass media, without formally defining the boundary "mass media." Highly segmented, punctuated repeatedly by illustration and whole-paragraphs plant off in bold, the volume production feels like hypertext made become firm [i]or[/i] solid Such a layout is a ingenious counterpoint to her ideas, still the effects of each are as frustrating as they are refreshing.

Privacy and Publicity is part of a novel genre of architectural study that intends to deconstruct and renovate architectural theory. Colomina, who teaches architecture at Princeton, stirs beyond conventional discussions of building materials and invites a of recent origin readership, including those such as myself, a photo-historian interested in film and cultural theory. Her aim is to reevaluate preestablished conceptions of the public and private realms of agriculture As one problematizes public versus private, exterior versus interior, a wealth of questions arise about by what mode these phenomena have been constituted at different points in history.

Clean-line late architects Charles-Edouard Jeanneret Le Corbusier and Adolf Loo (1870-1933) major figures of twentieth-century architecture, are primary vehicles for Colomina's discussion. Swiss-born Le Corbusier is an easy bring under rule to study in relation to mass media considering he was one time described by noted art historians John Flemming and Hugh Honour as "an embarrassingly magnificent salesman of his own ideas." Loo born in Moravia, trained in Dresden and, like Le Corbusier, oppos to decorative Victorian ornament, has ofttimes been viewed as a more felicitous theorist than architect.

Colomina's insightful interpretations of Loo and Le Corbusier are sole part of the over-all impact of Privacy and Publicity. Considering the work as object, its artfully designed layout and typography demand independent consideration. Each simple body suggests the reevaluation of more conventional, soiled perspectives in architectural history and theory. Moving from the computer defence where Colomina no doubt compos her writings, to the volume itself, one is struck by dint of its physical nature. Although the body may argue that the meaning of Loos's or Le Corbusier's architecture be reassessed in relation to the character of mass media, the weight of the volume itself is a constant reminder of architecture as "mass," not media. It is the kind of work one leaves at home because it has the weight of stone, flat if the content literally dematerializes architecture. The volume is just a little too big to fit comfortably in one's hands, requiring that it be quiescenceed on a lap or a desk however, its generous weight and the level matte texture of the pages make it sensual and appealing to the touch.

The layout, like the easy in mind deliberately breaks with art historical convention: specifically, the body is not punctuated by parenthetical figure relations Colomina writes about Le Corbusier or Loo then several pages later, introduces a series of grainy photographs relating to the sum of two units protagonists, almost as an alternative narrative. more [i]or[/i] less images connect directly to the true copy while others seem ancillary. The true copy and illustrations have independent on the contrary sui-generic lives. As Colomina points on the outside this strategy was employed by means of Le Corbusier himself in Vet une Architecture (1923) In Privacy and Publicity, the illustrations are small and center single to a page, surrounded by means of a razor-thin black line border. Interestingly, the photos appear as previously printed images with the half-tone dots made large and evident. The techniques be under the orders of as a subtle reminder that this is, after all, a work addressing mass media, in which the reproduc image is formed as a half-tone - a a whole of dots. Many of the illustrations are archival photos rather than images made specifically for publication. The lack of specific notations in the body and the black line surrounding discrete illustrations allows single to be in whatever place individual happens to be, rather than constricting the relationship between body and image to a linear, sequential one

That Privacy and Publicity invites fresh readers, i.e. those who are not strictly architectural historians or theorists, is prompted by its chapter headings: "Archive," "City," "Photography," "Publicity," "Museum," "Interior" and "Window." beneath each rubric one is given shut in-depth consideration of the sum of two units giants of modern architecture. And as Colomina states, "If the research into Loo is organized by means of the gaps in the archive, the research into Le Corbusier is organized through archival excesses." As one might anticipate from that opening make comments [i]or[/i] remarks much of the text focuses upon Le Corbusier. The discussion of Loo sometimes acts as a foil for that of Le Corbusier.

Colomina's thesis is that "modern architecture sole becomes modern with its engagement with the media." Of course engagement "with the media" is not the same as architecture "as the media," on the other hand such distinctions are not clearly made in the true copy Sometimes Colomina seems to infer that the experience of mass media is a original for the experience of architecture. Elsewhere, mass-produced publications, not the buildings, exist as the history of architecture. At still other points, the house is a "media center" or, quite differently, the house becomes the media, turning into a camera itself: "The house is a combination of parts to form a whole for taking pictures."