Critical Readings 2017

Marshall McLuhan studies media as a way of understanding why it is that makes us live in the way we do, as a way of understanding society itself. For example, he describes his views on 'printing' as being the act. To print doesn't mean much, but the words which are being printed have a much greater and far more valuable effect and meaning than the printing itself. He discusses the subjective against the objective, the meaning and purpose of the media against the media form itself. He quotes 'reading is a form of 'guessing', as to read you must be able to slightly guess what is coming up, as you don't know what words will follow so you must take a guess at what is upcoming to form the sentence in your head. He was defiantly a thinker! McLuhan states by his own judgment that a good reader is usually a quick decision maker, which stems from his statement about to read is to guess. McLuhan discusses advertising as the folk art of the 20th Century, claiming ad...

Colin Rowe writes about the patterns and sequences found in Le Corbusier & Andrea Palladio, he writes about the scientific investigation to explain geometry and ratio, which enables him to discuss 'the perfect villa'. He discusses the relationship between elevation and plan in terms of ratio and Rowe writes about how architecture is measured. He doesn't come across keen on conceptual architecture, Rowe likes the science that goes into design and the mathematics behind the structure which is a physical form. He compares Palladio and Le Corbusier and discusses how one is very much about the form of the building, whilst one is very attentive to the equilibrium of the building, equal load, equal supporting walls which in turn will create the perfect roof. Rowe liked the mathematics behind the design, he wanted to know that the villas in question were thought about thoroughly and with the equations. This is, and always has been, a major part of architecture, nobody can bui...

Beatriz Colomina investigates the intimate spaces created in Adolf Loos & Le Corbusier's architecture, focusing on the theory of sexuality in architectural terms. Colomina writes about these homes as though she is a detective who is writing about domestic voyeurism and the spaces created of which to gaze into, or to be gazed from. Colomina investigates Adolf Loos spatial setting out and theatrical orientations to create theatre like experiences for the occupants. Everything is planned with respect to gazes. What can be seen and from where, a voyeuristic approach to architecture. The example being 'a raised seating platform', not intended primarily for relaxation or social aspects, but to be used as an 'observation platform'. This platform allows the occupants to see intruders who may cross the threshold, allowing nothing to go undetected as if the conceptual idea was that of a theatre stage. The inhabitants resemble both the actors and the spectators. When in ...

Bermann describes the phrase "narcissistic will to power, most rampant in those who are most powerful" as the "oldest story in the world". It is story as relevant today as it was in the era of Goethe's Faust, relating to developmental tragedy. Mankind strives to better themselves, as history has proven, no matter the consequences to themselves or to the rest of mankind. With bettering oneself in parallel with the evolution of technology, this hunger for self bettering through the modern movement, this will only encourage us to go one step further and maybe too far. Examples of this can be seen from new cities and towns to transportation and energy. Modernisation has changed society, most noticeably in the developing countries. Marshall Bermann describes it as "an impersonal environment, a totally modernised space in which the look and feel of the old world have disappeared without a trace". This quote echoes the title of the book in the sense of 'm...

Imitating the style of a particular writer , artist or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect is what we call a parody. Parodies have a long parallel with the theatre and literature, often to make political and social situations we find ourselves in laughable. The book has a funny way of showcasing the view of an aspiring architect student and the stereotypes architects are perceived by others. Being written in the 1920's, it  stereotypes architects, along with other characters, in a different way had it been written in todays world. Otto Silenus is the architect, he is portrayed as a sad person but with a very narcissistic demeanour and a great self loathing character. A person who isn't excited by much. The text goes on to suggest 'the drains were satisfactory', nobody wants to graduate from an exciting creative course and go on to laying out drainage, something underground where nobody can see. It becomes a draining (excuse the pun) idea that we study ...

An easier read this week! It's more of a descriptive story than a factual analysis. Written by art critic who talks about his 'home', Las Vegas. Dave Hickey has a completely different background to any of the previous authors we have looked into, Hickey was a drug user who liked to travel (not in a desirable fashion) and has used his drug use to survive through life in his home of Las Vegas. He talks about Las Vegas being his home in a way that not many other people would, Vegas to most people is a place to go to get away from your own 'reality' of what we all call home, a place to go for fun, gambling, partying and mystery. Dave Hickey saw all this, but it was this setting that allowed him to feel comfortable in, a place that represented his values and didn't feel alienated, this was his home in the desert. He describes Vegas as a social scene, a place where people became free spirits, a place where outsiders can get work. People wouldn't feel alienated i...

After our group discussion regarding reading this piece of text, it is clear to see that this was written by somebody in a labouring job (blue collar) and not an office worker (white collar). The name of the book's title, 'The Case of Working with your Hands', along with the chapter we read, 'The Separation of Thinking from Doing' is clearly derived from the authors background. An opposite perspective to that of last week with Paul Mason. Matthew Crawford makes a point about, as we get older as a human race, each generation becomes more and more stupid because we become increasingly narrow minded. This links back to the Facebook article a few weeks ago. As a generation, we are now stuck to our phones, wanting to feel connected, technology 'educates and informs' us with these personalised news feeds which was discussed in a previous blog, this then leads to us becoming very narrow minded as we as a 'technologically evolved generation' only read what...

So I have been putting off writing a review for this chapter, purely because, if I'm honest, I didn't really get it. I'm not economically minded, economic and finances normally go way over my head in every day life. Once I sat down with my tutor and we discussed what we all thought about this chapter, it started to make some logical sense, but even then, I'm still no expert at what capitalistic or non-capitalistic approaches are. I believe not one member of our group was overly keen on this reading. Once the topic was brought up with our tutor, however, it started to make a bit of sense, maybe because he was explaining it in an easier way than this book seems to do. Coming from someone like me who isn't familiar and tends to avoid any governmental or economic talk, its not the easiest of reads. Constant numbers and facts went straight over my head, but when explained in a simpler and more educational way and when explained with regards to every day life I got the...

Before reading this article, I had never thought of Facebook as anything more than a social media hub for photo sharing and messaging with friends and family. But if your eyes are opened in a different perspective by somebody like John Lanchester, you can see what has been happening in front of our eyes from the day your social media account was created. Once you take in the fact that Facebook to all of us is free, we never think of how a company like that becomes so wealthy. Lanchester explains that we are constantly being sold from under our keyboards. We are being sold to various advertisements and Facebook had created algorithms to 'work out' each individual person, or 'product' in their eyes and these algorithm use our information it is has gathered from 'search engines' or 'likes' to manipulate and mislead us to articles they know we will want to open. They seem to know more about us than our own government; which is terrifying to say the least. ...