Post-Modernism Unbound

I.

Following the latest reassessment of the Postmodern architectural wave, this book addresses the recent history of architecture in the light of Neo-Avant-Garde fine art trends of UK and American Pop Art as well as the critical theorical notions of object, image and event.

II.

The result is a re-reading of the contemporary history of architecture as flirting with the increasing dematerialization of the built environment consequent upon the advent of advanced/turbo capitalist trends and the commodification of existence it has brought about.

III.

Two draft chapters have already been published as journal articles including:

• Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers: the Pompidou Centre

• James Stirling: the Florey Building'.

planned chapters

• Archigram: The Architectural Happening

• R Venturi & D Scott Brown: Guild House to Decorated Shed

• J Nouvel: Cartier Foundation

Architecture & Western Narcissism

Based on the genealogical approach derived from Post-Structuralism, this book goes back to the origins of contemporary Western visual culture to ascertain the relationship between subjectivity and the built environment today.

Jacques Lacan’s notion of mirror stage and Jean Baudrillard’s notion of simulation are brought together in order to theorize the unexplored impact that the western construction of the modern self has played in shaping, envisioning and realizing contemporary megacities.

• In emphasizing the role played by the ascent and development of capitalism, from the Renaissance onwards, the research explains the emergence of contemporary junk space as an effect of a generalized schizophrenic condition enacted by the subject as an extreme reaction against the overwhelming presence of technology in our lives. In this respect, the research also invalidates the simultaneous coexistence of psychoanalytical clinics in order to suggest a trajectory in the progression of the Western self, evolving by stages that do not match Freud’s recollection of the emergence of hysteria in his Vienna fin-de-siecle. Some chapters have been previously published as book chapters or journal articles:

• Lacan in Baudrillard Vol. 1 / The Perspective Window

• Lacan in Baudrillard Vol. 3 / Fatal Objects

• Renaissance Ideal Cities & Neurosis

• The Modernist Grid & Perversion

Planned chapters

• Lacan in Baudrillard Vol 2 / Torus & Moebius Strip

• Junk Space & Ordinary Psychosis

Globalization Takes Command

In the 1980s, Jean Baudrillard became an internationally acclaimed academic superstar due to the publication of Simulacra & Simulation in the United States, his most renowned publication to date.

America and the four-book series Cool Memories were released soon afterward and over a time span of 10 years. Both report first and second hand impressions about what Baudrillard identified at the time as the matrix of globalization.

About thirty years later, Globalization Takes Command resumed Baudrillard’s enterprise by addressing the consequences that American lifestyle has had on Europe. In the wake of Baudrillard’s writings, the literary and narrative dimension of this book, which proceeds through puns, flashes and vivid descriptions of famous European locations, stretches even further the Postmodern intermingling between architectural theory and literary approaches, thus producing a genre at the cutting-edge of contemporary research practices and narratives. Some of the destinations included in the book are:

• Paris

• Berlin

• Amsterdam

• Milan

• Marchè Glarnerland & Vals

• Vaduz

• Glasgow

• London

• Birmingham

• Genoa

Venturi & Scott Brown:

Guild House to the Decorated Shed

Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown’s research on an American approach to Classicism led to the implementation of popular culture into contemporary construction techniques. This however also worked as a Troy Horse for the rapid spreading of bad taste into the built environment.

By addressing the concept of unintentional originality that Venturi and Scott Brown ascribe to popular culture, the article also explores the aesthetic concept of ‘failed emulation’ inhabiting contemporary class struggle.

Simulacra & Simulation:

The Pop Project [EP]

Pop Philosophy

The most unintelligible of the philosopher goes pop! Simulacra and Simulation is a pop song originally released as a video installation at the Lincoln Frequency Festival in 2015.

Academic Superstar

The song takes its title from Simulacra and Simulation – the book that made of Baudrillard an academic superstar worldwide – and is made up of an original music composition mimicking American rock road songs as showcased and illustrated by a video developed between the School of Architecture and Design and the Department of Media Studies at the University of Lincoln.

Karaoke Culture

A positive but critical spin on the popularization of knowledge, the song combines music stereotypes and philosophical concepts to the point where the alleged relationship between academy and audience, sender and receiver, is reversed. The song is now being expanded into a 4-track album offering different version of the original song in a jazz, rock, folk and karaoke version which toy with Baudrillard’s notion of simulation.

Non-Original Original

The result – a non-original original - is an indirect criticism of the contemporary entertainment practices that see in the vintage recycling of the past a form of authentication of the Postmodern looping of history as vaticinated by Jean Baudrillard. The project, which comprises of the re-editing of the original video, will be released in order to increase awareness of the work of Jean Baudrillard as well as to raise funds for ongoing research projects on Baudrillard.

Simulacra & Simulation - The album (MP)

Tracks

1. Pop-rock simulation (Spreading The News 66)

1. Acoustic simulation (Mmm Mmm Style)

2. Jazzed simulation (Ginger & Fred)

3. Karaoke simulation (Simulate Harder Version)

Listen to the track sample >

Ordinary Psychosis [LP]

The album puts into words and music examples of 'ordinary psychosis', as defined and systematised by Jacques-Alain Miller. Defined as "a psychosis that has not been triggered yet", ordinary psychosis is thus assumed to be the generalised psycho-social attitude enacted by modern culture. The album thus suggests that contemporary society lives on the verge of a catastrophic and unexpected enactment.

The genre used is vintage pop. Disturbing lyrics are thus explored via apparently innocent popular music tropes. As is the case with 'Kill Me', a Latino love melody from the 1950s conveys the description of a psychotic break escalating into a murder and narrated by the viewpoint of the victim herself.

Incidentally, Jean Baudrillard's notion of simulation as applied to consumer culture, the fashion industry and the apparent novelty embedded in the music business is also addressed.

Sources of inspiration are varied and span from crime news to contemporary literature to personal experiences and serve as a basis for providing the broader social context within which architecture is currently operating. The project follows Jean Baudrillard's infamous claim that just like the schizophrenic experiences excessive proximity to the (Lacanian) real, so the modern man experiences excessive proximity to the (Baudrillardian) hyperreal.

Tracks:

1. Kill Me

2. Psychotic Pray

3. At Night

4. Never Again

5. Tikitikití

6. All I want

Listen to the track sample >

Chromatic DYsfuNctions [LP]

Experimental minimalist music explores and translates the basic elements of serialized architecture components. Each piece is to the same extent associated with a city and captures its atmosphere as an embodiment of a woman's personality.

Tracks:

1. Berlin / Alexandra

2. Boston / Kathleen

3. Milan / Judith

4. Naples / Anne

5. Circus (Montagna - Ardennes)

6. London / Valerie

7. Paris / Elenoire (lullaby)

8. Tokyo / Epic

9. Hommage a Mertens

In progress. A 3 track demo is currently being recorded for submission to recording labels