Past Issues- Current Debates: Architectural History & Theory- Essay Writing Assignment

Internal Code: TV576

Essay Writing Assignment:

Task: As mediums of disciplinary claims, manifestos can be said to be a shifting spectrum within our field of communicative apparatus with pronouns pointing in direction of the place and time of utterance and objects of concerns. This essay brings a critical study of the modern and contemporary architectural media, specifically the print media of the architectural journals. It reveals how the particular conventions and techniques of representation in architectural journals, across image and text and in their interrelationship, frame and construct a discourse about architecture. I explore the possibilities and limitations of the journals as platforms for critical discussion and documentary practice within the sphere of architecture, and provide an alternative theoretical framework through which to assess their value as objects of architectural history. The core aim of the essay is, however, to rethink the journal page as a site of complexity, as ambiguous representation, poised between the editorial determinations and discursive limits of profession, institution and commerce on the one hand, and the creative and critical strategies, and architectural desires of ‘independent’ contributors on the other. Task: STEP I: (Group Work) In Groups of two to three Choose three manifestos each. The first should be an example from prior to 1968. These can be found either in Ulrich Conrad's Programmes and Manifestoes on 20th Century Architecture, London, Lund Humphries, 1964 or Tim Benton et al, Form and Function, a Source Book for the History of Architecture and Design 1890-1939, London, Granada, 1975. The other two manifestoes can be selected from those included in Kate Nesbitt, Theorising a New Agenda for Architecture: An Anthology for Architectural Theory 1965-1995, Princeton, 1996, A. K. Sykes, Constructing a New Agenda: Architectural Theory 1993-2009, Princeton, 2010, or K. M. Hayes, Architectural Theory Since 1968, MIT, 1998, Analyse the manifesto for the structure and form of the language, ie. Does it use images? How are the sentences constructed? Are there other 'language-games’ set out in this document. Have the architects used other media used to present these ideas (find on Youtube etc)? What are the ‘mechanics’ of the text? How does this text form shape the message and content of the manifesto? What is the context of the manifesto- for who? Against what? 1. Analyse the three manifestos in the form of visual ‘markups’ on the original manifesto documents. You should consider the implications and effects of various conventions of notation and annotation. 2. Formative Feedback: This analysis of the manifestoes is central to developing the final essay required for assessment 1. While you will be developing the essay in the first part of the session we will review the manifesto study on September 4th, 2017. There will be no forum in this week- it will be replaced by an extended tutorial to provide time to present this work. Remember, this is a design exercise. It must be done in Illustrator/InDesign or appropriate design software and approached as a combined visual and textual form of analysis. STEP II: (Individual Work) Using the analysis above as a model you should develop a response to the manifesto that addresses the following questions: How these manifestos compare in their address of the concerns of their own practice context? Do the issues of practice modify over time? Are they manifestos for their own contemporary moment in a socio-political sense or do they have a timelessness about them? How have the manifestos changed approach/showed continuity to reflect/move beyond their contemporary debates? Students should make a decision about the format/media and layout of their response.