Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Architecture – Aesthetics'
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Khalighinejad, Farshad. "Architecture Aesthetic Preferences and Architectural Habitus: A Comparison Among Architecture and Business Students at the University of Cincinnati." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1551971907333194.
Full textZhang, Zhexi S. M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The aesthetics of decentralization." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123614.
Full textCataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 79-86).
This thesis explores ways in which decentralized network technologies are used to experiment with and design new modes of socio-technical organization. Drawing on an understanding of aesthetics as a "distribution of the sensible" and Jack Burnham's notion of "systems esthetics", an artistic engagement with society's technological modes of organization, I explore the ways in which the "aesthetics of decentralization" articulates a circuit of desire connecting technical systems, cultural metaphors and social forms. A key countercultural motif in the history of the World Wide Web, decentralization imagines that political objectives of openness, freedom and even libertarian self-sovereignty within a networked society can be achieved through the technical protocols. Chapter 1 examines the logics of the "stack" and the "platform" as the vertical and lateral organizational abstractions of this environmental matrix.
In seeking to negate this centralization of power over digital networks, the decentralized web is a multifaceted technological and cultural phenomenon with disparate agendas, but broadly seeks to reconfigure the technical organization of the web as a commons-oriented peer-to-peer framework. Chapter 2 examines in detail the primary concepts of the decentralized web, reading their propositions as an effort to reconstitute the terms of space, ownership and participation within the networked world. I argue that the decentralized web represents not so much a technical solution as a performative metaphor through which digital publics are called forth in order to denaturalize these hermetic socio-technical environments and imagine new spaces of possibility.
In Chapter 3, 1 argue that the imaginary and aesthetic power of the decentralized web flows from the subjective experience of software as worldbuilding, a process which imputes the rational consistency of synthetic "microworlds" upon the wider social domain. In conclusion, I suggest that the decentralized web falters as a political project because in seeking to build new forms of sociality through software, it fails to antagonize the structures of technological capitalist society. Nonetheless, the conceptual and performative metaphors engendered by these experimental systems call forth new technological discourses in which protocol serves as a guide, rather than a coercive armature, of a social imaginary.
by Zhexi Zhang.
S.M. in Art, Culture and Technology
S.M.inArt,CultureandTechnology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture
Fulmer, Tracy. "BLIND AESTHETICS." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2002. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1002992074.
Full textLincourt, Michel. "In search of elegance : toward an architecture of satisfaction." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/23087.
Full textLundberg, Måns. "Backyard Aesthetics : Towards an Etical Urbanism." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Arkitekthögskolan vid Umeå universitet, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-133162.
Full textFoley, Kimberly Ann. "Perception, aesthetics and culture in new media." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/73763.
Full textWu, Duan. "Embodied tectonics of space and its architectural aesthetics." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.610883.
Full textBail, Muriel. "Dance and architecture." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/23739.
Full textNottingham, Amy Lou. "Hilltown architecture : beyond the picturesque." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/23389.
Full textWu, Jiahua. "Landscape morphology : a comparative study of landscape aesthetics." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1992. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/1851/.
Full textJackson, Tomashi. "The seen, the unseen, and the aesthetics of infrastructure." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72808.
Full textPage 103 blank. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-93).
Work narratives haunt the architecture of our shared built environment, urging me to visualize the humanity attached to materials that define space and use. Unregulated, human labor markets are deeply embedded into necessary components of contemporary global, societal infrastructures. This relationship plays itself out in plain sight, and yet can be silent. I imaginatively liken laboring bodies to the inner workings of the built environment; bodies, like pipes, are put to use in an underground that is equally seen/unseen literally as well as figuratively. Domestic laborers on the street, buried pipes, underground. There are visual, sonic, physical, and linguistic relationships between informal domestic labor and material infrastructure. Functional sounds of informal labor and physical infrastructure are often similarly muffled. Frameworks of material and informal labor are described by beneficiaries as necessary for economic sustainability. Physical infrastructure is tangible and ephemeral, awash with images of labor, fragmented. Labor and the built environment are infused with subdued narratives of work and love as they facilitate the daily exchange of goods, services, and currency in any functioning society. This thesis explores these relationships, examining the aesthetics of infrastructure through observation, study, and artistic production.
by Tomashi Jackson.
S.M.in Art, Culture, and Technology
Fischer, Rio (Rio Garrett). "Aesthetics of the Qur'anic epigraphy on the Taj Mahal." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111550.
Full textCataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 76-79).
This thesis examines the Qur'anic epigraphic program of the Taj Mahal. Following the 1989 Begley & Desai book Taj Mahal: on Illustrated Tomb, the flourish of scholarship that would expectedly follow a complete epigraphical catalog never arrived. Despite being well-known and universally cherished as indicated by the Taj Mahal's recognition as a UNESCO world heritage monument and as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, there is insufficient research directed towards the inscription program specifically. In order to focus the scope of the project, I employ phenomenological methodology, using a typical visit to approach the most salient, prominent inscriptions. I argue that the epigraphic program operates on three distinct, hierarchical registers: aesthetic, symbolic, and then denotative. Furthermore, I argue that the inscriptions hint towards a preferred way to approach the site. The thesis argues that the primary concern of the calligraphic design on the Taj Mahal is aesthetics. This study finds that letter forms and overall design of the script contribute to a presentation of the Qur'an as visually balanced and demonstrates that this balance was the primary design consideration. Furthermore, the thesis considers the calligraphic aesthetics at multiple scales and shows that aesthetic considerations overlap at various distances and vantages. Finally the thesis questions the strict separation of aesthetics from symbolic reading offering alternative interpretations involving a connection between symbolic meaning and aesthetics.
by Rio Fischer.
S.M. in Architecture Studies
Thompson, Ian H. "Sources of values in landscape architecture." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.311145.
Full textDragulescu, Alexandru C. "Data portraits : aesthetics and algorithms." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55188.
Full textCataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-93).
While interacting online, one generates a multitude of personal data trails, both textual and behavioral. The data portrait is a way to collect, condense and represent these information trails, which are often time consuming and tedious to find and grasp when read linearly across web pages or domains, into an easy, legible, and compelling visualization. This thesis presents various data portraiture techniques that generate both individual and collective portraits of users participating in online social media. The data used in generating the portraits are unstructured text and publishing timestamps of Twitter micro-blog posts, as well as aggregate RSS feeds from FriendFeed. The strategies for depicting people's online personas explored in this thesis focus on the compression, mapping and visual representation components of the visualization pipeline. The resulting portraits attempt to maintain a tight connection with the data, and be legible to viewers, but at the same time, venture to explore more expressive visual forms, and engage with the evolving aesthetics of cinematography, typography and animation.
by Alexandru C. Dragulescu.
S.M.
Rodrigo, Russell. "Mediating memory : minimalist aesthetics and the memorialization of cultural trauma." Thesis, School of Architecture, Design Science and Planning, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/16269.
Full textEdnie-Brown, Pia Hope, and pia@rmit edu au. "The aesthetics of emergence." RMIT University. Architecture and Design, 2008. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20080804.161628.
Full textFokdal, Josephine. "Everyday aesthetic as a basic need." Virtual Press, 2006. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1355594.
Full textDepartment of Architecture
Schiffman, Jared (Jared Michael) 1976. "Aesthetics of computation : unveiling the visual machine." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/31103.
Full text"September 2001."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 106-110).
This thesis presents a new paradigm for the design of visual programming languages, with the goal of making computation visible and, in turn, more accessible. The Visual Machine Model emphasizes the need for clear visual representations of both machines and materials, and the importance of continuity. Five dynamic visual programming languages were designed and implemented according to the specification of the Visual Machine Model. In addition to individual analysis, a comparative evaluation of all five design experiments is conducted with respect to several ease of use metrics and Visual Machine qualities. While formal user tests have not been conducted, preliminary results from general user experiences indicate that being able to see and interact with computation does enhance the programming process.
Jared Schiffman.
S.M.
El-Akkad, Tarek A. "The Aesthetics of Islamic Architecture & the Exuberance of Mamluk Design." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/117147.
Full textEl període Mameluc era el més exuberant a Egipte. Va durar des·de 1250-1517, un curt període de només 267 anys, però molt dinàmic en l'art i l'arquitectura. Cap historiador ha donat una raó documentada i defensable per aquest augment però molts van parlar dels orígens dels mamelucs a Europa de l'Est, Anatòlia i el Caucus. La seva excel·lència en el disseny estava directament relacionada amb la diversitat de la seva població a Egipte i Síria, però més específicament al Caire. Una nova estètica desenvolupada en el seu art i arquitectura, i va esdevenir únic mameluc. Va ser la culminació d'influències de disseny procedents de llocs tan llunyans com Persépolis a l'est i al-Andalus a l'Oest. Les bones relacions comercials amb Catalunya van exercir un paper important en la transmissió de les idees del disseny i la prosperitat dels mamelucs. La tesi doctoral és un estudi de les fonts de disseny islàmic en diverses regions i el seu desenvolupament. S'analitzen exemples dels períodes pre-islàmic, islàmic i post-islàmic per mostrar com el disseny comparteix fonts d'inspiració. Traça l'estètica de l'arquitectura islàmica, amb l'Espanya del segle XX com un estudi de cas, per mostrar com va afectar al desenvolupament de l'arquitectura moderna i contemporània.
Ellis, Charles. "Direct Radical Intuition: toward an 'Architecture of Presence' through Japanese ZEN Aesthetics." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1306498199.
Full textOnishi, Yoko 1963. "Prototype and attractiveness in the built environment." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/277213.
Full textDe, Klerk Marianne Magdalena 1970. "Historicizing the landscape : recovering the aesthetics of the Alhambra." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/65725.
Full textIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 123-126).
The thesis explores the conception and evolution of the Alhambra as a monument during the 19th and 20th centuries. The contemporary monument encompasses a vast landscape complex saturated by nine hundred years of continuous occupation. The fragmented form of the palace complex, adapted and reconstructed for centuries, achieved coherence through the reification of tropes celebrating the landscape in 19th century travel literature. Travel was a contemplative practice of decomposing and recomposing the landscape through literature and visual representation. Travelers attempted to recapture and reconstruct a coherent image of the palace complex through the documentation and reconstruction of an imagined original. The aesthetic revival of the mythical productive landscape that once enfolded the Alhambra dominated the experience, hence the desire to recapture - and if necessary reconstruct - the landscape of the past is always present in the literature and the restoration and conservation projects of the last two centuries. Conservation projects were accompanied by the restoration of historic gardens, the design of new gardens, the symbolic revival of the famed irrigation system of the Muslims and the spatial organization of the monumental complex to accommodate its new central function as one of the world's primary tourist destinations.
by Marianne Magdalena de Klerk.
M.C.P.
S.M.
Berrigan, Caitlin (Caitlin Elizabeth). "Life cycle of a common weed : reciprocity, anxiety and the aesthetics of noncatharsis." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54201.
Full textThis electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-100).
This document is a condensation of research into an artistic practice of transation and dialogue. Through the staging of an artwork, I offer encounters with fractured biopolitics and forms of social engagement. Written in three parts, this document may be read as separate yet interdependent components of a distributed narrative. The first section begins with a straightforward description and documentation of an artistic concept that evolved during my time at MIT. The artwork, Life Cycle of a Common Weed, is a fertile encounter between plants and humans. The material transfer of nutrients is the critical locus of this exchange: blood from a human body nourishes dandelions with nitrogen and the root and leaves of the dandelion provide nutritious and medicinal sustenance to the human. Liminally present in the exchange are pathogenic viruses and empathy. Life Cycle of a Common Weed is not an object-based artwork, and as such exists as a performance, visual documentation, an event, and a perpetual cultivation. In the second section, I describe the emergence of Life Cycle of a Common Weed from a rhizomatic web of embodied knowledges, multispecies encounters, cultural symbols and practices, dialogues and lateral transfers. I have infected the philosophical abstractions of the artist's statement genre with a situated ethnography that joins the artwork to nodes of questions and contexts, but by no means circumscribes its entire network of connectivity. The final section identifies the work of other artists as important antecedents, as well as audience encounters that provoked reflection on my approach.
(cont.) In relation to my other work and the unfolding narrative of its creation, Life Cycle of a Common Weed is situated as a turning point within my artistic practice.
by Caitlin Berrigan.
S.M.in Visual Studies
Todd, Jeffrey M. "Einstein's film theory of montage and architecture." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/21653.
Full textDahlin, Åsa. "On architecture, aesthetic experience and the embodied mind." Doctoral thesis, KTH, School of Architecture, 2002. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-3414.
Full textBloomer, Jennifer Allyn. "Towards an architecture of desire : the (s) crypt of Joyce and Piranesi." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/23414.
Full textOng, Lorraine Grace G. "Mu-Tonics: in search of mutable tectonics." Thesis, Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/22699.
Full textRamirez, Jasso Diana 1973. "The aesthetics of concealment : Weegee in the movie theater (1943-1950)." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/69444.
Full text"September 2002.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-189).
Between 1941 and 1945, movie theaters in the United States enjoyed a period of intense activity marked by record levels of attendance. Film scholars have explained this phenomenon by referring to the fascination exerted by "escapist" Hollywood films, which either idealized or completely negated the harsh economic and social conditions brought about by the outbreak of World War II. However, American photographer Arthur Fellig "Weegee" produced between 1943 and 1950 a series of photographs that reveal a more complex reality of movie going. Using infrared film and an invisible flash to cut through the almost complete darkness of the theater, his pictures reveal a peculiar function of the movie house at a specific moment in the history of the United States. By analyzing these photographs in the context of other sources of information such as posters, newspapers and magazine articles of the time, the dark and permissive interior of the movie theater emerges as an effective refuge from the violent forms of visual interaction that were established in public space as a consequence of wartime threats over American territory. Thus, at the time they serve as a starting point to recover a forgotten moment in the urban history of the United States, the images prompt a reevaluation of the spatial conditions of the movie theater itself-a site for public interaction that, interestingly, fosters unique forms of privacy and intimate exchange.
by Diana Ramirez Jasso.
S.M.
Turan, Oktay. "Architecture As An Apparatus Of Immortalization And Glorification: A Critical Analysis Of Wittgensteinian [true] Architecture." Master's thesis, METU, 2007. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12609068/index.pdf.
Full textLyu, Soohyun. "Applying the function and aesthetics of structure to furniture /." Online version of thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1850/11657.
Full textMUTCHLER, MATTHEW A. "lean architecture." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1212009216.
Full textDahlin, Kenneth C. "The Aesthetics of Frank Lloyd Wright's Organic Architecture| Hegel, Japanese Art, and Modernism." Thesis, The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, 2019. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=13422325.
Full textThe goal of this dissertation is to write the theory of organic architecture which Wright himself did not write. This is done through a comparison with GWF Hegel’s philosophy of art to help position Wright’s theory of organic architecture and clarify his architectural aesthetic. Contemporary theories of organicism do not address the aesthetic basis of organic architecture as theorized and practiced by Wright, and the focus of this dissertation will be to fill part of this gap. Wright’s organic theory was rooted in nineteenth-century Idealist philosophy where the aim of art is not the imitation of nature but the creation of beautiful objects which invite contemplation and express freedom. Wright perceived this quality in Japanese art and wove it into his organic theory.
This project is organized into three main categories from which Wright’s own works and writings of organic architecture are framed, two of which are affinities of his views and one which, by its contrast, provides additional definition. The second chapter, Foundation, lays the philosophical or metaphysical foundation and is a comparison of Hegel’s philosophy of art, including his Romantic stage of architecture, with Wright’s own theory. The third chapter, Formalism, relates the affinity between Japanese art and Wright’s own designs. Three case studies are here included, showing their correlation. The fourth chapter, Filter, contrasts early twentieth-century Modernist architecture with Wright’s own organicism. This provides a greater definition to Wright’s organicism as it takes clues from Wright’s own sense of discrimination between the contemporary modernism he saw and his own architecture. These three chapters lead to the proposal of a model theory of organic architecture in chapter five which is a structured theory of organic architecture with both historical and contemporary merit. This serves to provide a greater understanding of Wright’s form of the organic as an aesthetically based system, both in historic context, and as relevant for contemporary discourse.
Tucker, William Bird. "Deduction, induction, and abduction." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/24130.
Full textKass, Sara. "The Form of Nonconformity: Architecture & The Punk Rock Aesthetic." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/34339.
Full textMaster of Architecture
Chuong, Jennifer Y. ""Art is a Hardy Plant:" : Benjamin Henry Latrobe and the cultivation of a transitional aesthetics." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72621.
Full textThis electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [161]-164).
This thesis suggests that architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe's engagement with American scientific discourses gave rise to a transitional aesthetics that radically refigured his European-derived notions of art and architecture. Looking at a range of works by Latrobe -- a selection of theoretical writings, the Essay on Landscape (a watercolor instruction manual, 1798-1799), and the Philadelphia Waterworks (1798-1801) -- I analyze his magpie borrowings of climate, geology, and natural history. These borrowings were sometimes awkward and were by no means uniformly successful; however, Latrobe's persistence in the face of failure underscores the importance he accorded to establishing, by any means possible, a mutual correspondence between nature, society, and art. Sometimes called "the father of American architecture," the British-born Latrobe (1764-1820) has generally been recognized for his large, nineteenth-century projects. Focusing on his financial and technical struggles around works like the US Capitol and the Baltimore Exchange, the prevailing historical narrative has emphasized the disjunct between the immigrant Latrobe's professional ambitions and the capabilities of the young American nation. In this thesis, I argue that an emphasis on Latrobe's embattled practice tells us little about the conceptual field that drove his work. More importantly, it ignores the ways in which a larger discursive and physical context transformed the architect's own understanding of his work and its function in a new democratic society. Recognizing, and valuing, the presence of nature in Latrobe's writings offers us a new way of understanding the architect's practice as one attuned to the prevailing physical and social concerns of the period.
by Jennifer Y. Chuong.
S.M.
Ferng, Jennifer Hsiao-Mei. "Nature's objects : geology, aesthetics, and the understanding of materiality in eighteenth-century Britain and France." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70383.
Full textCataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 353-390).
Explorations of aesthetic design and scientific experimentation have traditionally relied upon the natural world as a source of inspiration. Notably absent from previous studies of the eighteenth century is the dynamic connections between contrasting disciplines of this time period. Terrestrial objects such as diamonds, silver, gold, and stone, situated between architecture, the decorative arts, and geology, superseded classical models of Aristotelian emulation, which privileged original visual forms. They evoked newfound tensions between modalities of intuition and empirical observation, providing alternate paradigms of nature based upon firsthand experience. This dissertation takes up an extensive assembly of historical actors who analyzed these objects - architects, artisans, chemists, collectors, engravers, geologists, jewelers, and silversmiths. Late Enlightenment designers Robert Adam, William Chambers, and Batty Langley as well as intellectuals Denis Diderot and Louis Dutens explored some of the same materials that piqued the curiosity of silversmiths Pierre-Simon Augustin Dupre, Francois-Thomas Germain, and Jacques Roettiers. Artisan Pierre de Fontanieu and chemists Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier and Jean-Louis Baptiste Rome de l'Isle also problematized the aesthetic usages of these objects, arriving at differing conclusions. Pervasive debates throughout Europe attempted to determine the quotient of hardness in minerals, plasticity of metal, or durability of stone. These provocative cross-currents between the domains of the arts, sciences, and politics generated remarkable insight into these objects taken from the earth; in turn, these intersections shaped a unique conception of materiality, which anticipated untapped potential for architectural styles, artistic production, and geological determination. Mining and related images of the subterranean - mineralogical atlases, etchings of rock formations, maps of sedimentary deposits, imagined grottos, and utopian architecture - are framed as part of a geological imaginary, a contributor to modernism's early inheritance. The first chapter contemplates how the cutting of diamonds as raw stones cultivated attitudes towards jewelry settings, formulas for false gemstones, and chemical demonstrations. Artisans judged a diamond's functional and authentic attributes in order to craft acceptable imitations. In focusing upon silver and gold, the second chapter traces the material transformations of valuable metals from decorative ornament into commemorative coins and medals during the French Revolution. Fiscal currency circulated as economic signifiers that embodied human values superimposed onto natural resources. The third chapter examines several types of stone from limestone, granite, to marble demonstrating how their visual and structural properties became articulated through Gothic revival practices in Georgian England. Antiquarian and genealogical discourses not only influenced conceptions of stone as a building material, but they also focused upon geological explanations as a mutual foundation of comprehension. The conclusion merges the mythological stories behind these objects with their historical narratives, elucidating why cultural misinterpretations are as important as factual evidence. Derived from corporeal perception and abstract theorization, materiality revealed unknown dimensions of these prosaic objects, whose telluric origins became recast as both ancient and modem.
Ph.D.
Allais, Lucia. "Will to war, will to art : cultural internationalism and the modernist aesthetics of monuments, 1932-1964." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45941.
Full text"September 2008."
Includes bibliographical references (p. [511]-535).
This dissertation examines a period around World War II when the prospect of widespread destruction provoked a profound re-evaluation of Europe's landmarks, their material value, and their ethical significance. Between 1932 and 1964, works once known as artistic and historic monuments-from buildings to bridges, paintings to shrines, ruins to colossi-acquired a "cultural" value as belonging to the "universal heritage of mankind." Promoted as didactic objects of international understanding, they became subjects of a new brand of international law. I trace the origins of this international valuation to a political movement, identified as Cultural Internationalism, whose main tenet was that the transnational circulation of knowledge constitutes an antidote to war. This ideal fueled the birth of organizations that brandished the autonomy of intellectual work as a weapon against nationalisms: most visibly, the League of Nations' Institut International de Coop&ation Intellectuelle (IICI, 1924-1941), its successor the United Nations Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (UNESCO, 1946-), and the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic Monuments in War Area (Roberts Commission, 1943-46). Despite the continued role of this institutional lineage in cultural production worldwide, there has not been a study of its contribution to 20th-Century aesthetics.
(cont.) The dissertation explores the modernist aesthetics of monuments that arose from this milieu and unfolded in three related fields: the bombed cities of the Allies' war, the architecture of the European reconstruction, and the heritage missions of the decolonization. A broad network of intellectuals, art historians, architects, and archaeologists was enlisted to show that monuments gave iconic weight to cultural autonomy in a new world order. I follow these experts' attempts to effect this autonomy: working in conferences and as field experts, spawning an intricate network of civilian and military committees, caring for a growing collection of monuments, and encountering the shifting winds of a massive geo-political realignment.
by Lucia Allais.
Ph.D.
Genes, Laura Serejo. "Art salvos : aesthetics of figurative acts of war between the US and Cuba along Havana's Malecón." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118711.
Full textCataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 65-70).
Laura Serejo Genes spent her last year in the Art Culture and Technology Program at MIT obsessively researching the works of an American Foreign Service Agent working in the highest office of the United States Interest Section in Cuba from 2002-2005. This character, Chief of Mission James C. Cason, spearheaded many public diplomacy projects in Havana, the magnum opus of which was a huge LED electronic ticker on the facade of the U.S. Embassy Building. The ticker immediately calls to mind the work of artist Jenny Holzer. Laura traveled down to Florida to ask the retired diplomat if he had ever heard of Jenny Holzer. He had not. But in her conversations with him, and with Tomás Vicente Lara Franquis, the incredible Director of the Monuments Commission in Cuba [CODEMA], Laura started to think about political leaders like James C. Cason and his adversary, Fidel Castro, who inadvertently or not, personally authored public projects so large and stimulating that they should be considered public works of art. She puts forth the original term: art salvo, to describe precisely this type of intervention: a figurative act of war. Fascinated by this particular situation in Cuba in the early 2000's, Laura outlines the power of what she is calling: the agency of discretion. Politics are everywhere and discretion operates at many scales, but discretion is most discernible when considering the amount of it apportioned to leaders. Perhaps, she concludes: this form of political agency can be and is a fertile ground for art production? However satisfying it may be to reach this conclusion, sometimes the terrifying nature of the result outweighs the satisfaction of having arrived at it.
by Laura Serejo Genes.
S.M. in Art, Culture and Technology
Morshed, Adnan Zillur. "The aviator's (re)vision of the world : an aesthetics of ascension in Norman Bel Geddes's Futurama." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8314.
Full textIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 279-288).
This dissertation considers a new ontology of vision brought on by the advent of human flight. It focuses on the project that best reflects this new vision: the Futurama, an exhibit designed by the American industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes for the 1939 New York World's Fair. The Futurama's status as the cause celebre of the 1939 World's Fair derived largely from its theatrical technique of seeing: spectators literally gazed down upon an American utopia as if they were aviators in a low-flying airplane. My analysis contextualizes Bel Geddes's Futurama within a utopian vision prevalent among urbanists, architects, artists, novelists, and science-fiction writers during the 1920s and 1930s. This "golden age" of American aviation was marked by the fantasy that the vision of the world from above would usher in new spatial dynamics from which would emerge the city of the future. I argue that Bel Geddes's method of seeing the Futurama from a simulated airplane revealed as much about a culturally valorized aviator hero as it did about the utopia itself. By demonstrating how the Futurama spectator's aerial viewing became enmeshed in broader 20th-century modernist visuality, my study reveals the crucial presence of an aesthetics of ascension in the avant-garde imagination. The Futurama was one of those modernist utopias that ideologues like Nietzsche, Wells, and arch-modernist Le Corbusier visualized through the eyes of an ascending protagonist. Histories of modernism have often overlooked the exalted presence of this protagonist in favor of focusing on the aesthetic object itself.
(cont.) This protagonist's aesthetic experience of altitude appealed to the encyclopedic ambition of modernist planners, particularly in light of modernism's prescriptions of rationality, clarity, and order as a panacea for human problems. The Futurama's aesthetics of ascension offers a new context for understanding interwar modernism's redemptive aspirations. On one hand, an innocent self-assurance tinged the Futurama and the grand (re)vision of America that it promised to its spectators. On the other hand, the Futurama was a crucial cultural artifact that revealed a surprising affiliation between aviation and modernism's logic of looking at the world. The self-aggrandizing, detached gaze of the modernist planner masquerading as the Futurama's spectator worked to dispel the anxieties of the 1930s; at the same time, this gaze also rendered most effective the fantasy of an ideal world of tomorrow. The heightened expectations that underpinned the Futurama's heroic gaze offered a populist analogue to modernist promises of cultural renewal.
by Adnan Morshed.
Ph.D.
Dreifuss, Serrano Cristina, and Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC). "Ornament as a need in spontaneous architecture. Learning aesthetics from self-constructed dwellings." Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC), 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10757/344528.
Full textThis study is part of the research for the PhD Thesis “The architecture of kitsch in contemporary Peruvian architecture”, for the PhD in Architectural Composition at the Università degli Studi di.
cristinadreifuss@gmail.com
Ornament or decorative elements are a constant in spontaneous architecture. When people build their own dwelling without consulting a professional, it will always display some kind of sign or symbol aimi ng to make the house “beautiful”. Even if there is rarely a consensus on what beautiful means, the preferences of the inhabitants are shown through a set of el ements in the architec ture of their house. Precarious spontaneous housi ng i n the peripheries of Lima (Peru) shows us how the search for beauty occupies a fundamental place in peopl es’ priorities, emerging even before the most basic comforts that people expects to have in their houses.
Isaacs, Allison Jean. "Self-Organizing Architecture: Design Through Form Finding Methods." Thesis, Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/22603.
Full textChoi, Yoon Kyung. "The spatial structure of exploration and encounter in museum layouts." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/23301.
Full textElkin, Daniel K. "Seeking Silence Through GARAP: Architecture, Image, and Connotation." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1306501509.
Full textRooney, Kevin Kelley. "Vision and the experience of built environments: two visual pathways of awareness, attention and embodiment in architecture." Diss., Kansas State University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/20597.
Full textEnvironmental Design and Planning Program
Robert J. Condia
The unique contribution of Vision and the Experience of Built Environments is its specific investigation into the visual processing system of the mind in relationship with the features of awareness and embodiment during the experience of architecture. Each facet of this investigation reflects the essential ingredients of sensation (the visual system), perception (our awareness), and emotions (our embodiment) respectively as a process for aesthetically experiencing our built environments. In regards to our visual system, it is well established in neuroscience that human vision divides into the central and peripheral fields of view. Central vision extends from the point of gaze (where we are looking) out to about 5° of visual angle (the width of one’s fist at arm’s length), while peripheral vision is the vast remainder of the visual field. These visual fields project to the parvo and magno ganglion cells which process distinctly different types of information from the world around us and project that information to the ventral and dorsal visual streams respectively. Building on the dorsal/ventral stream dichotomy, we can further distinguish between focal processing of central vision and ambient processing of peripheral vision. Thus, our visual processing of, and attention to, objects and scenes depends on how and where these stimuli fall on the retina. Built environments are no exception to these dependencies, specifically in terms of how focal object perception and ambient spatial perception create intellectual and phenomenal experiences respectively with architecture. These two forms of visual processing limit and guide our perception of the built world around us and subsequently our projected and extended embodied interactions with it as manifested in the act of aesthetic experience. By bringing peripheral vision and central vision together in a balanced perspective we will more fully understand that our aesthetic relationship with our built environment is greatly dependent on the dichotomous visual mechanisms of awareness and embodiment.
Perry, Stephen George. "The unfinished landscape fractal geometry and the aesthetics of ecological design." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2012. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/50512/1/Stephen_Perry_Thesis.pdf.
Full textSevastyanov, Aleksey. "Architecture et irreprésentable. Pour une critique du sublime." Thesis, Lille, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018LIL3H027.
Full textThrough the philosophical debate opposing the unrepresentable to representation in art, this study analyzes contemporary architectural theories' aspiration towards the idea of "self-definition" of the architectural work. The generic term “unrepresentable” (irreprésentable), following Jacques Rancière's definition in Le destin des images, here stands for an event or an idea whose singularity exceeds any representation provided by architectural iconography. We contend that the idea of "self-definition" of architecture is, from a conceptual standpoint, an attempt to represent the unrepresentable. The internal contradiction generated by such a project requires an additional technique transforming this contradiction into a new affirmation of the work's novelty. Such a technique is no recent invention: its historical name is the sublime.We show that in its various forms the concept of the sublime is involved in the architectural discipline's mutations, to the point that the historicity of the sublime can be identified with the historicity of architecture. Not so from the point of view of iconography, the evolution of styles and architectural forms, nor either as a specific way of seeing architecture; but precisely so in terms of a relationship between form and content, between a way of doing and a way of saying, or rather of a certain condition of possibility allowing operations of inclusion and exclusion of heterogeneous theoretical elements within the architectural discourse
Brandt, Andrew MacMillan. "Pro-active adaptation improving infrastructure /." Thesis, Montana State University, 2009. http://etd.lib.montana.edu/etd/2009/brandt/BrandtA0509.pdf.
Full textCallwood, Chaneel Marie. "Architectural nights : an articulation of the structure of "The Garden of Forking Paths" by Jorge Luis Borges and "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/23932.
Full textTinner, Michelle. "Perceived importance of wellness features at the Upstate Cancer Center| Patient and staff perspectives." Thesis, State University of New York Col. of Environmental Science & Forestry, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10169535.
Full textThe impact of building features which promote wellness is of increasing interest to the building owners, designers, and occupants. This study performed a post-occupancy evaluation of two user groups at a medical facility with specific wellness features. 76 staff and 62 patients of a cancer center were polled separately to determine their preferences in 11 categories. Results showed that all wellness features were viewed favorably by the two groups, with natural lighting, views of nature, and thermal comfort as top categories for both. T-test comparisons were performed, and significant differences (p < 0.05) between the two groups were found for three of the features (views of nature, art and murals, and indoor plants). Discussion of these differences and the interaction of competing design goals (thermal comfort, views of nature, natural light and desire for privacy) are included. Size limitations of the study and areas for further study are discussed.
de, Almeida Fernanda Pinto. "Making sense of the bioscope: The experience of cinemas in Twentieth century Cape Town." University of Western Cape, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/7549.
Full textIn my thesis I focus on Cape Town’s imaginary of cinemas – popularly called bioscopes – within a larger historical approach to temporary film halls, picture palaces, atmospherics and drive-ins. My inquiry includes both conceptual and institutional lenses to show how cinema houses enabled particular affects, eschewed bureaucratic restrictions and questioned political authority over public spaces. I ask specifically: how did cinema help to forge audiences and political sentiment by mobilizing the senses? How was the public threat posed by so-called ‘flea-pit’ film halls of early twentieth century seemingly appeased by the private promise of the multiplex rooms in suburban enclosures? For this purpose, I examine the appeal of early twentieth century cinemas alongside their impact in the city’s geography and incipient public sphere to argue that cinema promoted a collective form of experience that bypassed both segregationist and liberal policies of governance.