Sex, Death, and Architecture - Richard Ingersoll
The criteria for a contemporary critic
03.12.2010 | 19:00
Veranstaltungsort: Räume der ig-architektur, Gumpendorfer Straße 63B, 1060 Wien
Architectural criticism is essentially a contradiction in terms. Very seldom do those writing about architecture (including this author) permit themselves to wake up from what during the Iraq war we learned to call “embedded journalism.” This is for several obvious reasons: the majority of architectural publications (the kind that pay their writers) are promotional literature tied to the design professions; the majority of people writing about architecture come from within the trade, do not know how to write well, and do not have much critical perspective; the audience for architectural publications remains primarily interested in illustrations and prefers not to read. Thus, even if a writer were able to pen a scintillating thesis that spoke as powerfully about architecture as the sex drive or the death wish, chances are it a) will get edited beyond recognition by the publishers; or b) it will be overlooked by the readership. The Architect’s Newspaper in NYC began as a very fresh set of voices, as has the Giornale di Architettura published in Torino, and both have been able to puncture through the professional censorship. Architectural web sites often recapitulate the same problems as the professional publications, but in a few instances - I’m thinking of Luigi Prestinenza Pugliesi’s blog, “presS/Tletter,” which is curated by several young architects - they have created a rubric or resistance. Perhaps what architecture needs is the equivalent of Wikileaks, an Archileaks would have a certain profundity already in its title. In this talk I will discuss the process that I go through as a critic, looking at a few cases, and propose what I would like to read in Archileaks.