Media and Modernity: Architecture and the City 1920-1970

This course explores ways in which architectural knowledge was shaped, transmitted, consumed, and instrumentalized through modes of representational discourse other than architecture itself – photography, film, exhibitions, magazines, radio, television – in the period (roughly) from 1920-1970. Engaging issues of modernity and representation, we will examine both the conditions of modernity which brought forth modes of representational discourse, and the ways in which various media became the means by which architecture was shaped as a body of knowledge and the city came to know itself. Focusing on particular instances of \”transformative transaction,\” the course is directed toward understanding how evolving technologies of communication, avant-garde art practices, and political and social transformation during this period generated theoretical discourses regarding the communicative function of the architectural object and the city itself.