The Spectacle Factory

The Spectacle Factory examines the modern history of immersive theater, entertainment, and media spaces from the standpoint of the history of architecture and design. It is concerned with how such spaces have been shaped by the interplay of cultural needs and fantasies, technological possibilities, political ideology, and architectural tradition and invention. All built spaces are immersive in the some sense of the word. So by emphasizing the immersivity of a small subset of architectural spaces, modern and contemporary culture has assigned to these a distinctive functions that go beyond the ordinary meaning of the word immersive: functions that encompass liminal domains of perception, sensation, and experience associated with the sacred (hallucination, ecstasy, trance, psychosis, transcendence) as well as with new forms of recreation and play.

Up to five seats will be held for MDes students.

This course will be taught online through Friday, February 4th.