DOCSLIB.ORG

The DIY Architecture Manuals of Ant Farm and Paolo Soleri

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The DIY Architecture Manuals of Ant Farm and Paolo Soleri Productive Matters: The DIY Architecture Manuals of Ant Farm and Paolo Soleri Catherine D. Smith Productive Matters: The DIY Architecture Manuals of Ant Farm and Paolo Soleri Catherine D. Smith Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney Thesis submitted for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, September 2012 I, Catherine Smith, understand that my thesis entitled ‘Productive Matters: The DIY Architecture Manuals of Ant Farm and Paolo Soleri,’ will be lodged in the University Library and be available immediately for use. I agree that the University Librarian (or, in the case of a departmental library, the head of department) may supply a photocopy or microfilm of the thesis to an individual for research or study or to a library. Author’s Declaration: This is to certify that: I. this thesis comprises only my original work towards the Doctor of Philosophy Degree II. due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used III. the thesis does not exceed the word length for this degree IV. no part of this work has been used for the award of another degree V. this thesis meets the University of Sydney’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) requirements for the conduct of research. Signature:__________________________________________________________________________________ Name:_____________________________________________________________________________________ Date:______________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract Productive Matters: The DIY Architecture Manuals of Ant Farm and Paolo Soleri This thesis develops a theoretical account of DIY (Do It Yourself) architecture, specific to the DIY architecture manuals of the art/architecture collective Ant Farm, and the architect Paolo Soleri. This account will draw upon the countercultural discourse on the ‘artisanal’ as distilled from the North American discourse on DIY, and; the philosophical notion of the artisanal as developed by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and his collaborator, psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. The DIY phenomenon emerged as an identifiable movement in post-war North America, and yet it remains significantly under- theorised and ill-defined, particularly in connection with architecture. However, although the association of DIY with architecture and the ‘artisanal’ is uncommon, it can be charted in the post-war discourse related to the North American counterculture, including Ant Farm’s and Soleri’s DIY architecture manuals. Ant Farm’s and Soleri’s DIY manuals are primarily based on their experimental works of the 1960s and 1970s in North America. Within the countercultural movement, DIY architecture manuals functioned as educational platforms for disseminating a DIY sensibility to the countercultural audience; thus the manual was crucial to the DIY mode of operation. In the post-war discourse on DIY in North America, the term ‘DIY’ has been both positively and negatively associated with the term and notion of the ‘artisanal.’ On the one hand, DIY is seen to contribute to the loss of artisanal skills and techniques; on the other hand, it extends the practices of craft and making to a broader and otherwise unskilled audience. To investigate this initially superficial connection between DIY architecture and the notion of the ‘artisanal’ further, the thesis turns to the philosophical notion of the artisanal, primarily distilled from the writings of Deleuze and Guattari. Deleuze and Guattari define the artisanal according to a set of procedures and operations that are not tied to particular materials, technologies, skill sets or expertise. Their notion is explored as a possible productive theoretical framework for ‘DIY architecture,’ a practice that also challenges conventional distinctions between the roles and practices of ‘expert’ architect, professional builder and ‘layperson’ building occupant. For Deleuze and Guattari, the artisanal mode of operation involves discovering and responding to problems and opportunities as they are directly encountered in real-life. It will be argued that the DIY mode of operation invoked in Ant Farm’s and Soleri’s manuals involves an attendance to the nuances of material phenomena within project sites, in a manner that resonates with Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of the artisanal. Deleuze and Guattari also suggest that the artisanal mode interacts with other modes of operation, including those modes which advocate an indirect and detached account of material Abstract i phenomena. One of the key problems identified in the DIY manuals relates to the divergent ways materials and techniques are described: as simultaneously site-specific and somewhat unpredictable, and as generalisable and predictable. By theorising DIY architecture through Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of the artisanal, the thesis suggests that the manuals involve a play between: actual, particular materials directly encountered in project contexts; generalised materials as represented in words, drawings and imagery; and potential materials, actions and transformations yet to come. Importantly, this DIY mode of operation invokes comprehensive transformations in all aspects of a project, including transformations in thought, identities and bodies. These transformations are seen to occur through a productive struggle with matter’s self-organisational capacities. The thesis’s significance lies in its contribution to a critical, material-focused thinking between the disciplines of architecture and philosophy, and to the under-theorised area of DIY architecture. Abstract ii Contents Acknowledgements vi List of Figures vii INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Scope 2 1.2 Significance 4 1.3 Method 6 1.4 Chapter structure 8 1.5 Key terms and protagonists 8 DIY architecture 9 Counterculture and countercultural 10 Artisan and the artisanal 10 Matter: matter-flows, the matter-form relation, and action and becoming-matter 12 DIY ARCHITECTURE 2 The discourse on DIY in post-war North America 1940s-1970s 2.0 Introduction 23 2.1 The emergence of the ‘Do-It-Yourself’ phenomenon in 24 post-war North America 2.2 The discourse on the DIY phenomenon in the 1940s and 1950s post-war North America 25 2.3 Theories relating to DIY in 1950s post-war North America 27 2.4 The discourse on DIY in the 1960s and 1970s counterculture in post-war North America 31 2.5 The discourse on DIY and the artisanal in the 1940s-1950s, and in the 1960s and 1970s counterculture 37 2.6 Summary: DIY and the artisanal in post-war North America 43 Contents iii 3 Ant Farm, Soleri and their DIY architecture manuals 3.0 Introduction 57 3.1 The rationale for focusing on Ant Farm’s and Soleri’s DIY architecture manuals 57 3.2 Ant Farm’s and Paolo Soleri’s DIY architecture manuals: 60 Inflatocookbook 60 ‘Inflatables Illustrated’ 66 Earth Casting 70 3.3 Technological and material experimentation and the DIY manual 74 3.4 Comprehensive, experimental education and the DIY manual 79 3.5 Experimental social formations and the DIY manual 83 3.6 Summary: experimental education, materials and social formations In Inflatocookbook, ‘Inflatables Illustrated,’ and Earth Casting 87 THE ARTISANAL 4 The notion of the artisanal 4.0 Introduction and background: 109 The artisanal in countercultural discourse, and in Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical writings 110 4.1 Flow and following 114 4.2 The matter-form relation 121 4.3 Action, matter and transforming bodies 124 4.4 Summary: flow and following; the matter-form relation; and action, matter and transforming bodies 128 Contents iv EXPLORATIONS 5 Explorations of the artisanal in Ant Farm’s and Soleri’s DIY architecture manuals 5.0 Introduction 143 Ant Farm’s and Soleri’s DIY manuals as instantiations of DIY architecture 144 5.1 Flow, following and DIY 144 Inflatocookbook 146 ‘Inflatables Illustrated’ 149 Earth Casting 152 139 5.2 Matter, form and the communicable format of the DIY manual 155 Inflatocookbook 157 ‘Inflatables Illustrated’ 162 Earth Casting 164 5.3 DIY action, materials and transforming bodies 167 Inflatocookbook 169 ‘Inflatables Illustrated’ 171 Earth Casting 174 5.4 Summary: artisanal, DIY architecture 176 6 Concluding chapter 6.1 Summary of the overall thesis aim and approach 191 6.2 Problems, issues and limitations of the thesis 193 6.3 Thesis outcomes 195 6.4 Implications and possibilities for future research 197 7 Bibliography 201 Contents v Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the thoughtful and patient advice provided by Associate Professor Glen Hill and, in particular, Associate Professor Chris. L. Smith of the University of Sydney: thank you. I would also like to express my gratitude to Professor Elizabeth Grosz of Rutgers University and the University of Sydney, for her insights into the writings of Deleuze and Guattari, and initial suggestions about the direction of this research. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the valuable advice provided during different conferences and symposiums in which various incarnations and evolutions of the present research were discussed, including: the Fourth International Deleuze Studies Conference (2011); the Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (2010, 2011); The Right to the City symposium (2011); the Alternative Practices in Design: The Collective - Past, Present & Future symposium (2010); and Writing Architecture: A Symposium on Innovations in the Textual and Visual Critique of Buildings (2010). Contents vi List of Figures Cover
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Whole Earth Catalog
    WHOLE EARTH CATALOG access to tools h^y' Spring 1969 #'?' amH •'"v; * : WHOLE EARTH CATALOG FUNCTION The WHOLE EARTH CA TALOG functions as an evaluation and access device. With it, the user should know better what is worth getting and where and how to do the getting. An item is listed in the CA TALOG if it is deemed: 1) Useful as a tool, 2) Relevant to independent education, 3) High quality or low cost, 4) Easily available by mail. CA TA L OG listings are continually revised according to the experience and suggestions of CAT A L OG users and staff. PURPOSE We are as gods and might as well get good at it. So far, remotely done power and glory--as via government, big business, formal education, church-has succeeded to the point where gross defects obscure actual gains. In response to this dilemma and to these gains a realm of intimate, personal power is developing-power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG. RETAINING SUBSCRIBERS Mark Albert San Francisco, California John Doss San Francisco, California Edmund Scientific Company Barrington, New Jersey Henry Jacobs & Associates Sausalito, California Edward Rosenfeld New York, New York St. George Bryan Maui, Hawaii Geoffrey Gates New York. New York Peter Cornell Berkeley, California Second Printing August 1969 © 1969 Portola Institute, Inc. All rights reserved under Pan-American and International copyright
    [Show full text]
  • A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community Howard Rheingold
    A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community Howard Rheingold I'm a writer, so I spend a lot of time alone in a room with my words and my thoughts. On occasion, I venture outside to interview people or to find information. After work, I reenter the human community, via my family, my neighborhood, my circle of acquaintances. But that regime left me feeling isolated and lonely during the working day, with few opportunities to expand my circle of friends. For the past seven years, however, I have participated in a wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating, professionally rewarding, sometimes painful, and often intensely emotional ongoing interchange with dozens of new friends, hundreds of colleagues, thousands of acquaintances. And I still spend many of my days in a room, physically isolated. My mind, however, is linked with a worldwide collection of like-minded (and not so like-minded) souls: My virtual community. Virtual communities emerged from a surprising intersection of humanity and technology. When the ubiquity of the world telecommunications network is combined with the information-structuring and storing capabilities of computers, a new communication medium becomes possible. As we've learned from the history of the telephone, radio, television, people can adopt new communication media and redesign their way of life with surprising rapidity. Computers, modems, and communication networks furnish the technological infrastructure of computer-mediated communication (CMC); cyberspace is the conceptual space where words and human relationships, data and wealth and power are manifested by people using CMC technology; virtual communities are cultural aggregations that emerge when enough people bump into each other often enough in cyberspace.
    [Show full text]
  • Rethinking the Participatory Web: a History of Hotwired's “New Publishing Paradigm,” 1994–1997
    University of Groningen Rethinking the participatory web Stevenson, Michael Published in: New Media and Society DOI: 10.1177/1461444814555950 IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2016 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Stevenson, M. (2016). Rethinking the participatory web: A history of HotWired's 'new publishing paradigm,' 1994-1997. New Media and Society, 18(7), 1331-1346. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814555950 Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne- amendment. Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum.
    [Show full text]
  • Cosanti Originals by Paolo Soleri Cosanti Originals Is the Retailer and Manufacturer of the World Renowned Paolo Soleri Windbells
    Cosanti Originals by Paolo Soleri Cosanti Originals is the retailer and manufacturer of the world renowned Paolo Soleri Windbells. eBay's Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program ensures that items listed for sale do not infringe upon copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights. To eBay buyers: Before bidding on an item that claims to be made by Cosanti, Arcosanti, or Paolo Soleri, please feel free to contact us for verification. To eBay sellers: Please also feel free to contact us for verification that your item was made by us before using our trademarked names in your listing. Please take your own photos, and not use photos taken from our website. On our website, we are featuring a general model as opposed to a specific individual item. Ebay provides the luxury to feature photographically the actual specific piece for sale that will be shipped to the buyer. Ebay buyer protection will give the buyer his money back if the item they purchased is not as represented in your listing. Since your photos will show the specific bell design and finish, use your own descriptions, not descriptions copied from our website, especially wording that pertains to the fact that the Cosanti website is only showing a sample image of the bell design since each individual bell design is one-of-a-kind; and the finishes on every bell turn out differently due to the random nature of the patina acid bath or the burnishing process. To eBay buyers & sellers: Regarding "vintage" or claims of an items age: Most of our items are given an oxidized patina finish when new, which gives it an aged look immediately.
    [Show full text]
  • The Internet and Engaged Citizenship
    The Internet and Engaged Citizenship David Karpf american academy of arts & sciences The Internet and Engaged Citizenship David Karpf © 2019 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. All rights reserved. ISBN: 0-87724-128-7 This publication is available online at www.amacad.org /project/practice-democratic -citizenship. Suggested citation: David Karpf, The Internet and Engaged Citizenship (Cambridge, Mass.: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2019). This paper is part of the American Academy’s Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship. The statements made and views expressed in this publication are those held by the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Officers and Members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Please direct inquiries to: American Academy of Arts & Sciences 136 Irving Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Telephone: 617-576-5000 Fax: 617-576-5050 Email: [email protected] Web: www.amacad.org Contents 1 Introduction 2 Why Understanding the Digital Citizen Proves So Difficult 3 The Pace of Internet Time 7 The Proprietary Data Gap 10 The Internet and Engaged Citizenship, Circa 2019 10 The Internet and Political Polarization 14 Digital Pathways for Participation 17 The Earnest Internet Versus the Ambivalent Internet 20 The Quiet Demise of Web 2.0 23 Digital Democracy and the Field of Dreams Fallacy 26 Conclusion 26 The Upside of Internet Time 27 Bridging the Proprietary Data Gap 28 New Policy Challenges for the Platform Era 29 About the Author Introduction The Internet is everywhere. Years ago, it was limited to desktop comput- ers, synonymous with the static and whir of a connecting modem.
    [Show full text]
  • Mapping Notions of Cyberspace
    MAPPING NOTIONS OF CYBERSPACE: OPTIMISM, SKEPTICISM, AND THE ISSUES OF IDENTITY AND SPIRITUALITY A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Putut Widjanarko June 2005 This thesis entitled MAPPING NOTIONS OF CYBERSPACE: OPTIMISM, SKEPTICISM, AND THE ISSUES OF IDENTITY AND SPIRITUALITY BY PUTUT WIDJANARKO has been approved for the School of Telecommunications and the College of Communication by Drew McDaniel Professor of Telecommunications Greg Shepherd Interim Dean, College of Communication WIDJANARKO, PUTUT. M.A. June 2005. Telecommunications Mapping Notions of Cyberspace: Optimism, Skepticism, and the Issues of Identities and Spirituality (151 pp.) Director of Thesis: Drew McDaniel This is a literature survey on concepts of the Internet and cyberspace and their influence, both on society at large and at the individual level. On society, it discusses the optimistic and skeptic views on the impact of the Internet. At the personal level, it discusses issues of self and identity, and spirituality and religiosity. Except for spirituality and religiosity issues of the Internet, this work chose one author to represent each category: Howard Rheingold for the optimistic view, Clifford Stoll for the skeptic view, and Sherry Turkle for the issues of self and identity. The author’s critiques on those notions are offered in the last chapter. The author argues that the diversity of notions on the Internet can be put in a broader historical and social context. These notions reflect the ever-present questions about the relationship between human and its technologies. Approved: Drew McDaniel Professor of Telecommunications To Elin, Faikar, Hanum and Ranti ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds.
    [Show full text]
  • North American Artists' Groups, 1968–1978 by Kirsten Fleur Olds A
    Networked Collectivities: North American Artists’ Groups, 1968–1978 by Kirsten Fleur Olds A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History of Art) in The University of Michigan 2009 Doctoral Committee: Professor Alexander D. Potts, Chair Professor Matthew N. Biro Associate Professor Rebecca Zurier Assistant Professor Kristin A. Hass © Kirsten Fleur Olds All rights reserved 2009 To Jeremy ii Acknowledgments This dissertatin truly resembles a “third mind” that assumed its own properties through collaborations at every stage. Thus the thanks I owe are many and not insignificant. First I must recognize my chair Alex Potts, whose erudition, endless patience, and omnivorous intellectual curiosity I deeply admire. The rich conversations we have had over the years have not only shaped this project, but my approach to scholarship more broadly. Moreover, his generosity with his students—encouraging our collaboration, relishing in our projects, supporting our individual pursuits, and celebrating our particular strengths—exemplifies the type of mentor I strive to be. I would also like to acknowledge the tremendous support and mentorship provided by my committee members. As I wrote, I was challenged by Rebecca Zurier’s incisive questions—ones she had asked and those I merely imagined by channeling her voice; I hope this dissertation reveals even a small measure of her nuanced and vivid historicity. Matt Biro has been a supportive and encouraging intellectual mentor from my very first days of graduate school, and Kristin Hass’sscholarship and guidance have expanded my approaches to visual culture and the concept of artistic medium, two themes that structure this project.
    [Show full text]
  • Earth and Beyond in Tumultous Times: a Critical Atlas of the Anthropocene
    Gál, Löffler (Eds.) Earth and Beyond in Tumultous Times EARTH BEYOND GÁL LÖFFLER Earth and Beyond in Tumultuous Times Future Ecologies Series Edited by Petra Löffler, Claudia Mareis and Florian Sprenger Earth and Beyond in Tumultuous Times: A Critical Atlas of the Anthropocene edited by Réka Patrícia Gál and Petra Löffler Bibliographical Information of the German National Library The German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie (German National Bibliography); detailed bibliographic information is available online at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Published in 2021 by meson press, Lüneburg, Germany www.meson.press Design concept: Torsten Köchlin, Silke Krieg Cover image: Mashup of photos by Edgar Chaparro on Unsplash and johndal on Flickr Copy editing: Selena Class The print edition of this book is printed by Lightning Source, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom. ISBN (Print): 978-3-95796-189-1 ISBN (PDF): 978-3-95796-190-7 ISBN (EPUB): 978-3-95796-191-4 DOI: 10.14619/1891 The digital editions of this publication can be downloaded freely at: www.meson.press. This Publication is licensed under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International. To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Contents Series Foreword: Future Ecologies 9 Caucho 13 Mátyás Sirokai [ 1 ] Introduction 15 Réka Patrícia Gál and Petra Löffler Plant-time 45 Kornélia Deres [ 2 ] Memory Regimes and the Anthropocene: Tracing Causes and Responsibilities under Flood Risk Scenarios in Ancash, Peru 47 Tomás J. Usón Archipalego 73
    [Show full text]
  • College of Architecture and Environmental Design
    116 College of Architecture and Environmental Design John Meunier, M.Arch., Dean www.asu.edu/caed PURPOSE The practice of architecture and environmental design is the culturally responsible shaping of our environment— from the scale of the cities in which we live to the buildings and interiors we inhabit and the artifacts and products we use. What we design must be durable, useful, beautiful, appropriate to its context, and not a waste of resources, energy, or materials. Designing our environment is an art, a technology, and a social science that has a history as long as human culture. The goals of the faculty include offering stu- dents an education that becomes the basis for life-long growth and improvement as professionals, advancing the discipline in both theory and practice, and improving the quality of the environment by making the expertise and knowledge of the faculty available to other professionals and to the public. ORGANIZATION Academic Organization. The college is composed of three academic units: School of Architecture School of Design School of Planning and Landscape Architecture Administration of the college is the responsibility of the dean, who in turn is responsible to the president of the uni- versity through the senior vice president and provost. College Facilities. All of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design’s programs are housed in a single complex. Facilities include the Architecture and Environ- mental Design Library; computer laboratories; design stu- dios; the Gallery of Design; lecture and seminar rooms; the Media Center; offices for faculty, the administration, and student organizations; the shop; the slide collection; Materi- College of Architecture and Environmental Design/North als Resource Center; and technology laboratories.
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture Handouts, 2013
    Arch. 48-350 -- Postwar Modern Architecture, S’13 Prof. Gutschow, Classs #1 INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW Introductions Expectations Textbooks Assignments Electronic reserves Research Project Sources History-Theory-Criticism Methods & questions of Architectural History Assignments: Initial Paper Topic form Arch. 48-350 -- Postwar Modern Architecture, S’13 Prof. Gutschow, Classs #2 ARCHITECTURE OF WWII The World at War (1939-45) Nazi War Machine - Rearming Germany after WWI Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect & responsible for Nazi armaments Autobahn & Volkswagen Air-raid Bunkers, the “Atlantic Wall”, “Sigfried Line”, by Fritz Todt, 1941ff Concentration Camps, Labor Camps, POW Camps Luftwaffe Industrial Research London Blitz, 1940-41 by Germany Bombing of Japan, 1944-45 by US Bombing of Germany, 1941-45 by Allies Europe after WWII: Reconstruction, Memory, the “Blank Slate” The American Scene: Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941 Pentagon, by Berman, DC, 1941-43 “German Village,” Utah, planned by US Army & Erich Mendelsohn Military production in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Akron, Cleveland, Gary, KC, etc. Albert Kahn, Detroit, “Producer of Production Lines” * Willow Run B-24 Bomber Plant (Ford; then Kaiser Autos, now GM), Ypsilanti, MI, 1941 Oak Ridge, TN, K-25 uranium enrichment factory; town by S.O.M., 1943 Midwest City, OK, near Midwest Airfield, laid out by Seward Mott, Fed. Housing Authortiy, 1942ff Wartime Housing by Vernon Demars, Louis Kahn, Oscar Stonorov, William Wurster, Richard Neutra, Walter Gropius, Skidmore-Owings-Merrill, et al * Aluminum Terrace, Gropius, Natrona Heights, PA, 1941 Women’s role in the war production, “Rosie the Riverter” War time production transitions to peacetime: new materials, new design, new products Plywod Splint, Charles Eames, 1941 / Saran Wrap / Fiberglass, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Rethinking the Participatory Web Final
    Preprint version of Stevenson, Michael. 2014. “Rethinking the Participatory Web: A History of HotWired’s ‘New Publishing Paradigm,’ 1994–1997.” New Media & Society, October. doi: 10.1177/1461444814555950. Title Rethinking the participatory web: A history of HotWired’s ‘new publishing paradigm,’ 1994-1997. Author Michael Stevenson University of Amsterdam [email protected] Abstract This article critically interrogates key assumptions in popular web discourse by revisiting an early example of web ‘participation.’ Against the claim that Web 2.0 technologies ushered in a new paradigm of participatory media, I turn to the history of HotWired, Wired magazine’s ambitious web-only publication launched in 1994. The case shows how debates about the value of amateur participation vis-à-vis editorial control have long been fundamental to the imagination of the web’s difference from existing media. It also demonstrates how participation may be conceptualized and designed in ways that extend (rather than oppose) 'old media' values like branding and a distinctive editorial voice. In this way, HotWired's history challenges the technology-centric change narrative underlying Web 2.0 in two ways: first, by revealing historical continuity in place of rupture, and, second, showing that 'participation' is not a uniform effect of technology, but rather something constructed within specific social, cultural and economic contexts. Keywords web history, participation, Web 2.0, cyberculture, digital utopianism, Wired !1 Introduction In the mid-2000s, a series of popular accounts celebrating the web’s newfound potential for participatory media appeared, from Kevin Kelly’s (2005) proclamation that active audiences were performing a ‘bottom-up takeover’ of traditional media and Tim O’Reilly’s (2005) definition of ‘Web 2.0’ to Time’s infamous 2006 decision to name ‘You’ as the person of the year (Grossman, 2006).
    [Show full text]
  • Original Drawings by Paolo Soleri Available for Sale │ 2017.11.24 Paolo Soleri (1919–2013)
    ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY PAOLO SOLERI AVAILABLE FOR SALE │ 2017.11.24 PAOLO SOLERI (1919–2013) Through his work as an architect, urban designer, artist, craftsman, and philosopher, Paolo Soleri explored the countless possibilities of human aspiration. One outstanding endeavor is Arcosanti, an urban laboratory, constructed in the Arizona high desert. It attempts to test and demonstrate an alternative human habitat which is greatly needed in this increasingly perplexing world. This project also exemplifies his steadfast devotion to creating an experiential space to "prototype" an environment in harmony with man. In his philosophy ”Arcology (Arcitecture + Ecology). Soleri formulated a path that may aid us on our evolutionary journey toward a state of aesthetic, equity, and compassion. For more than a half century, his work, marked by a broad-ranging and coherent intellect (so scarce in the age of specialization), has influenced many in search of a new paradigm for our built environment. THE COSANTI FOUNDATION ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY PAOLO SOLERI AVAILABLE FOR SALE 2017.09.01 -Mesa City Project (3) -Arcology Revisited (5) -Arcology Fragments (5) For inquiry, please contact Paolo Soleri Archives [email protected] (928) 632–6240 Project Mesa City is the outline of a regional development in the west of the American continent or any other similar region. The land is internationalized under world government authority. Thus the sheltering of man is based on his worth, not on his clan. By dedicating a parcel of its land for this purpose, any developing country would see a radical transformation of its social, economic, and cultural life. MESA CITY In the park of Mesa City, man confronts this devastated area and Axial Park, Mesa City Project, 1960 attempts its transfiguration.
    [Show full text]