UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Architecture, Media, and Technologies of the Mind, 1948-1978 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture by Randolph Kinsuke Nakamura 2020 © Copyright by Randolph Kinsuke Nakamura 2020 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Architecture, Media, and Technologies of the Mind, 1948-1978 by Randolph Kinsuke Nakamura Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture University of California, Los Angeles, 2020 Professor Sylvia Lavin, Chair This dissertation examines the genealogy and history of the black box in architecture from the late 1940s to the late-1970s, focusing on architects, designers, and artists in the United States. Through an examination of the work of Will Burtin, Pulsa, and Doug Michels this dissertation interrogates the architectural black box as a trope, a set of protocols and a material form of architecture where the site of media projection is transformed into a means to model and manipulate human consciousness. As a site of mediation, the architectural black box in this period became a key place of exchange between art, architecture, and technoscience. ii The dissertation of Randolph Kinsuke Nakamura is approved. Michael Osman Dana Cuff Soraya de Chadarevian Sylvia Lavin, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2020 iii For my father Koichi Nakamura, 1928-2011 iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Committee Page iii Dedication iv List of Figures vi Acknowledgements xix Vita xxii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Will Burtin’s Integration: Architectures of Visual Reason 17 Chapter 2 Upjohn’s Brain: Exhibiting the Black Box 55 Chapter 3 Non-Media and Architectural Flickers: The Environments of Pulsa 101 Chapter 4 Dolphin Embassy: Architectures of Interlock, Cinema, and Excommunication 152 Conclusion 209 Bibliography 216 Figures 248 v List of Figures Figure 1-1. Q-2, Semicircular presentation room view 1, rendering by Henry Dreyfuss. From “History of Presentation in OSS (Preliminary Draft)” Records of the Ofbice of Strategic Services 1940-1946, Record Group 226, Entry 99, 1a. Figure 1-2. Q-2, Semicircular presentation room view 2, rendering by Henry Dreyfuss. From “History of Presentation in OSS (Preliminary Draft)” Records of the Ofbice of Strategic Services 1940-1946, Record Group 226, Entry 99, 1a. Figure 1-3. Plan of Q-2. From “History of Presentation in OSS (Preliminary Draft),” 3. Figure 1-4. Trylon and Perisphere at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Photo by Samuel H. Gottscho. Figure 1-5. “Theme Center - Trylon and Perisphere - Cutaway drawing of Trylon and Perisphere” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Figure 1-6. “Theme Center - Democracity - Model of towns and countryside” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1935 - 1945. Figure 1-7a. “Room of Our Time” by László Moholy-Nagy, as reconstructed by Kai-Uwe vi Hemken and Jakob Gebert and installed in the KunstLichtSpiele exhibition, Kunsthalle, Erfurt, 2009. Photo by Sabine Bielmeier. Figure 1-7b. Detail of “Endless Belt” (left side of image) in “Room of Our Time” by László Moholy-Nagy, as reconstructed by Kai-Uwe Hemken and Jakob Gebert and installed in Guggenheim, New York. Photo by Gail Worley. Figure 1-8. Sketch plan of presentation rooms for Combined Chiefs of Staff Building. Ofbice of Strategic Services 1940-1946, Record Group 226, National Archives at College Park, MD. Figure 1-9. Photo of main conference room in Combined Chiefs of Staff Building. From “U.S. High Command Plans Strategy in Map-Filled Sanctum,” 73. Figure 1-10. Top photos: main conference room; bottom photos: small conference room. From “U.S. High Command Plans Strategy in Map-Filled Sanctum,” 74. Figure 1-11. Plan of projection apparatus and screen. From Jacobj, “Visual Instruction and the Projection,” 258. Figure 1-12. Page S-14 from Air Force Manual No. 20: Gunner’s Information File, Flexible Gunnery. Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology. vii Figure 1-13. Page S-15 from Air Force Manual No. 20: Gunner’s Information File, Flexible Gunnery. Figure 1-14. Photo of Integration, central table and wall representing “Reality of science.” Photo by Ezra Stoller. Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology. Figure 1-15. Photo of Integration wall representing “Reality of light, color, texture.” Photo by Ezra Stoller. Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology. Figure 1-16. “Small scale model of the exhibit Integration,” 1948. Photo by Ezra Stoller. From “Integration: The New Discipline in Design,” 230. Figure 1-17. Designer diagram. From Integration, An Exhibition, 3. Figure 1-18. “Will Burtin Exhibit for the A-D Galleries, drawing 1 of 4,” 1948. Drawing by The Displayers. Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology Figure 1-19. Plan diagram. From Integration, An Exhibition, inside cover. Figure 1-20. Photo of Integration wall representing “Reality of man.” Photo by Ezra Stoller. viii Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology. Figure 1-21. Photo of Integration, close-up of wall representing “Reality of light, color, texture.” Photo by Ezra Stoller. Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology. Figure 1-22. Photo of Integration, center table and partial view of wall representing “Reality of space, motion, time.” Photo by Ezra Stoller. Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology. Figure 1-23. Photo of Integration wall representing “Reality of science.” Photo by Ezra Stoller. Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology. Figure 1-24. Photo of Will Burtin and Integration wall representing “Reality of science.” Photo by Arnold Newman. Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology. Figure 2-1. Insert from The Upjohn Company. A Moment at a Concert. Kalamazoo, Michigan: The Upjohn Company, 1961. Figure 2-2. From Upjohn “Brain” Exhibit_Action Sequence_13 October 1960 Will Burtin ix Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives. Figure 2-3. Page S-5 from United States Army Air Forces, Training Aids Division and Army Air Forces Instructors School Gunner’s Information File : Flexible Gunnery. Figure 2-4. Page S-17 from United States Army Air Forces, Training Aids Division and Army Air Forces Instructors School Gunner’s Information File : Flexible Gunnery. Figure 2-5. Brain scale model. Early version, c. 1960. Photo by Ezra Stoller. Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives. Figure 2-6. Brain scale model. Early version, c. 1960. Photo by Ezra Stoller. Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives. Figure 2-7. Image of the Brain c. 1960 from the Smithsonian Science Service Historical Images Collection. Figure 2-8. Image from back cover of A Moment at a Concert promotional booklet for Upjohn. Figure 2-9. The Brain on display in Upjohn’s Building 41 Warehouse in Kalamazoo, Michigan. c. 1960. Photo from http://upjohn.net/other/brain_cell/brain_cell.htm, accessed October 5, 2020. x Figure 2-10. Dr. A. G. MacLeod, scientibic designer of The Brain, standing inside the centrencephalic system of the model at the AMA Convention, June 25, 1960. Photo from Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives. Figure 2-11. Photograph of The Brain at the AMA Convention, June 25, 1960. Photo from Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives. Figure 2-12. Upjohn Brain installation at AMA convention, 1960. Image from “Lighting up the Brain Waves.” Life 49, no. 8 (1960): 68. Figure 2-13. Control panel for IBM 305 RAMAC (Random Access Memory Accounting Machine), International Business Machines Corp., image from: https://www.moma.org/ collection/works/1491, accessed October 5, 2020. Figure 2-14. Diagram (big. 3) from Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory, 143. Figure 2-15. Photo of Growth and Form exhibition. From Richard Hamilton, 2014, 25. Figure 2-16. Photo of Growth and Form exhibition. From Richard Hamilton, 2014, 24. Figure 2-17. Image of interior of Palazzo del Lavoro, from “E.I.L.: Momenti Di Uno Spettacolo, Prima Dell’apertura.” Domus 380, no. 7 (1961): 1–18. xi Figure 2-18. Perspective and photograph of Palazzo del Lavoro from Peter Blake, “Concrete Parthenon.” Architectural Forum 112, no. 5 (1960): 122-25. Figure 2-19. Map from Man and Communications. Washington D.C.: Department of Commerce, 1961. Figure 2-20. Contact sheet image of entrance to the Upjohn Brain installation at Italia ‘61. From Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology. Figure 2-21. Contact sheet image of Upjohn Brain installation at Italia ‘61. Spectators shown using LecTour device. From Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology. Figure 2-22. Upjohn Brain installation at Italia ‘61. Photo by Paolo Monti from “Italia ’61 a Torino: Immagini Della Esposizione Del Lavoro Immagini Della Mostra Delle Regioni.” Domus 381, no. 8 (1961): 1–19. Figure 2-23. Upjohn brain construction, 1960. Photo by Jerry Cooke. From Will Burtin Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester Institute of Technology. Figure 2-24. Upjohn brain construction, 1960. Photo by Jerry Cooke. From Will Burtin xii Papers, RIT Libraries: Graphic Design Archives, Rochester