General & Miscellaneous Architectural History & Criticism, Technology - General & Miscellaneous, International Style & Modernism - Architecture

Zoomscape: Architecture in Motion and Media

Name: Zoomscape: Architecture in Motion and Media
Author: Mitchell Schwarzer
ISBN: 9781568984414

by Mitchell Schwarzer, Mitchell Scwharzer

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Overview

Although a few among us are intrepid architectural tourists, visiting buildings and landscapes our cameras at the ready, most of us experience architecture through the windshield of a moving vehicle, the architectural experience reduced to a blurry and momentary drive-by. And the rest of our architectural "tourism" is through the images of cameras, movies, and television programs -- that is, through the lens of another's eye.
Architectural hisotrian Mitchell Schwarzer calls this new mediated architectural experience the "zoomscape." In this thought-provoking book, he argues that the perception of architecture has been fundamentally altered by the technologies of transportation and the camera -- we now look at buildings, neighborhoods, cities, and even entire continents as we ride in trains, cars, and planes, and/or as we view photographs, movies, and television.
Zoomscape shows how we now perceive buildings and places at high speeds, across great distances, through edited and multiple reproductions. Nowadays, our views of the architectural landscape are modulated by the accelerator pedal and the remote control, by studio production techniques and airplane flight paths. Using examples from high art and popular culture -- from the novels of Don Delillo to the opening credits of The Sopranos -- Mitchell Schwarzer shows that the zoomscape has brought about unprecedented and often marvelous new ways of perceiving the built environment.

Synopsis

Schwarzer (visual studies, California School of the Arts) explores the twin impacts of mechanized transportation and photography on the perception of architecture in the modern era, noting that buildings must reflect the perceptual characteristics of their time. He analyzes the changing perceptions of architecture as it is reflected in photographic reproductions of physical movement from the 19th century to the present, as well as in literary and filmic narratives. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR