Writing on the Image: Architecture, the City and the Politics of Representation (International Library of Visual Culture)

From an examination of the politically-laden spectacle of George IV's visit to Edinburgh in 1822 (as stage-managed by the celebrated novelist Sir Walter Scott), to an analysis of Google Earth's role in the construction of a new kind of political map (one that is no longer primarily structured by boundary lines and coloured territories, but instead through a politics of image resolution), the remarkable essays in this book present innovative ways of understanding visual phenomena in historical and contemporary culture. Writing on the Image brings together a series of Mark Dorrian's celebrated critical writings, developed over the last twelve years. Focusing on issues of elevated vision, spectacle, atmosphere and the limits of aesthetic experience, Dorrian explores the ideological effects of images, in their specific contexts, and the politics of representation. Seamlessly drawing together sources from architecture, art, literature, history, geography and film, the essays gathered here exemplify Mark Dorrian's pioneering 'post-disciplinary' approach to visual culture.Featuring a Foreword by Professor Paul Carter, and an Afterword by Dr Ella Chmielewska, Writing on the Image begins with a sequence of four historically-oriented chapters that lead onto the second half of the book, which deals with key events in architectural, urban and visual culture over the past decade. Whether it be an eighteenth-century engraving that depicts a magnified drop of tap water as an alien planet swarming with monstrous creatures; an artwork showing a car with the silhouette of a building mounted on its roof; the covering up of a tapestry in the UN before a televised news conference; or a large-scale satellite image that is affixed to the basement floor of a public building, vertiginously dissolving its solidity, Dorrian finds each artefact or event he examines to be eloquent in its ability to problematise a larger set of relations beyond itself. From an examination of the politically-laden spectacle of George IV’s visit to Edinburgh in 1822 (as stage-managed by the celebrated novelist Sir Walter Scott), to an analyses of Google Earth’s role in the construction of a new kind of political map (one that is no longer primarily structured by boundary lines and coloured territories, but instead through a politics of image resolution), the remarkable essays in this book present innovative ways of understanding visual phenomena in historical and contemporary culture. Writing on the Image brings together a series of Mark Dorrian’s celebrated critical writings, developed over the last twelve years. Focusing on issues of elevated vision, spectacle, atmosphere and the limits of aesthetic experience, Dorrian explores the ideological effects of images, in their specific contexts, and the politics of representation. Seamlessly drawing together sources from architecture, art, literature, history, geography and film, the essays gathered here exemplify Mark Dorrian’s pioneering ‘post-disciplinary’ approach to visual culture.Featuring a Foreword by Professor Paul Carter, and an Afterword by Dr Ella Chmielewska, Writing on the Image begins with a sequence of four historically-oriented chapters that lead onto the second half of the book, which deals with key events in architectural, urban and visual culture over the past decade. Whether it be an eighteenth-century engraving that depicts a magnified drop of tap water as an alien planet swarming with monstrous creatures; an artwork showing a car with the silhouette of a building mounted on its roof; the covering up of a tapestry in the UN before a televised news conference; or a large-scale satellite image that is affixed to the basement floor of a public building, vertiginously dissolving its solidity, Dorrian finds each artefact or event he examines to be eloquent in its ability to problematise a larger set of relations beyond itself. Ranging from an examination of the politically-laden spectacle of George IV's visit to Edinburgh in 1822, as stage-managed by the celebrated novelist Sir Walter Scott, to an analysis of Google Earth's role in the construction of a new kind of political map, one no longer structured by boundary lines and coloured territories but instead through a politics of image resolution, the remarkable essays in this book present innovative ways of understanding visual phenomena in historical and contemporary culture. Writing on the Image brings together a series of Mark Dorrian's celebrated critical writings. Focusing on issues of elevated vision, spectacle, atmosphere, and the limits of aesthetic experience, Dorrian explores the politics of representation through a series of close readings of the ideological effects of images in their specific contexts. Seamlessly traversing sources from architecture, art, literature, history, geography and film, the essays gathered here exemplify Mark Dorrian's pioneering 'post-disciplinary' approach to architecture and visual culture. Featuring a foreword by Paul Carter, and an afterword by Ella Chmielewska, Writing on the Image opens with a sequence of four historically-oriented chapters that then lead on to considerations of key events in architectural, urban and visual culture over the past decade. Whether it be an eighteenth-century engraving that depicts a magnified drop of tap water as an alien planet swarming with monstrous creatures, an artwork showing a car with the silhouette of a building mounted on its roof, the covering up of a tapestry in the UN before a televised news conference, or a large-scale satellite image that is affixed to the basement floor of a public building, Dorrian shows how each artefact or event he examines is eloquent in its ability to problematise a larger set of relations beyond itself List of Figures 5 Acknowledgements 11 Foreword 15 Introduction 21 Chapter 1. The King in the City: The Iconology of George IV in Edinburgh, 1822 33 Chapter 2. Cityscape with Ferris Wheel: Chicago, 1893 42 Chapter 3. Falling Upon Warsaw: The Shadow of Stalin’s Palace of Culture 62 Chapter 4. Adventures on the Vertical: From the New Vision to Powers of Ten 81 Chapter 5. ‘The Way the World Sees London’: Thoughts on a Millennial Urban Spectacle 98 Chapter 6. The Aerial Image: Vertigo, Transparency and Miniaturisation 113 Chapter 7. Clouds of Architecture 127 Chapter 8. Utopia on Ice: The Sunny Mountain Ski-Dome as an Allegory of the Future 140 Chapter 9. On Google Earth 152 Chapter 10. Transcoded Indexicality 169 Chapter 11. Voice, Monstrosity and Flaying: Anish Kapoor’s Marsyas as a Silent Sound Work 182 Chapter 12. A-Disciplinarity and Architecture? 196 Afterword 206 Notes on the Chapters 225 Endnotes 229 Bibliography 259 Index 279