No Comment

I've long been baffled by the general level of idiocy of the comments in The Guardian's Comment is Free section. Take Peter Hallward's humane and intelligent analysis of the West's culpability in Haiti's fucked economy and social structure, for example, which meets a barrage of imbecilic abuse. As Mark Fisher argues, the majority of these comments are both wilfully ignorant and simplistically unaware of their own ideological position - the default setting for all conservatives who believe that ideology is something that other people suffer from. Anyway, Mark's post has said all this better already so go read it....

Suburban Frontyards International

Not the title of my forthcoming album - although if I had one it probably would be - but a fabulous flickr set. I'm particularly taken with the deadpan joys of this one.

In the absence of original post material here are some other links:

Zone Styx Travelcaard, an excellent new (mainly) music blog that I initially thought might be this man, although I've now been reliably informed is not. Good recent posts on old faves Swans and a kind of continuing conversation with Kpunk on nostalgia. I'm planning a future post (sic) that takes some of the same themes but in an architectural direction...nothing to do with grainy jpegs on blogs and everything to do with the wholly pejorative use of the term within architectural debate. It's always worth trying to pick apart something so regularly deployed as an insult.

Mammoth, a blog devoted to BIG urban, infrastructure and architectural issues.

The pithily titled Cosmopolitan Scum is shaping up well, even though he has a fairly caustic pop at the generally excellent Bad British Architecture.

Finally a sad fairwell to one of my favourites blogs. Emmy Hennings/Anwyn Crawford has not only stopped writing Aloof From Inspiration but expelled it out of the air shift and into deep space. Deleted the entire thing in other words, hence no link, as it ain't there no more. I shall miss it.

Blogs v cigarettes

When I started this blog it was with the intention of writing enthusiastically about things that interested me. I was getting to the point where I felt I could slip easily into a kind of cynical practitioner's world view. Call it a mid-life crisis but I wanted to recapture some of the thrill that comes with studying and discussing architecture rather than doing it. Reading the weeklies and getting enraged by them each week didn't seem a very productive way of spending one's energies.

The idea was to write my perfect architecture magazine; one third Melody Maker circa 1988, one third crappily stapled fanzine and one third Roland Barthes' Mythologies. Or rather - and being generous- roughly one third as good as Mythologies. It was never meant to be a diary of my working or (heaven forbid) personal life.

So what's my point? Well, to some extent this navel gazing has come about as a result of the recent Blueprint brouhaha. Not that I'm put off exactly but I have been wondering why I write at all?

I have, for instance, never really written about contemporary architecture. Certainly not in a direct what-I-think-about-this-new-building kind of way. This is partly because, and without wishing to sound snotty about it, I'm not all that interested in doing so. Besides, there are plenty of people doing that already. One of the reasons I like Owen's writing so much is that he's not a conventional architecture critic. His writing exists on the edges of mainstream architectural criticism, relating it to a specific political framework and a broader cultural remit that takes in music, books and art.

Which brings me to Kieran Long's point made in the comments section of my response to Blueprint's article. Kieran takes an interesting line defending traditional architectural journalism on the grounds that its mainstream position allows it to shock and surprise and therefore move the mainstream position on. Implicit in this argument is that blogs - which exist on the margins of proper, professional criticism and journalism - lack that element of surprise. They are expected to be extreme, partial, perverse, maverick etc.

The interesting about this is that it assumes a centre to architectural discourse. Even more so than Tim Abraham's article, which conceded (albeit somewhat angrily) that the critical centre has shifted. Kieran's point could be re-framed though. What if architectural criticism were not over there but over here? What if architecture were not the AJ technical and legal section, or tedious debates about 'style wars'*, and was actually something very different?

The late Robin Evans once asked a similar question when reviewing Daniel Liebeskind's early drawings. Instead of viewing them as marginal, esoteric commentaries on the centre ground of architecture he suggested tipping up the whole epistemology and viewing them the other way. What if that kind of intellectual speculation were really the centre of architecture after all and everything was marginal to that activity?

So this is what I wanted to write about, to treat the marginal as somehow central to architecture. Not to build a new ivory tower, but as a way of keeping things interesting. To attempt to reposition those things at the margins of architecture - ice cream vans, rocket ship design, motorways and Christmas lights - as not just worthy of consideration, but an important part of the discipline.

I'm aware that this is part of a tradition and has its own history, one that I happily subscribe to. This tradition might include the Independant Group and The Smithsons of But Today We Collect Ads, Dan Graham's Homes of America, The Venturis (inevitably), Robin Evans' subtle deconstructions of architectural history and Bernard Tschumi's seminal reinvestigation of early, alternative strands of modernism.

Esteemed company I realise, and of course the reality falls short of the ambition, but I have as a side effect discovered more good writing and inspiring work on the internet than I ever imagined. In his essay Books v cigarettes, George Orwell argued that reading was a cheaper pleasure than smoking. Blogs cost nothing, allowing you to circumvent the entire publishing business, should you so wish. In this lies the freedom to re-write the script. Not to subvert the mainstream, but to shift it over there somewhere.

Blogging is interesting because it allows you to temporarily re-cast the familiar categories and hierarchies of architecture. Suddenly the lines of demarcation are up for grabs. Free of the dreadful need to appear reasonable and sane, it allows you to speculate for a moment that architecture isn't that at all, it's this!


* And Vicky Richardson has a point about the dreadful apolitical response of architects to the Prince of Wales.

Criticism: Not What It Used To Be

I wasn't going to respond to Tim Abraham's criticisms of this blog - along with several notable others - partly out of a fear of appearing too defensive. His article may have been a bit of a rant but, then again, I've written a few of those in my time. Besides it's always nice to be noticed. However his article has resulted in some very thoughtful and intelligent responses which I wanted to expand on.

Both Things and Sit Down Man have made eloquent rebuttals of his argument so I'll try not to repeat them here. Nina at Infinite Thought too has elegantly dismantled most of the more reactionary statements about the internet more effectively than I could. I would add though that an article posted on line and linked by Blueprint to Twitter is on slightly thin ice criticising the ephemeral nature of blogs.

But onto more positive things! Tim Abraham's article is interesting because it raises a number of anxieties about the nature of criticism and architecture writing on the web. Firstly there is the issue of who is a legitimate critic. Abrahams seems keen to establish a proper hierarchy ranging from professional paid critics on respected magazines at the top down to the unsolicited plethora of amateurs on line.

As well as the levelling out of this entirely self-serving hierarchy he has a further concern that the internet itself destabilises proper categories of artistic worth. There is, Abraham's states, "no register of what is more important than something else".

A certain paranoia seems to underpin this anxiety, a sense that one might not know what it's correct to think anymore. I would suggest that this fear is a pretty constant anxiety historically speaking and the internet is merely the latest in a long line of "worrying" trends towards a democratisation of opinion.

Things magazine's numerous links and connections can be occasionally dizzying, but they are also intelligently and critically put together. Ironically enough Tim Abraham cites Venturi Scott Brown as forbears of 'proper' critical writing. If ever there was an architectural precedent for something like Things magazine though it is surely the Venturis?

VSBA's research projects into Las Vegas and the American suburb (which resulted in the critically panned Signs of Life exhibition) were disliked by architects precisely for daring to look seriously at everyday culture in a non-judgemental way. Too much information and not enough moralising has always been the received critical wisdom on Learning from Las Vegas and Signs of Life.

Finally, and most centrally, there is the curious criticism of blogs for being nostalgic and for "giving up on the future". Leaving aside the question of why this might be the only legitimate subject matter for an architecture blog, perhaps it's the concept of the future deployed here that needs revising.

The Future is freighted with baggage, already overcoded to the point of being meaningless. Abrahams wants a declamatory THIS IS THE FUTURE sort of criticism, not realising that the desire to return to such linear certainties might itself be reactionary and nostalgic. Perhaps the future is already here? Or rather visions and speculations about it already are. It's just that they don't look like they used to.

There seems to be to be a stiff literalness at work here, a failure of imagination. It's perfectly legitimate to speculate about architecture (and its future) by looking at the recent past (Brutalism or Post Modernism) or at objects that fall outside the accepted canon of good design (Googie architecture, the Popemobile) or at other art forms (jungle, sit coms). This is a way to open up architectural debate, rather than flatten it. And looking at the past is not inherently nostalgic.

Blueprint's article exhibits a self-censoring ideology of what it's acceptable to write about, as well as a perverse fear of the possibilities thrown up by the internet. Not only is the format of internet based writing highly speculative (all those links and new connections) but a lot of the content is too. The considered response to Abraham's article by people like Owen and I.T. seems to speak too of the internet's ability to generate valuable discussion in a way that printed media simply can't.

Ultimately the blog sites that Abraham's criticises are (as Things points out) those of a more speculative and experimental nature. Their value lies precisely in the fact that they aren't looking in the same place as everyone else. Their interests may appear esoteric, eclectic or even bizarre, but that's because architectural criticism is so crowded with the same people all talking about the same old things.

Perhaps the future is not over there at all. Perhaps it's over here.

Is Modern Life Rubbish?

(Image via)

Yes, but here are some good things I've been reading:

Brutalism, Banham and Blur appear in recent posts at the excellent Radonbrainstorm. The post on Blur is particularly good, heroically attempting to reclaim Modern Life Is Rubbish from Britpop ignominy. Personally I'm with him all the way on this album and its "enchanting tale of lovers caught punch-drunk in the vortex of London life".

It also makes an interesting companion piece to the quite possibly definitive history of Pulp via urbanism, sexuality and class, currently underway at The Measures Taken.

I'm also intruiged by Radonbrainstorms image from '80's TV show Minder, mainly because I've missed the first episode of its return and am intrigued to see how it portrays London. London in the original Minder was relentlessly grim, a pre-Costa coffee and gentrification landscape of deserted backstreets, burnt out cars, grim clothes, gentleman's drinking clubs and British Leyland vehicles. Will it have been restyled by a combination of Urban Splash and the Urban Task Force?

Finally, Mockitecture's addictive architecture/music pairings scenario has turned up at Life Without Buildings. I'm not sure about the resulting equation of lo-fi music with primitive structures and igloos, but any excuse for some My Bloody Valentine is alright by me.

Brahms and List

Forgive the rubbish pun and for going all list based but here, in the absence of any other inspiration amidst all the social drinking and family bickering of christmas, are my favourite blogs (architecture or otherwise) of 2008. There are many others that I've enjoyed reading which aren't included, either because they have stopped posting altogether (The Impostume) or simply gone a bit quiet (Kosmograd, Candyland) or because I have only just started reading them (Loudpaper) but here we go......

Sit Down Man You're A Bloody Tragedy. Owen Hatherley's blog is the one I read the most consistently. The writing is always elegant but that isn't the best thing about it. Perhaps because he's neither an architect nor a 'proper' architecture critic Sit Down Man remains unaffected by conventional architectural wisdom. He has admirably dubious taste, being a fan of such unloved brutalist behemoths as Owen Luder's Tricorn Centre. Somebody has to be and I mean that most sincerely. As well as architecture, he writes well about pop and politics. Brutalism, techno and The smiths. What's not to like?

Things. A consistently fascinating site that is also an invaluable source of links to just about anything tangentially connected to design from Lego to celebrity cribs to (suprisingly often) the early 1990's shoegazing scene. Unlike most blogs Things is also incredibly restrained and disciplined in its format, regularly posting two or three times a week in a flannel-free style that draws out connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena. Totally admirable.

Pruned. A beautifully put together blog that ruminates at length on landscape issues with a particuarly strong ecological element. Fascinated with disappearing landscapes and the disastrous effects of climate change, Pruned is hugely enjoyable despite its occasionally apocalyptic subject matter.

I Like. A total joy, I Like features design, packaging, places, toys, typography and occasionally music collated with a sharp aesthetic sensibility. Also, as it turns out, a useful source for christmas presents. Stylishly laid out and with beautifuly photography, more of which is on I Like's flickr site. It also has a sister site called Nothing to See Here where Anne writes about the kind of everyday places not normally considered worthy of our attention including power stations and Poundbury.

Aloof From Inspiration. Brilliant recent posts on The Smiths and, in her previous Fan Girl blog incarnation, the wonderful Triffids. Emmy Hennings even manages to make vegimite interesting.

A456. A relatively recent discovery but exactly what an architecture blog should if you ask me. Recently featured long and in depth posts about landscape in Westerns, Madison Avenue chic in Mad Men and a fabulous recent piece on Kraftwerk videos and modernist space.

Blissblog. The first blog I read back when dinosaurs roamed the earth listening to pirate jungle stations. Blissblog's author Simon Reynolds is one of the sharpest and, of late, most perverse (Pubfunk?) music writers around. He writes with a mixture of studious precision and rapturous abandon about anything from 'ardkore to MBV to Ian Dury, thus managing to avoid like the plague any kind of critical consensus.

Entschwindet und Vergeht. Doesn't post that often but when it does E&V is wonderfully acute and enjoyably vitriolic. Wrote a fabulous post on brutalist tendencies within Zaha Hadid's work, a scathing attack on Make's Nottingham campus and also has a nice line on high tech.

The Sesquipedalist. Has been gone for a while but appears to be back. The central conceit of this blog is to look at articles and media representations of architecture rather than architecture itself. The author delves into past publications including old copies of AD and the Prince of Wales Institute's Perspectives magazine to shed a suprisingly illuminating light on contemporary preoccupations.

Architecture In Berlin. I love this blog partly because I lived in Berlin for a while some years ago and remember many of the schemes that AIB writes about. But it is also because he writes about them with an open minded enthusiam, wrestling with liking unfashionable and often beyond the pale Post Modernism while giving a sober judgement on the early work of current stars of architecture such as Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman.

Most Sadly Missed

Part IV. The blog that got me blogging and not only because the late Sir Norman Blogster once suggested that FAT's Islington Square housing should have won the Stirling Prize (although that helped). Part IV seemed to suffer a terminal meltdown sometime over the summer which is a tremendous shame as it provided an acerbic and astute critical commentary on mainstream British architecture, a kind of alternative Building Design.