“A portmanteau of ‘architecture’ and ‘ecology,’ arcology was first theorized by the Italian architect Paolo Soleri in the late 1960s. Billed by its creator as the blueprint for a “city in the image of man,” arcologies challenged the notion of the urban environment as something separate from and antagonistic to nature. In Soleri’s cities, cars would be useless and the very notion of roads would be abolished as divisive constructs. Work and living spaces would be nearly indistinguishable. There’d be no need to ever use a light bulb during the day or air conditioning during the summer, even in the desert.”
Author: Douglas McLennan
How Western Philosophy Excluded The Rest Of The World
“Africa and Asia were excluded from the philosophical canon by the confluence of two interrelated factors. On the one hand, defenders of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) consciously rewrote the history of philosophy to make it appear that his critical idealism was the culmination toward which all earlier philosophy was groping, more or less successfully. On the other hand, European intellectuals increasingly accepted and systematised views of white racial superiority that entailed that no non-Caucasian group could develop philosophy.”
Berkeley Using Optical Scanners To Recover Decayed Recordings Of Languages That Have Died
Among the thousands of wax cylinders in the University of California (UC) Berkeley’s Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology are songs and spoken-word recordings in 78 indigenous languages of California. Some of these languages, recorded between 1900 and 1938, no longer have living speakers. The history on the cylinders is difficult to hear. The objects have deteriorated over the decades, mold eating away at their forms, cracks breaking through the sound.
After Years Of Debate, Construction Of DC’s Eisenhower Memorial Begins
Officials will host a ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday for the $150 million memorial on its four-acre site on Independence Avenue between Fourth and Sixth streets SW. Construction on the controversial project is expected to take three years, with an opening date set for 2020.
Plans To Alter New York’s Iconic ATT&T Building Sparks Furor
The debate over the appropriateness of the redesign comes down to priorities. What’s more important: the integrity of an important work of architecture, or how well it functions as part of the contemporary city? Behind that question lurk others. How important is AT&T, really? (One scholar described it as “banal” and “a mediocre building” in 2015.) And how well can we assess a building’s role in architectural history at a remove of only 30-odd years?
Princeton’s Westminster Choir College Lays Off All Its Staff
The layoff notices anticipate the sale of the entire college next spring to an undisclosed buyer, or the school’s potential closure. The potential buyer is described publicly only as an Asian corporation that runs for-profit K-12 schools. The buyer has no accreditation in higher education.
Students Rally To Remove Thomas Hart Benton Murals. University Defends The Work
“Like most great art, Benton’s murals require context and history,” said Lauren Robel, the school’s executive vice president and provost, in a statement, calling the works a national treasure. “Many well-meaning people, without having the opportunity to do that work, wrongly condemn the mural as racist simply because it depicts a racist organization and a hateful symbol.”
Deaf Dancer’s Hearing Implant Edited Out Of Ad
“South African Simone Botha Welgemoed, 27, has been deaf since birth and was 22-months-old when she was fitted with a Cochlear implant in 1992. But when she saw the Virgin Active advertisement on social media, she realised the implant had been edited out.”
What The Art Forum Sexual Harassment Scandal Says About The Visual Art World
As with the many other sexual misconduct accusations working their way through the news — whether about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, film director James Toback, or former New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier — the Artforum allegations have laid bare the art world’s power structures and the inequities women face within them.
Wisconsin-Based Book World Is Closing Its 45 Stores In Seven States
“The national shift towards e-commerce has triggered the loss of mall anchor stores and a downward spiral in customer counts at Book World stores, reducing sales to a level that will no longer sustain business operations. Book World has stores in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, North Dakota and Missouri.”