dmariel, Jencks

Last semester I was in an art history class called Visual Culture.  Part of the semester was dedicated towards postmodernism and architecture.  After reading the Jencks article, I was thankful to have already had a sense of what some of the vocabulary meant.  I think it was helpful in my understanding of the reading.  I didn’t expect a lecture about architecture, but it was a great learning experience.  I now visually and linguistically understand the connotations of these complex words.  The concept of urbane urbanism was especially interesting to me after a recent trip to Celebration.  Personally, I find that beneath the beauty of the community that Celebration is somewhat fake and creepy.  My boyfriend lives in Baldwin Park which is comparable to Celebration, but not near as bad. Both communities are representative of a town in itself, with all the stores and facilities that you would need for everyday life. The community looks as if its been there forever, when really it is somewhat brand new. 

Some of the architecture that we looked at were things that I never knew could even possibly exist. For example, the tower in Hong Kong that can bend backwards and forwards to withstand earthquakes.  Divergent Signification appealed to me in that the architectures are really showing people what goes into making buildings by adding a stylistic effect to the functions of a building.

I also associated traditional reinterpretation with the concepts of pastiche and parody. Almost everything that we believe to be ‘new’ today is a compilation of traditional elements. This is much like traditional reinterpretation, where you take a classic design, remodel it and use it in a different way.

I look forward to our trip on Thursday to the bank of American building.  Ironically, I have a dinner reservation there for Friday night at the restaurant on the top floor.  I have never been to the building, nor the restaurant so I think it will be exciting to check it out.  Working in downtown Orlando, I have now become much more aware of the types of architecture and what they mean in society and the history of Orlando.