My theory course this quarter is with Sci-Arc professor Michael Speaks. It began with the book Supermodernism by Hans Ibeling as a launching point to discuss what is modern and postmodern in order to project what supermodernism (still in its infancy) might end up being. The course revolves around architecture but also counts on art, politics, philosophy, etc for its definitions. So far we're still in the modernism part of the discussion and readings have included: Foucault's writing on discipline and the panopticon, Marx's observations on modernism and modernization, Walter Benjamin's Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, a russian film by Dziga Vertov and Society of Spectacle by Guy Debord. Its an introductory course for the first years, but many of the M.Arch2s are taking it because Speaks is relatively well known and a very good speaker.
Opening distinctions:
MODERNISM=1900-1960, INTERNATIONAL, NATION STATES, EUROWESTERNIZATION, EXPERIENCE, SUBJECT/OBJECT, PHENOMENOLOGY, THINGS
POSTMODERNISM=1960-1990, MULTINATIONAL, CORPORATIONS, AMERICANIZATION, COMMUNICATION, READER/TEXT, SEMIOTICS:MEANING, IMAGES/TEXTS
SUPERMODERNISM=1990-PRESENT, GLOBALISM, MARKET STATE, PLANETARY, EXPERIENCE, SENSORY IMMERSION, AFFECT/MOOD, IMAGE AS THING
