DAISY AMES

In addition to my Urban Design studio led by Ed Mitchell, Architecture Theory II with Ariane Harrison, Systems Integration with Martin Finio, Site and Building seminar with Steven Harris, and Diagrammatic Analysis seminar with Peter Eisenman, I am also auditing a course led by Keith Krumwiede. This course is called Performance Criticism and looks specifically at the non-architectural writings of Reyner Banham which were published in various magazines and architectural journals in the 50’s and 60’s. Banham believed it was important to educate architects about (pop) culture, science, technology and occurrences outside their own profession. Such articles ranged from race car events in England, sci-fi movies and machine aesthetics of the time.

I am really enthusiastic about this course because it forces us to think about culture as a whole, not just the academic environment that we tend to get too absorbed. These sorts of small anthropological pieces have sparked an interesting dialogue about our current state because architects are capable of affecting “change in a dynamic and highly contested world of ideas and products,” as Keith states. The weekly discussions make us wonder whether these investigations lead us to any sort of concrete conclusion about our culture and/or if there is any architectural merit in these pieces. Regardless, being aware and educated about the moment you live in, cognizant of current influences, design, technology, new methods of exchanging information and establishing identity is important to architecture. Understanding how these things “perform” is even more crucial to instigating the types of dynamic developments that are asked of architects. Therefore, I am going to start to comment - perhaps without a clear architectural/academic focus - about our contemporary influences, the way media allows us to interact, current trends, and fashion… basically “important” happenings in our society, through the eyes of an architecture graduate student at Yale and a 20 something year old in New York City.  The title of these essays and observations will be called: “These Dais.”

(Left: Coy Reyner Banham. Right: Architecture Ryan Gosling *Meme*)