Wednesday, October 14, 2015, 4:15-5:45 p.m.
Sullivan Galleries, 33 S. State St., 7th Floor
This lecture will trace the history of Modernology, an approach to observing and documenting Japanese urban environments and behaviors that was invented in the early twentieth century and has inspired many subsequent generations of fieldwork by groups of architects, artists, anthropologists, sociologists, and hobbyists. With a wit and eccentricity reflected in their names – Lost Items Research Institute, Architectural Detective Agency, Thomasson Observation Center, Street Observation Society, Atelier Bow-Wow – they search the city for moments of beauty and interest in everyday places, objects, and activities, cumulatively producing an irreplaceable archive of overlooked urban phenomena, of ephemera made permanent.
Thomas Daniell is currently Head of the Department of Architecture and Design at the University of Saint Joseph, Macau, prior to which he spent twenty years as a practicing architect in Japan. He holds a B.Arch from Victoria University, an M.Eng from Kyoto University, and a Ph.D from RMIT. A two-time recipient of grants from the Graham Foundation, he is author of FOBA: Buildings (2005), After the Crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan (2008), Houses and Gardens of Kyoto (2010), Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama + Amorphe (2011), and Kansai 6 (2011). His book An Anatomy of Influence is forthcoming from AA Publications.
Presented with the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
THE WILLIAM BRONSON AND GRAYCE SLOVET MITCHELL LECTURE SERIES, free and open to the public. AIA Learning Units available for most lectures and events, see http://www.saic.edu/aiado for details.
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