Recent Publications
Publications
Every intellectual endeavor relies upon an existing body of knowledge, proven and primed for reuse. Historically, this appropriation has been regulated through quotation. Academics trade epigraphs and footnotes while designers refer to precedents and manifestos. These citations—written or spoken, drawn or built—rely on their antecedent, and carry the stamp of authority.
In the field of architecture, appropriation is faster, easier, and more conspicuous than ever, but also less regulated. These displacements are no longer self-referential games. Instead, buildings are copied before construction is completed. Digital scripts are downloaded, altered, and re-uploaded—transposing the algorithm, not the object itself. Design bloggers “curate” texts and images—copying and pasting, copying and pasting. In the sea of memes and GIFs, tweets and retweets, quotes are both innumerable and viral, giving voice to anyone with access to these channels.
Traditionally, the practice of quotation has inoculated the author against accusations of plagiarism. Today, the quicksilver nature of contemporary communications obscures chains of reference. Must we jettison conventions of authorship or will we establish new codes of citation?
This issue of Perspecta—the oldest and most distinguished student-edited architectural journal in America—explores the uneasy lines between quotation, appropriation, and plagiarism, proposing a constructive reevaluation of contemporary means of architectural production and reproduction. Although architecture is a discipline that prizes originality and easily ascribed authorship, it is important to recognize that quotation and associated operations are ubiquitous, intentional, and vital, not just palliatives to the anxiety of influence. These are perhaps the most potent tools of cultural production, yet also the most contested. Perspecta 49 welcomes the contest.
Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen—When modern architecture went viral
Amanda Reeser Lawrence—Spin-offs: the V.C. Morris Shop and self-relflexivity in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright
Ana Miljački—Project_Rorschach: on architectural memes and self-analysis
Sylvia Lavin—Double or nothing: architecture not in evidence
Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento—Primary structure: law, power, architecture
Richard Rogers—Interview
Mari Lending—Reciting the tomb of Tutankhamen
Adam Lowe—The Theban Necropolis Preservation Initiative
Formlessfinder—Precedent pile
Steven Lauritano—A remnant vivarium
WikiHouse New Haven—Project portfolio
Ines Weizman—The exception to the norm: buildings and skeletons in the archive of Ernst Neufert
Demetri Porphyrios—Art and architecture as palimpsest
Panayotis Tournikiotis—Quoting the Parthenon: history and the building of ideas
Jacques Herzog—Interview
George Hersey—Replication replicated or, notes on American bastardy
Xiahong Hua—Quotation and the construction of Chinese architectural identity
Erin Besler and Ian Besler—Like so
Xenia Vytuleva—From copy to trope: secrecy, quotation, and urbanism in Soviet ZATOs
Fake Industries Architectural Agonism, MAIO, Córdova Canillas—On Rooms: No Vacancy
Elia Zenghelis—Perpetually quoting the architectural project: abstraction, essence, and metaphor
Thomas Weaver—Loose Sally
