The experience of seeing some of the installations at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art cannot be described in any useful way. Just go there and feel good about some of the things that people are able to create. If you can't make it there, then I'm truly sorry. No resources on the Internet, books, magazines, or long-winded speeches can convey the spirit of the place. Except for the Sol Lewitt--in that case just buy a book or visit Mohawk Regional High School.
In other news I discovered the writings of historian Peter S. Wells. His book Barbarians to Angels gives a more sophisticated and honest account of the period of European history from 400 AD to 800 AD--which is idiotically referred to as the "Dark Ages." The decline and fall of the Roman Empire is one of the most over-wrought and misunderstood events in human history. Wells does a good job of dispelling myths and provoking thought about what it means to be civilized, human, and successful.
Over the next few posts, I'd like to work off some of the themes that Wells' articulates--but with a slant towards how we perceive architecture. If I'm organized, I'll explode some ideas that I held dear at one point in my youth. A rough outline of these upcoming topics:
-The Myth of Durability
-The Bias Towards Monumentality
-The Suburban Paradise Forever
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