november-books: 2018

Saturday 1 December 2018

Fac51 The Hacienda Newsletter

One of the few Factory related things not to have its own catalog number. So, the year is 1982, the Hacienda has been open only for a few months, and things are going both swimmingly and disasterously by reading the contents.

Luigi Colani / Designing the 21st Century

Excellent book on the oddball futuristic transport designer Colani. Despite his name Colani is a German citizen of Kurdish descent, though a lot of his work was for Italian car manufacturers. Though a prolific furniture and industrial designer his most known work is within the automobile industry, where his futuristic and often outlandish designs have seen him occupy the position of both insider and outsider. A true eccentric, how he got funding for anything is a wonder.

Steven Meisel / Per Lui

The closest one can get to a Meisel monographs- his brilliant Per Lui for Vogue Italia. It's exactly what you would expect- and want.

L'arte del costume nel cinema di Luchino Visconti

Wonderful book from the exhibition of the same name mounted in 1977. Visconti's scenography and costumes are stunning, and here some of his best work is presented, with of course the focus being on the clothes.

Tuesday 27 November 2018

Ant Farm : Inflatocookbook : a pneu-age techs book

A wonderful artefact of the age of experimental hippy architecture. Ant Farm prototyped temporary and inflatable structures, and during their lifetime published this how to guide for anybody who was interested and inclined. From the preface of the later 1973 edition: "The INFLATOCOOKBOOK was first published in Jan. 1971 by Ant Farm. It was our attempt to gather information and skills learned in process and present it in an easily accessible format. That INFLATOCOOKBOOK came loose leaf in a vinyl binder that we fabricated in our warehouse in Sausalito. The first printing was 2000 copies. The experiences that qualified us as ' Inflato-experts' occurred over an 18 month period in which we designed. built, and erected inflatables for a variety of clients and situations. Charley Tilford showed Ant Farm how to make fast, cheap inflatagles out of polyethylene and tape and support them with used fans from Goodwill. That was in the fall of 1969. The first one built was the largest, a 100'xl00' white pillow that was built for the ill fated Wild West Festival in San Francisco, then after being turned down for Stewart Brand's Liferaft Earth Event, finally had its day at Altamont. There followed a year in which we built numerous demo-inflatables at schools, conferences, festivals and gatherings around the state of California and beyond. ANT FARM at that time was: Andy Shapiro, Kelly Gloger, Fred Unterseher, Hudson Marquez, Chip Lord, Doug Hurr, Michael Wright, Curtis Schreier, Joe Hall, and Doug Michels. The INFLATOCOOKBOOK was written, designed, and put together by: Chip Lord, Curtis Schreier, Andy Shapiro, Hudson Marquez, Doug Hurr, Doug Michels with help from: Sylvia Oreyfus, Charley Tilford, and Sotiti Kitrilakis." Sits very well alongside the works of Archigram, Superstudio, Archizoom and Gruppo 9999 but with a west coast utopianism and DIY principles more often found in the Whole Earth/Dome building movement.

Proper old fashioned (and scarce) Trot/Marxist architecture critique. With of course a cover criticism of the flamboyant Archigram (here as Archigoon), and pages of stories about tenant organisations, botched town planning, Mai 68 style posters from AA students, squatting Centrepoint, public housing, writings from Black Dwarf and Agit Prop, Durban, The Architects resistance. A strain of architectural theory absent in the main from current discourse.

A stunning collection of 32 posters, with many less well documented examples, taken directly from the streets of Paris from May 1968 to late 1969. The Atelier Populaire was of course famous from it's inception, in particular work from the Ex-Ecole des Beaux Arts, some of which are represented here, along with many produced after the police occupation of the 27th June and move to PSU at 81 Rue Mademoiselle, along with examples from Atelier Populaire du Rel (23 rue de Richelieu), AP 14 Montparnasse, Robert & Cie - Paris, a non specified Comite d'action and the Comité d’initiative et de Coordination pour un Mouvement Revolutionnaire. Subjects range from the more general (workers unite, the fight continues, reject the future offered, general police brutality) to the specific (the Citroen walkouts, the state controlled ORTF, freedom for Inacio Palma, attacks on almost everybody in authority and information about specific events and meetings). What is often forgotten about the student revolution is the global nature of it's concerns- they are also represented here with statements against Nixon, for Cuba, The Mexican Movement, solidarity with Italian Strikers, anti Franco / Salazar and statements against imperialism, of course along with a lot of local pro-union sentiment, calls to action and support for the often justified French national pastime of being on strike.

The posters themselves represent a fascinating insight into a small snapshot of an influential time, where the power of media itself could be appropriated for revolutionary means with an impact that today would be impossible. Though image making and detournement are still used today by a variety of leftists movements with some success, the posters produced in and immediately after May 68 stand as the most striking and effective examples of media hijacking. The posters offered here have direct provenance, being taken from the streets at the time, and their underlayers offer a remarkable insight into their original context and usage.

Extremely scarce catalogue issued for their exhibition at the ICA in 1973. "Cheer up - it's Archigram , is a cry to the world at large ...the world of architecture and those who have to experience architecture...a cry..." for goodness sake stop being so grim and unimaginative...the world is an imprefect place...and yes, there are many things that must be changed...and there are ways in which the old concept of "house", "city", "design", problem", "place", "space, "artefact" (and the rest) can be exploded, shaken, pummeled, and re-invented." Could easily have been a (small) issue of Archigram.