Gavin,
Though I am not sure, Alun might be referring to the important but
overlooked book by Gary Stevens titled, "The Favored Circle: The
Social Foundations of Architectural Distinction", published by MIT
Press. Stevens explicitly applies Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of field
and habitus, symbolic capital, and taste to examine architectural
creativity and genius as a kind of mythology of the hero architect,
and a paradigm for sustaining the class and power relations that
architecture is as riven with as any other part of society. In this
view, the profession of architecture is contextualized within the
field of architectural distinction (which includes practice,
education, competition, media, culture, society, etc.), and shown to
be influenced by the same battles for symbolic capital (and through
this, political and material capital) that "Art" or "Culture" play in
class battles - essentially, battles to legitimize a dominant culture
- hegemony anyone?
In a similar fashion I have looked at the role of the idea of design
in society, both in my dissertation, based on an ethnography of a
university-community partnership in urban design, and in an article on
the technology/war/speed theorist Paul Virilio (who was an
architecture professor) - "Design as Power: Paul Virilio and the
Governmentality of Design Expertise", Culture, Theory and Critique
48(2) Oct 2007 pg. 175-198.
In my dissertation I noted the very same kinds of references to
celebrity that you've mentioned. In these cases the references were
almost always accompanied by qualifiers that made fun of or disparaged
the "star system" in architecture, but nevertheless, respected,
admired, or even supported the system at the same time (both
explicitly and implicitly).
I am currently writing a piece that explores some of these things
further, and I'd be happy to talk with you more about it.
Juris
Juris Milestone, Ph.D.
Critical Writing Program, and
Penn Institute for Urban Research
University of Pennsylvania
On Mar 12, 2008, at 3:08 AM, Alun Price wrote:
>> Hi Gavin
>
> I have a partial recollection that may stir others to remember the
> book and author. There was a book that I once owned, loaned to a
> student, never seen again,that looked at the relationships between
> American architects, their fame and the links with major firms.
>
> The theme of the book was that architects who worked with keynote
> practices at the height of their fame subsequently had a good chance
> of becoming famous themselves. The book used diagrams that plotted
> the career tragectories of architects that had been employed by major
> firms, Sullivan etc.
>
> The key finding seemed to be that if you worked for a famous
> architect at the height of their fame (just after winning major
> prizes or building major projects) you had a much better chance of
> gaining fame yourself than if you were employed by the same architect
> at a later stage in their history.
>
> The title was something like 'American Architects and the mechanics
> of fame'
>
> Regards
>
> Alun
>
>> ---- Original Message ----
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: RE: designer identity and celebrity culture
>> Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:02:59 +1100
>>
>>> Hello listers
>>> I am interested in developing one aspect of a qualitative study I am
>> currently doing . One aspect of this is designer talk about their
>> background and it is apparent in the interviews that many designers
>> construct their identity through reference to the star celebrities in
>> their respective design fields (and sometimes whether they have
>> worked for them, spoken to them etc). Since this seems to be such a
>> pervasive element in designers doing identity (perhaps less so in
>> industrial design) I wonder what substantive research work has been
>> done on this.
>>>
>>> Dr Gavin Melles
>>> Research Fellow, Faculty of Design
>>> Swinburne University of Technology
>>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/gavinmelles
>>>
>>>
>>> -----
>>> Swinburne University of Technology
>>> CRICOS Provider Code: 00111D
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