Architectural modernism needs spin. A prime example of truth laundering by its media propagandists was a 2004 Entebbe-type raid by London architectural journalists on Scotland’s parliament building. Nicely wined and dined, they had a job to do, and boy, did they deliver! Most Scottish journalists were excluded from this opinion formers’ junket. Holyrood’s budget, variously … [Read more...] about Is modernism obsolete?
Modernist mythologies 2
What, exactly, is modern architecture? The first thing to be understood is that the name itself is a lie. It isn’t remotely modern. According to an interesting American academic paper, the Mental Disorders which gave us Modern Architecture (Sussman/Chen), Modernism arose out of the trauma of the First World War. It presented as a strain of such neuropsychiatric conditions as … [Read more...] about Modernist mythologies 2
Mythologising modernism
Thanks to the comforting anaesthetic of its own douce gentility Edinburgh may not look like a city in crisis. But, as the infamous Golden Turd arises in the east and the ruins of its cash crop economy – mass tourism – emerge through the miasma of the global pestilence, we should not only pay attention to some of our civic disasters, but also ask ourselves if there’s a better … [Read more...] about Mythologising modernism
Monumental follies 2
The current iconoclastic spasm over our civic statuary appears to be part of a pattern which requires us to be burdened with the guilt of Scotland’s past misdeeds since many of our countrymen were indeed involved in the slave trade. It’s undeniable that many individual Scots profited from the slave trade, either as plantation owners in America and the West Indies, or as dealers … [Read more...] about Monumental follies 2
Monumental follies 1
Pygmalion, Don Giovanni’s singing stookie, and Jackie Kay’s ‘mythical stone statue that is turning into a person before my eyes’ in her memoir Red Dust Road excepted, statues are inanimate, can’t engage in political discourse, and make easy targets. Many offend our modern liberal and radical sensibilities. Others are useful virtue-signalling distractions for those who like to … [Read more...] about Monumental follies 1