Critical History: Space, Place, and Science

The seminar will examine various philosophical and historical approaches to the question of the relation between urban space, architecture, and science, from the founding reflections of Heidegger and Foucault to the more contemporary contributions of authors like Jonathan Crary, Manuel De Landa, Sanford Kwinter or Bruno Latour. It is a reading-intensive class where active participation is demanded. Instead of turning a paper at the end of the semester, students will be evaluated through their participation as well as from a presentation of the readings at one of the meetings.Requirements: major contributions to class discussionand one full-bore presentation. For this presentation students will work in small groups, meet with the faculty to organize the class, distribute carefully prepared material, and include that week\’s reading plus supplementary works to be agreed upon between the presenting group and the faculty.Science Center, Room 469Week 1, 23 September 2004: Martin Heidegger, The Question ConcerningTechnology (New York: Harper, 1997).Week 2, 30 September 2004: Hubert L. Dreyfus and Harrison Hall, eds.,Heidegger: A Critical Reader (Cambridge and Oxford: London: Blackwell,1992).Week 3, 7 October 2004. Michel Foucault, \”Different Spaces,\” inAesthetics, Method, and Epistemology. James D. Fabion, ed. Vol 2Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984. Foucault, Madness and Civilization(New York: Vintage, 1973).Week 4, 14 October 2004. Michel Foucault, continue to end of Madness and Civilization; Read material on spaces of the leprosy and spaces of the plague in Abnormal: Lectures at the College de France. Introduction by Arnold I. Davidson (Picador, 2003).Week 5, 21 October 2004. Mike Davis, City of Quartz (New York: Vintage,1990); Edward W. Soja, Postmodern Geographies (London and New York: Verso,1989).Week 6, 28 October 2004. Manuel De Landa, A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History (New York: Zone, 1997).Week 7, 4 November 2004. Peter Galison, Emily Thompson, Architecture of Science (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999).NOVEMBER 11: VETERANS DAYWeek 8, 18 November 2004. Antoine Picon, Alessandra Ponte, eds.,Architecture and the Sciences (Princeton: Princeton University Press,2003)NOVEMBER 25: THURSDAY THANKSGIVING HOLIDAYWeek 9, 2 December 2004. Jonathan Crary, Suspensions of Perception:Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture (October Books)Week 10, 9 December 2004: Sanford Kwinter, Architectures of Time(Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001).Week 11, 16 December 2004. Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel, Iconoclash(Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002).