Blog #3a

I hope everyone enjoyed our tour of the "Spatial City: An Architecture of Idealism" exhibition at Inova. To conclude our discussion of the exhibition next week, I'd like you to answer the following based on the exhibition and our assigned readings for Week six:

Les Olympiades

Based on the essay, "A City in a Building: Paris Subversions," explain why "Les Olympiades" is called a "city in a building." Describe one way the once distinct domestic and work spheres are made to overlap one another in "Les Olympiades." Describe one way the changes enacted in the "Les Olympiades" create and constitute new, hybrid identities for the people who inhabit and work in the building.

Yves Belorgey "Preparation de la Muraille de Chine en Vue de son explosion" (2000)

Compare the transformations in "Les Olympiades" with Yves Belorgey's vision of post-industrial suburban public housing in "Preparation de la Muraille de Chine en Vue de son explosion" (2000) and "Destruction" video (2003). How do both "Les Olympiades" and Belorgey's work speak to the impact of processes of globalization on Western European urban centers?

Extra Credit
Finally, for extra credit towards your midterm take-home assignment (up to 3 points), write a brief paragraph (100-250 words) about any work in the exhibition that addressed an issue raised in our current era of globalization (immigration/anti-immigration debates, environmental sustainability, overpopulation, cultural hybridity, the impact of new communication and transportation technologies, economic disparity between the First and Third Worlds, labor, human rights, the "end" of the nation-state, etc.). You must provide the artist name, title of the work, and a brief description of the work.

The midterm review sheet is currently posted on the course D2L site.

Please write your name at the top of your response.