|
Showing 1 - 7 of
7 matches in All Departments
In postwar Europe and the Middle East, Hilton hotels were quite
literally "little Americas." For American businessmen and tourists,
a Hilton Hotel--with the comfortable familiarity of an
English-speaking staff, a restaurant that served cheeseburgers and
milkshakes, trans-Atlantic telephone lines, and, most important,
air-conditioned modernity--offered a respite from the disturbingly
alien. For impoverished local populations, these same features lent
the Hilton a utopian aura. The Hilton was a space of luxury and
desire, a space that realized, permanently and prominently, the new
and powerful presence of the United States.
"Building the Cold War" examines the architectural means by which
the Hilton was written into the urban topographies of the major
cities of Europe and the Middle East as an effective representation
of the United States. Between 1953 and 1966, Hilton International
built sixteen luxury hotels abroad. Often the Hilton was the first
significant modern structure in the host city, as well as its
finest hotel. The Hiltons introduced a striking visual contrast to
the traditional architectural forms of such cities as Istanbul,
Cairo, Athens, and Jerusalem, where the impact of its new
architecture was amplified by the hotel's unprecedented siting and
scale. Even in cities familiar with the Modern, the new Hilton
often dominated the urban landscape with its height, changing the
look of the city. The London Hilton on Park Lane, for example, was
the first structure in London that was higher than St. Paul's
cathedral.
In his autobiography, Conrad N. Hilton claimed that these hotels
were constructed for profit and for political impact: "an integral
part of my dream was toshow the countries most exposed to Communism
the other side of the coin--the fruits of the free world."
Exploring everything the carefully drafted contracts for the
buildings to the remarkable visual and social impact on their host
cities, Wharton offers a theoretically sophisticated critique of
one of the Cold War's first international businesses and
demonstrates that the Hilton's role in the struggle against
Communism was, as Conrad Hilton declared, significant, though in
ways that he could not have imagined.
Many of these postwar Hiltons still flourish. Those who stay in
them will learn a great deal about their experience from this new
assessment of hotel space.
Jerusalem currently stands at the center of a violent controversy
that threatens the stability of both the Middle East and the world.
This volatility, observes Annabel Jane Wharton, is only the most
recent manifestation of a centuries-old obsession with the control
of the Holy City--military occupation and pilgrimage being two
familiar forms of "ownership." Wharton makes the innovative
argument here that the West has also sought to possess Jerusalem by
acquiring its representations.
From relics of the True Cross and Templar replicas of the Holy
Sepulchre to Franciscan recreations of the Passion to
nineteenth-century mass-produced prints and contemporary theme
parks, Wharton describes the evolving forms by which the city has
been possessed in the West. She also maps those changing
embodiments of the Holy City against shifts in the western market.
From the gift-and-barter economy of the early Middle Ages to
contemporary globalization, both money and the representations of
Jerusalem have become progressively incorporeal, abstract,
illusionistic, and virtual.
"Selling Jerusalem "offers a penetrating introduction to the
explosive combination of piety and capital at work in religious
objects and global politics. It is sure to interest students and
scholars of art history, economic history, popular culture,
religion, and architecture, as well as those who want to better
understand Jerusalem's problematic place in history.
From climate change forecasts and pandemic maps to Lego sets and
Ancestry algorithms, models encompass our world and our lives. In
her thought-provoking new book, Annabel Wharton begins with a
definition drawn from the quantitative sciences and the philosophy
of science but holds that history and critical cultural theory are
essential to a fuller understanding of modeling. Considering
changes in the medical body model and the architectural model, from
the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century, Wharton demonstrates
the ways in which all models are historical and political.
Examining how cadavers have been described, exhibited, and visually
rendered, she highlights the historical dimension of the modified
body and its depictions. Analyzing the varied reworkings of the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem-including by monumental commanderies of
the Knights Templar, Alberti's Rucellai Tomb in Florence,
Franciscans' olive wood replicas, and video game renderings-she
foregrounds the political force of architectural representations.
And considering black boxes-instruments whose inputs we control and
whose outputs we interpret, but whose inner workings are beyond our
comprehension-she surveys the threats posed by such opaque
computational models, warning of the dangers that models pose when
humans lose control of the means by which they are generated and
understood. Engaging and wide-ranging, Models and World Making
conjures new ways of seeing and critically evaluating how we make
and remake the world in which we live.
From climate change forecasts and pandemic maps to Lego sets and
Ancestry algorithms, models encompass our world and our lives. In
her thought-provoking new book, Annabel Wharton begins with a
definition drawn from the quantitative sciences and the philosophy
of science but holds that history and critical cultural theory are
essential to a fuller understanding of modeling. Considering
changes in the medical body model and the architectural model, from
the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century, Wharton demonstrates
the ways in which all models are historical and political.
Examining how cadavers have been described, exhibited, and visually
rendered, she highlights the historical dimension of the modified
body and its depictions. Analyzing the varied reworkings of the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem-including by monumental commanderies of
the Knights Templar, Alberti's Rucellai Tomb in Florence,
Franciscans' olive wood replicas, and video game renderings-she
foregrounds the political force of architectural representations.
And considering black boxes-instruments whose inputs we control and
whose outputs we interpret, but whose inner workings are beyond our
comprehension-she surveys the threats posed by such opaque
computational models, warning of the dangers that models pose when
humans lose control of the means by which they are generated and
understood. Engaging and wide-ranging, Models and World Making
conjures new ways of seeing and critically evaluating how we make
and remake the world in which we live.
Buildings are not benign; rather, they commonly manipulate and
abuse their human users. Architectural Agents makes the case that
buildings act in the world independently of their makers, patrons,
owners, or occupants. And often they act badly. Treating buildings
as bodies, Annabel Jane Wharton writes biographies of symptomatic
structures in order to diagnose their pathologies. The violence of
some sites is rooted in historical trauma; the unhealthy spatial
behaviors of other spaces stem from political and economic
ruthlessness. The places examined range from the Cloisters Museum
in New York City and the Palestine Archaeological Museum (renamed
the Rockefeller Museum) in Jerusalem to the grand Hostal de los
Reyes Catolicos in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and Las Vegas
casino resorts. Recognizing that a study of pathological spaces
would not be complete without an investigation of digital
structures, Wharton integrates into her argument an original
consideration of the powerful architectures of video games and
immersive worlds. Her work mounts a persuasive critique of popular
phenomenological treatments of architecture. Architectural Agents
advances an alternative theorization of buildings' agency-one
rooted in buildings' essential materiality and historical
formation-as the basis for her significant intervention in current
debates over the boundaries separating humans, animals, and
machines.
Jerusalem currently stands at the center of a violent controversy
that threatens the stability of both the Middle East and the world.
This volatility, observes Annabel Jane Wharton, is only the most
recent manifestation of a centuries-old obsession with the control
of the Holy City--military occupation and pilgrimage being two
familiar forms of "ownership." Wharton makes the innovative
argument here that the West has also sought to possess Jerusalem by
acquiring its representations.
From relics of the True Cross and Templar replicas of the Holy
Sepulchre to Franciscan recreations of the Passion to
nineteenth-century mass-produced prints and contemporary theme
parks, Wharton describes the evolving forms by which the city has
been possessed in the West. She also maps those changing
embodiments of the Holy City against shifts in the western market.
From the gift-and-barter economy of the early Middle Ages to
contemporary globalization, both money and the representations of
Jerusalem have become progressively incorporeal, abstract,
illusionistic, and virtual.
"Selling Jerusalem "offers a penetrating introduction to the
explosive combination of piety and capital at work in religious
objects and global politics. It is sure to interest students and
scholars of art history, economic history, popular culture,
religion, and architecture, as well as those who want to better
understand Jerusalem's problematic place in history.
In postwar Europe and the Middle East, Hilton hotels were quite
literally "little Americas." For American businessmen and tourists,
a Hilton Hotel--with the comfortable familiarity of an
English-speaking staff, a restaurant that served cheeseburgers and
milkshakes, trans-Atlantic telephone lines, and, most important,
air-conditioned modernity--offered a respite from the disturbingly
alien. For impoverished local populations, these same features lent
the Hilton a utopian aura. The Hilton was a space of luxury and
desire, a space that realized, permanently and prominently, the new
and powerful presence of the United States.
"Building the Cold War" examines the architectural means by which
the Hilton was written into the urban topographies of the major
cities of Europe and the Middle East as an effective representation
of the United States. Between 1953 and 1966, Hilton International
built sixteen luxury hotels abroad. Often the Hilton was the first
significant modern structure in the host city, as well as its
finest hotel. The Hiltons introduced a striking visual contrast to
the traditional architectural forms of such cities as Istanbul,
Cairo, Athens, and Jerusalem, where the impact of its new
architecture was amplified by the hotel's unprecedented siting and
scale. Even in cities familiar with the Modern, the new Hilton
often dominated the urban landscape with its height, changing the
look of the city. The London Hilton on Park Lane, for example, was
the first structure in London that was higher than St. Paul's
cathedral.
In his autobiography, Conrad N. Hilton claimed that these hotels
were constructed for profit and for political impact: "an integral
part of my dream was toshow the countries most exposed to Communism
the other side of the coin--the fruits of the free world."
Exploring everything the carefully drafted contracts for the
buildings to the remarkable visual and social impact on their host
cities, Wharton offers a theoretically sophisticated critique of
one of the Cold War's first international businesses and
demonstrates that the Hilton's role in the struggle against
Communism was, as Conrad Hilton declared, significant, though in
ways that he could not have imagined.
Many of these postwar Hiltons still flourish. Those who stay in
them will learn a great deal about their experience from this new
assessment of hotel space.
|
|