Camila Mancilla Vera

COMING OUT OF THE MONSTER'S CLOSET

finishing an architectural treatise

2023

video collage installation

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There is a dark place behind the wall that gathers the detritus of bygone times. This tiny space is where invisible beings serve witness to architectural pedagogy past. Its monstrous inhabitants, on this occasion, are manifest and emerge from the sectioned pages of an architectural treatise. 

 

A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method by Sir Banister Fletcher, first published in 1896 with major revisions in 1921, served as the most important reference for anyone interested in architecture throughout the twentieth century and beyond. It seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of all styles and periods of architecture from prehistory to the present day. The tome is notable for its use of the comparative method, which involves analyzing different civilizations and their respective architectural styles side by side, but Fletcher was deeply constrained by his view of the importance of European culture. 

 

Fletcher's Eurocentric approach focuses on the architectural history of Western countries – notably Italy, France, and England – while dismissing the contributions of non-Western civilizations as “Non-Historical Styles.” By doing so, Fletcher marginalized the cultural aspects of architecture in non-Western societies, perpetuating the idea that Western architectural traditions are superior to those of other cultures for generations of architects.

 

Furthermore, Fletcher's approach tends to focus on formal aspects of architecture, such as style and ornamentation, rather than cultural, social, or political aspects. This approach ignores the ways in which architecture is shaped by and shapes the cultures and societies in which it is produced.

 

Moreover, Fletcher's book perpetuated colonial and imperialist attitudes, presenting non-Western architectural traditions as primitive or inferior to the Western. This approach reinforces a hierarchical view of architecture that positions Western architecture at the pinnacle and other traditions as lower on his synoptic frontispiece of the Tree of Architecture. By ignoring the contributions of women and other marginalized groups, the book perpetuated the idea that architecture is a male-dominated profession and reinforces gender inequalities. 

 

The most recent edition published in 2019, titled Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture, works to minimize the most egregious portions of earlier editions. Nonetheless, bringing these earlier limitations to light is important for building a critique and self-awareness of our own history of biased assumptions. It's time to finish the book properly. 

 

The video collage installation depicts breaking the book, by opening up a wound in the Tree of Architecture where marginalized groups revise the work. Tense transparent cords serve as knives cutting through the projected pages of the book, overlapping with the emergence of excluded regional cultural groups. 

 

Coming out the monster's closet is an invitation for ethics, culture, identity, and equity to become primary issues in architecture. 

 

MATERIAL

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Clear cord, staples, projector on a 4ft closet area. Recorder homemade video and video collage with ethnographic footages, transfer process of several videos over still images scan pages from the book “A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method” by Banister Fletcher, published in London in 1896.

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OVERLAPPING VIDEOS:

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Tobías Engel - Carnaval de Guinée Bissao (1982)

UPenn. Durango Mexico

Boulton Expedition Films Reel Pt. 1

UPenn New Guinea

Peoples And Cultures of The World A Bit Of Life In Java

A Question of Tomorrow

Perilous Paradise

Native American Home Movies and Early Images.

 

SOUNDS OVERLAP OF THE FOLLOWINGS:

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Alva Noto Ryuichi Sakamoto – Morning, 2022.

sing Selknam in the Chilean Patagonia. Wax cylinder engraving by Martin Gusin from 1920.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

 

Linda Heinrich

Paul Emmons

Felipe Pino

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