In memoriam Stalin Baroque /Prosopagnosia in architecture

Populism versus modernity is the theme again.

In a couple of documentary films i just finished watching the old familiar problem, or just plain reality, of humanity’s love affair with everything it despises was once again actualized. The documentarys, featuring British architecture and food connoisseur Jonathan Meades ,describes the architectural practices of the two best known European looser ideologies of the last century with a certain degree of sarcastic wit (Jonathan Meades is worth checking out in general). Both movies are highly recommended, the one about Natzi Germany, not only for it’s wit and interesting storytelling methods but also for it’s gay porn value. The first part (in youtube terms) contains a perfectly lovely scene of fit, sweaty sauna Germans spanking each other with twigs about 2m30sec in.

Not surprisingly the topic of populism is in focus, at least in “Joe architecture”, the soviet-movie.

Soviet architecture transformed from it’s constructivist beginnings to what is nowadays often referred to as Stalin-Baroque just as the communist party turned from ideological fervour to a more pragmatic power hunger, in other words – when Josef Stalin caught the ball. As Stalin passed the torch to Nikita Khrushchev and the party at least partially returned to a more sound ideological base and improving the living standards of Soviet citizens the catholic kitsch of Stalin-Baroque was abolished and its ornaments were again, in true Loosian maner, regarded as immoral (Yes the Russians were generally orthodox not catholic, but the educated petite bourgeois i wish would read this should know the origins of Baroque are closely related to the catholic counter reformation).

The Russian version of modernism – constructivism, just like the international and notably German pre-natzi variation, was closely linked to socialism. It was a part of reformulating the world, taking away that witch was unnecessary and bourgeois in Historical stylism. One could argue that as the communist revolution disbanded the objective of reformulating the social system and in stead inserted new institutions in place of the old (Stalin as the red czar and so on) it also banned the idea of formulating new architectural aesthetics, in that case doing almost the opposite. Stalinist buildings were necessarily reformed in spatial an constructional terms, but were never the less adorned with traditional, old world symbolism. In that sense Stalinist buildings were new systems in the guise of old institutions.

The constantly provocative mr Meades at one point refers to Stalin as the first Postmodernist (something i’ve actually done in a social context before and thus found rather amusing). I myself have gone through a small post modernist revolution, provoking my modernist teachers at the Chalmers education in self satisfied petite bourgeois modernism, as i was myself provoked by their, as i thought of it, quasi elitism (i don’t know if i’d mind “true” elitism so much). Thus, i have spent much time brooding over the conflict between postmodernisms popularity amongst the general populus and the popularity of modernism amongst architects. It would all have beens o easy had only modernism really been more functional in the most obvious sense, but since it is not…well

It seems to me this conflict in the end can only be studied in the terms of aesthetical function. The bottom line question seems to be:

What functions in human evolution can be ascribed to aesthetics? We obviously use our esthetical sense both to determine the nature of our surroundings and objects in them, and allso to determine characteristics and identity of fellow humans.

Classical greek/roman architecture and it’s descendant classicisms often refer to proportions of architecture as relating to human proportions and thus being beautiful because god created man in his image and..blabla. In a modern biologistical context this would imply that we interpret the patterns and proportions of architecture using the same analytical functions as we use to for example recognize faces.

sketch by cesariano

This is interesting, as there is a disorder – prosopagnosia that basically impedes your ability to recognize faces. From what i’ve read it’s hard to figure out how this disorder, it seems to come in many different versions, affects your ability to recognize and analyze other visual information. As i have understood it, there are several theories about the origins of the state, some seem to believe it is a general defiecency in a persons ability to process visual patterns while others believe it relates specifically to faces.

The question posed by me would be as follows;

Are humane proportions, the proportions of an individual, processed i specific place or way in our brains?

could those specific processes or patterns of analyzes be triggered by the repetition of humane proportions in an inanimate object so that we humans perceive it as endowed with certain personal attributes?

Would the fact that people often refer to classical architecture as “having personality” in any way at least partially mirror such a triggering of patterns? Or is it simply an expression of the understanding that personalitys have through time formed the artifice in question?

I have sometimes considered the interpretation of architecture as simply man made nature, as it encompasses more and more of our surroundings it seems to me this interpretation of the term is more and more adequate. Architecture, or i should say exterior architecture, for it has always been the case when it comes to interior design, is less and less the design of singular objects and more and more the desig of our entire surroundings, of the landscape.

It seems to me that this observation in conjunction with the theories about cognitive personalization mentioned above would explain the drastic break with thousand year old traditions as simply the shift from designing personalities to designing landscapes. I don’t believe this to be the final explanation, maybe not even a major theory but at least an alternative look on the matter, not related to ideology or as directly to new techniques of construction as the usually predominant exp+lanations offered today. Even though it is certainly related to them and has probabely been offered many times before by people other than my self.

To finish of this rather disparate and notelike text i offer you a set of just as disparate questions;

will scientific research in the functions of our brains lead anywhere that impacts the discussion about populism and it’s relation to oppression or “evil” or is it simply so – that the defining principle of populism is in fact easily accessible symbolism, is populism only the ability to communicate and that leads us to always react against it, as anything made clear enough contains a portion of oppression or “evil”.

Is the current western love affair with “democratic” systems only a stage in a cyclic evolution of systematic improvement, a short lived revolution bound to lead to something else more in the style of fascism, or is it indeed a long term change in the organization of humane society due to increase in population and improved communications the final darwinian success of group selection?

kizzes and hugz