Relearning from Las Vegas

Aron Vinegar, Michael J. Golec

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9780816666393
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture Criticism

Immediately on its publication in 1972, Learning from Las Vegas, by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, was hailed as a transformative work in the history and theory of architecture, liberating those in architecture who were trying to find a way out of the straitjacket of architectural orthodoxies. Resonating far beyond the professional and institutional boundaries of the field, the book contributed to a thorough rethinking of modernism and was subsequently taken up as an early manifestation and progenitor of postmodernism. Going beyond analyzing the original text, the essays provide insights into the issues surrounding architecture, culture, and philosophy that have been influenced by Learning from Las Vegas. For the contributors, as for scholars in an array of fields, the pioneering book is as relevant to architectural debates today as it was when it was first published. Contributors: Ritu Bhatt, Karsten Harries, Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, John McMorrough, Katherine Smith, Dell Upton, Nigel Whitely.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Instruction as Provocation
• 1 Aesthetic or Anaesthetic: A Nelson Goodman Reading of the Las Vegas Strip
• 2 Format and Layout in Learning from Las Vegas
• 3 Photorealism, Kitsch, and Venturi
• 4 Theory as Ornament
• 5 Mobilizing Visions: Representing the American Landscape
• 6 On Billboards and Other Signs around (Learning from) Las Vegas
• 7 Signs Taken for Wonders
• 8 The Melodrama of Expression and Inexpression in the Duck and Decorated Shed
• 9 Learning from Las Vegas . . . and Los Angeles and Reyner Banham
• Contributors
• Publication History
• Index