Between Ornament and Monument
Siegried Kracauer and the Architectural Implications of the Mass Ornament
By Joan Ockman
"Surface-level expressions, by virtue of their unconscious nature, provide unmediated access to the fundamental substance of the state of things." Siegfried Kracauer, "The Mass Ornament" (1972)
"Ultimately Kracauer's theory of the city is both against theory and against architecture; and in it, it is ornament that has privileged status as a bearer or consciousness. For Kracauer, the surfaces of the city, its fleeting appearances and skin-deep effects, are, paradoxically, the true signs of its historicity.”
Siegried Kracauer and the Architectural Implications of the Mass Ornament
By Joan Ockman
"Surface-level expressions, by virtue of their unconscious nature, provide unmediated access to the fundamental substance of the state of things." Siegfried Kracauer, "The Mass Ornament" (1972)
"Ultimately Kracauer's theory of the city is both against theory and against architecture; and in it, it is ornament that has privileged status as a bearer or consciousness. For Kracauer, the surfaces of the city, its fleeting appearances and skin-deep effects, are, paradoxically, the true signs of its historicity.”
