Act 4 - Scene 4 - Reading - Aesthetics and Architecture

"The question for the artist and the architect alike is: how can we create works of art and architecture in a world in which such consumerism - itself a symptom of false consciousness or bad faith - is now the norm?"

"How can I make an authentic work in an age subservient to economic imperatives?"

The Structuralist, Existentialists and Situationist each portray a need for deeper meaning into architecture than just function.  There are moral, political, philosophical and social issues which influence people and design.  This reading highlights the correlation between visual arts and conceptual architecture to explore deeper social and moral concerns.

The existentialist theologists expresses that freedom and choice is what sets apart humans from animals or stone.  Apparently a horse behaves as it does because it is a horse, of course. However they seem to think that man is born free to live a life they choose. 

This is true to an extent, however much of human nature is about the social systems we have created and have little control over.  We are social animals by nature and therefore, assimilate with like-minded groups.   We are governed by a set of rules, whether socialist or capitalist and it takes a great deal of effort to change or choose the life we lead due to existing societal forces and a human nature to impress, succeed, breed, prosper, eat. We are provided with a given set of values, spiritual, consumerist, and yet we rarely question them, due to habit, advertising, and our current level of comfort and acceptance.  "Capitalism has created 'pseudo-needs' to increase consumption" and "the media" has been instrumental in providing "the great driving force of the capitalist economy in the latter half of the twentieth century"

Creating a hub at Woodfordia for the exploration of people existing in a free, low consumption society is our aim to a sustainable futures.  The current global trend of growth is good is unsustainable.

(Aesthetics and Architecture, Chapter 8, Politics and the Situationist International, pg 92-)