Papers by Genevieve Hendricks
Le Corbusier, 50 years later. Conference proceedings., 2015
In the first decades of the twentieth century, the automobile, the airplane, and the steamship an... more In the first decades of the twentieth century, the automobile, the airplane, and the steamship announced the arrival of the machine age. The automobile in particular was heralded as a beacon of modernity and enthralled the poets, artists, and architects who followed the development of its design and manufacture. The voracious rate at which automotive technology progressed, as well as the refinement of streamlined production processes, produced a mechanistic phenomenon that transformed perceptions and perspectives of travel and tempo. By creating the condition for such new views, the automobile functioned both as a symbol embodying mobility, power and speed, and as a concrete object. Its role as a cultural agent capable of changing the rhythms and reasons of perception was most famously evoked by F. T. Marinetti, who announced in 1909, "We affirm that the world's magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath-a roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace." 1 This replacement of classical aesthetics and values with those of the motorized view permeated the arts. As the automobile evolved in tandem with modern architecture, it created myths, legends and new building types as architects and urban designers strove to address questions including: how does one create an architecture that acknowledges and incorporates the view offered from the windows of a speeding car?
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Papers by Genevieve Hendricks