Openly Critical
Oliver Beasley
architecture portfolio and thought space
In my last article I reconnected with an area of enduring interest for me: the representation of the “distracted” experience of architecture. This topic is an attempt to capture the prevailing reality of our interaction with the built environment. One that is defined not by the attentive interest it typically receives through conventional representation (often examined through expository writing, photography or drawing) but rather by the opposite state of attention: one that guides the peripheral and often unconscious interaction it receives in everyday life (here defined as “distraction”).
This article - my first real submission – presents an abridged and retrospective narrative on the content of my Master’s thesis, completed in September 2015. It serves as a useful first-post as it comes to contend with, quite concisely, one example of those ‘unrepresented realities’ of architecture I speak of in the introduction to this platform.
Openly Critical is a platform supporting the unorthodox representation and evaluation of architecture. It seeks to uncover and spotlight diverse realities of architecture existing outside the scope of conventional architectural criticism. It is a site of counter-criticism; countering the hegemony of abstract perspectivism with postmodern theory and a fresh, experimental use of representative media. In general, it strives to reconcile the contemporary role of architectural criticism with the tools of scholastic thinking and the fruits of the digital age. Moving towards an open, yet critical, consideration of built space and form.
It’s been a couple of years now since I last added something to this section and perhaps only a little more recently since I addressed the notion of “distraction” at all in my work. In this period a number of other competing interests have, naturally, crept in and directed my attention elsewhere, yet despite this the concept of “distraction” in relation to the experience of architecture has never lost its allure, nor have I lost my conviction that it stands as a valuable point of critical reflection on the built environment.