Literary Dose #4

In the continuous construction of posturbanity, architecture now takes on the same role that Muzak played within the office block. It adds color to our lives. Sometimes it is fast, sometimes it is slow. On rare, special occasions, it is engaging, more often it is banal and background. Architectural gestures that signal "individuality," such as those of Art Deco, postmodernism, or deconstructivism require difference or shock-value in order to be effective. None of these gestures can be sustained indefinitely....

...Previously a marker of difference and visibility, architecture is now a background condition. But architecture does not merely go away, it is transformed. Every gesture and emotion produced through architectural form becomes a variation...deployed throughout the city. Minimalism, the Blog, and the Spanish Revival seamlessly coexist in the city without qualities.

- Robert Sumrell and Kazys Varnelis
from Blue Monday: Stories of Absurd Realities and Natural Philosophies (2007)