There is a special sense in which almost all the authentic movements of the 20th century — Futurism, Cubism, Constructivism, Surrealism — reacted to the growth of cinema.
Annette Michelson, from On the Eve of the Future (MIT, 2017) p141.
The VERIplex studio will explore a century-long dialogue between film and architecture, and propose new centers for experimental cinema in Los Angeles.
Few patterns of cross-pollination have yielded more breakthroughs than the fascination of filmmakers with cities and architecture, and the emulation of directors, cinematographers and editors by architects. We will find novel ways to extend, repurpose or challenge this defining exchange between disciplines. VERIplex will examine how architecture and cinema contend now with a welter of “realisms”: the rhetoric of authenticity underpinning documentaries and films made by artists; genres from Neo-realism to Reality to Norm-core spawned by film and television; the current exchange between Speculative Realism and photography; even a realistic skepticism toward the future of cinema-going.
To sharpen their design and curatorial ambitions, students will analyze two films in detail and context, collectively survey unorthodox cinema designs (including an unrealized multi-media theater by Paul Rudolph), and shoot a brief doc or short as a template for their architectural speculation. The term project will be a film forum on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.