Dismantling the Face: Faciality and Architectural Space in the Age of “Control Societies”

Themistokleous, George (2022) Dismantling the Face: Faciality and Architectural Space in the Age of “Control Societies”. Architecture and Culture, 10 (2). pp. 304-325. ISSN 2050-7828

Abstract

In the age of “control societies” there is a need to re-situate understandings of the face in architecture. Historical readings of the face in architecture remain rooted in an anthropomorphism that fails to consider current forms of “simulated surveillance” and the emerging non-human visualities that ensue from such a surveillance apparatus. The article considers the change from disciplinary surveillance, as observed in the Larkin Building, to today’s simulated surveillance. Referring to readings of the face by Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Mark Cousins, the article traces alternative readings of facial codification. Toward this end, the “Eyes of the City” exhibition (2020) and the media installation, the diplorasis, are used to consider affective readings of the face that enable yet-to-be determined relations between human and non-human visualities. The aim of this article is to speculate on reversing the one-way visual control of space and the ensuing overdetermined architectural programming of the human.

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