Informality: Spontaneous Process in Dwelling, the Lima Case

Lecture at the College of Design, Iowa State University.
Thursday, April 12th.

"The phenomena related to the rapid growth of cities, often linked to massive internal migrations, have a profound impact on many aspects of the established structure. Urban boundaries are blurred, and infrastructure and services (e.g. transportation and housing) frequently can't keep pace with the needs of emerging areas.

Throughout the world, citizens respond by "building their own city," using whatever materials and resources might be at hand. New environments appear gradually growing from the requirements of the inhabitants. As their budgets allow, families add sections to their homes."

Open publication - Free publishing - More architecture

Kitsch (C. Dreifuss)

According to Moles, the word kitsch has German origins and appears in Munich around 1860. “Kitschen means to mess and, particularly, to make new furniture with old ones, it is a well known expression; verkitschen means cheating, selling a thing in lieu of than what had been agreed.” (Moles, 1972, pág. 10). Other definitions also mention a possible origin in the Anglo-Saxon word sketch, a simple and cheap drawing that often mimics a true picture of much greater value (Dorfles, 1969 [1968]; Crick, 1983). 

A common feature of all the possible origins of the word kitsch is the pejorative connotation of the term. The fact that the term is recent also indicates that the phenomenon itself is not very old. While fraud and imitation products probably existed throughout the history of mankind, there are certain peculiarities of kitsch phenomenon that distinguish it from a simple forgery. 

Firstly, there is its modern character: just as mass art, kitsch is possible only in an industrialized society, capable of rapidly producing replicas in a significant amount and, therefore, reducing costs production. It is no coincidence that many times kitsch is equated with the avant-garde or some of the phenomena clearly linked to modernity (Greenberg, 1965 [1939]; Calinescu, 1995). Meanwhile, the existence of kitsch implies the existence of a society willing to consume it, formed by what Broch calls Kitsch-Menschen or Kitsch-men (Broch, 1966 [1950]). There are groups aiming to be entertained, and which not necessarily have access either to the original sources of so called educated art, or - in many cases - to the training needed to like them. They will prefer the copy already processed, cheap and understandable that satisfies this need for entertainment, in a way both economically and culturally assailable. 

Abraham Moles will single out five principles that, in a unified way, but more often put together, define the characteristics of kitsch, both as an object and as an event. 

(1) The principle of inadequacy, which has to do with an existing deviation “in relation to its nominal target, deviation in relation to the function which is supposed to fulfill, in the case of a product [...] deviation in relation to realism in the case of any figurative art.” (Moles, 1972, pág. 71). Under this principle, an object is placed simultaneously right and wrong: it may be an alteration of proportions, a change in the materials used, the use of the object in a singular context, the relative independence between object and function, etc. 

(2) The accumulation, that is to say, to collect with a sort of frenzy to ever more. It has to do with the horror of the void, with giving more than one function to one object, to combine in one space objects from diverse backgrounds. 

(3) The synesthetic perception, understood as stimuli to the greatest possible number of sensory channels simultaneously. This aspect, closely related to the accumulation, has to do with promoting aesthetic experiences that fully capture the consumer's attention by the assault on his or her senses, with a certain theatricality and deployment of resources; often kitsch is based on the technology to achieve this effect in its production. 

(4) Being average; even if there is a vast quantity of resources in place, it stops midway of becoming new, opposing to avant-garde and remaining essentially an art of mass. (Moles, 1972, pág. 75). 

(5) The perceived need to generate comfort, Gemütlichkeit, through all these forms than seek to easy acceptance, and that to achieve this, cast away from his speech any form of conflict, tension or difficulty, even if it means moving away from the real world. 

Beyond these five principles, we can identify other characteristics typical of kitsch, such as the will of imitation: the essentials of a work of art or kitsch event for those who consume it is not only in its formal characteristics but and above all in that to which it is hope through the copy. That's why Calinescu (Calinescu, 1995, pág. 229) argues that kitsch can be defined as specifically aesthetic form of lying. 

This desire of imitation turns into alienation, another essential characteristic of kitsch (also related to the principle of inadequacy), which “manifests itself as a sum of global changes in attitudes.” (Moles, 1972, pág. 40) It is not that kitsch objects that require this alienation, but the mode of appropriation and use of these objects can become alienating to the user in reference to the group to which he or she belongs. 

One of the most criticized aspects of kitsch refers to a sort of shallowness in awakening emotions. The scenes presented tend to introduce simple emotions, linked to a kind of romanticism that idealizes the happy ending or, in any case, that clings to sentimentality. 

Returning to the idea of kitsch as a product of modernity and industrialization, Calinescu sees in it a triumphant demonstration of ethics and aesthetics of consumerism. At the same time, its occurrence and distribution is invariably a sign of modernity so obvious “that one could take the presence of kitsch in countries of the 'second' and 'third' world as an unmistakable sign of 'modernization'.” (Calinescu, 1995 , p. 226) Clearly this circuit of production and consumption drives away from other type of user of kitsch, who is often both manufacturer and consumer, in a way close enough to craft production, which provides an aesthetic relationship with the object produced. This consumer does not view the object, event or experience as kitsch, but often reaches the point of comparing its qualities with those of high art that has no access.

References

Broch, H. (1966 [1950]). Notes on the Problem of Kitsch. In G. Dorfles, Kitsch, the World of Bad Taste. New York: Bell Publishing Company.

Calinescu, M. (1995). Five Faces of Modernity. Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodern. Durham: Duke University Press.

Crick, P. (1983). Kitsch. British Journal of Aesthetics, Vol. 23, No. 1 , 48-52.

Dorfles, G. (1969 [1968]). Kitsch. The World of Bad Taste. New York: Bell Publishing Company.

Greenberg, C. (1965 [1939]). Avant-Garde and Kitsch. In C. Greenberg, Art and Culture. Critical Essays (pp. 3-21). Boston: Beacon Press.

Moles, A. (1972). O Kitsch. Sao Paulo: Perspectiva.

From L'estetica (del huachafo) nell'architettura contemporanea a Lima. PhD thesis at Università degli Studi di Roma, La Sapienza. June 2011.

McDonald's

Kitschy McDonald's at Chicago Navy Pier

Harold Washington Library (Hammond, Beeby & Babka)

The Harold Washington Library Center is the central library for the Chicago Public Library System. It is named for former Mayor Harold Washington. It is located just south of the Loop 'L', at 400 S. State Street in Chicago. [...] It is approximately 70,294 m2.

The building was designed by the architectural firm of Hammond, Beeby and Babka, now known as Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge, Inc., winners of a design competition held in 1987 to replace the old central library, which had been housed in the present Chicago Cultural Center.

More, even more

Kitsch (M. Sturken)

"The term "kitsch" emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Germany as a description of an aesthetic that was seen as banal, trite, predictable, and in bad taste (Calinescu). Thus, the original meanings of the term defines is as an outcome of mass culture and situated kitsch in relation to the emergent mass production of modern culture (MacDonald). The world itself is derived from the German verkitschen, meaning "to cheapen"; Herman Broch's pivotal 1933 essay on kitsch negatively referred to those who relish kitsch as "kitschmensch" or "kitsch men". Kitsch is often associated with cheapness in terms of cost and production, as well as the idea that such cheap things are without any cultural refinement or taste. Mass production is a key component in this definition of kitsch, since these objects have no relationship to craftsmanship. Yet, a kitsch aesthetic is hardly restricted to cheap, mass-produced object. Matei Calinescu notes that many objects that constitute kitsch, while they may be inexpensive, are intended to suggest richness in the form of imitation fold and silver, and that luxury goods can often be seen as kitsch in style. Similarly, high-end design can often engage in a kitsch form of sentimentality.

Kitsch was thus initially associated with a set of social factors that accompanied modernity: the rise of mass culture, the sense of alienation that accompanied the shift to industrialization and urbanization, and the widespread commodification of daily life. Calinescu writes that kitsch "has a lot to do with the modern illusion that beauty can be bought and sold" and that "the desire to escape from adverse or simply dull reality is perhaps the main reason for the wide appeal of kitsch." This sense of easy formular and predictable emotional registers which form a kind og escapism is essential to most definitions of kitsch.

Debates abour kitsch in the context of modernity have often focused on distinctions between high and low culture and between art and mass culture. Clement Greenberg famous 1939 essay, "Avant-Garde and Kitsch," set up a clear contrast between kitsch and art: "Kitsch is mechanical and operates by formulas. Kitsch is vicarious experience and fake sensations... Kitsch is the epitome of all that is spurious in the life of our times. Kitsch pretends to demand nothing of its customers except their money - not even their time." It is not incidental to this critique of kitsch as innocent and naïve taste that kitsch is an important aesthetic for children's cultures. Thus, the cute cultures of children's aesthetics form a continuum with the cute cultures of adult kitsch."

Sturken, Marita (2007) Tourists of History. Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero. Durham: Duke University Press. p 19.

Beauty

Puppy (J. Koons)

www.corbis.com

www.conocerbilbao.com

Puppy - Jeff Koons
Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao

Acero inoxidable, substrato y plantas en floración 1.240 x 830 x 910 cm

Styles in Western Art

upload.wikimedia.org

20th Century Art Theory Map

www.rchoetzlein.com

Kitsch II (K. M. Higgins)

1st part

"What, then, makes kitsch kitsch? Analysts of kitsch commonly associate at least three criteria with it:

1 Kitsch involves the formulaic and makes use of stock elements.

2 Kitsch evokes emotion that is enjoyed in an effortless way.

3 Kitsch presents reality in an unrealistic way.

The formulaic character and the effortless enjoyment associated with kitsch were among the features that led Clement Greenberg to denounce it in his famous 1939 essay “Avant-Garde and Kitsch.” Greenberg claimed that kitsch debases aesthetic sensibilities by encouraging mindlessness in its audience. He objected that its formulaic character effectively predigested kitsch for its audience. By contrast with the avant-garde, which aimed to confront the viewer and demand reflection, kitsch was an artistic type of pabulum, offering only familiar elements to elicit trained responses from spectators. Perhaps ironically, the primary example of kitsch that Greenberg employs, a painting by Repin that allegedly appealed to peasants, appears to have been an amalgam of various paintings that he had seen rather than a particular actual work.

Niño pescando
(hisforhomeblog.com)

Thomas Kulka emphasizes the formulaic character and the effortless enjoyment of kitsch when he defines kitsch as being charged with stock emotions, involving themes or objects that are effortlessly identifiable, and failing to substantially enrich our associations relating to the depicted themes or objects. Like Greenberg, Kulka faults the derivative nature of kitsch and the unchallenging entertainment that it offers. These two features work together, so that one responds effortlessly to what is presented precisely because it is so familiar. Typically, the themes or objects depicted resonate with important concerns in human life, such as family, friendship, patriotism, etc. Kulka points out that the spectator responds to the gestalt of what is depicted, not to the representation as such.

Strictly speaking, then, the viewer is not responding aesthetically to the object at all, but using the object’s representational gesture as a basis for emotional response. The effect, as Kulka puts it, is entirely parasitic on the referent. Kitsch tends to be representational, and its representations refer to some element in a network of cultural associations. Kitsch treats subject matter that we associate with some basic human concern, and we respond to this general concern more than to the object itself. The object itself is relevant only to the extent that it conjures up an important human theme and prompts an emotional reaction to it.

Kitsch, generally speaking, trades in atmospheres. It evokes feelings, and the enjoyment of kitsch is largely a matter of taking satisfaction in the fact of having these feelings. Milan Kundera, in his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, proposes that the emotions kitsch elicits are inherently reflective and involve our indulging the impression that the rest of the population shares our emotions with us.

Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass!

The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch. (Kundera 1984: 251)

Kitsch, on this view, appeals to our sense of human solidarity and promotes the belief that the rest of the world values just what we do.

Despite its universal pretensions, the images (broadly construed) that kitsch presents make reference to cultural beliefs about the world and important human goals. These beliefs are semiconscious but reinforced through many cultural practices. They are also connected to other beliefs in a network of associations. Thus, an image of the American flag is related for many Americans, at least, to ideas of the United States, power, prestige, home, the American population, the American landscape, a comforting sense of membership, patriotism, etc. The image of the flag serves as an icon that brings to partial awareness the whole background structure of associations. And the satisfaction one takes in the kitsch is generalized to implicate this entire structure.

A consequence is that the kitsch object reinforces culturally embedded beliefs about the way the world is organized and where one fits within it. Kitsch allows one to enjoy one’s feelings about these beliefs, and the kitsch object seems to affirm these feelings. Milan Kundera, in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, takes the May Day parade in eastern bloc Czechoslovakia as an instance of kitsch. The aim of the parade is to arouse patriotic feelings by presenting organized formations of beautiful young people, who metonymically remind viewers of all that is great about their country. 

Many critics of kitsch have argued that it presents reality in an unrealistic way, and for this reason they see it as morally objectionable. Kitsch excludes whatever is objectionable in our world, thereby encouraging a distorted view of reality. Kitsch is “the absolute denial of shit,” in Kundera’s striking phrase (1984: 248). This deceptive portrayal of reality can be pernicious because it encourages a sense that some aspects of the world (children or one’s country, for example) are absolutely good, with the implication that some others are absolutely bad. Kitsch thus imposes an absolutistic schema of good and evil on whatever we encounter. This in turn can motivate a sense that the absolutely good features of the world must be protected against anything that would threaten them, that is, the completely evil. 

By virtue of the binary values that kitsch imposes, kitsch is particularly serviceable for propagandistic purposes. It facilitates absolute distinctions that propagandists can seize on. Merely presenting one’s party as the sponsor of some kitsch entertainment, such as the May Day parade, facilitates associations between one’s cause and the pleasure one takes in the kitsch. The propagandist can suggest, moreover, that one is really sharing one’s feeling, not with all people in the world, but with the good people, that is, those on the side of their cause by contrast to their opponents. The fact that kitsch was a favored propagandistic tool of the Nazis indicates that the ends supported by kitsch have sometimes been sinister. 

Despite these objections to kitsch and the general complaint that it is aesthetically shallow, some commentators see kitsch as relatively harmless. Some accept the verdict that kitsch is aesthetically worthless, but nevertheless think it is morally innocent. These critics tend to doubt that kitsch plays a very significant role in how people understand reality. Others consider kitsch to be innocently enjoyable if one approaches it from an ironical point of view. Such critics sometimes relabel the kitsch that is appropriated in this tongue-incheek manner “camp.” They tend to consider the bad taste or incongruity of kitsch to be part of its charm. Even some of those who take kitsch to be morally damaging believe that its harms can be defused by seeing its appeals for what they are. Kundera, for example, contends, “As soon as kitsch is recognized for the lie it is, it moves into the context of non-kitsch, thus losing its authoritarian power and becoming as touching as any other human weakness.” An ironical stance is essential, as he sees it, for we cannot do without kitsch with its pretensions of human brotherhood and its oversimplifications. As he concludes, “No matter how we scorn it, kitsch is an integral part of the human condition” (1984: 256)."

Davies, Stephen; Higgins, Kathleen Marie; Hopkins, Robert; Stecker, Robert; Cooper, David E. (2009) A Companion to Aesthetics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. pp 394-396.

Kitsch I (K. M. Higgins)

"Kitsch is a category term referring to a type of aesthetically impoverished art, artifact, performance, or practice that commonly relies on banal subject matter and stock emotional responses. The term, however, is used more or less loosely, sometimes in reference to a wide variety of somewhat incongruous items made in a slapdash manner, sometimes making no reference to absurdity or poor technique but instead to a particular type of emotional appeal. 

Kitsch souvenir
(vayaseustedalamierda.blogspot.com)

Given the cluster of associations that has grown around the term, a precise definition of “kitsch” is difficult to formulate. The term was originally used in connection with sketchy tourist art that became popular in Germany in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Such sketches were cheap and produced in large quantity. (Indeed, the German verb verkitschen means “to make cheaply.”) Kitsch has accordingly become associated with consumer society and mass production, although being produced on a mass scale is not a necessary criterion. Early kitsch products appealed to middle class sensibilities, and the term has acquired the association of pandering to those who seek easy gratification and are not very selective about the style or quality of what they buy. In light of the fact that souvenir art was the initial paradigm of kitsch, moreover, the association of emotional appeal is a basic connotation of the term. 

Kitsch always involves some kind of deficiency, but a variety of particular inadequacies are associated with it, and this adds to the difficulty of defining it. Among its alleged faults are insincerity, bad taste, tackiness, a formulaic and facile character, incongruous juxtaposition, vagueness, incompatibility between form and function, overly simplistic presentation, and false representation of reality. The label has been applied to objects and performances on the basis of some but not all of these characterizations. 

A further complication for a definition of kitsch is that while the term is commonly used to identify certain objects, the nature of the appeals that kitsch makes is typically a basis for considering them to be kitsch. This being the case, it is possible that objects that are not themselves kitsch might be employed in a manner that yields kitschy results. An example might be the use of the image of the American flag on neckties or suspenders. The American flag itself is not kitsch, nor is an image of the flag. Serious historical paintings and works by Jasper Johns can utilize the flag in a way that is not kitsch. But by virtue of the incompatibility of form (the image of a banner celebrating a nation state) and function (to accessorize an outfit of clothing or to hold up a pair of pants) the flag on these items of clothing may well be kitsch."

2nd part

Davies, Stephen; Higgins, Kathleen Marie; Hopkins, Robert; Stecker, Robert; Cooper, David E. (2009) A Companion to Aesthetics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. pp 393-394.

Discover (R. Koolhaas)

Zapallal, Lima (GoogleEarth)

"Two possibilities: either to change basic urban structures which would be a very long-term venture, or to perceive differently, to enjoy these particular shortcomings in the city - or to discover beauty where one would have never perceived it before."

Koolhaas, Rem (1995) S, M, L, XL. New York: The Monacelli Press