Glass Architecture as a Site for Encountering the Surface Aesthetics of Urban Photography

Abstract

This article brings glass architecture and geophilosophy into a relationship with one another with the further aim of studying surface aesthetics of urban photography. First I present a selected history of glass architecture and its previous methodological applications. Then, I focus on the characteristics of glass architecture—its permeability/reflectivity and capacity to act with light—in relation to the geophilosophies of Nietzsche and Deleuze. I aim to formulate surface aesthetics through which I contemplate the materialities and the fabulative landscape of urban photography. Urban photography is valued for its characteristic of combining the practices of art and research. In this article, urban photography is also understood as an affectual encounter. However, for urban photography to be seen as a creative medium, it has to be acknowledged as not merely making aesthetic representations of the world but also opening a landscape in order to see it differently and ask new questions.

Keywords

fabulation geophilosophy glass architecture surface aesthetics urban photography

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