Twenty-one essays examining the relationship of surrealist thought to architectural theory and practice.

A pioneering major survey on the rich relationship between the imagery and concepts of Surrealist art and the architecture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries In a world where “smart” objects can talk to each other and a gun can be printed with a desktop 3D printer, the conditions for contemporary design are nothing if not surreal. The long-standing interaction between architecture and Surrealism is being reinvigorated by the new technology that makes the protocols and concepts of otherworldly Surrealism more relevant to architects than the dogmas of architectural modernism. This book charts the development of this fertile relationship, revealing how Surrealist ideas are being put to use by contemporary architects in extraordinary ways. Architecture and Surrealism opens with an introduction on the precursors of Surrealism in the Baroque and Rococo periods, moving into the twentieth century through the Symbolists and Dadaists. The four main chapters present the interplay between architecture and Surrealism through the key concepts of the body, the interior space, the house, alternative realities, and the environment. In an era of wearable technology and big data, the fascinating possibilities for new worlds, new buildings, and new spaces are creating the most exciting futures for contemporary architects. Written by Neil Spiller, a leading academic and architect known for his own Surrealist-influenced work, this book is a breathtaking resource of spatial ideas and visionary buildings for architects, students, lovers of Surrealism, and all creative types.

Surrealism expanded our reality by drawing upon myths, dreams, and the subconscious as sources of artistic inspiration. Beginning in the 1930s, the movement made a crucial impact on design, and it continues to inspire designers to this day. »Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design« is the first book to document this fascinating conversation. It includes numerous essays and a comprehensive selection of images which traces these reciprocal exchanges by juxtaposing exemplary artworks and design objects. Among the featured artists and designers are Gae Aulenti, Achille Castiglioni, Giorgio de Chirico, Le Corbusier, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, ntoni Gaudí, Frederick Kiesler, René Magritte, Carlo Mollino, Meret Oppenheim, and many others. The book is rounded off with historical text material as well as short texts and statements by contemporary designers. This in- depth examination makes one thing abundantly clear: form does not always follow function -- it can also follow our obsessions, our fantasies, and our hidden desires.

"This multi-disciplinary and cross-generational project explores the central importance of the house within surrealism and its legacies. It brings the first surrealists together with contemporary artists, film-makers and architects. Through a strategy of accumulation and poetic contamination, each informs the other."--Back cover.

This is a historically informed examination of architecture's perceived absence in surrealist thought, surrealist tendencies in the theories and projects of modern architecture, and the place of surrealist thought in contemporary design. This book represents current insights into surrealism in the thought and practice of modern architecture. In these essays, the role of the subconscious, the techniques of defamiliarization, aesthetic and social forces affecting the objects, interiors, cities and landscapes of the twentieth century are revealed. The book contains a diversity of voices from across modern art and architecture to bring into focus what is often overlooked in the histories of the modernist avant-garde. This collection examines the practices of writers, artists, architects, and urbanists with emphasis on a critique of the everyday world-view, offering alternative models of subjectivity, artistic effect, and the production of meanings in the built world.

Despite the censorship of dissident material during the decade between the Manchurian Incident of 1931 and the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, a number of photographers across Japan produced a versatile body of Surrealist work. In a pioneering study of their practice, Jelena Stojkovic draws on primary sources and extensive archival research and maps out art historical and critical contexts relevant to the apprehension of this rich photographic output, most of which is previously unseen outside of its country of origin. The volume is an essential resource in the fields of Surrealism and Japanese history of art, for researchers and students of historical avant-gardes and photography, as well as forreaders interested in visual culture.