Tokyoids

Tokyoids The Robotic Face of Architecture

Paperback (06 Sep 2022)

Save $7.22

  • RRP $30.31
  • $23.09
Add to basket

Includes delivery to the United States

10+ copies available online - Usually dispatched within 72 hours

Publisher's Synopsis

In Tokyoids, architect François Blanciak surveys the robotic faces omnipresent in Tokyo buildings, offering an architectural taxonomy based not on the usual variables-size, material, historical style-but on the observable expressions of buildings. Are the eyes (windows) twinkling, the mouth (door) laughing? Is that balcony a howl of distress? Investigating robot aesthetics through his photographs of fifty buildings, Blanciak argues that the robot face originated in architecture-before the birth of robotics-and has played a central role in architectural history. Blanciak first puts the robot face into historical perspective, examining the importance of the face in architectural theory and demonstrating that the construction of architecture's emblematic portraits triggered the emergence of a robot aesthetics. He then explores the emotions conveyed by the photographed buildings' robot faces, in chapters titled "Awe," "Wrath," "Mirth," "Pain," "Angst," and "Hunger." As he does so he considers, among other things, the architectural relevance of Tokyo's ordinary buildings; the repression of the figural in contemporary architecture; an aesthetic of dismemberment, linked to the structure of the Japanese language and local building design; and the influence of automation technology upon human interaction. Part photographic survey, part theoretical inquiry, Tokyoids upends the usual approach to robotics in architecture by considering not the automation of architectural output but the aesthetic properties of the robot.

Book information

ISBN: 9780262544238
Publisher: The MIT Press
Imprint: The MIT Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 720.952135
DEWEY edition: 23/eng/20220324
Language: English
Number of pages: 224
Weight: 362g
Height: 133mm
Width: 202mm
Spine width: 19mm