AESTHETIC OR ANAESTHETIC: The Competing Symbols of Las Vegas Strip

Visible Language, 2003 by Bhatt, Ritu

In such critiques lies the predicament of the postmodern moment. Can Learning from Las Vegas be seen to be promoting anaestheticized advertising or can it be seen as functioning aesthetically as a transformative moment? Are there ways in which one can distinguish between when aesthetic can be said to be functioning cognitively, and when it can be said to be functioning anaesthetically-when images become insular? It is true that Learning from Las Vegas lacks a convincing normative framework or a broad vision. Its emphasis on creating an aesthetic awareness is intertwined with broadening social sensibility; yet the studio doesn't necessarily address the particular socio-cultural economics of its setting.18 And then there are places in the book where image making is uncritically embraced." Yet Learning from Las Vegas' brilliant polemic, which allows one to read the Strip as a system/systems of symbols, can be argued to be a transformative moment when one relearns to see. Venturi and Scott Brown's call to withhold judgment does allow architects to recognize an aesthetic in the placement of neon lights, in the arrangement of parking lots, in the gasoline stations and so forth. The aesthetic does not lie in the imagery of built forms, but in the recognition of the inflexion of buildings and billboards, in the recognition of the manner in which different typologies add density to the landscape and in reading the repleteness of the various symbol systems. Such an aesthetic has the potential to constantly transform; it is difficult to paraphrase. If it is possible to discern moments when aesthetic functions cognitively and when not, then it can be argued that the polemic of Learning from Las Vegas functions most successfully in increasing our capacity to make discriminations and learn from the everyday. More importantly, as Scott Brown claims in re-learning to accommodate the familiar, Learning from Las Vegas opens up our social sensibilities as well.20

Acknowledgements: I am grateful to Aron Vinegar and Michael Golecfor their insightful comments on this paper.

1 /

Venturi, Robert, Scott Brown, Denise and Izenour, Steven. 1977. Learning from Las Vegas, revised edition, Cambridge: MIT Press, 153.

2 /

Goodman, Nelson. 1976. Languages of Art: An Approach to A Theory of Symbols, Indianapolis: Hachett Publishing Company, 241.

3 /

Venturi, Scott Brown and Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas, 11-13

4l

For more on the relationship between Goodman's infinite particulars and Aristotelian practical reasoning, see Ritu Bhatt. 2000. "The Significance of the Aesthetic in Postmodern Architectural Theory." Journal of Architectural Education, MIT Press, May, 229-238.

5/

Goodman, Nelson.1986. "Che cosa significa cost ru ire, e quando e perche."

Damns 672,17-28.

61

Vittorio Magnano Lampugnani, in his Introduction to the Goodman article in Damns 672. Goodman is known to have respect for the deconstructionists. He saw his own work as a form of deconstructing language for purposes of achieving greater clarity and precision, and the elimination of spurious theories and issues. E-mail communication with Curtis Carter on March 3,2003.