The Electric House 2011
SHIFT Gallery, London
Buster Keaton's, 'The Electric House', was completed in 1922 (for the second time after Keaton broke his leg during its original production) and was screened nearly a year before Le Corbusier's text 'Vers Une Architecture' rang out the modernist mantra 'the house as a machine for living in'. With his typical sense of both technological and humorous invention, Keaton re-engineers a house into an electrified environment of gadgets and objects. At a time when domestic electricity was barely in a third of homes, his meticulously constructed stage set emphasised the potential for a dislocation between user and object. The elaborate and ingenious nature of his inventions act as a method to test both Keaton's capabilities as a comic as well as question the viewer's relationship to materiality (and the modernist prerogative).
The project used the film as a means to develop an installation within the gallery at SHIFT, a space housed in an East London social housing development (to be demolished in 2012). The installation used the work 'Something Has To Give' as a starting point, then developing on-site.
Watch 'The Electric House' (1922 / 22min):
Part 1 manifesto-art.tumblr.com/post/7544490501
Part 2 manifesto-art.tumblr.com/post/7544583966
SHIFT Gallery
SHIFT Gallery, London
Buster Keaton's, 'The Electric House', was completed in 1922 (for the second time after Keaton broke his leg during its original production) and was screened nearly a year before Le Corbusier's text 'Vers Une Architecture' rang out the modernist mantra 'the house as a machine for living in'. With his typical sense of both technological and humorous invention, Keaton re-engineers a house into an electrified environment of gadgets and objects. At a time when domestic electricity was barely in a third of homes, his meticulously constructed stage set emphasised the potential for a dislocation between user and object. The elaborate and ingenious nature of his inventions act as a method to test both Keaton's capabilities as a comic as well as question the viewer's relationship to materiality (and the modernist prerogative).
The project used the film as a means to develop an installation within the gallery at SHIFT, a space housed in an East London social housing development (to be demolished in 2012). The installation used the work 'Something Has To Give' as a starting point, then developing on-site.
Watch 'The Electric House' (1922 / 22min):
Part 1 manifesto-art.tumblr.com/post/7544490501
Part 2 manifesto-art.tumblr.com/post/7544583966
SHIFT Gallery
Mark Selby
Work
Better Half
No Need To Shout
Something Has To Give
Eyes To The Floor
Help Me Help You
Good Things Come
Round Table
Listen To Me
Lets Sit Down and Talk
Mobile Phone
No Need To Shout
Something Has To Give
Eyes To The Floor
Help Me Help You
Good Things Come
Round Table
Listen To Me
Lets Sit Down and Talk
Mobile Phone
Projects
Info