Revisiting the Bonaventure Hotel developed from an established body of research that focused on the influence of the media image on urban space. In this publication, a series of video stills (taken from the many films made using the Bonaventure as a backdrop), were contrasted with photographs taken while retracing Fredric Jameson’s seminal account of the hotel. Moving between visual and theoretical references from architectural theory, cinema, cultural theory and philosophy, the book considered how shared social space is experienced as a scripted journey through filmic narratives and embodied architectural affect. The site of the hotel is re-visited through conflicting spatial narratives that, through the form of the photo essay, are represented as an encounter with forceful ideological constructs.
This publication was commissioned by Copy Press (editor, Yve Lomax) and was launched at the Architectural Association in 2009. The second edition of the book was launched at Conway Hall in 2013 as part of a new artists’ series, The Common Intellectual.
This research into the affect and politics of ‘image space’ in Los Angeles led to invitations to speak at three international conferences including ‘Ecologies of the Image’ at ‘How Do We Look’, MOCA, Los Angeles (2011), ‘The Jerde Masterplan’ at ‘Imploded Action Dissonant Affects’, Spike Island, Bristol (2010) and ‘Image Space’ at CalArts, Los Angeles (2012). Related published articles include: ‘A guide to the casino architecture of wedding’ in Collapse: Philosophical and Research Development (2013); ‘Non-relational regimes of urban modernisation’ in the special issue of the Journal of Visual Art Practice dedicated to anti-humanist curating, launched at Whitechapel Gallery (2011); and ‘Round table discussion: The affects of the abstract image in film and video art’ (with Crone, Danino, RUBEDO and Zoller), in MIRAJ (2012). Related chapters include ‘Dream stuff’ in Sanity Assassin edited by Amanda Beech (Urbanomic, 2010).