tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63294502012-01-27T23:00:53.652-05:00Musings on architecture and archaeology by Kostis KourelisKOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.comBlogger3671100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-69006777328943253692012-01-27T19:09:00.007-05:002012-01-27T23:00:20.636-05:00

"Master Builders of Lancaster," my methods seminar on architectural history had its second meeting. Last week, we spent sometime in Lancaster's cemetery, where students took measurements of assigned graves. Using their measurements, they were required to build a 3D-model of their tombstone. The exercise was intended to teach students basic tools of documentation (measuremnt), as well as, to learn

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-61044771795865617832012-01-24T22:01:00.003-05:002012-01-27T09:25:06.990-05:00

Every Spring semester, I teach a hands-on architectural history seminar on the buildings of Lancaster. During the last couple of yeas, the subject of my course has been Lancaster: The Architecture of Faith, focusing on over 100 historical churches and synagogs. The seminar explored issues of identity, class, and ethnicity in the dynamic urban landscape. Wishing to turn my students'

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-10487551639004312052012-01-13T09:29:00.002-05:002012-01-13T09:36:27.652-05:00

Lancaster news begins the publicity of "Colors of Greece: The Art and Archaeology of Georg von Peschke" that I curated at the Phillips Museum at Franklin & Marshall. I hope this show will put Peschke in the art-historical ranks that he belongs. Thanks to all the lenders and museum staff and students that made this possible:Jane Holahan, "Phillips Museum Reopens with a New Look and Four New Shows,

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KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-85841292418547445372011-12-31T13:50:00.008-05:002012-01-01T19:47:30.243-05:00

Arthur and Kate Tode (Kahop) made a honeymoon video in 1939 with tremendous value for reconstructing the vernacular streetscape of Athens between World War II. In the previous posting, I discussed their vantage point and visual coverage. The Tode's vantage point towards the urban fabric had become the canonical perspective. Every visitor that climbed the Acropolis in the 1930s was directed to the

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Thanks to Facebook (Jan Sanders via Stavros Oikonomidis), I stumbled on an intoxicating film of Athens. It was shot by Arthur and Kate Tode (Kahop) on April 25, 1939 during their Mediterranean honeymoon. The original reel resides at the Archives of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (see here). The Tode film is the earliest color panorama of modern Athens that I

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The Drinker block discussed earlier was discovered at the ancient Asclepeion on the South slopes of the Acropolis in Athens. Excavated by the Greek Archaeological Society in 1877, the few surviving Byzantine walls were removed soon after excavation ("ταύτην μελετώμεν να διαλύσωμεν"). Recognizing the ethics of archaeological documentation, however, the Archaeological Society left a small record of

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Architectural block (0.84 x 0.38 x 0.07 m), Byzantine, South Slopes, Acropolis, Athens. Kourelis sketch, based on photo (Xyngopoulos, 1924)Scratched roughly on a piece of masonry, a figure drinks with one hand while fanning with the other. The block was excavated in 1877 at the Sanctuary of Asclepius on the South Slopes of the Acropolis in Athens. It was published in 1924 as a personification

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Grading exams and papers at the end of the academic semester offers one the unstructured freedom to pepper the mechanical with a few breaks of inspiration. During the last week of classes, Art & Art History students presented their thesis proposals. This is my favorite academic event of the year because it's one of the rare instances where my department sits for an hour and a half and

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The drawing on the left is just a quick look at the exterior of Lancaster's Pennsylvania Station showing two courses of marble revetment, the limestone base molding and the system of brickwork. The Pennsylvania Main Line to Lancaster stops at one of PA's most important steel-mill towns, Coatesville. The steel beams of the World Trade Center, for instance, were manufactured here. The quick sketch

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-83462628484683729532011-12-16T00:01:00.012-05:002012-01-27T23:00:53.660-05:00

Quick stroll through Lancaster cemetery before the rain broke out. Picked out one funerary monument, vaguely related to the steeple type discussed previously. First, I was tempted to sketch the grave of Frederick Rauch, F&M's first president and co-founder of Mercersburg Theology. This is the only grave I've ever seen to reflect on Hegel. But I held back. Instead, I admired the 1881 tomb of J.

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-90707090614420110372011-12-14T06:42:00.010-05:002011-12-14T10:21:50.428-05:00

One of my favorite grave monument types incorporates a plinth, a plain cross, compressed columns at the corners and a massive steeple. So far, I have found three examples of this monument and it's likely that they were produced by the same company: Harrington Monument (left) in Woodland Cemetery, Hand Monument (right) in Laurel Hill Cemetery, and another example at Old Cathedral Cemetery on 48th

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-24409895598521830032011-12-13T08:11:00.006-05:002011-12-13T09:34:45.689-05:00

Clearly not in the spirit of the Holidays, but T. S. Eliot's "Four Quartets" helps me wrap up my "House-Home-Hood" capstone seminar.

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Last two study sheets for my History of Architecture class

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SPS 10, found in Lancaster parking lot @ 40°03'7.39"N,, 76°18'42.72"WSF07 Penn USA, found in Philadelphia street @ 39°57'11.07"N, 75°11'41.65"W

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KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-28069378302958502142011-11-17T14:36:00.003-05:002011-11-19T13:46:20.264-05:00

This is part of an independent study I'm supervising, an ethnography of my college's tattoos. A bunch of our students have set up a photo booth on campus where everyone can walk in and show their tattoo. Each tattoo is shot and measured by students in our photography classes. A recorded interview follows. The photo booth was up for two days at the New College House. The sum total of data was 65

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The first third of my History of World Architecture focused on antiquity (prehistoric to late Roman). During the second third of the class, we turn our attention to the architecture of the major global religions from monotheism (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) to the religions of India (Buddhism, Hinduism, Janism), the philosophical traditions of China (Confucianism, Daoism) and Japan (Shinto, Zen)

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With the 1936 original second edition in hand, we can zoom into the middle left side of Fred. Boissonnas' "Great Plain Tree" of 1903 and catch a slice of daily life in Andritsaina (see last post). Many of the mountainous villages of the Peloponnese are strategically located on springs. Spring houses create urban centers, define neighborhoods (mahala) and social life. Greek folklorists have

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Fred Boissonnas published a number of photos from the central square (plateia) of Andritsaina from his 1903 trip. The first (discussed in the previous post) was taken a few feet down the sloped street. The second, on the left, Bossionnas published in the 1909 travelogue with Daniel Baud-Bovy. I have got a hold of the second 1936 edition of the volume, En Grèce: Par monts et par vaux (Geneva),

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My photography colleague John Homgren and I have been designing a summer program in Greece for July 2012. Our "Greek Vernacular" seminar will tackle the medieval and early modern architectural topography within The Parrhasian Heritage Park, one of the most interesting cultural management projects in Greece. The seminar will have half studio artists and half archaeologists, as we tackle the

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KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-59306146340874924832011-10-28T12:03:00.001-04:002011-10-29T00:08:16.555-04:00

Sometimes, my candle scarcely out, my eyes would close so quickly that I did not have time to say to myself: "I"m falling asleep." Swann's Way

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-33435729909465720052011-10-20T12:48:00.002-04:002011-10-29T00:08:44.322-04:00

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Riding the Mainline, reading House and Garden, January 1914. Transcribing interesting company fonts for Brunswick Refrigerating Co. and the Kelsey Warm Air Generator. Must return to Mott's plumbing, the inspiration for Duchamp's R. Mutt persona in Fountain (1917).

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Here's all you need to know about Roman architecture (to pass my class)

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-20529790755017675532011-10-13T15:22:00.004-04:002011-10-14T06:27:40.053-04:00

Henry Darger is my new favorite artist. Sadly, I learned about him while learning about the failures of the Folk Art Museum in New York, where most of his works have been donated. These are tough times for anything vernacular. The Folk Art Museum is an of the Bilbao Effect, gone array. The new building by Billy Tsien and Tod Williams has contributed to the institution's demise. My sketchbook

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William Caraher has posted his working draft of "The Ambivalent Landscape of Christian Corinth: The Archaeology of Place, Theology, and Politics in a Late Antique City," a fascinating paper that seeks to pull together direct and circumstantial evidence about a power struggle between local and imperial identity in mid-6th-century Corinth. The paper combines new survey data on rural villas (

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The latest manifestation of my History of Architecture class includes a global perspective and lots of drawing exercises that include measuring columns, constructing orthographic documents, crafty tools that diminish the distance between the sacred canon illustrated in our textbook and the profane vernacular that surrounds us. The first exam is slowly approaching before Fall Break and covers

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I get depressed as I write letters of recommendation for students applying to Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships. In trying to sell an extraordinary package, I realize my academic contribution to the economic polarization of American society. James Atlas spelled it out succinctly in his Sunday New York Times opinion piece called “Super People.” Indeed, the academic arena is devoted to the

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When William Caraher was Carpenter professor at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 2007, he started an interesting experiment: blogging his experiences of Greece for a digital audience. His New (and Old) Archaeology of the Mediterranean World has been one of the most enduring and popular blogs, which Caraher continues to write from North Dakota, Cyrpus or Australia. Caraher's

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Cezanne's Card Players series from the early 1890s is currently on view in a mini blockbuster at the Metropolitan Museum. The series is based on Cezanne's studies of peasant life in Provencal. The Austrian painter Georg von Peschke must have seen the series in Paris during the 1920s before moving to Greece. He carried out his own version of card players in Skyros. As I prepare the first Peschke

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Everybody should be able to construct their own Attic base. It's a beautiful and simple process. In my history of architecture class, I've sent my student scourging through campus measuring column bases. F&M's Georgian pretensions have guaranteed an endless supply of classical details. And I'm sure there is no shortage of Attic bases in your own hometown. Go measure it, or make one yourself. Just

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For about the last month time seems to have changed duration. An earthquake shakes Philadelphia followed by a hurricane. A tropical storm by the name of Lee floods Pennsylvania. Trains stop and roads are shut making passage to Lancaster a daily adventure, while I'm the last person to drive Alexis' Mini Cooper before it's destroyed by water. Misty's husband suffers a sudden aneurism and passes

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-42778243560003449832011-09-26T19:58:00.008-04:002011-09-26T22:57:22.737-04:00

Fred Cooper passed away yesterday. One of the giants of ancient Greek architectural history and archaeology, Cooper left an indelible mark in all of his students. But he hated memorials. In his honor, I will spend a few blogging moments thinking about the hidden beauty of the architectural world that Fred taught me to see. Vitruvius left instructions in how to construct the Attic base. It has

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-37251275945568005482011-09-04T09:20:00.008-04:002011-09-05T06:58:46.740-04:00

During the course of the summer, I was part of a faculty seminar focusing on plans to incorporate the Phillips Museum with our curriculum. My exhibit proposal is centered on architectural fragments and the relationship between fine art (murals, sculptural relief, stain glass windows, etc.) and the buildings in which they are set. The proposal follows the guidelines for curatorial proposals

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The 65th Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians will be convening at Detroit, Michigan, on on April 18-22, 2012. Vasilis Marinis and I have put together a panel focusing on the media used to tranform ideas into built form before the Renaissance. We received a great number of submissions (to our great surprise) and have put together a panel that covers methodological depth and

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-90571408988653722172011-08-28T13:53:00.008-04:002011-08-29T10:13:47.283-04:00

I finally saw PAFA's Urbanism show only a few days before it closes (Sept. 4). Urbanism: Reimagining the Lived Environment at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts showcases the work of five young artists that testify to Philadelphia's vibrancy as a city of urban art. What better time to engage with urbanist sensibilities than after Irene has challenged the fragility of our cities. This is

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Wonderful little essay by Mark Girouard on the discovery and dissemination of the Middle Ages in British culture: "A Return to Camelot," The Wilson Quarterly (Autumn 1981), 178-189. Although we find a few medieval antiquarians in the 18th century (most famously Horace Walpole), the love for the medieval does not become official until King George III hires James Wyatt as court architect in 1800.

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-81721632767723220952011-08-24T06:00:00.001-04:002011-08-24T06:00:03.347-04:00

Medieval roof tiles tend to be thrown away in excavations because they are both plentiful and undiagnostic. In contrast to beautifully shaped stone or clay tiles from antiquity, medieval tiles seem vernacular, produced locally with less regulation or form-work. Luckily, the discipline of medieval tiles in the Peloponnese is witnessing a renaissance. My experience with medieval roof tiles began in

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In Vasari's hierarchy of art, it doesn't get much lower than bricks. Byzantine archaeology tends to disagree. Back in 1954, Alison Frantz excavated the Church of the Holy Apostles in the Athenian Agora and directed its restoration. The works were published in, Frantz, Agora XX: The Church of the Holy Apostles (Princeton, 1971). Today, I'd like to showcase a rare working drawings from the annals

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I have begun working on the Byzantine house publications of Chersonesos for Adam Rabinowitz's upcoming monograph, Excavations in the South Region of Chersonesos, 2001-2006: A Multidisciplinary Approach, ed. Adam Rabinowitz, Larissa Sedikova and Paul Arthur. One aspect of the study will reconstruct the roof system based on fragments unearthed in the complex's debris. The scholarship on house

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My last post, where I reported on a little-known new excavation of a Frankish chapel in Athens, generated a wonderful discussion among a group of specialists, notably Diana Wright, "The Duke of Athens Makes His Will," Surprised By Time (Aug. 12, 2011) and Pierre MacKay, who knows Mendicants in Greece like nobody's business I would like to report on the paper trail on the identification of

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It is not everyday that a new Crusader church is discovered. During the constructions of the Attike Odos in Chalandri, Athens, the Greek Archaeological Service carried out rescue excavations at a small chapel dated to the 13th century. Given the huge delay in Greek publications, this project was just recently published in the Archaiologikon Deltion. Few libraries in the U.S. subscribe to this

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August is really the month of archaeology and I feel terribly guilty for letting mid-century Athenian films overshadow archaeology. So, I'll start with an old preoccupation, a journal article from the "to-do" list. Remember, how last October I gave a paper on fetuses buried under Byzantine house floors? An interesting cross-cultural comparison comes from Taiwan. There are no connections here

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Continuing some thoughts and some screenings on the topic of Athenian Film archaeology, I return to the Athenian Agora excavations, America's most vivid archaeological presence in the world began in 1932. See my posting "Stella: Athenian Agora" (Feb. 13, 2010). For much of June, I had been obsessed with the urban archaeology of the film Dream Neighborhood (1961): June 8, June 13, June 17, and

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-73527895602673949922011-07-27T06:09:00.001-04:002011-08-20T21:49:54.356-04:00

A terrific sample of graphic design in the cultural column of the Greek evening newspaper Apogeumatini from 1956. Two 1930s fonts, "Evening" in black and "Hours" in white, float over a silhouette of the Athenian skyline. The city is drawn as an architectural section. The darkness suggests the sun's setting and pronouncement of evening outings. The afternoon hours are bracketed between siesta and

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-81757232722472502612011-07-26T09:50:00.005-04:002011-07-26T11:18:39.116-04:00

Micheal Cacoyannis died on Monday. He is one of Greece's best directors best known for his Zorba the Greek (1964), the film that has (for better or for worse) informed much of the mid-century notions of Greece. To learn more about Cacoyannis industrious life, see English obituaries in New York Times and Los Angeles Times.I have blogged about the role that Athens plays in Cacoyannis movies and I

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-74556725451947865402011-07-21T12:33:00.008-04:002011-07-21T12:54:10.329-04:00

I have just finished a draft for an essay contribution to the final publication of the excavations at Zaraka, the 13th-century Cistercian Abbey in the Corinthia. Sheila Campbell, project director, is publishing a monograph through the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies. You can read my draft here:Kostis Kourelis, "Zaraka Surrounded: The Archaeology of Settlements in the Peloponnesian

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-73917006699485156872011-06-30T16:18:00.004-04:002011-06-30T16:28:12.411-04:00

Linda Nochlin: "Yes Richard Krautheimer. Can you imagine anything better? He'd break a desk every time pounding. I could do it for you, I could reenact for you his lecture on the building of Saint Peters in Rome. It was one of the most thrilling lectures. We started like pilgrims. He did it as pilgrims would see it. You know crossing the bridge, the Gianicolo, then the street, the narrow

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-52444453740284385852011-06-18T07:44:00.003-04:002011-08-20T21:51:47.602-04:00

The re-release of Dream Neighborhood has generated some interesting media coverage this last week. I find it amazing that I can sit in Philadelphia and experience the Greek response to the movie online. I'd like to share two postings with you. The first is what I would have liked to do, if I were in Athens right now, to walk through the Asyrmatou neighborhood and search for archaeological clues.

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-71458183135995528502011-06-17T09:51:00.007-04:002011-08-20T21:50:39.143-04:00

The architectural character of modern Athens is a phenomenon of the 1960s. Intense urbanization after the German occupation and the Civil War, lax regulation, cheap labor, and a national industry of concrete brought about the city of apartment buildings that we know and love today. In the absence of monetary investment (national banks, no interest rates), modern Athenians invested in real estate.

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-13429193837612658582011-06-13T15:20:00.011-04:002011-08-20T21:51:00.587-04:00

More notes on Athenian Film ArchaeologyThe closing sequence of the 1961 film Dream Neighborhood (Η συνοικία το όνειρο) is a powerful moment in Greek cinema (see here on YouTube). A funerary procession leads the viewer from the hills of Ano Petralona to the shanty town neighborhood that forms the film's sociological subject. The film deserves an entire essay for its architectural narrative. This

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-15125766787007995752011-06-08T10:47:00.010-04:002011-08-20T21:51:21.498-04:00

A few summers ago, I was going through Alison Frantz's excavation notebooks in the Athenian Agora, preparing a paper for Betsey Robinson's Radcliffe seminar, "New Discoveries from Old Excavations." American excavations at the Athenian Agora began in 1932 and are surrounded by a mess of interesting political questions best explored by Niki Sakka, Yannis Hamilakis and Artemis Leontis. In order to

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-61055902443208342002011-06-01T10:08:00.004-04:002011-06-01T10:34:06.665-04:00

If the economic shambles in Greece is wreaking havoc in people's personal lives (see recent article on Greek homelessness), imagine what it's doing to culture. The National Archaeological Museum frequented by every tourist is practically shut with only 6 out of the 64 spaces open to the public. The government can simply not pay its museum guards. See relevant article in yesterday's Kathimerini

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-72314636780614978652011-05-31T11:47:00.008-04:002011-05-31T12:45:19.431-04:00

For the last two weeks I've been immersing myself back into psychoanalytic readings. It all started with poet H.D. On her way to Delphi in 1920, H.D. was stranded at Itea discouraged from making the trip up the mountains. So, she never made it to the sanctuary and ended up spending some time in Corfu, where one day she had a vision, a projection of images on her hotel wall. She worked through her

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-71974007752250358532011-05-27T16:59:00.005-04:002011-05-27T17:15:14.375-04:00

The highlight of every Greek American community's fund-raising and civic presence is a Greek Festival. It has become a standard fixture of modern American life. Every town with a Greek community has a Greek Festival. In addition to offering Greek foods, dances, and activities, Greek festivals produce advertising posters that form a permanent record of graphic design. Imagine what a fabulous

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-76040902630278037762011-05-26T11:20:00.002-04:002011-05-26T11:28:34.754-04:00

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-38241525015553221002011-05-25T11:27:00.005-04:002011-08-04T11:45:48.202-04:00

One of the things I'm currently working on is a paper on the Houses of Mystras. I am arguing that Anastasios Orlandos, the grandfather of Byzantine archaeology in Greece, fabricated the urban scenery of Mystras as a heterotopia. The paper examines the ideological and cultural motivations for the physical reconstruction of Mystras' houses and the role that the site played in the mythopoetic

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-87800751711123449042011-05-25T10:32:00.001-04:002011-06-29T12:04:29.840-04:00

"Oh, well, where to begin?" Patti said. "How about the flipflop thing? I have some issues with their flipflops. It's like the world is their bedroom. And they can't even hear their own flap-flap-flapping, because they've all go their gadgets, they've all got their earbuds in. Every time I start hating my neighbors around here, I run into some G.U. kid on the sidewalk and suddenly forgive the

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-26198863024926192322011-05-24T10:20:00.001-04:002011-05-24T10:26:17.058-04:00

"Although he'd played D.C. often enough over the years, its horizontal and vexing diagonal avenues never ceased to freak him out. He felt like a rat in a governmental maze here. For all he could tell from the back seat of his taxi, the driver was taking him not to Georgetown but to the Israeli embassy for enhanced interrogation. The pedestrians in every neighborhood all seemed to have taken

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-44403972513051825282011-05-23T12:04:00.008-04:002011-05-23T12:30:58.195-04:00

"The girls all come for publishing and art and nonprofits," he said. "The guys come for money and music. There's a selection bias there. The girls are good and interesting, the guys are all assholes like me. You shouldn't take it personally." Jonathan Franzen, Freedom (2011) p. 358It's taken me over two months, but I'm finally free of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom. It started with a reading group

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-80561559404813116062011-05-18T10:30:00.006-04:002011-05-18T13:55:43.092-04:00

"We are subtropic, a town in Pennsylvania, on the map's parallel, I believe, south of Rome. Winters are cold, summer are hot, so we have the temperament of Nordics and of southerners both, harmoniously blended and altering key or vibration in strict accordance with the seasons' rules -- or not, as may be."H.D. writing about her hometown, Bethlehem, PA, where she lived as a child before her family

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-21086203688297638992011-05-12T09:39:00.000-04:002011-05-13T16:43:07.639-04:00

Thanks to Nassos Papalexandrou for highlighting a recent moment of archaeological activism. I quote below an email sent to the entire international community that rallied behind the site of Cavo Sidero in Crete. Jennifer Moody and Oliver Rackham spearheaded the successive campaign:April 9, 2011Dear Signer of the Cavo Sidero Petition, Thank you! You really did make a difference! On December 3,

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-11615885100896974552011-05-11T09:20:00.006-04:002011-05-11T10:24:05.171-04:00

The Library of Congress has just unveiled the National Jukebox project, a streaming of its collection of historical recordings (thanks to Kirby Bell for flagging this). Naturally, my first search was for Greek music, and I discovered "The Argentine, the Portuguese and the Greeks," a 1920s song that expresses native anxieties about this particular ethnic immigrants (and the Armenians, too). The

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-64339968490299739932011-05-10T14:43:00.001-04:002011-08-20T22:00:16.430-04:00

One of our art history majors completed a wonderful project, to catalog and analyze a group of Japanese prints and place them in their historical perspective, namely prostitution. Gabby's research concluded into an exhibit at the Phillips Museum. I quote the project description. Gabby Jiayin She '11: Commodified Beauty "During two semesters of research, and including a summer field trip to

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-46778570970854608592011-05-09T10:01:00.007-04:002011-05-09T10:53:14.682-04:00

Wake up Greeks and Greek-Americans. The time has come to celebrate one of our forgotten giants. For most of you reading this page Taki 183 won't mean anything, which is precisely my problem. How many Cavafy conferences, Classical exhibits, Big Fat Greek movies, or Acropolis museums can we have, when Taki 183 remains unknown to the wider public?Did you know that a Greek teenager from Washington

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-32897085571627058482011-05-07T15:07:00.005-04:002011-05-07T15:54:46.897-04:00

Lancaster's College Hill Children's Center on 417 W Frederick St and Lancaster Ave is housed in a ca. 1900 brick industrial building, renovated in 2008 by Tippetts/Weaver Architects. The firm, who has done a lot of projects for F&M, has retained the brick shell but also a interior support system of steel columns and beams. Although invisible to the exterior, the interior steel system acts like

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-80441557829001960852011-05-07T08:22:00.000-04:002011-05-07T08:22:00.311-04:00

During this last academic year, F&M was celebrating scholarly collaboration between teachers and students. See more about this on the official website here. My work with Bonnie Halloran (whom you've already read about) was part of a little promotional video that was featured in last week's Common Hour. In some way, this is also the first public promotion of the Georg von Peschke exhibit scheduled

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-25074694718992637822011-05-06T09:18:00.002-04:002011-05-06T09:18:00.830-04:00

Carol Hickey, professor of architectural design at F&M, teaches a studio every Spring, and I've had the pleasure of serving as a regular guest critic. The culminating project for the class is a chair. And this year, the assignment was a child chair. As part of the critic process, the students carried their life-size cardboard chairs to the daycare affiliated with F&M and had three sets of

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-25017362656178516522011-05-04T22:34:00.007-04:002011-05-05T15:06:12.287-04:00

F&M Art major Dan Deibler '12 decided to tackle the human body as an independent study with professor Kevin Brady. The fruits of that one-semester project were recently on display at the Phillips Museum. Six large drawings document the learning process from charcoal to large oil paintings.The portrait on the left has been haunting me for the last few weeks. It is one of the most accomplished

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-5383412776741369442011-05-04T09:54:00.007-04:002011-05-05T21:01:39.932-04:00

In the next few posts, I will celebrate the most thrilling projects produced by students in my department. F&M has been buzzing with artistic productions, three student openings, the senior exhibition, and the student juried exhibition (which made the local news). My favorite project happened outside the museum walls this last Monday. It involved the marriage between personal history and

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-86457142836786318672011-05-03T10:38:00.004-04:002011-05-03T11:26:45.973-04:00

My colleague Michael Clapper gave a fantastic talk, "Maxfield Parrish's Constructed Fantasyland" on April 22 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Michael's talk is part of a larger study on the relationship between high and popular art in American culture. To understand the broader conceptual framework, see Michael's related case-studies, Michael Clapper, “Imagining the Ordinary: John Rogers’

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-40031708558775187212011-05-02T12:49:00.010-04:002011-05-03T00:34:23.339-04:00

The southeastern staircase at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Gallery 276B) contains my favorite insect, stenciled on a Dutch tile from 1906. Knowing that the tile was originally installed in the interior of a butcher shop makes the image even more potent. I was traveling through Schiphol (Amsterdam's airport) the year the new terminals opened (1998?), and I was impressed (if not baffled) by the

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-54139416536719766272011-04-30T09:40:00.007-04:002011-04-30T14:54:10.135-04:00

At first glimpse,the floral detail on the left seems completely decorative. This particular flower springs out of a horizontal steel beam. And at closer inspection, the flower's stigma is a 6-sided bolt that locks two C-channel beams into the structure. The steel beam spans a large shop-window and supports the exterior wall of a 3-story building above, similar to the situation in 222 Chapel St.

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-8869330413486826302011-04-29T11:26:00.008-04:002011-04-29T11:50:00.286-04:00

An interesting variation of the steel beam vernacular can be found in a group of row houses at 4010-4016 Spruce Street, West Philadelphia. As far as I can tell from other stylistic features, the houses date to the 1920s. They fit the Garden City development of the neighborhood.As with the earlier examples of steel beam vernacular, the upper floors of these houses extend above the porch, an

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-41172312688776756992011-04-27T10:59:00.007-04:002011-04-27T11:12:25.098-04:00

Structurally superior to older materials, steel could facilitate larger spans. William Le Baron Jenney developed the steel frame system in the 1890s, which facilitated the Chicago skyscraper. In all cases, however, the innovative metal structure needed to be covered to avoid exposure to fire. A generation earlier (1850s), wrought iron had been used as the primary material for tall manufacturing

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-76937409488721620152011-04-26T14:37:00.012-04:002011-05-10T15:28:30.034-04:00

The incorporation of steel beams in the visual language of American architecture begins with Frank Furness. Historians credit his Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1871) as the first building to use exposed steel beams and to incorporate the new riveted technology into the decorative language. This is evident in the PaFA’s interior galleries, where horizontal steel lintels are married with

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-10950694963191058482011-04-25T09:00:00.015-04:002011-04-25T12:43:51.205-04:00

Revealing structural material to the viewer is central to a tradition of architecture that begins with Viollet-le-Duc’s structural rationalism and culminates to contemporary High Tech. Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavillion (1929) marks the ultimate aesthetization of the steel beam, which extends into Mies' invention of the American skyscraper in the 1950s (Seagram Building, etc.) As far as I

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-9464104822801486872011-04-12T12:40:00.007-04:002011-08-20T22:02:14.395-04:00

While my 1930s Architecture seminar students conduct their research on the campus architecture of William Lee, we had a chance to contemplate a new colonial revival building that was just completed at F&M's campus. The New College House was designed by Robert A. M. Stern and adheres to the traditionalism of Stern's campus buildings, anthologized in a new monograph Robert A. M. Stern: On Campus (

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-74370018768207853762011-04-08T11:58:00.007-04:002011-04-12T12:44:50.744-04:00

There's nothing like the plastic sound that my antiquated cell phone makes when I close its flap. My toddler loves to open and close it and occasionally have her finger stuck. I also love the sound my phone makes when I accidentally drop it and it splatters into three parts: the body, the battery, the battery case. Call me corporealist, but the iPhone is too ethereal. Back in 1994, Umberto Eco

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-22693131390959834012011-04-08T10:31:00.009-04:002011-08-20T22:01:32.760-04:00

I haven't been blogging much about one of my major research projects this current year, an exhibition of Georg von Peschke paintings from 1930s Greece. It's been a wonderful project with lots of help from friends an colleagues. F&M is excellent in providing funds for undergraduate research, including a summer-long collaborative fellowship, the Hackman. Having a Hackman students is like having a

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-77595414113547388452011-04-06T10:53:00.005-04:002011-04-06T17:05:19.339-04:00

My 1930s Art History seminar is embarking on a study of William Lee's architecture at Franklin & Marshall. Shadek-Fackenthall Library and Keiper Hall retained the Colonial Revival idiom set into place by Charles Klauder 1924 master plan, but I hope that my students will reveal the buildings' subtleties.At the same time, the New York Times Style Magazine announced a forthcoming exhibit at the

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-14861321630940756292011-04-05T13:53:00.006-04:002011-04-05T14:11:21.979-04:00

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-6104735391354198152011-03-25T11:06:00.006-04:002011-03-25T11:37:02.329-04:00

Obviously, the ancient Greeks and Romans did not have electric lights and light fixtures. If you happened to be a neoclassical architect in the early 20th-century, you were confronted with a new design problem. I have been looking at a number of neoclassical light fixtures admiring the ingenuity of their solutions. One example is the light fixture at Lancaster's Railroad Station, designed in 1929

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-27406262947614324732011-03-21T11:14:00.004-04:002011-03-21T11:43:17.300-04:00

H. P. Lovecraft is a cult author of “weird fiction” from the 1920-30s. Although I had heard of the name, I didn’t become interested in Lovecraft until Matthew Sweet's interview of novelist China Mieville and journalist Suzi Feay on BBC's Nightwaves (Oct. 20, 2010).For the last three months, I’ve been feasting on Lovecraft’s short stories. His grotesque apocalyptic visions help us understand

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-13800203359939874642011-03-18T14:49:00.008-04:002011-03-19T10:37:15.295-04:00

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is hosting a small show on Anne Tyng, the pioneering engineering partner of Louis Kahn. Tyng taught at Penn's architecture school for many years where many got to know her. She was truly one of the toughest critics. The show would offer no surprises to those who know the modern architectural scene of Philadelphia. Tyng's case continues to raise some

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-39566772291832565142011-03-17T10:27:00.008-04:002011-03-17T12:09:06.479-04:00

Franklin & Marshall's Emerging Scholars symposium this year was dedicated to Identity. All the papers were amazing, but Patricia Banks' "Represent: Art and Identity Among the Black Upper-Middle Class" was the one that struck some chords with my research. It was a pleasure to meet Patricia and initiate some comparative discussions with the Armenian- and Greek-American middle classes. Symposium

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-56671389331652782882011-03-15T14:06:00.008-04:002011-03-15T15:10:58.143-04:00

Kyspseli is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Athens and in the world. Developed in the 1920s, Patesion Boulevard stretched a new modern identity for the expansion of Athens north of the archaeological museum and the polytechnic university. During the "golden" age of the 1960s, Patesia and Kypseli defined a new metropolitanism. To use American terminology, these neighborhoods

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-39504492442239349332011-02-03T13:23:00.005-05:002011-02-03T13:56:55.701-05:00

Back in December, I blogged on Fred Astaire's Bojangles routine in "Swing Time" (1936), see Astaire Shoes, Dec. 5, 2010, and Bojangles in Harlem, Dec. 2, 2010. I stirred clear from the problematic racial questions that Astaire's blackface raises, but I'm happy to see that they were tackled this weekend by Alastair Macaulay, "Astaire the Artist, Even in Blackface," New York Times (Jan. 27, 2011).

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-54622472833844407242011-01-26T17:25:00.008-05:002011-03-25T11:42:38.529-04:00

I'm trying to decide whether to go see Jonathan Richman at the First Unitarian Church on March 1. Browsing the web, I came upon this great little article by Keith Gessen, "The Bostonians", in the The Guardian (May 3, 2008). This is perfect reading for Punk Archaeology, thematizing the tension between Boston and New York and the conflicts of leaving the former for the latter. Keith Gessen is great

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-22337297807691643572011-01-23T16:57:00.007-05:002011-01-23T20:55:39.749-05:00

I keep arguing that Byzantine material culture continues to be relevant in contemporary aesthetics. It only takes a bit of scratching to find Byzantium lurking in the vestiges of subculture. I'm intrigued, for instance, by how many members of the New Wave and Punk scene collect Byzantine art. Last week, I blogged on Rock in Athens '85, one of the most important early festivals for New Wave.

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-8909738388093658732011-01-20T10:28:00.008-05:002011-08-20T22:02:54.374-04:00

This semester, I'm teaching a 300-level seminar on 1930s America. In the last few years, I've been doing a lot of 1930s architectural historiography and I have realized the pivotal role this decade played in American culture. I've also began to appreciate what a tremendous impact Pennsylvania architects, artists, and intellectuals have made on the 30s. The seminar has seven students, most of whom

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-76579899095538147592011-01-12T16:44:00.005-05:002011-01-13T11:27:48.668-05:00

While most journalists focus on the economic problems of Greece, Charly Wilder has been consistently exploring the Greek landscape of hipness. She's a free lance writer for the New York Times and contributes In Transit: A Guide to Intelligent Travel. About a year ago, Wilder featured the capital's indie scene, "The Indie Music Pillars of Athens," (NYT, Nov. 22, 2009). With the turn of the New

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-44026860950925407912011-01-12T11:13:00.000-05:002011-01-12T12:06:14.712-05:00

This is what the skyline of our kitchen bookcase looks like. It has been recently populated by my new Sirius satellite radio and all its messy appendages (antenna, plug, wires). Thanks to Santa for a new subscription to Sirius radio, which I had given up when we stopped the long-distance marriage and the commutes from rural places that lacked NPR. Having grown up in the age of radio, I get no

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-35962452568071970682011-01-10T20:04:00.015-05:002011-01-12T14:32:04.384-05:00

On July 26-27, 1985, the ancient stadium of Athens hosted an interesting happening organized by the newly formed General Secretariat of Youth (Γενική Γραμματεία Νέας Γενιάς) and the French Ministry of Culture. Rock in Athens 85' was a two day New Wave rock festival, which was quite cutting edge for its time. Although major bands like the Rolling Stones had performed in the ancient stadium before

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329450.post-2896528515496125302011-01-09T13:11:00.009-05:002011-01-09T14:46:09.223-05:00

One often plays imaginary worlds. I know that the notion of fantasy and doctorate dissertation usually occupy mutually exclusive realms, but for many of us for whom the dissertation has receded into the chambers of the distant past, the process of a PhD can be sufficiently romanticized. Recently, I've been thinking that in an ideal world, I would love to be starting a new PhD, embarking on that

KOSTIS KOURELIShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10337635437028881328noreply@blogger.com0