This thesis approaches the work of Frederick Viesler as an attempt to resolve many of the issues resulting from the technological circumstances of the late twentieth century. It concerns the problematic caused by the gap existing between the senses and imagination, which causes a break between perceiving the world and the human act of creation. This fact reflects the way that nowadays reality has been "instrumentalized", locating man in a realm in which the human body does not interact according to its inherent capacities. Kiesler, through his theory of "Correalism", searched for underlying continuity, and proposed that man inhabit his world as a participant, where senses and imagination become one for reinterpreting the event of architecture, bringing forward the possibility of "enlivening" space. The relevance of "Correalism" for contemporary architecture becomes more significant when seen through a phenomenological perspective, which suggests that "reality" should be apprehended through the link between the embodied self and its contiguous world. Correal architecture should bring about a "more sensitive" experience of space by creating an interacting dynamic that would reflect man's existence as a whole.

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A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg for the Degree of Master of Arts Johannesburg, 1993 / The realization has recently been reached that personality psychology is in a state of crisis, this being even more true of the cross-cultural assessment of personality. In this dissertation traditional methods of assessing personality are critically examined 871d the appropriateness of the use of various assessment methods in South Africa is considered. Interactionism is put forward as' an alternative approach and its usefulness in assessment is evaluated. One method of operationalizing interacticnism is Kiesler's Interpersonal Circle. In the light of the limitations of existing assessment methods, it is :1ut forward that a contextual-behavioural representation of Kiesler's theory would solve many problems. An instrument was developed to allow the feasibility of this approach to be tested. In this instrument the testee interacts with a number of fictitious people with different characteristics. A study was conducted in which the 680 items were rated by 24 experts to establish if it is possible to obtain an acceptable level of agreement on the quadrant of the circle represented by the items. Overall, 16,7% of the items had to be revised. In the second study all items met the criteria set. The conclusion reached is that a contextual.. behavioural representation of Kiesler's theory is feasible. The implications for assessment are considered. / MT2017

PhD. theis is based on a meda nalzsis of a film space by Frederick Kiesler from 1929.

Frederick Kiesler's Endless House was a response to the principles of functionalism that dominated architectural theory during his lifetime. The house was developed from his philosophy of correalism and his galaxial art. Correalism explains his understanding of the universe as correlating proposing an integration of technology into architecture, and galaxial art is a method for producing art based upon his idea of art as ritual. Kiesler attempted to apply his new awareness to the Endless House design. In many ways, he was successful in uniting theory and design, but the house was never built. While highlighting the work's deficiencies this fact distracts his critics causing them to overlook his actual accomplishments.

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Marguerite “Peggy” Guggenheim is best known for her legacy of collecting modern art in both Europe and the United States, but scholars have overlooked her importance as a patron of modern architecture, specifically the exhibition spaces that showcased her art collection. This thesis fills the gap of literature by tracing the architectural history of the collection. Guggenheim represented a catalyst for bridging the role of art and architecture by promoting modern art through three different spatial approaches: creating collaborative and didactic gallery workspaces at Galerie Guggenheim Jeune in London (1938-1939), establishing architectural spaces that employed unique display techniques at Art of This Century in New York (1942-1948), and instituting a final home-museum at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice (1949-present). Through the use of primary sources, such as Guggenheim’s autobiography, archival sources including familial correspondences, original black and white photographs, newspaper articles, and architectural drawings, I resituate Guggenheim as not only an art patron and collector, but also a benefactor of modern architectural spaces. / text

A defining feature of American abstract expressionist painting is its enormous size and scale. Heroic ambition, the vast American landscape, and the sense of "something big" happening in American painting are often cited as determining factors in this phenomenon. This dissertation examines how Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko not only painted large-scale canvases but, following trends in modern architecture, shifted their painting towards the construction of architectural environments, thus promoting the transformation of painting from a window in the wall to a wall without a window. The artist and architect Tony Smith, a close friend and colleague of these painters, played an active role in encouraging their interest in modern architecture. As a result of their investigations into the physical, as well as conceptual, limits of the canvas, these artists shifted the viewer’s experience from a perceptual experience of pictorial space to a physical encounter with actual space. In contradiction to the notion of the purely optical, one could describe this as a somatic viewing experience, tactile and active, which anticipated specific concerns of 1960s minimalism. This achievement redefines Pollock's, Newman's, and Rothko's legacy to the subsequent generation of artists and places their production into a broader historical framework. / text

Si les lieux et les pratiques de l’architecture sont communément décrits par des termes empruntés aux arts (atelier, création, œuvre), la discipline a recours de façon croissante à des termes scientifiques (laboratoire, expérimentation, recherche). Cet intérêt contemporain pour des activités liées à la recherche scientifique se cristallise autour du « laboratoire architectural », une notion aujourd’hui courante dont les premières matérialisations remontent à la fin du XIXe siècle et dont la présence se renforce avec le récent « tournant numérique ». Or ce terme reste aujourd’hui sans définition claire. Qu’est‐ce qu’un « laboratoire architectural »? Quels éléments en constituent‐ils le modèle théorique? Quels sont les enjeux liés à l’émergence de la figure du laboratoire en architecture ? Pourquoi et pour quoi les architectes ont-ils recours à la figure du laboratoire ? La thèse s’organise en deux grandes parties, chacune structurée autour d’une série de questions complémentaires dans le but de rendre compte de la façon la plus complète de la nature du laboratoire architectural. La première partie apporte un éclairage historique sur la création de la figure du laboratoire architectural et se conclut sur une explicitation des grands éléments constitutifs d’un modèle du laboratoire architectural. Les cas étudiés sont le Architectural Laboratory du Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), les nombreux laboratoires architecturaux des avant-gardes russes des années 1920, et le cas remarquable qu’est le Laboratory for Design Correlation fondé et dirigé par Frederick Kiesler à l’Université Columbia (1937–1942). Cette étude de cas se conclut sur la formulation des trois grands éléments constitutifs d’un modèle du laboratoire architectural qui sont 1. l’instrumentation matérielle, 2. la méthode de travail, et 3. les échanges sociaux. La seconde partie explicite chacun de ces trois axes en montrant de quelle manière ils ont structuré trois grandes catégories de laboratoires architecturaux, soit 1. le laboratoire comme ensemble d’instruments, 2. le laboratoire comme application d’une méthode et 3. le laboratoire comme flux d’échanges sociaux. La conclusion de la thèse traite des multiples enjeux que soulève le laboratoire architectural en abordant celui-ci dans sa relation à la discipline et hors de la discipline et se clôt sur la formulation d’un modèle théorique du laboratoire architectural. A travers l’explicitation de ce qui apparait comme un « paradigme du laboratoire », cette recherche épistémologique se veut une contribution à la théorisation de l’architecture contemporaine. / Architectural sites and practices are commonly described in terms borrowed from the arts (studio, creation, masterpiece) and yet, the architectural field relies increasingly on scientific terms (laboratory experimentation, research). This contemporary interest in activities related to scientific research appears to coalesce around the now common notion of "architectural laboratory". Its first materialization dates back to the late nineteenth century and its presence has greatly increased since the recent "digital turn", although this term remains, to this day, still not properly defined. What is an "architectural laboratory"? What elements form its theoretical model? What are the issues related to the emergence of the figure of the "architectural laboratory"? Why and for what purpose do architects refer to the figure of the laboratory? The thesis is organized into two parts, each part being structured around a series of additional questions in order to access the complex nature of the architectural laboratory. The first section provides a historical perspective on the appearance of the figure of the architectural laboratory and concludes with an analysis of the major components of the architectural laboratory model. The case studies are the Architectural Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the numerous architectural laboratories of the 1920s Russian avant-gardes and the remarkable case that is the Laboratory for Design Correlation founded and directed by Frederick J. Kiesler at Columbia University (1937–1942). This case study results in the formulation of the three major components of a model of architectural laboratory: 1. the material instrumentation, 2. the working method, and 3. the social exchanges. The second part will clarify each of these three axes, showing how they have structured three major categories of architectural laboratories, being 1. the laboratory as a set of instruments, 2. the laboratory as application of a method, and 3. the laboratory as social exchange flows. The conclusion of the thesis tackles the multiple issues raised by the architectural laboratory by considering the impact of this notion both within the discipline of architecture and outside of its limits. The thesis concludes with the formulation of a theoretical model of the architectural laboratory. Through the clarification of what appears to be a "paradigm of the laboratory", this epistemological research is a contribution to the theory of contemporary architecture.

From 1922-1942, the Austrian-American architect and designer Frederick Jacob Kiesler (1890-1965) designed architecture based on the idea that it must complement the physiological and psychological processes of the human body. In order to reconcile the technological changes wrought by industrialized production with the need for structures that promoted human health, he developed an inspired model for interactive design. His formative experiences in Europe working with De Stijl and the G-Group, along with his exposure to Central European examples of architecture, art, and science set the agenda for his later works. Yet he never stopped experimenting with new concepts that would bolster his essential philosophy of body-generated space. After he immigrated to the United States in 1926, Kiesler’s pursued his ideas about physiological and psychological architecture within a new cultural milieu and a network of encouraging personal connections. He forged relationships with a sympathetic community of émigré industrial designers and architects who promoted his efforts to integrate modern technology with new design idioms. During his first fifteen years in New York City, Kiesler looked to contemporary science as a way to advance a model of flexible architectural design. He also worked at the cutting edge of industrial design research and was an early protagonist of human factors engineering methods. His body-centered methodology stood in opposition to aesthetic and reductive approaches toward modernism and functionalism. Instead of designing according to a priori determinations of what was functional and what was not, Kiesler’s functionalism was based on an iterative design practice that would reveal progressively more useful and universally applicable forms. / text