Architecture, Film, and the In-between: Spatio-Cinematic Betwixt, edited by Vahid Vadat and James F. Kerestes

Abstract

In the foreword to Architecture, Film, and the In-between: Spatio-Cinematic Betwixt, Mark Foster Gage opines that the architectural discipline has reached an ideological and creative “wall”. Devoid of a dominant ideological force in architecture to subvert or rebel against, and competing for the attention of an increasingly overstimulated public, he asserts that modern architecture lacks a taboo, set of building materials, language, or style that is revolutionary enough to make people pay attention to innovative design. However, Gage and the book’s editors Vahid Vahdat and James F. Kerestes suggest that the future is not entirely bleak: one simply needs to look inside the liminal spaces—whether between literal walls or academic disciplines—to find meaningful and engaging solutions. The central organising theme of this collection is “the betwixt”, a concept first coined by the Scottish cultural anthropologist, Victor Turner. Originally used as a term to explicate his theory of liminality, particularly as used to describe rites of passage within different cultural systems, the editors and contributors of this volume find numerous challenging and insightful ways of applying “the betwixt” to both architectural and cinematic design.

Keywords

• film studies
• architecture
• lliminal spaces
• spatial design
• in-between