The Independent Group's encounters with logical positivism and searches for unity in the 1951 Growth and Form Exhibition

This study analyzes the intellectual and historical milieu of the Independent Group. Its point of departure is Growth and Form, an exhibition of scientific imagery, largely conceived and designed by Richard Hamilton, and the book accompanying the exhibition, Aspects of Form, edited by Lancelot Law Whyte and including a wide range of essays by leading scientists of the day, as well as by Konrad Lorenz, Rudolf Arnheim, and Ernst Gombrich. In tracing the discourses of "form" and "unity" to several distinct sources, my study charts the unmapped territory where multiple influential, yet previously unconnected art figures may be seen to cross paths. The models of perception posited by the writers discussed in this study-a Romantic organicism, a scientific and a scientistic unitarism, and the ostensibly empirical Gestalt theory-existed simultaneously and intermingled in the IG environment. The historical avant-garde's emphasis on method--such as El Lissitsky's call for "Gestaltung als Ergebnis wissenschaftlicher Untersuchung eines Problems," or Hannes Meyer's call for the "wissenschaftliche Erfassung und gestalterische Umsetzung der neuen Welt" --continued after World War II.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Moffat, Isabelle, 1967-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Leo Marx.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17555

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17555