The entr'acte denotes the specific construction of both time and space between parts of a stage performance. Generally taking place in front of closed curtains during set changes between acts, the entr'acte delivers a fleeting new purpose and event to the otherwise sometimes inert space between stage and pit. This collection employs the entr'acte as a model for conceptualizing emerging formations of publics and of public space, in particular with the rapidly evolving proliferation of communications technologies that today result in new forms and durations of the public: as spaces, as socialities, and as discourses. Formed without the vast material intervention and deployment of capital of public space past, these defy traditional limits of design and construction. This book examines their qualities and their players, both human and material, as performers of different sorts; as entr'acteurs. The book brings together key thinkers at the intersections of performance, new media, urban studies and architecture to explore this new world of interim publics.
Industry Reviews
"Of course, all architecture is performative. Too often, though, this is squeezed into a constricting discourse of functionality. This exhilarating book shows that space - cyber-augmented and globally distributed - is a realm of complex enactment that founds a theatre of life embracing everything from revolution to joy." - Michael Sorkin "Geiger has gathered an impressive array of contemporary thinkers to establish and tease out the reality of living in an age where sedentary structures are exceeded by the mediatized spectacle of our daily lives. These entr'acteurs (themselves operating between varying creative and theoretical practices) expose eddies at the dynamic nexus of geopolitical, financial, technological, and sociocultural forces in order to offer remarkable accounts, insights, and propositions that productively 'play' between the transitory and intransigent as performative spacing." - Dorita Hannah, Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Architecture, Art and Design, University of Tasmania, Australia and Adjunct Professor, Stage and Space, Aalto University, Finland "This is a book that gets under your skin with its kaleidoscopic and densely worded essays on phenomena wherein the urban, the political, media and images interact, or rather: are smashed together. We know that we are living out the last days of a former world order, in politics, in economies, in media, and in the role that architecture has to play in shaping the public sphere. Entr'acte does not reassure, or moralize about where we are going or should be going, but shakes us up with its visions of where we are already, and where we could be going." - Wouter Vanstiphout, Professor, Design and Politics, Technical University Delft, The Netherlands
