28 in 28 #18: Everything All at Once

<i>February is Book Month on A Daily Dose of Architecture. The "<a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/search/label/28%20in%2028">28 in 28</a>" series features a different book every day of the month.</i><br /><br /><a href="http://www.papress.com/html/book.details.page.tpl?isbn=9781616890780"><b><i>Everything All at Once: The Software, Videos, and Architecture of MOS</i></b></a> by Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample<br />Princeton Architectural Press, 2013<br />Paperback, 176 pages<br /><br /><img alt="28-28_MOS.jpg" src="http://www.archidose.org/Blog/28-28_MOS.jpg" title="Book cover" /><br /><br />A visit to the website of New York City's <a href="http://www.mos-office.net/">MOS</a> reveals six projects tagged <a href="http://www.mos-office.net/?tag=software">Software</a>, six as <a href="http://www.mos-office.net/?tag=video">Video</a>, six as <a href="http://www.mos-office.net/?tag=buildings">Buildings</a>, six as <a href="http://www.mos-office.net/?tag=installations">Installations</a>, and four as <a href="http://www.mos-office.net/?tag=pavillions">Pavilions</a>. These categories start to get at the process and output of the duo of Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample; they also hint at why their first monograph is called <i>Everything All at Once</i>. The title's double entendre describes the book's presentation, which color codes the software, videos, and architecture of MOS but overlaps and merges them together. More importantly it refers to their working process, in which the three parts of the subtitle are treated to an equal extent, such that the front flap's statement that they "exchange plans or sections for software and videos" seems slightly off target; instead of serving the architecture, the software and videos can actually become the end result.<br /><br />While MOS has realized buildings, and is doing more of them on an increasingly larger scale, the architecture they include in the book are temporary installations and pavilions. This adds an even stronger element of time to their constructions, furthering the overlap between the architecture and the software and videos. The short shelf life of projects like <a href="http://archidose.blogspot.com/2009/01/ps1-afterparty.html">Afterparty</a> at MoMA PS1 means that experience and events are that much more important. In turn the videos imagine happenings within their architecture, both before and after construction. Unfortunately the captions that accompany the video images are sometimes illegible, partly from the fluorescent pink used for the videos (software is blue and architecture is purple) but mainly because the white font is smaller than small.<br /><br />While I'd question leaving out some of MOS's more well known projects (<a href="http://www.mos-office.net/?p=485">Puppet Theater</a>, <a href="http://www.mos-office.net/?p=415">Foreclosed</a>), the selection reinforces the linkage between the three realms and the duo's questioning of the norms of architectural production. They are definitely doing something that works, given how the appeal with academics, institutions, and (I'm guessing) a larger public that does not care about the intellectual nature or curatorial positions of their work. Their installations have an obvious appeal that is rooted equally in form and experience (talking form my own experience, <i>Afterparty</i> was especially rewarding). Therefore the influence of the software (enabling complex forms) and videos (a means of envisioning experience and event) is evident in their architecture, even as those pieces aren't grasped by everybody lucky enough to visit their installations and pavilions in the short times they exist.<br /><br /><b>US: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616890789/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1616890789&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.com" border="0" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan.gif" /></a> CA: <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1616890789/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1616890789&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.ca" border="0" height="28" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan-ca.gif" width="90" /></a> UK: <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1616890789/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1616890789&linkCode=as2&tag=aweeklydoseof-20" target="_blank"><img alt="Buy from Amazon.co.uk" border="0" height="28" src="http://www.archidose.org/books/buy-from-tan-uk.gif" width="90" /></a></b>

28 in 28 #18: Everything All at Once

February is Book Month on A Daily Dose of Architecture. The " 28 in 28 " series features a different book every day of the month. ...

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