The term "model behavior" is commonly used to describe good social skills. Conceptual models, study models, section models, and presentation models are givens in the practice and production of architecture, but the role of the architectural model in projecting or eliciting social behavior is seldom considered. At a moment when models in other disciplines - such as climate change and COVID models - are clearly affecting social behavior, how do architectural models reflect those changes or contribute to changing behaviors?
The claim argued in this lecture is that a model is an agent, like a chemical agent, that has effects on proximate things in the world. Because those effects can be good or bad, a model's ethical behavior, like that of a human, should always be subject to judgment. The case is made on the basis of an investigation of model prisons. A discussion following the lecture will be moderated by Sylvia Lavin. This event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Model Behavior. Speaker Annabel Jane Wharton, William B. Hamilton Professor of Art History, Duke University, received her Ph.D. at the Courtauld Institute, London University.
Manhattan, New York, NY