Method of Indirection : talking to Walter Benjamin through the Arcades Project

• I’ve wanted to talk to Walter Benjamin ever since encountering his Arcades Project. But – as much as that desire may be attune with Benjamin’s own commitment to bringing the past forth to the present – I can’t. I therefore turn to Arcades translator, and Benjamin scholar, Howard Eiland... and, it was inevitable that I had to return to the Arcades, not just because Benjamin meticulously objectified the glass and iron arcades as method and catalyst of research, but because, to me, ‘greenhouse’ does precede, and succeed, the arcades themselves as display and index of what was, and is to become of ‘natural history.’ For 'Legacy' I share excerpts of an interview (soon to be published entirely) that started at the Harvard Co-op in 2016; a conversation that continues to this day, by way of intermittent emails and other correspondence.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Benjamin

Arcades

art

translation

historiography

greenhouse

Art, Technology and Design

Konst, teknik och design

Publication and Content Type

pop (subject category)

kap (subject category)

kfu (subject category)