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Immaterial Architectures

Urban Space and Electric Light

University of Melbourne

Since its invention, electric lighting has had a decisive impact on the psychogeography of urban space. Concentrating on the period from 1880 to World War II, the author argues that electrical lighting has been a major factor in the emergence of modern urban environments, in which the traditional function of architecture as a stable ground has increasingly given way to a growing mutability of forms and fluidity of appearances. This tendency both paralleled and converged with the effects of modern media technologies such as cinema, contributing to the emergence of a new environment characterized by "relational space," in which the city is increasingly defined by the overlap of material and immaterial spatial regimes.

Key Words: electricity • light • modern city • perceptual experience • relational space

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