Uselessness : : Humankind’s most valuable tool? / / ed. by Michelle Howard, Luciano Parodi.

Is uselessness a tool? The acquisition of tools is the secret to humankind’s success and what distinguishes us from animals. However, we also use tools to tell stories and produce objects that are perplexingly useless. Uselessness rarely meets our expectations, but can also be fascinating and libera...

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Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Art and Architecture eBook-Package 2020
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Place / Publishing House:Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2020]
©2020
Year of Publication:2020
Language:English
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource (152 p.)
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Other title:Frontmatter --
CONTENTS --
CONTRIBUTORS --
PREFACE. USELESSNESS IS A RAREFIED THING --
INFREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Excavating Obsolete Migrant Skills --
REFUSING TO PERFORM: Trans-Utility, or the contemporary value of uselessness in architecture --
USELESSNESS AND PURPOSELESSNESS: On central norms and imperatives of Western aesthetics --
USELESS, AND THEN DANGEROUS: Public Space and Property in 20th century British Modernist Housing --
USELESS ARCHITECTURE --
USE–LESS–LAND: Two centuries of defending Tempelhofer Field in Berlin --
IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS USELESSNESS --
CONQUEST OF THE USELESS --
ART—USE— USEFULNESS. Two Discourses: Use Value and Instrumentalization --
EPILOGUE: USELESSNESS, XXXXXi
Summary:Is uselessness a tool? The acquisition of tools is the secret to humankind’s success and what distinguishes us from animals. However, we also use tools to tell stories and produce objects that are perplexingly useless. Uselessness rarely meets our expectations, but can also be fascinating and liberating, because it eludes the logic of the "use = value" equation. In the Modern Age usefulness became a priority: with reference to space, production or training. Yet futurologists today predict that one product of artificial intelligence will be a "useless" future. If the future makes us useless, it will be necessary to reconsider our attitude toward uselessness. The texts in this interdisciplinary reader illuminate the potential creativity the future can bring in light of this development.
Ist Nutzlosigkeit ein Werkzeug? Die Errungenschaft von Werkzeugen ist das Erfolgsgeheimnis der Menschheit und macht den Unterschied zur Tierwelt. Doch wir nutzen Werkzeuge auch, um Geschichten zu erzählen und Objekte herzustellen, deren Nutzlosigkeit verwirrt. Nutzlosigkeit entspricht selten unseren Erwartungen, kann aber auch faszinieren und befreien, weil sie sich der Logik „Gebrauch = Wert“ entzieht. Mit der Moderne wurde Nützlichkeit zur Priorität: in Bezug auf Raum, Produktion oder Bildung. Doch mittlerweile sagen Zukunftsforscher voraus, dass mit der Artificial Intelligence eine „nutzlose“ Gesellschaft entsteht. Wenn die Zukunft uns nutzlos macht, gilt es, unsere Haltung zur Nutzlosigkeit zu überdenken. Die Texte des Readers beleuchten, was uns die Zukunft in diesem Sinne an Kreativität einbringen könnte.
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9783110679830
9783110738230
9783110696288
9783110696271
9783110659061
9783110704655
9783110704785
9783110704716
9783110704518
DOI:10.1515/9783110679830
Access:restricted access
Hierarchical level:Monograph
Statement of Responsibility: ed. by Michelle Howard, Luciano Parodi.