I've just learned that Gehry's "creation" at Bard has run into labor
trouble. Apparently it started 2 days ago as a response to the builder's
bringing non-union workers to speed up the construction. The completion
date is sometime in May and a big gala event was planned and the tickets
were already being sold. This does not surprise me at all. The whole
point of Gehry's computer-based design methodology is to reduce labor
costs. I covered this project in:
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/culture/gehry.htm
However, I neglected to include an important point that was covered in
the Baffler Magazine article on Frank Gehry that prompted me to write my
own piece. Gehry's characteristically "melting wax" forms are
facilitated by computer-based design, which are also meant to cut down
on skilled labor costs. It is the same phenomenon identified in David
Noble's "Forces of Production" as adapted to architecture.
--
The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
