Book Review: Scanning

Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio edited by Aaron Betsky, published by Whitney Museum, 2003. Hardcover, 244 pages. (Amazon)



Coinciding with a recent exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Art on the duo's work, this book contains essays, an interview and illustrations of their varied oeuvre, from their early performance sets to the Blur building and recent competition-winning architectural designs. The essays range in subject matter and focus, reflecting the couple's unconventional practice, with relevant projects sprinkled within the essays, the best of which deal with their investigation of the human body and their embrace of technology, particularly surveillance technology. The duo also designed the exhibition at the Whitney, as well as creating a site-specific artwork for the duration of the show that questions the museum's setting for art. This questioning of the norm extends to the realm of the book in its unique design and its "hidden" pages.

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