Date of Award
Spring 6-2-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Architecture (MArch)
Department
Architecture
First Advisor
Hansy Better
Second Advisor
Amy Kulper
Third Advisor
Aaron Forrest
Abstract
Monuments are to something; people, events, memories, achievements, or tragedies. They are meant to freeze the moment of the builder and save it for the future. Monuments are an attempted cryogenesis, but monuments that preserve the past sever themselves from the present. They are cryogenic. They can be viewed, but are frozen behind the glass of time. All but the most potent of artifacts will fade at these low temps. Their relevance diminishes until they undergo a transmutation from an intentional object into a historical artifact.
These historic monuments are worthy of our suspicion. Do they replicate or preserve what they claim to? Is the preserved pure or has it been altered without our knowledge? Is the monumentalized just a story we’ve been told.
Recommended Citation
Rice, Graham, "A monument thesis" (2018). Masters Theses. 303.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/303
Creative Commons License
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