12 December 1997

Revised as requested by Brian Carroll

# THE ARCHITECTURE OF ELECTRICITY

Brian Thomas Carroll

The previous proposal offered here, the Architecture of Electricity, is now under development. There is an "architectures" website now under construction, along with the ae thesis, and the ae database/catalog, now called "mapping the e-assemblage."

It has been replaced by the following information so as to provide a clearer and more succinct explanation of the project's direction and its specific content.

Hopefully during 1998 the project will be placed online. At that time, there will be a online juried "virtual thesis committee" to review and challenge the following proposition.

The revised thesis now reasons that; based on what we know about electricity, the different ways it exists in the world, its development over the past 2000 years, and its presence in the electrical infrastructure, consisting of power and media systems; electricity has become the new order in the built environment, and that it has specifically created new spatial, temporal, aesthetic, and cultural experiences. This idea is reasoned by examining electricity from an architectural point of view, based upon definitions of architecture, a methodology based on archaeology, and architectural theory ranging over the past 2000 years. In all, this culminates in a proposal for a new, electrical architecture which utilizes electrical objects, such as computer networks, in architectural design to affect cultural change on economic, social, and political levels for the benefit of the broader, human public.

The proof will be reasoned similar to what follows:

> -------------------------------------------------------

> -- the Architecture of Electricity --------------------

> -------------------------------------------------------

> --- Electricity?

> > - the Atomic Theory of Matter
> > - Forms of Electricity
> > - Electronics

> --- the Electrical World

> > - the Natural E-World
> > - the Artificial E-World
> > - the Virtual E-World

> --- the Electrical Epoch

> > - the Primitive E-Age
> > - the Classical E-Age
> > - the Modern E-Age
> > - the Post-Modern E-Age

> --- the Electrical Infrastructure

> > - the E-Power System (Generation-Consumption)
> > - the E-Media Systems (Phone,Radio,TV,NC)
> > - Basic Human Needs

> --- the Electrical Order

> > - Electrical Space-Time
> > - Electrical Aesthetics
> > - Electrical Culture

> --- Architecture & Electricity

> > - Definitions of Architecture
> > - Architectural Precedents
> > - Architectural Issues

> --- Towards an Architecture of Electricity

> > - Architectural Method (Archaeological)
> > - Architectural Fragments (Vitruvius-Venturi)
> > - Architectural Comparison (Traditional-vs-New Order)

> -------------------------------------------------------

> -- Electrical Architecture ----------------------------

> -------------------------------------------------------

for more info contact:

Brian Carroll

quixotic_@hotmail.com

12-11-97 California