Brott, Simone

Bio Sketch

Simone Brott is an Australian architectural historian and theorist (QUT) whose work applies Frankfurt School critical theory — principally Adorno — to contemporary architecture. She is best known for her critiques of iconic architecture as digital mimesis, and for reading the "Bilbao effect" and the iconic industry through dialectical materialism.

Key Works

• "Modernity's Opiate, or the Crisis of Iconic Architecture" (2012, Log 26)
• "What is Iconic Architecture?" (2016, SAHANZ 33) — the three typologies (Elysium, Loop, Sacrifice).

Key Concepts

Concepts associated with this author that have pages in this wiki:

• Iconic Architecture
• Spectacle
• Ideology
• Critical Architecture

Relevance to Geoffrey's Research

Brott matters to Geoffrey's spectacle & iconic architecture, postmodernism & critique, and semiotics & representation areas. Her Adornian reading of iconicity as mimesis/commodity fetish, and her account of the "real Bilbao effect" (citizen exodus), give a critical-theory underside to the icon's media centrality (Sklair) and to the financialized city (Bismarck) — and to the debate over whether image-critique escapes the image.

Source Support

Source notes in this wiki drawn from this author's work:

• Modernity's Opiate, or the Crisis of Iconic Architecture
• What is Iconic Architecture?
• Untapped: Redefining 'Iconic' Architecture and Ideals
• Embodied Spaces in Digital Times: Exploring the Role of Instagram in Shaping Temporal Dimensions and Perceptions of Architecture