UCLA

This dissertation examines the genealogy and history of the black box in architecture from the late 1940s to the late-1970s, focusing on architects, designers, and artists in the United States. Through an examination of the work of Will Burtin, Pulsa, and Doug Michels this dissertation interrogates the architectural black box as a trope, a set of protocols and a material form of architecture where the site of media projection is transformed into a means to model and manipulate human consciousness. As a site of mediation, the architectural black box in this period became a key place of exchange between art, architecture, and technoscience.