Gathering effects: structuralist activity in Form, 1966-69

ABSTRACT

The collision of constructivist artistic practice and structuralist philosophy was showcased in the journal Form, published from 1966 to 1969 out of Cambridge, England. Concrete poetry flourished alongside kinetic art; architecture dissolved into environmental design; experimentation with new media techniques replaced expressions of meaning. This essay describes how the editorial work that brought Form into being served to gather disparate strands into a shared disciplinary agenda that marks an apotheosis of 1960s visual art.

KEYWORDS:

• procedural art
• structuralism
• concrete poetry
• environmental design
• architecture

Images:

 1 Walter Gropius, Structure of Teaching at the Bauhaus, 1922.

 2 Form 1, 1966. / Courtesy Philip Steadman.

 3 Frank Lloyd Wright with a model of the Guggenheim Museum, 1945. / Photograph by Ben Schnall. The LIFE Images Collection. Getty Images.

 4 Albert Kahn Associates, Organization, 1938. / Courtesy of Albert Kahn Associates, Inc.

 5 Stephen Bann, Reg Gadney, Frank Popper, and Philip Steadman, 1966. / Photograph by Richard Hardwick. Courtesy of Stephen Bann.

 6 Segal Quince Wicksteed, The Cambridge Phenomenon, 1985.

 7 Andrejs Strikis, HIDECS-SIMPX, 1968. / Courtesy of the Frances Loeb Library. Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

 8 Allen Bernholtz, LOKAT II, 1970. / Courtesy of the Frances Loeb Library. Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

 9 Peter Moro, Leslie Martin, Robert H. Matthew, and Edwin Williams, 1951. / Architectural Press Archive / RIBA Collections

10 Spread from Circle, 1937.

11 Anthony Hill adjusting his Relief Construction, c. 1957.

12 Letter from Raoul Hausmann to Philip Steadman, 1967. / Courtesy Philip Steadman.

13 Form 3, 1966. / Courtesy Philip Steadman.

14 Veronica Forrest-Thomson, c. 1975 / Courtesy Jonathan Culler and the Estate of Veronica Forrest-Thomson. Photograph by Miles Thomson.

15 Excerpt from Veronica Forrest-Thomson, Strike, 1975. / Courtesy Jonathan Culler and the Estate of Veronica Forrest-Thomson.

16 Letter from Roland Barthes to Philip Steadman, 1966. / Courtesy Philip Steadman.

17 Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, Reflected Light Compositions, c. 1923.

18 Computer-aided Design Demonstrations in Form 1, 1966. / Courtesy Philip Steadman.

19 Cover of Totemism, 1963.

20 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Totemic Operator, 1962.

21 Drawings by Atamau Maugliki from Cora Du Bois, The People of Alor, 1944.

22 Frank Malina, Lumidyne [back view], 1964.

23 Frank Malina, Lumidyne [front view], 1964.

24 Kurt Schwitters performs Ursonate in London, 1944.

25 Form 4, 1967. / Courtesy Philip Steadman.

26 Form 8, 1968. / Courtesy Philip Steadman.

27 Ian Hamilton Finlay, it is here, 1966.

28 Stephen Bann in front of his Amber Sands, 1967. / Photograph by Graham Keen. Courtesy of Stephen Bann.

29 Stephen Bann, Amber Sands, 1967. / Courtesy of Stephen Bann.

30 Map of the Brighton Festival Exhibition of Concrete Poetry in Form 4, 1967. / q Courtesy Philip Steadman.

31 Edwin Morgan, Festive Permutational Poem, 1967. / Courtesy of Stephen Bann.

32 Kenelm Cox, Three Graces, 1967. / Photograph by Graham Keen.

33 Form 10, 1969. / Courtesy Philip Steadman.

34 Mike Weaver, Analysis of Canal Stripe Series 3, 1966.

35 László Moholy-Nagy, Light Space Modulator, 1930.

36 Spread from AD: Models of Environment, 1971.

37 Buckminster Fuller at the New York Studio School, 1969.

38 Cover of Environmental Design: Research and Practice, 1972.

39 William J. Mitchell, Polyomino Assembly Procedure for Architectural Floor Planning, 1972.

40 Cover of Randall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies, 1998.

41 Letter from Roland Barthes to Philip Steadman, 1966. / Courtesy Philip Steadman.

42 Letter from Roland Barthes to Philip Steadman, 1966. / Courtesy Philip Steadman.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthew Allen

Matthew Allen is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Washington University in St Louis who studies the history and theory of architecture, computation, and aesthetic subcultures. He holds a PhD and a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University, and he is the author of two forthcoming books: Flowcharting: From Abstractionism to Algorithmics in Art and Architecture and Architecture becomes Programming: Modernism and the Computer, 1960-1990. Allen has written essays for Log, e-flux, Domus, and the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, and his research has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and other institutions. Allen has worked for MOS, Preston Scott Cohen, and other firms at the leading edge of contemporary architectural practice.