Pratt Institute

Education

The New School; Enrolled for a PhD in philosophy (not completed)
M. Arch., University of Pennsylvania; Thesis in architectural and cultural theory under Dean G. Holmes Perkins
M. Arch., University of Pennsylvania;
B.A., University of Pennsylvania

Biography

Author of numerous articles and several books, including “Between Silence and Light: Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Kahn.” Interests include technology and culture, consciousness, art, Buddhism, and mythology. Projects include: Timeship, for the storage of cryogenically preserved people; FutureFeeder.com; CinemaDiscourse.com, analysis of movies from a mythological point of view; Consulting for Milgo/Bufkin, a high-tech architectural metal company; “Louis Kahn: Building as Philosophy,” book in progress. For more, see JohnLobell.com I received my undergraduate and architectural education at the University of Pennsylvania where the faculty included Louis Kahn, Robert Venturi, Edmund Bacon, Ian McHarg Denise Scott Brown, Romaldo Giurgola, and Dean G. Holmes Perkins. My second Masters in theory was for a thesis on Architecture and Structures of Consciousness. I have written numerous articles and papers on architecture, culture, and technology, and several books, including “Between Silence and Light: Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Kahn.” Current Projects and Interests My interests range widely, and include, besides architecture, the impact of technology on culture, cultural theory, consciousness, art, Buddhism, mythology, information theory, and quantum reality. Projects I am currently working on include: – Timeship – FutureFeeder (FutureFeeder.com) a blog, online journal, and information site with Che-Wei Wang and Michael Silver. – CinemaDiscourse (CinemaDiscourse.com) providing analysis of current and classic movies from a literary, and particularly a mythological point of view, with John Ebert. – Milgo/Bufkin (Milgo-Bufkin.com), for which I do consulting. Milgo/Bufkin is an architectural metal company that uses cutting edge digital and algorithmic technologies. – “Louis Kahn: Building as Philosophy.” A book in progress addressing the way Kahn put his buildings together, and how that manifested his deep philosophical positions. Thoughts on our world today We are now in one of the most significant periods of cultural and technological change in history, probably greater in scope than those associated with Newton and Einstein. Developments on a theoretical level in quantum mechanics are now leading to quantum computers that gain their prodigious power through harnessing their siblings throughout the multiverse. Biotech and genetic engineering will bring about new species and the alteration of homo sapiens. Materials engineering and nanotechnology will alter the substances we use. Communications technologies promise that eventually everything will be connected to everything at all times. And cosmologists place us in ever expanding infinities of multiple universes There is no doubt that these developments will alter our environment, but even more importantly, as McLuhan taught us, they have already altered the structures of our consciousness – how we perceive, think, and even our being. My interest is in exploring the history and future of the interrelationships of technology, culture, and consciousness. I share this interest with Transhumanists and proponents of strong A.I. I differ in that I believe that the best way to understand consciousness is through its expression, namely culture, and more specifically the arts. Thus I regard art as a full equal to science in the exploration of the ultimate nature of reality and of human being. Further, I regard science and mathematics as branches of the arts, and finally I find it profoundly significant that art changes. The implication going backwards is that our world we experience changes, and that therefore the structures of our consciousness have changed. In looking more closely at a given cultural period, we see strong parallels between the cultural forms of that period. Thus for example, we find uniform space, time, and causality underlying Newton’s physics, perspective painting, classical music, and Enlightenment political and social thought, all in Europe between 1400 and 1900. McLuhanists refer to the “linear-logical paradigm.” The period between 1900 and 2000 is dominated by Einstein’s space-time, modern art and architecture and a “holistic paradigm.” And what of the quantum reality of our time? Interesting question. Books most influential on my academically – The Decline of the West, by Oswald Spengler – Phenomenology of Perception, by Maurice Merleau-Ponty – Understanding Media, by Marshal McLuhan – The Hero With A Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell – The Fabric of Reality, by David Deutsch – The Quest for a Quantum Computer, by Julian R. Brown – Great Ideas in Information Theory, Language and Cybernetics, by Jagjit Singh Web sites most important to me KurzweilAI.net Biotechnology, nanotechnology, molecular electronics, computation, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, virtual reality, human brain reverse engineering, brain augmentation, robotics, etc. You can sign up for their daily email newsletter. Ray Kurzweil’s site. http://www.kurzweilai.net Arts and Letters Daily News and reviews: philosophy, aesthetics, literature, language, ideas, trends, criticism, culture, history, music, art, trends, breakthroughs, disputes. http://aldaily.com/ Edge Seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves. John Brockman’s site. http://www.edge.org/