UGLY AND ORDINARY ARCHITECTURE
In the chapel of the Byzantine Martorama in Sicily ther is no question of architectural clarification or of Mannerist ambiguity (Fig. 102). Instead, representation smothers space, its patterns camouflaging the forms it adorns. The ornamental patterns are almost independent of,and at times contradictory to, walls, piers, soffits, vaults, and dome. These forms are rounded at their edges to accommodate continuous mosaic surfaces, and the gold mosaic background further softens the geometry, while in the obscure light that occasionally highlights significant symbols, space disintegrates into and amorphous glow. The gilded rocaille in the Amalienburg pavilion at Nymphenburg does the same thing with bas-relief (Fig. 103). Motival bas-relief, splattered like spinach over walls and furniture, hardware and sconces; reflected by mirrors and cystal fixtures; enhanced by generous light yet obscured by indeterminate curves in plan and section, disintegrates space into an amorphous glitter. Significantly, the Rococo ornament is hardly symbolic and not at all propagandistic. It obscures, but the ornament is still architectural; in the Byzantine church, propagandistic symbolism overwhelms architecture.
THE LAS VEGAS STRIP
The Las Vegas strip at night, like the Martorama interior, is symbolic images in dark, amorphous space; but, like the Amalienburg, it glitters rather than glows (Fig. 104). Any sense of enclosure or direction comes from lighted signs rather than forms reflected in light (Fig. 105). Thesource of light in the strip is direct; the signs themselves the source. They do not reflect light from external, sometimes hiddewn, source as is the case with most billboards and Modern architecture. The mechanical movement of neon lights is quicker than mosaic glitter, which depends on the passage of the sun and the pace of the observer; and the intensity of light on the Strip as well as tempo of its movement is greater to accommodate the greater spaces, greater speeds, and greater impacts that our technology permits and our sensibilities respond to. Also the tempo of our economy encourages that changeable and disposable environmental decoration known as advertising art. The messages are different now, but despite the differences the method are the same, andarchitecture is no longer simply the “skillful, accurate, and magnificent play of masses seen in light.”
The Strip by day is a different place, no longer Byzantine (Fig. 106). The forms of the buildings are visible but remain secondary to the sign in visual impact and symbolic content. The space of urban sprawl is not