Transparency: The Material History of an Idea (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300237245)

A wide-ranging illustrated history of transparency as told through the evolution of the glass window

"With impressive detail and wide-ranging erudition, J?te charts the history of a single material, glass, as a product of human ingenuity developed across centuries."--James Gleick, New York Review of Books

Transparency is a mantra of our day. It is key to the Western understanding of a liberal society. We expect transparency from, for instance, political institutions, corporations, and the media. But how did it become such a powerful--and global--idea?

From ancient glass to Apple's corporate headquarters, this book is the first to probe how Western people have experienced, conceptualized, and evaluated transparency. Daniel J?te argues that the experience of transparency has been inextricably linked to one element of Western architecture: the glass window.

Windows are meant to be unnoticed. Yet a historical perspective reveals the role that glass has played in shaping how we see and interpret the world. A seemingly "pure" material, glass has been endowed, throughout history, with political, social, and cultural meaning, in manifold and sometimes conflicting ways. At the same time, J?te raises questions about the future of vitreous transparency--its costs in terms of visual privacy but also its ecological price tag in an age of accelerating climate change.

Author: Daniel Jutte
ISBN-10: 0300237243
ISBN-13: 9780300237245
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/25/2023
Pages: 512
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 3.10lbs
Size: 9.13h x 7.17w x 1.42d