Reyner Banham. Historian of the immediate future

Reyner Banham (1922-1988) was one of the most influential writers on architecture, design, and popular culture from the mid-1950s to the late 1980s. Trained in mechanical engineering and art history, he was convinced that technology was making society not only more exciting but more democratic. His combination of academic rigor and pop culture sensibility put him in opposition to both traditionalists and ortodhox Modernists but placed him in a unique position to understand the cultural, social, and political implications of the visual arts in the postwar period.
The mechanical sensibility; Popular desires and rough poetry; Science for Kicks; The expanded field; Late or post?; Expendable icons and softer hardware; Conclusion.