Dr Simone Brott
Faculty of Engineering,
School of Architecture & Built Environment
Biography
I am a Yale-educated architecture theorist passionate about the digital imagery driving the iconic architecture industry in global cities (video bio). In my 2020 book Digital Monuments I coined the term ‘Digital Monument’ to describe the way iconic buildings are not only generated by digital techniques but have come to be experienced by the urban spectator as digital holograms materialised on the ground—in a double reality that is transforming capitalism. I was recently interviewed on Digital Monuments by ARCH+ Journal, Berlin here: The Unrealization of Reality. Following my recent talk Cryptoarchitecture: A Primer in Architecture NFTs at the AMPS conference Urban Assemblage London, I am working on the idea of a new blockchain platform for monetising architectural images and the potential of Non Fungible Tokens for architecture. I recently published this article on NFTs in the Korean magazine C3 and am working on a longer piece Architecture Capital Unchained with Log journal (New York), where I survey architecture’s strange presence on NFT platforms and discuss how NFTs will ultimately change the discipline and status of images in architecture.I have a Master of Architecture from Yale University and PhD in Architecture from The University of Melbourne. My books on the architectural image include Digital Monuments: The Dreams and Abuses of Iconic Architecture (London, New York: Routledge, 2020), an acerbic critique of iconic architecture and the hijacking of the public imagination by the digital image in the contemporary city; Architecture for a Free Subjectivity: Deleuze and Guattari at the Horizon of the Real (Routledge, New Edition 2016), and Architecture Post Mortem: The Diastolic Architecture of Decline, Dystopia, and Death (Routledge, New Edition 2016). I have published numerous essays in prestigious journals including Log: Observations on Architecture and the Contemporary City (New York), AD Architectural Design (London); Thresholds: Journal of the MIT Department of Architecture; Architectural Theory Review: Journal of the Department of Architecture, The University of Sydney; and the Journal of Architecture and Urbanism. I have lectured internationally at Yale University, Harvard University, Boston University, University of Michigan, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, and The University of Melbourne.
Personal details
Positions
- Senior Lecturer in Architecture
Faculty of Engineering,
School of Architecture & Built Environment
Keywords
History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Urbanism, Genealogies of Modern Architecture, Biopolitics, Le Corbusier, Modernity Today, the Architectural Image, and Iconic Project,, Radical French Philosophy, Film, Architectural Subjectivity
Research field
Architecture
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- Ph.D. Architecture (The University of Melbourne)
- M.A. History Theory & Criticism of Architecture & Urbanism (Yale University)
- B.Arch Hons (The University of Melbourne)
Teaching
I currently coordinate Architectural Design 4, the Film Studio, where students shoot an urban film on-location which becomes a platform for a critical urban intervention and design of the Museum for the Moving Image in neglected urban sites from the Brisbane North Bank to Newstead, Kangaroo Point, and Surfers Paradise. The studio engages all my research on film, media, and the contemporary city. In 2010 I won a grant to host a public screening of 12 shortlisted urban films produced in the studio which created an important link between QUT School of Design and Brisbane City. That same year I created the Architecture Film Studio YouTube Channel which connects QUT with a global community interested in the intersection of architecture and film. In 2011 The State Library of Queensland in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology School of Design held a second screening of six student urban films which are now a permanent exhibit at The Edge State Library electronic archive. Work from this studio has also been exhibited at The University of Sydney Expanded Architecture Research Group’s International Architecture Film Event held at the Carriageworks Performance Space alongside entries from the AA School of Architecture, London; The Bartlett School of Architecture, London; University of The Arts, London; Arrhaus School of Architecture, Denmark; Dublin as a Cinematic City, Ireland; Design Lab Screen Studio, Australia; and Sona Cinecity, The University of Melbourne (here). I am also the Coordinator of Modern Architecture and the graduate Masters unit Contemporary Architectural Theory at QUT. I have taught a diverse array of classes at QUT, Melbourne University and Yale: from CAD, Building Science and Design Studio to Modern Architecture and Contemporary Architectural Theory, to both undergraduate, and postgraduate cohorts.
Publications
- Brott, S., (2011). Architecture for a free subjectivity : Deleuze and Guattari at the horizon of the real. Routledge. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/38122
- Brott, S., (2012). Modernity's opiate, or, the crisis of iconic architecture. Log (New York), 26, 49–59. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/47848
- Kunze, D., Bertolini, D. & Brott, S. (2013). Architecture Post Mortem: The Diastolic Architecture of Decline, Dystopia, and Death. Ashgate Publishing Limited. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/55909
- Brott, S., (2011). Esprit futur. Log (New York), 23, 84–96. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/46438
- Brott, S., (2010). Deleuze and 'The Intercessors'. Log (New York), 18, 135–151. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/38120
- Brott, S., (2012). Collective equipments of power: The road and the city. Thresholds, 2012(40), 47–54. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/55891
- Brott, S., (2013). Architecture et revolution: Le Corbusier and the fascist revolution. Thresholds, 41, 146–157. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/55892
- Brott, S., (2012). The iconic architecture industry. Presented at: 2nd PhilArch Conference: Architecture and its Image. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/55903
- Brott, S., (2013). In the shadow of the Enlightenment: Le Corbusier, Le Faisceau and Georges Valois. Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand: 30, Open, Volume 2, 777–789. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/63644
- Brott, S., (2008). Close encounter, withdrawn effects. Journal of Architectural Education, 61(4), 6–16. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/38121
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Simone, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Fellowships
- Reference year
- 2014
- Details
- The Scott Opler Emerging Scholar Fellowship 2014, $2000USD
- Type
- Funding Award
- Reference year
- 2013
- Details
- Early Career Academic Recruitment Development Award for Le Corbusier Research Project, June, 2013, $3000AUD
- Type
- Funding Award
- Reference year
- 2013
- Details
- Professional Development Leave Award to fund Archive Trip to Fondation le Corbusier, Queensland University of Technology, $10,000AUD. The PDL grant is a competitive, university-wide scheme; I was one of only two awarded at the university.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2012
- Details
- Queensland University of Technology, School of Design Excellence in Research Award, 2012
- Type
- Funding Award
- Reference year
- 2003
- Details
- Yale School of Architecture Funding ($50,000USD) awarded to host international colloquium and seminar series: Architecture and Affect. Speakers included: Peggy Deamer, Brian Massumi, Gary Genosko, Ernst Prelinger, Elizabeth Grosz, Ed Mitchell
- Type
- Funding Award
- Reference year
- 2012
- Details
- Early Career Academic Recruitment Development Award for participation in The Second PhilArch Conference: Architecture and Image, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design and Boston University, Department of Philosophy, 19-20 October, 2012, $10,000AUD
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2004
- Details
- Yale University, Provost Merit Scholarship to undertake the Masters of History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Urbanism at Yale School of Architecture, $40,000USD
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2004
- Details
- Australian Postgraduate Scholarship to undertake the Ph.D. in Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne $85,000AUD
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2004
- Details
- Foundation for Young Australians, Australia, Centenary Scholarship to fund the cost of undertaking the Masters in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Urbanism at Yale School of Architecture, $20,000AUD
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2003
- Details
- Everett Victor Meeks Graduate Fellowship awarded for academic excellence upon graduation from Yale University School of Architecture.