"Clio in the Car of History" (Carlo Franzoni, 1810)
In general, spin-off programming is a tricky business: maintaining the strengths of the parent while allowing the offspring to find her own voice is more often than not a shot in the dark, at best. But in the spirit of those spin-offs that have worked–in the spirit of, say, Frasier and Colbert (both of which strike a tone we’d like to emulate)–we offer up the child of the Taste: Clio’s Calendar.
Actually, Clio should hardly be seen as a youthful upstart since she has long been a guiding light and general consultant around MoT HQ. But it seemed appropriate that she have her own voice to address events in the history of architecture on a frequent basis and with, shall we say, an economy of words in comparison with the Taste. It’s not difficult to find the subject matter, since, no doubt, on any date, from antiquity to the recent past, something probably happened, and probably happened near, in, or to architecture. Clio wants you to remember, and she knows we remember best through stories. We cannot better express the idea that she herself has explained so eloquently:
[Storytelling] is not just for the professionals and the sages; all of you are storytellers; it is part of your human nature (literally) to try and make sense of the present and figure out what’s coming in the future by virtue of what has happened in the past. (Although, sadly, so many of you have very short memories. But we can help.)
Today is a particularly good day to introduce her since today’s topic–an architect of striking imagination born from his respect for history–addresses precisely the Matter of Taste that haunts and guides this blog’s interests.
Learn more about Clio here.
Get the latest from Clio here.
2 Comments
Rock on, Clio!
Some excellent posts already. Looking forward to more.