Silhouettes of alienation

Review of Proxemics and the Architecture of Social Interaction, by Larry D. Busbea

Abstract

In Proxemics and the Architecture of Social Interaction, art historian Larry D. Busbea focuses on the case of anthropologist Edward T. Hall, a pioneer of proxemics, the discipline of studying behaviours and interactions between individuals in space. This recent publication, consisting of a short essay and an extensive selection of images from Hall's archives, represents an opportunity to explore a historical moment in which an interest was beginning to emerge in studying and rearticulating the relationship between human beings and their environment from various disciplines, including architecture. Busbea's interpretation considers proxemics as a way of seeing proper to historical circumstances that involved numerous political and social tensions, and proposes that Hall's project presented limitations (partly derived from that cultural context) that, among other consequences, led to the eventual disappearance of its political implications. By reconsidering the case of proxemics, it is possible to reflect on various issues that continue to have relevance in both architecture and contemporary culture.