Blow-Up: The Powers of Scale

Abstract

During the decades following World War II, efforts were made to connect the rhetoric of the human scale with that of a superhuman, geographic or territorial scale. Aerial photography has opened up an all-encompassing view of the universe, presented in scalar sequences as the visual foundation for a new humanity. In the US, the large-scale regional project of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Attempts at integrating ecological, engineering, landscaping, architectural, and aesthetic concerns to realize a socio-economical vision were followed with enormous interest in Europe – before and after the war, in both West and East – and applauded by different political systems. Images popularizing the success of five-year plans and the heroism of nature transformation in the Soviet Union were also omnipresent themes in Western Europe. Ideas of transnational planning emerged in Europe shortly before the postwar continent was divided between the world powers. After the political partitioning of Europe into blocs, however, such plans had to be buried.