Poetics of assembly Albert Kahn and D.W. Griffith in the birth of the Machine Age

Resumen

Abstract

This research seeks to establish a double parallel between cinema and modern architecture, focusing on a moment of refounding of both  disciplines, the early twentieth century. We will be based on two seminal characters: DW Griffith and Albert Kahn. We will explore a temporal and geographical parallelism in their main evolutionary lines, which run through a similar way in the beginning, from the U.S to the U.S.S.R, to return again to the place of origin. This trip was triggered by the arrival to the USSR of  the first copies of the film "Intolerance" in 1918 and the arrival of Albert  Kahn in 1928 for the realization of numerous industrial projects during the First Five-Year Plan. Furthermore, we will explore a more conceptual  parallelism, studying the use of the notion of assembly in both disciplines  during that period, using again the work of our two main characters as the basis for research, but also leaning on other essential actors for that issue, like are Eisenstein and Miliutin.