Piranesi and the inhabitable hard drive

[Image: "Fantastic Monuments" (1747-1750), pen and brown ink and brown wash over traces of graphite, on laid paper, 19.8 x 27.7 cm, by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, courtesy of the Canadian Centre for Architecture].

Speaking of the CCA, a brief Twitter discussion last summer, in July 2009, between architect Sam Jacob, journalist Will Wiles, historian and blogger Enrique Ramirez, and myself, discussing monuments, "plug-in memorialism," and the prefab design possibilities for enshrining public memory, is the starting point for a short new post up at the Canadian Centre for Architecture.

That post eventually zeroes in on an image, seen above, by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, called "Fantastic Monuments," which is held in the CCA archives. Piranesi's scene is an "ornamental dreamscape of monuments-to-be... in memoriam for anything that has happened, in anticipation of anything that has yet to occur." Check it out if you get a chance!

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