Revised Proposal March 2003

Background
Since submitting the original proposal, some modifications have been made in terms of methodological approach. The project's main aim remains the revision of the department's teaching on the modern city to include a body of material from Latin America. However, the focus has shifted and now concentrates on integrating an analysis of Latin American Modernism into European and American debates about Modernism. Williams' research has centred on the ways in which Latin American Modernist architecture contests traditional interpretations of Modernism and challenges questions of periphery and centre, rather than developing a discrete study of Latin America which might lead to him being regarded as a Latin American 'specialist'. As such the proposed level 3 and 4 Honours course on Latin American Modernism has been withdrawn for the time being.

Work on integrating Latin American Modernism into existing courses was already in progress in a limited way at the time of the application to GLAADH, building up images and texts that resulted from a research visit to Brazil made in September 2001. The application to GLAADH was for funds for this work to be continued and substantially extended, with funds being principally used to support a research trip to Mexico City. The main outcome of this is a collection of images of the contemporary city, along with the knowledge and confidence to use them correctly. In this way, what was a peripheral interest in teaching was to be made much more central.

The project has few material results as yet, as the field visit to Mexico City had to be postponed until June 2003 because Williams received a Leverhulme research fellowship last year. The changes to the curriculum will take place during the summer 2003 and will be implemented by September. However, significant progress has been made in terms of resolving key issues and problems around the project, particularly those of materials.

Teaching Methods and Development of Courses
This will require some innovation in the way the material is used in taught, and at this stage I propose to do the following: (1) Treat Latin America in relation to other areas, focusing on (for example) the exoticisation of it and its architecture in Europe and the US, and conversely the use of architecture by Latin American countries as a means of developing an identity independent of the so-called 'developed' world. This focus on what are essentially questions of identity will produce some novel teaching on Modernism at first and second year levels, where the traditional focus on European and US Modernism tends to produce an impression of it as severe, limiting and authoritarian. It will also involve a major rethink of some of the Honours material I teach on Los Angeles in terms of Latin questions. The possibilities here were made clear to me on a recent visit to LA. The literature on LA as a Hispanic city is very large, and some of it could be happily incorporated into future teaching. (2) Make better use of contemporary materials that have emerged from Latin America. A series of recent films have also provided outstanding images of contemporary Latin American cities - Amores Perros, Y tu Mama También (both set in, or partially in Mexico City), Central do Brasíl and Cidade de Deus (Rio de Janeiro) - and these films, subject to availability, will be used in the same way that Blade Runner has been used in respect of Los Angeles in previous courses.

Courses
The impact of the new material will be first seen in the Honours course' The Contemporary City' and the MSc option 'Architecture and Modernity' to be offered during Autumn 2003. Each course will integrate new elements on the idea of the Latin American city. Similar material will be provided for the MA course 'Architecture and Identity', which will be offered for the first time in 2003.

Material Questions
The June 2002 GLAADH Workshop threw up a number of serious questions around the way the new material might be researched and taught. Some books have been ordered in preparation for the new teaching, and it has been encouraging to see the occasional journal article (for example a recent piece of Mexico City architecture in the design magazine Blueprint). There is also now a significant amount of material around the work of the Mexican architect Luís Barragán after the recent exhibition at the Design Museum, London. But the relative lack of published material on Latin American visual culture in English really prevents the teaching of this area to the same depth as other taught subjects. Some students will have a reading ability in Spanish or Portuguese, but most will not, and there is nothing much we can do about it.

Resources
The aim of the project was to build a group of images, bibliography and data on Modernist buildings in Mexico to be made available to other universities and to students at Edinburgh. This set of images would be unique because it is material rarely published. However, the aims have shifted to accommodate changes in the timetable. The project will produce:
(a) A collection of approximately 100 35mm slides to be catalogued and added to the University slide collection. These will be available for use in teaching under existing rules by staff and students at all levels.
(b) These images will be digitised in 2004-5 at the expense of the University as part of the ongoing digitisation project in History of Art.
(c) A set of five packs of 25 slides each will be made for general circulation. Each pack will contain a selection of images of modernist architecture and public art from Brazil and Mexico from Richard Williams's collection. They will be made available for borrowing on request for teaching purposes. A list of the contents of the pack will be made available for the GLAADH website.
(d) A list of films used in the course together with details of their sources will also be provided for the GLAADH website

Future curriculum developments
The new material will feed into new developments at level 1 and 2 from 2004 onwards. A new course for level 2 provisionally for 2004-5 will be developed in conjunction with the former department of Architecture, which is likely to be structured around the theme of the city. Any such course will make reference to the new material developed on the Latin American city, and there will be contributions from colleagues on the Chinese city and the city in the Islamic world. Proposals including this material are at a discussion stage with Architecture.

The new material will also allow postgraduate supervision in the area of Latin American Modernism. This will be advertised as a supervisory area on the School website from September 2003.

Both of the above are highly likely developments. In the more distant future, with further research, and better teaching resources it is hoped to produce an entirely new course at honours level on modernism in Latin American visual culture.

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