Elastic Architecture: Frederick Kiesler and Design Research in the First Age of Robotic Culture explores art and architecture that is designed to modulate to the changing human perceptions of moving bodies and systems. This book aims to challenge the dialectical effects of adaptable responsive structures on the construction of modern subjectivity and the training of everyday human lives. It studies the modern avant-garde and its relationship to architecture design, urbanism, and education in Europe and the Americas. Paying particular focus on the aesthetic and biopolitical practices that have emerged in the arts and sciences throughout the twentieth century, Elastic Architecture considers how they impact both spatial perception and body culture relative to the production of our built environment.

Stephen Phillips is principal in the firm Stephen Phillips Architects (SPARCHS). He is professor of architecture at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and director of the Cal Poly Los Angeles Metropolitan Program in Architecture and Urban Design. He has taught at Universities of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles, and Southern California Institute of Architecture. Phillips received his BA (with distinction in architecture) from Yale University, his MArch (with the award for best thesis) from the University of Pennsylvania, and his PhD in architectural history and theory from Princeton University. Phillips publishes and lectures widely on modern design, technology, media, and contemporary urban culture. He is the recent recipient of awards, grants, and fellowships from the Getty Research Institute, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Graham Foundation, and the Bruno Zevi Foundation. He is author of L.A. [Ten]: Interviews on Los Angeles Architecture 1970s–1990s by Lars Müller Publishers, among other writings.