Blue Monday

AUDC's first book captures three moments in modern culture that offer glimpses into our increasingly perverse relationship to architecture, cities, and objects. The first, Ether, explores Los Angeles telecom hotel ''One Wilshire,'' a 39 story building of utter banality and complete mystery. The second, the Stimulus Progression, looks at the strange story of the Muzak Corporation and the invention of a culture of horizontality. The third, Swarm Intelligence, visits Quartzsite, Arizona, a desert town of some 3,000 people that annually swells to over a million residents as a horde of modern nomads descends upon it in their Recreational Vehicles. AUDC ÝRobert Sumrell and Kazys Varnelis¨ explores the strange reality around us in a lively mix of philosophy, photography, architectural drawings and models, and new media.