The “Anxiety of Influence” in the history of architecture and landscape design

Join academics  from the Australian Centre for Architectural History and Urban and Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH) for a lively panel discussion inspired by The Grand Tour exhibition. Drawing on exhibited prints, Associate Professor Amanda Achmadi, Professor Philip Goad, Professor Hannah Lewi, Associate Professor Andrew Saniga and Dr Soon-Tzu Speechley will discuss the way in which influence has endured as a vital creative mechanism in the conception, design and patronage of architecture and landscapes. Taking on literary critic Harold Bloom’s notion of the “anxiety of influence” in relation to poetry’s struggle for originality, the panel will explore architecture as an ongoing dialogue between originality and tradition. At a time when culture circulates endlessly online and AI reworks past forms into new iterations, viewing influence through a critical lens feels more urgent now than ever.

Sediments is a new public program being launched by Archives and Special Collections, a series of responses experimenting in form, exploring intersecting and related themes and topics from the material holdings at ASC.