Artificial Love, Paul Shepheard’s highly original book about architecture and machines, was published in 2003 and received much critical acclaim. Liz Bailey provided this wonderful assessment of the book in The Architect’s Journal:
“Shepheard seamlessly meshes Shakespeare, Greek mythology, the tale of the origins of Islam and stories from his own life with his musings on technology and architecture. He begins with the premise that ‘technology is a force of nature. It is the force of the human presence in the world’, and carries on telling you how it is…this book explores relationships: between technology and architecture; between Shepheard and his students; among the members of Shepheard’s extended family; between the way an architect plans the use of a building and the way it is actually used in practice; between one global hegemony and the one that succeeds it…Shepheard flings pungent remarks about like rice at a wedding: ‘Machines don’t have sex with each other like we do but they do reproduce/they use us to do it for them.’…If…the meanderings of one passionate, if slightly mad guy, about humanity, machines and buildings appeal to you, you’ll not be able to put it down.”
So if you like architecture and technology, Shakespeare and Greek legends, check out Right-Bam-Now!: A BIT of Artificial Love.