Le Corbusier referred to himself as a gun dog who puts up the game, and endowed Pinceau (paintbrush), the family hound, with a special status outside his bestiary . . . He was a hunting-dog . . . with a nose for signs and allegories more than for living quarry . . . Summerson expressed a disdain for research into architectures relation to other things. Beyond questions of superstition and irony, Pinceau was meant to guide research of just this kind, which has since developed into an elaborate field of speculation and justification, not to say a survival requirement for university departments of architecture . . . Between the freedom to research any topic of interest and the agendas of funding bodies resides a cultural activity of evolving obscurity. Peter Carl is a lecturer in the School of Architecture, Cambridge University. He is a regular external examiner at the AA. NB: Wavy screen and infrequent picture loss.