ADS4: Plots, Props & Paranoia – How Architecture Stages Conspiracy
Harry Postins
Harry is an architectural designer based out of London. He graduated from the undergraduate course at University of Bath in 2016, before extending his placement at a well-respected London practice for another two years, and enrolling at the RCA. Now interested in diversifying through channels which marry more harmoniously with his social agenda, Harry is looking to integrate with a new era of architectural designer, one that engages with the core social issues of the age. Focussed on London, he is pursuing pathways navigating both the public and private sectors, and intent on nurturing a previously dormant passion for writing.
His research focuses primarily on the social implications of profound societal shifts, and the associated, necessary dispersal of knowledge. His methodology has evolved to provide meaningful feedback on the meta-questions facing our increasingly unruly existence, through investigation of speculative scenarios. Through extrapolation of these particular scenarios to their most extreme, we are granted the ability to appraise them from an alternative point of view, in turn advancing the contemporary discourse. Harry's thesis project tackles the topical phenomenon of modern day surveillance, and its prevalence through our era of crisis, attempting to infiltrate habitual behaviours as a way of engaging a wider public in a more nuanced way.
A Companion of Krísis
For the last six-hundred years, Western civilisation has been preyed upon by unavoidable cycles of recurring catastrophe. The “turnings” are predictable, and today our era of extreme volatility has peaked once more. We have been catapulted into a new viral reality; a world defined by fear, fragility, and isolation. So, what world awaits us on the other side?
This catastrophe has set the stage for surveillance capitalism to flourish. Accelerated by our powerlessness and widespread panic, surveillance levels are at an all time high. Track and trace apps monitor our movement, video calls record our homes, and infrared cameras log our body temperature. Far from exhaustive, these crude surveillance mediums nevertheless play into the hands of the data-rich, requiring a different and more nuanced vocabulary in order to alert people to [and thus prevent] their unrestricted expansion and normalisation.
This catastrophe has set the stage for surveillance capitalism to flourish. Accelerated by our powerlessness and widespread panic, surveillance levels are at an all time high. Track and trace apps monitor our movement, video calls record our homes, and infrared cameras log our body temperature. Far from exhaustive, these crude surveillance mediums nevertheless play into the hands of the data-rich, requiring a different and more nuanced vocabulary in order to alert people to [and thus prevent] their unrestricted expansion and normalisation.
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Strauss-Howe Generational Theory
In 1997, William Strauss and Neil Howe may have provided us a balm to the incendiary nature of our era of conspiracy, in the form of their theory of generational cycles. Its definition potentially provides us with the necessary tool for understanding our current volatile political and social landscape. Strauss-Howe Generational Theory uses extensive historic analysis, to deduce that the seemingly random occurrences of war and political revolution in Western society, can be mapped fairly accurately onto a recurring cycle of eras, beginning around the middle of the 15th century. These eras are classified into four turnings; high, awakening, unraveling and crisis, each lasting around 20 years. Strauss and Howe suggest that roughly every 100 years, there is a crisis, culminating in a climax, a complete reshaping of the global power-structures.
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multidimesion.x^0
metadata.facebook
The project targets our habitual behaviours, those most affected by the lockdown, in order to infiltrate our routines and induce a heightened state of awareness in relation to data sovereignty. The supermarket is a typology historically connected with data usage, from Tesco's innovative Clubcard, to the technological and social advancements of the American Shopping Mall. As well as being a bastion of late-capitalism, it is also one of the few remaining outlets functioning during lockdown. However, our habitual mode(s) of shopping have been inverted. We no longer amble around a supermarket leisurely browsing the produce, instead opting to conduct most transactions online. Combining the decentralisation of consumption, the pioneering efforts of Clubcard's data processing, and the statistic that one supermarket holds roughly the equivalent number of calories that an individual will consume over their lifetime, the project asks: what might become of the ’supermarket' in a new, post-crisis, data-oriented society?
In its most simple version, the project takes the shape of recognisable supermarket forms, merely populated with personalised products, however, AR offers the opportunity to delve further into the depths of the surreal, in an attempt to disorient, unsettle, and ultimately startle the shopper into a greater state of self-awareness. Armed with a series of accompanying documents, individuals are encouraged to explore these multi-dimensions, utilising learnt behaviour from traditional browsing habits, to nurture more intimate relationships with their virtual-self.
In its most simple version, the project takes the shape of recognisable supermarket forms, merely populated with personalised products, however, AR offers the opportunity to delve further into the depths of the surreal, in an attempt to disorient, unsettle, and ultimately startle the shopper into a greater state of self-awareness. Armed with a series of accompanying documents, individuals are encouraged to explore these multi-dimensions, utilising learnt behaviour from traditional browsing habits, to nurture more intimate relationships with their virtual-self.
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multidimension.x^7
multidimension.x^1
multidimension.x^3
multidimension.x^5
A Companion of Krísis proposes an evolved supermarket typology - one centred around browsing. However, rather than browsing groceries, we are instead witness to the ever-evolving materialisation of one's data-persona. Drawing on an existing taxonomy of quad-dimensional shopping behaviours, the supermarket places data into one of four categories (Normative, Social, Sacred and Hedonistic); this data is subsequently synthesised into a sequence of multidimensional spaces. These spaces, and the liminal places between them, are then materialised in augmented reality. In its most simple version, the project takes the shape of recognisable supermarket forms, merely populated with personalised products, however, AR offers the opportunity to delve further into the depths of the surreal, in an attempt to disorient, unsettle, and ultimately startle the shopper into a greater state of self-awareness. Armed with a series of accompanying documents, individuals are encouraged to explore these multi-dimensions, utilising learnt behaviour from traditional browsing habits, to nurture more intimate relationships with their virtual-self.
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-scaleobjects.comparison
scaleobjects.identification
scaleobjects.resolution
Blessed with the trappings of a traditional supermarket, it is possible for an individual to orient themselves quite easily when navigating their typical weekly shop, however, it is necessary to construct an object, an anchor to reality, that appears in each of the multidimensional spaces as a method of wayfinding. Here are the objects that have been designed, present at varying scales in different dimensions.
Similar to long-range satellite photography resolution charts, the accompanying document provides the boundaries for the range of scales present in any of the supermarket spaces. It also encapsulates a notion of focus, to help gauge the size of the scale object in a world in which the perspective is distorting or has been distorted. The larger the object, the more intimate the data used to create the world, and the further the extrapolation from the metadata.
Similar to long-range satellite photography resolution charts, the accompanying document provides the boundaries for the range of scales present in any of the supermarket spaces. It also encapsulates a notion of focus, to help gauge the size of the scale object in a world in which the perspective is distorting or has been distorted. The larger the object, the more intimate the data used to create the world, and the further the extrapolation from the metadata.
CompanionofKrísis.Map — One of the accompanying documents designed to aid navigation when experiencing the multidimensional sequence.
A map acts as one of the supplementary documents to aid in navigation when experiencing the multidimensional sequence.