For my final year architectural project I initially developed a brief that pushed the boundaries of what I am comfortable with: that is functional, fundamental, built architecture consistent with my background in Architectural Technology. Sometimes termed “story architecture”, this style of brief would ask larger questions of the intersection between human reaction and the built environment.
Sci-fi has always been my favourite genre of fiction and I saw creating this brief as an opportunity to incorporate a postulated but realistic setting in which to play with possible theories. Similar projects have acted as precedents throughout my education so far, most notably Marko Dragićević’s Methanscraper (below images) and Liam Bedwell’s The Lithium Empire. Both of the aforementioned projects have a key focus of manufacture or technology and are represented within a futuristic setting. This is captured in the dirty, grungy, almost dystopian artistic style that I am also drawn to.
Although my current thoughts are to relinquish this brief proposal (after careful consideration with a close course mate and my tutor), I had begun to compile artwork which I thought worth sharing.
The current concept is based on the intersection between advertising and architecture set within a futuristic conjecture, inspired by the documentary The Social Dilemma. The scenario will serve to inform a study into the psychological effects of a digitally-constructed echo chamber which is entirely relevant to this age within the rise of fake news and the interrelated role of social media.
It will portray a society utilising technology to build individual worlds draped over reality that have been built using data from social interactions – online and in person. Precedents will focus on the history of advertisement and how a personalised experience could develop from the present day: electronic billboards in tandem with face recognition (Minority Report film), wearable technology (Google Glass), projected imagery (Blade Runner film), semi-transparent screen contact lenses (Altered Carbon) or even neurological implants (Upgrade film) will form part of the study.
The main thrust of the project will be mapping a prediction of certain personality metrics (the Big Five traits) against the long term effect of having a built environment that reinforces your own views, narrowing critical thinking. It will do this through proposing a number of fictional personalities (Nelly the Nationalist, Ed the Environmentalist, Fearn the Futurist, Norman the Narcissist etc) and exploring how a typical street may look to one of these individuals given a year of exposure to their own projected echo chamber comparative to, say, ten years i.e. will Nelly the Nationalist grow more or less open/neurotic/conscientious etc?
The majority of my research up until this point has been about the likely method of establishing the technology within a willingly accepting society. I believe that there are no truly evil or good technologies and any development could feasibly be framed to have positive or detrimental effects on society at large (this isn’t to say that the majority of effects could be one or the other). There are many potential positive effects of wearable technology or neurological implants (communication, information access, health, education, ‘peace-keeping’ are a few examples) which could all work towards a levelled, egalitarian future with better access to information. Unfortunately, the tangible negative effects of social media are only just beginning to unfold as we live through the first generation to access to this information in a narrowly individualised methodology from their formative years. Will social media encourage conversation between those of differing opinions in an attempt to educate or will it continue to polarise nations to self-servingly further its own popularity?