SERIAL THINGS by ADS4

S E R I A L

T H I N G S

Writing a studio brief is hard. It takes us ages. All summer in fact. Now in our sixth year of teaching together, it isn’t getting any easier. We start by sending each other articles, papers, images and references that interest us and then we meet up week after week to chat about our thoughts. The trouble is we get distracted. We start doodling, watching YouTube, or more recently, watching an episode. Before we know it we have watched a whole season of Stranger Things. What is it about this form of cultural consumption that we find so easy to participate in? Why can’t architecture (briefs) be this forthcoming? And what can we learn from watching television? I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I just can’t stop eating peanuts. —Orson Welles In America last year 113 pilot television series were made, 35 of those were chosen to go to air and just 13 of those were renewed for a second season. This year, the number of pilots made rose to 146. The cost of these pilots was somewhere between $300m and $400m a year.1 That’s a huge amount of money with no guarantee of success, popularity or longevity. In this we see a similarity with the construction industry in which a large number of new pieces of architecture (as distinct from buildings) are conceived as prototypes, one-offs or indeed pilot projects. While cities around the world continue to be burdened by unsuccessful, ill-conceived and expensive pilots, the world of entertainment is adapting to the contemporary desire for on-demand services. Despite only launching in the UK in 2012, Netflix now represents 20% of all UK internet traffic. Combined with YouTube, these two video streaming sites use up more than half of the internet’s bandwidth. Cities are being dug up and telecommunications infrastructure redesigned to cater for this level of demand, demonstrating that technological innovation can emerge out of a desire for amusement.

Clearly the success of the Netflix model—releasing the entire season at once—proved one thing: people want control over how they consume culture. The current expectation for on-demand access—anything, anytime, anywhere—has been well observed in other sectors and industries, including transportation (Uber), food (Deliveroo) and accommodation (Airbnb). Theorist Benjamin Bratton discerns that these “contemporary digital platforms are now displacing, if not also replacing, the traditional core functions of states, and demonstrating, for both good and ill, new spatial and temporal models of politics and publics”.2 This year, ADS4 will explore the new publics that might emerge from these current forms of cultural consumption (in particular binge watching television series) and how the serialisation of everyday life might relate to the broader field of serialism in art and architecture. Might the consideration of design as a serial process help people participate more actively as consumer citizens? LEARNING FROM TELEVISION While the relationship between film and architecture has been studied extensively (arguable with little ground having been made to conflate the two), the increasing influence of television on our collective behaviour has been less well documented. But, objectively, our experience of television—and in particular long-form series formats—may be more relevant. In his essay, ‘The Fact of Television’, philosopher Stanley Cavell highlights that we maintain a relationship with a television series over a much longer period of time than we do with a film, often for years rather than just 2 hours. This duration is more akin to construction timescales and equally has to acknowledge the problems of ageing and shifts in taste. Secondly, Cavell suggests that, whilst film is categorised by genre (sci-fi, horror, western, rom-com, thriller, etc.), television is appreciated as episodes in a series.3 Could an analogy be drawn between genre as programme and episode as typology to allow an interrogation of architecture through this lens?

Media culture is an undeniable force in our lives, a persuasive and pleasurable power that is now familiar to us as a space of fragmentation, plurality and differenceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a space of numerous and multiple voices, conflicts, and diversities that deny distinctions between fact and fiction. Through an exploration of television formats and serialism in art and architecture more broadly, we intend to explore the use of fiction in the production of the world around us. How might the scripting of a fictional scenario help us to understand and manage the (sometimes uncomfortable) contingent possibilities of action? And might the impact of media culture on contemporary life be as profound as the introduction of mass production after World War II that led to the emergence of serial production in art and later architecture? SERIALISM IN ART & ARCHITECTURE After World War II, manufacturers stopped producing things for the war effort and turned their focus to consumer goods. People were hungry to buy everything that was not available during the war, and companies developed techniques of mass production to fill the orders. Pop artists like Andy Warhol borrowed the materials, technologies, and imagery of mass production for their art, making art in multiples that was intended to critique the commodification of the art world at that period. Taking a cue from Pop artists, Minimalist artists adopted the technologies and materials of the factory and created works that explored the world of industrial, mass-produced beauty without resorting to personal expression. Within architecture, the advent of projects undertaken in sequence and identified by numbers or letters is traced from the Californian Case Study Houses of the 1940s and 1950s through to John Hejdukâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Texas House series of the 1950s. However, very little has been done to consider serialism as an independent theme and there is no significant body of work or critical texts on the subject as found in music and art. Rather there are a number of disparate, loosely related experiments that

first emerge Clearly in the the success context of of debates the Netflix around model—releasing architectural the entire season signification after the at once—proved perceived failure oneofthing: modernism. people 4 want control Serialism over how in architecture they consume differs culture. from serialism The current in expectation art and music forbecause on-demand of itsaccess—anything, engagement with the anytime, diverse anywhere—has been representations of architecture well observed and the in other ambiguity sectors of and industries, including architectural representation. transportation Through (Uber), developing food (Deliveroo) a serial and accommodation approach to design, might (Airbnb). architectural Theorist Benjamin drawings,Bratton models discerns and buildings that these themselves “contemporary become interchangeable digital platforms and are of now displacing, equal status, such if not thatalso thereplacing, building comes the traditional to be seen core as a functions of states, representation of drawings and demonstrating, or models rather for both thangood the other and ill, way round? new spatial The final and building temporal need models not necessarily of politics and be the 2 publics”.embodiment ultimate of the idea. This year, ADS4 will explore the new publics that might EMERGING emerge from TECHNOLOGIES these current forms of cultural consumption & SIMULATION (in particular AS SERIALISM binge watching television series) and how the serialisation of everyday life might relate to the broader Todayfield we of confront serialism another in art gamut and architecture. of materialsMight and the consideration technologies that is of potentially design as ajust serial as transformative process help people as the participateinmore advances massactively production as consumer in the post-war citizens? period that led to the emergence of serialism in art. From biotechnology to the Internet LEARNING of Things FROMtoTELEVISION artificial intelligence and robotics to networked additive manufacturing and replication, this materialWhile palette theprovides relationship for the between recomposition film and architecture of the world 5 hasscales at been previously studied extensively unthinkable. (arguable Yet, the with eralittle of cultural ground having beenwe production made are currently to conflate traversing the two),isthe arguably increasing one of influence of television “impoverishment and mediocrity”, on our collective suggests behaviour Muteber hasErbay been & less Sengül well documented. Öymen Gür; “Everything But, objectively, is everything. our experience Form has of lost television—and its value as ainparadigm particularof long-form meaning series and asformats—may a sign of identity”. be more 6relevant. In his essay, ‘The Fact of Television’, philosopher However, StanleyinCavell recenthighlights years the that emergence we maintain of rulea based relationship and parametric with a television procedures, series facilitated over a much by longer computers, has period ledoftotime the conflation than we doofwith serial a film, techniques often for with years those rather used than just in digital 2 hours. design. This Theorist duration Marcos is more Novak akin toclaims construction that, “for timescales the firstand timeequally in history hasthe to acknowledge architect is called the problems upon to design of ageing notand theshifts objectinbut taste. theSecondly, principles Cavell by which suggests the object is that, generated whilst film andisvaried categorised in time”. by7 genre It is this (sci-fi, focushorror, on the design western, ofrom-com, the process thriller, by which etc.), the television form isisproduced appreciated thatas 3 links episodes the digital in a series. production Couldofan architecture analogy bewith drawn serialism. between And genreimportantly, as programme digital and design episode no longer as typology has totorefer allow to an the design interrogation of blobs of architecture and superficially through complex this lens? forms. According

to filmmaker and writer Hito Steyerl, “Data, sounds, images and even buildings are now routinely transitioning beyond screens into a different state of matter. They surpass the boundaries of data channels and manifest materially”.8 This transition of the digital into the physical is increasingly relevant to architects and designers, who are spending more and more time in the virtual world of the CAD model, a world often substituted for the real one. With the uptake of BIM in architectural practice coupled with advances in simulation software, soon all buildings will be realised as multiple iterations; first fully simulated in the virtual realm and then in the real. Through this form of serialism, might parity finally be achieved between drawing and building? And might we revivify the critique of representation and mimesis that has historically been the core motivation of serialism? PRODUCTION, REPRODUCTION & IMITATION Within the notion of the serial there is a clear connection to the idea of the copy, the reproduction, and the imitation. Looking at where we are today, it is often observed that much global architecture is becoming more and more similar to itself. Until recently it was commonly believed that it was possible for individual global firms to establish their own architectural language (a Zaha building is clearly a Zaha building, as with a Sanaa, a Gehry, a Rogers, etc). But this has changed. Today, more and more often, works designed by different international architecture firms and conceived for the most remote locations, thousands of miles apart, seem to be quite familiar. There appears to be a tendency to copy and replicate global forms instead of ideas. The key to this lies in the transmission of culture. Until the invention of the printing press, architecture was thought to be the primary means of expression and communication of ideas, values, and beliefs in a culture. But as the speed with which information disseminates increases, architecture’s role as a carrier of culture has

consequently Clearly decreased. the successWhere of theonce Netflix architecture model—releasing was able thecarry to entiremeaning, season at theonce—proved building blocks one ofthing: culture people are now 9 want control internet memes. over how they consume culture. The current expectation Coined forby on-demand the evolutionary access—anything, biologist Richard anytime, anywhere—has Dawkins in 1976been to describe well observed an “idea, in behaviour other sectors or style and industries, that spreads including from person transportation to person(Uber), within afood culture”, (Deliveroo) the and accommodation term ‘meme’ has since (Airbnb). taken on Theorist new meaning, Benjaminmore Bratton often discerns to referring that anthese image“contemporary that is captioned digital andplatforms shared over are 10 nowinternet. the displacing, The if not popularity also replacing, of internet thememes traditional hascore been functions of attributed to states, their low and barrier demonstrating, to entry, their for potential both goodfor and ill, new cultural relevance, spatial and the temporal global,models participatory of politics culture and that 2 publics”. has developed around them. This year,principals Memetic ADS4 willhave explore been thefundamental new publicsto thatdevelopment the might emergeoffrom architecture: these current Fromforms the Greeks, of cultural consumption to the Romans, (into particular the Renaissance, binge watching and sotelevision on, each series) and how time, the the iteration serialisation of an appropriated of everyday language life might allowed relate to the broadernew something fieldtoofbe serialism said. But in when art and it comes architecture. to memes, Might the simpler consideration they are, of design the faster as athey serial canprocess proliferate. help people participate Early modernist morearchitects actively asofconsumer the 1920scitizens? discovered this secret. They dropped all elements that made architecture individual LEARNING according FROM to context, TELEVISION reducing their buildings to simple forms and surfaces. By so doing, they attained the standardisation While the relationship of architecture between thatfilm wasand their architecture goal. has been This style studied composed extensively of architectural (arguable memes with little replaced ground having been made architectural patterns, to conflate and spread the two), around thethe increasing world with 11 influence of rapidity. astonishing television This on our theory collective mightbehaviour be best exemplified has been lessLewell by Corbusier’s documented. Dom-ino But, house, objectively, which our clearly experience has easy of television—and repeatability andinhigh particular reproducibility—an long-form series advantage formats—may that be moreit relevant. singles out as a In replicator. his essay, Its‘The simplicity Fact of makes Television’, it an easy philosopher prototype to Stanley copy, but Cavell importantly, highlights thethat replication we maintain of thea relationship visual memewith alsoasustains television the series architectural over a much ideology longer of period of time than we do with a film, often for years rather Modernism. than just In 2the hours. age of This theduration internet,ismemetic more akin communication to construction timescales has established and equally itself ashas a medium to acknowledge for creative theexpression, problems of ageing andmaking undoubtedly shifts inantaste. impact Secondly, on the world’s Cavell suggests social, that, whilst political, and film cultural is categorised landscapes. by genre Could(sci-fi, the sharing horror,of western,memes internet rom-com, be considered thriller, etc.),astelevision a currentisform appreciated of serial as episodes art? And can in a aseries. serial3approach Could an generate analogy be a new drawn memetic between genre as programme and episode as typology to allow an architecture? interrogation of architecture through this lens?

WORLD BUILDING & COLLABORATION As designers, we have the ability to extrapolate and project knowledge in order to imagine new worlds for others to inhabit. As advocates of Critical Design—a form of design practise developed by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby12—ADS4 uses speculative design proposals to explore and interrogate these worlds, employing strategies and techniques developed by other disciplines as our design tools. This year, ADS4 intends to continue its collaboration with Squint/Opera—a creative agency that produces work across a variety of disciplines, from video content and animation, to interactive exhibitions, branding, websites, design, games and strategy. Together we will question the potential of serialism in contemporary architecture, experimenting with scriptwriting, characterisation and narrative structures as instruments for both research and design. ADS4’s continued obsession with media culture will not only form the departure point for your research; this year it will also provide the framework for the academic year. The three terms will be structured as three parts (or three acts, lets say). These parts will adopt a typical narrative arc used in storytelling or scriptwriting: Part One will see the setup of the project, in Part Two you will explore the project’s conflict (and are likely to experience a bit of a crisis), and Part Three will see the resolution of the project. We’re looking forward to the season finale already. Nicola Koller & Tom Greenall

FOOTNOTES 1. Kevin Spacey giving the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival [https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=P0ukYf_xvgc] 2. Benjamin Bratton, ‘The Black Stack’, E-Flux Journal The Internet Does Not Exist, 2015 3. Stanley Cavell, ‘The Fact of Television’, 1982. 4. Sandra Kaji-O’Grady, ‘Serialism in Art and Architecture: Context and Theory’, 2001. 5. Benjamin Bratton, ‘On Speculative Design’, DIS Magazine, 2016. 6. Muteber Erbay & Sengül Öymen Gür, ‘Universal “memes” of the global style in architecture and the problems of identity and place’, 2010. 7.Sandra Kaji-O’Grady, ‘Serialism in Art and Architecture: Context and Theory’, 2001. 8. Hito Steyerl, ‘Too Much World: Is the Internet Dead’, included in the E-Flux Journal The Internet Does Not Exist, 2015. 9. An Internet meme is an activity, concept, catchphrase or piece of media which spreads, often as mimicry, from person to person via the Internet. (Karen Schubert, “Bizarre goes bizarre”, USA Today, 28 July 2003.) 10. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, 1976 11. Nikos A. Salingaros “Architectural Memes in a Universe of Information”, 2005. 12. Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby (Dunne & Raby) use design as a medium to stimulate discussion and debate amongst designers, industry and the public about the social, cultural and ethical implications of existing and emerging technologies. www.dunneandraby.co.uk

7 1

LIVE PROJECT 3 Economics as Fiction: The Balkanisation of London 12 Renewable Futures Conference

Under the theme of ‘Economics as a Fiction’,4 we will 14 make a submission for the Renewable Futures Conference 2017 in collaboration with Squint/Opera. The output of this collaboration will be an exhibition piece comprising a 8 10 film and range of artefacts from a fictional future scenario that explores a new economy for 11 the UK as a result of the 13 balkanisation of London. “Renewable Futures aims to invent new avenues2 for more sustainable and imaginative future developments. 5 The first conference took place in Riga, Latvia, exploring the transformative potential of art. The second Renewables Futures conference will take place in Eindhoven, aiming to push the boundaries of our thinking about economy. The conference will be a part of Economia festival organized by Baltan Laboratories in Natlab, former physics lab of Philips. Economia is a three-day festival in which we collectively 1 explore new ideas and thinking about our economy. The 3 event is6 a laboratory for ideas, a place where we can step 12 out of the existing frame. We will use unexpected and playful approaches looking at the essentials of economy, thus establishing a fresh point of view on the economic system and our society.” http://thinkeconomia.com

SCENARIO 4

13 14

The result of the EU referendum in June 2016 shocked currency and stock markets, and has led to an environment of economic and political uncertainty. It also revealed a great deal about London’s relationship with the rest of the UK. The scale of wealth inequality was exposed and with it a gaping ideological chasm. Up 5and down 11 2 the country, poor communities have been united by their hostility to the capital. No longer viewed as a source of pride or a rallying point for the nation’s prosperity and

1. Barnet & Camden 2. Bexley & Bromley 5. Croydon & Sutton 6. Ealing & Hillingdon 9. Havering & Redbridge 11. Merton & Wandsworth 14. West Central

3. Brent & Harrow 4. City & East 7. Enfield & Haringey 8. Greenwich & Lewisham 10. Lambeth & Southwark 12. North East 13. South West

aspirations, London has been recast instead as the enemy. Westminster represents the malevolence of London at its most extreme, but the animosity transcends politics. It focuses on London as a city-state, with a different way of life, a different culture. British regions exhibit distinctive characteristics, and that engenders rivalry. But to this natural tension is now added a worrying toxicity. It cannot be healthy that the capital should be held in such low esteem. Within hours of the EU referendum result we saw calls for the devolution of London from the rest of the UK. “It’s time for London to leave the UK and stay in the EU”, declared the Independent. But what if, rather than spitefully distancing ourselves from the rest of the country, an alternative policy of balkanisation was instigated in a benevolent attempt to redistribute wealth and to level the playing field? The ADS4 Live Project will see you explore a speculative economic scenario in which London is devolved (or balkanised) into 14 Micro Cities (defined by existing London Assembly boundaries), each with a unique identity and economic profile more comparable with other regions of the UK. As a studio you will develop this scenario, imagining the consequences of such a reorganisation of the capital. The output of this project will be a film, exhibition proposal and catalogue, to be completed in the first term. Each first year will subsequently take one of the 14 Micro Cities as the context for their second and third term project, making proposals for new identities, industries, urbanisms and architectures that might materialise as a result of emerging technologies. Adopting the broader theme of the unit—serialism in architecture—your projects will create a collection of proposals that can be understood as a series.

7 1 3 9

4 14

10 11

2 5

1 8

7 10

9 11

5 2

1. Barnet & Camden 2. Bexley & Bromley 5. Croydon & Sutton 6. Ealing & Hillingdon 9. Havering & Redbridge 11. Merton & Wandsworth 14. West Central

3. Brent & Harrow 4. City & East 7. Enfield & Haringey 8. Greenwich & Lewisham 10. Lambeth & Southwark 12. North East 13. South West

In addition to collaborating with Squint/Opera, you will receive guest tutorials via Skype with Fiona Raby, Professor of Design and Emerging Technology at the New School in New York, and Tom Wainwright, Britain editor of the Economist and author of Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel. COLLABORATORS & GUESTS Squint/Opera are a creative agency that produces work across a variety of disciplines, from video content and animation, to interactive exhibitions, branding, websites, design, games and strategy. Together we will experiment with film genres and narratives as an instrument for both research and design, as well as a tool for representation and communication. www.squintopera.com Fiona Raby is Professor of Design and Emerging Technology and a Fellow of the Graduate Institute for Design Ethnography and Social Thought at The New School in New York. She was Professor of Industrial Design (id2) at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna between 2011-2016 and was Reader in Design Interactions at the RCA between 2005-2015. She studied Architecture at the RCA before working for Kei’ichi Irie Architects in Tokyo. She taught in the Architecture department for over 13 years leading ADS4. www.dunneandraby.co.uk Tom Wainwright is the Britain Editor of The Economist. He joined the Britain section in 2007 to cover a beat including crime and justice, migration and social affairs. In 2010 he became the newspaper’s Mexico City bureau chief, responsible for coverage of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. He is also author of ‘Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel’ (2016). mediadirectory.economist.com/people/tom-wainwright/

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO 4 ADS4 was established to explore an approach to design that would later be described as Critical Design, a term credited to ADS4’s Fiona Raby and her design partner Anthony Dunne. Emerging simultaneously in ADS4 and Dunne’s Design Products unit at the RCA, Platform 3, the fields of Critical and Speculative Design went on to be developed further in the Design Interactions programme at the RCA. This year ADS4 will continue to develop our own approach to critical design in order to better understand and strengthen the culture of critical design within the School of Architecture. Critical Design Critical Design takes a critical theory based approach to design, using design fiction and speculative future scenarios to challenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions and givens about the role that design plays in everyday life. By Critical Design we mean design that poses questions rather than just attempts to provide solutions to problems. Its opposite is affirmative design: design that reinforces the status quo. As designers, we have the ability to extrapolate and project knowledge in order to imagine new worlds for others to inhabit—to imagine new and alternative ways of living. ADS4 uses Critical Design to explore and interrogate these worlds, questioning the implications of emerging technologies on social, political, economic and environmental controversies. We intend our design speculations to act as catalysts for collectively redefining our relationship with reality. We do not concern ourselves with predicting or forecasting “the future”. When it comes to technology, future predictions have been proven wrong time and time again. In our view it’s a pointless activity. What we are interested in is what Dunne & Raby term ‘possible futures’ (as opposed to ‘probable futures’) and how we might use these as tools to better understand our present challenges.

RESEARCH & DESIGN METHODOLOGIES Design Fiction The future scenarios developed in ADS4 could be described as ‘Design Fiction’. Although they are hypothetical—fictional to an extent—they are based on hard facts rather than science fiction. The intention is to make possible futures familiar in order to investigate the implications for the built environment. By coupling the speculation inherent in design with the creative licence of fiction and the pragmatic immanent reality of fact, design fictions enable forms of storytelling that allow us to imagine unrealised architectures in use; while also providing alternative value systems for designers—and, potentially, policy-makers—to consider the political and social qualities of new forms of architecture. World Building World building is the process of constructing a (semi) fictional world, sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe. The term “world-building” was first used in the Edinburgh Review in December 1820 and appeared in A.S. Eddington’s Space Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General Relativity Theory (1920) to describe the exploration of hypothetical worlds with different physical laws. As designers, we have the ability to extrapolate and project knowledge in order to imagine new worlds for others to inhabit. We build new worlds for our projects in order to suggest possible alternatives to our present situation, and we use strategies and techniques developed by other disciplines in order to do this. But in order to critique what we believe is important we have to edit reality. These worlds we design are not pure fiction, just an edited version of reality, and in these worlds we amplify what we think is important and we grant ourselves the license to play down things that are less relevant to the critique. We are interested in world building as it allows us to consider the broader scale applications and implications of our ideas, rather than encouraging a focus on one-off

pieces of architecture. In the building of these worlds we must remind ourselves that there is not just one possible future but many alternative futures that can exist simultaneously. We consider the â&#x20AC;&#x153;four possible futuresâ&#x20AC;? for any given scenario; a framework for scenario building that was first introduced by futurist Jim Dator: Continuation, Collapse, Disciplined and Transformation.

(A)

(B)

affirmative problem solving design as process provides answers in the service of industry for how the world is science fiction futures fictional function change the world to suit us narratives of production anti-art research for design applications design for production fun concept design consumer user training makes us buy innovation ergonomics

critical problem finding design as medium asks questions in the service of society for how the world could be social fiction parallel worlds functional fictions change us to suit the world narratives of consumption applied art research through design implications design for debate satire conceptual design citizen person education make us think provocation rhetoric

Redrawn from Dunne & Raby, Speculative Everything, 2013

Diegetic Prototyping The advent of digital communication and the web has been the cultural equivalent of an epistemological break. In today’s technologically driven society, design starts at the level of the atom or the gene. Virtual realities, nanotechnology and synthetic biology make us fluctuate between the seen and the unseen, increasingly influencing our aesthetics and providing new instruction kits for reality. This is gradually, but noticeably, affecting both the design and production of buildings as well as the critical evaluation of architecture. Consequently, new tools are required to help architects investigate and communicate the potential of emerging technologies on the built environment. In ADS4 we specialise in the use of one such tool: Diegetic Prototyping—an approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling. Coined by David A. Kirby, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Manchester, the term ‘diegetic prototype’ refers to cinematic depictions of future technologies— fictional objects that bridge the speculative and the everyday. In ADS4’s projects, these are used as points-ofdeparture for audiences to explore the implications of new trends, systems, and emerging technologies. Through the use of diegetic prototypes, filmmakers have been credited with demonstrating to large audiences the utility, harmlessness and viability of a nascent technology. The prototype is a useful tool for suspending disbelief in change, and communicating some of the subtle changes in human values that might occur as a result of emerging technologies. Through the use of diegetic prototyping in architecture, ADS4 intends to lend plausibility to possible future scenarios and provide a tangible way for our audiences to engage in debates about the future.

Diegetic Prototyping

The advent of digital communication and the web has been the cultural equivalent of an epistemological break. In today’s technologically driven society, design starts at the level of the atom or the gene. Virtual realities, nanotechnology and synthetic biology make us fluctuate between the seen and the unseen, increasingly influencing our aesthetics and providing new instruction kits for reality. This is gradually, but noticeably, affecting both the design and production of buildings as well as the critical evaluation of architecture. Consequently, new tools are required to help architects investigate and communicate the potential of emerging technologies on the built environment. In ADS4 we specialise in the use of one such tool: Diegetic Prototyping—an approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling. Coined by David A. Kirby, Senior Lecturer in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Manchester, the term ‘diegetic prototype’ refers to cinematic depictions of future technologies— fictional objects that bridge the speculative and the everyday. In ADS4’s projects, these are used as points-ofdeparture for audiences to explore the implications of new trends, systems, and emerging technologies. Through the use of diegetic prototypes, filmmakers have been credited with demonstrating to large audiences the utility, harmlessness and viability of a nascent technology. The prototype is a useful tool for suspending disbelief in change, and communicating some of the subtle changes in human values that might occur as a result of emerging technologies. Through the use of diegetic prototyping in architecture, ADS4 intends to lend plausibility to possible future scenarios and provide a tangible way for our audiences to engage in debates about the future.

IMAGE CREDITS 44 1. Four, ‘Scenes Unseen’ typeface, Laura Jouan, 2016 (cover) 2. Florida, Lee Friedlander, 1963 3. Stranger Things (Netflix) 4. U.A. Walker, Hiroshi Sugimoto, 2000 5. Flux, Marcello Velho, 2016 6. Flux, Marcello Velho, 2016 7. ‘Chandler been on it for time’ via askiparait.tumblr.com 8. Unknown 9. Triple Elvis, Andy Warhol, 1962 10. William Brown, ADS4 2015 11. Falling cat, Étienne-Jules Marey, 1894 12. Falling cat, Étienne-Jules Marey, 1894 13. Film Still: Confessions of a Superhero, 2007 (Dir. Matt Ogens 14. OK-RM (ok-rm.co.uk) 15. Cidade da Cultura de Galicia by Peter Eisenman (to designs by John Hejduk), 2010 (Photo: Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre) 16. Andy Warhol exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery 17. Claire Pestaille, Eliette Von Karajan, Austria 1958 18. via http://www.trntbl.me 19. Homage to Bernd Becher, Idris Khan, 2007 20. Distortion 1, Artist Unknow 21. Distortion 2, Artist Unkown 22. Braun Advert celebrating Dieter Rams designs of the 1960s, 2013 23. Many faces, Artist Unknow 24. Jim Golden, 8-Track Collection, 2015 25. National Sentiment, 2016 26. Man testing focus of Kodak Chevron camera, 1955 (via kodak.com) 27. Cereal, Tom Greenall & Nicola Koller 28. via http://the-book-design.tumblr.com 29. Glitched Stonehenge, Artist Unknown 30. Takumi Akin (takumiakin.com) 31. Untitled, Michael Scott, 2003 32. No Parking, Artist Unknow 33. Nicole Reber, 2016 34. Lowered Goals,Elmgreen & Dragset, 2012 35. The Lamp of Sacrifice, 286 Places of Worship, Edinburgh, Nathan Coley, 2004 36. Burn the Village Feel the Warmth, Nathan Coley, 2013 37. Technical study like Gerhard Richter, Philipp Karcher, 2012 38. Technical study like Gerhard Richter, Philipp Karcher, 2012 39. Rewind, Lauris Paulus, 2009 40. Changing Identity/New Identity 07. Houses in the city of Jiangyin, China, Kacper Kowalski, 2014 41. Traffic Lights, Artist Unkown (altered) 42. 25/08/2009 by Hedi Slimane (altered) 43. Entwicklung des air Force Fliegerhelmes, Space Flight Helmet Research, Ralph Morse, 1954 44. Round 1, Channa Horwitz 45. Charlie Proctor, ADS4 2016 (object) 46. Tom Selby, ADS4 2015 (object) 47. Anthony Engi Meacock, ADS4 2013 48. James Pockson, ADS4 2014 Great effort was taken to identify the rights to all images published in this catalogue. Any errors are unintentional and will be corrected in later editions as soon as the designer has been made aware of the correct source. Graphic Design, Laura Jouan.