Architecture of Counter Surveillance: Disorientation, Intervention and Escape in a Filtered Reality

2020 UPENN MARCH THESIS STUDENT: Kimberly Shoemaker

DISORIENTATION, INTERVENTION, AND ESCAPE IN A FILTERED REALITY

ADVISORS: Maya Alam + Sophie Hochhäusl

ARCHITECTURE OF COUNTER SURVEILLANCE

Digital Tra nslation of Foa m Model by aut hor.

TABLE OF CONTENTS “If the history of these surveillance programs teaches us anything, it’s that the government can subvert seemingly clear legal standards and rules to accommodate its desire to move forward with surveillance activities.”

- Jake Laperruque, The History and Future of Mass Metadata Surveillancei

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ABSTRACT

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KEY QUESTIONS

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CASE STUDIES

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HEALTH, CONTROL + SURVEILLANCE

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SITE

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DESIGN EXPLORATIONS

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MATERIALS

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ARCHITECTURE INTERVENTION

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT

This thesis investigates the role of architecture in surveillance methods and surveillance’s impact on how people interact with their built environment. There is a new form of human agency resulting from constant surveillance that calls for a new architecture intervention. By working from existing conditions in an urban setting, this project aims to create a physical breach within the invisible network that has established a new standard of “eyes on the street”ii in this digital age. Providing a space of escape and isolation for the marginalized, the architecture program as a digital sanatorium creates tension with the iconicity and exposure of Hudson Yards, New York City. This new architecture emerges by focusing around dichotomies of presumption/manipulation, education/ disorientation, candid/filtered, dumb/smart, and complicit/ resistance.

“The new, networked technologies that are transforming the way we experience space and time seem resolutely intangible, a universe apart from bricks and mortar. Yet such technologies are increasingly embedded within our walls, even within the very ground on which we stand…For thousands of years, the elements of architecture were deaf and mute – they could be trusted. Now, many of them are listening, thinking, and talking back…The effects of new technologies infiltrating architecture unfold more blatantly in the smart city, which projects the data gathering and feedback loops of the Internet of everything at an ever-broader scale.”

Rem Koolhaus, The Smart Landscapeiii By examining the current day human agency that is informed and shaped by modern day surveillance methods, this architecture intervention responds to the physical surveillance on site through formal manipulations as well as to the digital surveillance through material applications. This project aims to explore ways in which a new architecture can critique the surveillance and control different

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agencies have on our interactions with the built environment and form in a similar manner of creeping into our daily lives. Identifying the characteristics of surveillance can be categorized into privacy, accuracy, property, and accessibility. Privacy includes the general right to control personal information, accuracy is the authenticity of information, property is the ownership, and accessibility is the nature and amount of information which people have access to.iv These categories assist in the sorting of surveillance methods, bringing to light the need for a disruption which can manifest as architecture as well as identifying their invasive nature which requires this candid escape.

Government surveillance is typically the most feared while remaining the most unknown. The information released by Edward Snowden was shocking, yet only a small glimpse into the power in which government surveillance holds. The National Security Agency’s ties with major technology and Internet companies have altered the terms “liberty” and “freedom” to be replaceable with “privacy”. At the most basic level, this awareness of being constantly watched limits the boundaries on intellectual exploration, and the government holds this power with no ability for people to oppose such power or claim rights for protection.v Commercial surveillance generates the most pull on how we interact with our surroundings; where we shop, what we buy, targeted advertisements, attractions, and so on. We become more careless for the sake of convenience within the realms of commercial surveillance, which only becomes more invasive with its ability to monitor human behavior in the simplest terms.vi Sousveillance, the most recent term of surveillance, includes some aspects of commercial and government surveillance but occurring at hierarchical levels and is based on modern technological methods of recording and sharing events freely at any scale with minimal oversight. Susan Flynn writes in Surveillance, Architecture and Control, that “the individual, as a body situation within urban space has today not only the possibility of exercising his or her gaze at the others in

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their immediate and unmediated physical context, they also have the means via digital technology of location and expressing themselves to others who are physically distant, and thus appropriating new and potentially empowering narratives and identities in the juncture between the real and the virtual.”vii This notion of the new agency and human interactions affected by various surveillance methods in this digital age becomes the most relevant to addressing how filtered realities are perceived.

There is also the critique on how architecture has remained complicit and at times serve as a host or attraction of surveillance.

Transforming the role of architecture from one of compliance and assistance to one of disorientation and intervention aims to create tension among the smart city of Hudson Yards in New York City. This development incorporating big name architecture firms, such as Heatherwick Studio, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Foster + Partners, and Kohn Pedersen Fox, suggests that this idea of complicit architecture is not of concern if the spectacle and pay is large enough. While it attempts to remain hidden, the word is beginning to spread about the tucked away terms and conditions that apply to visitors at Hudson Yards: “…by creating, posting or uploading any content depicted or related to the Vessel, they have the right and license to use your content however they see fit in perpetuity. Likewise, if you merely appear in a photo with the Vessel, they also have the right to use your name, likeliness, voice, and all the rest for any commercial purpose they see fit in perpetuity.”viii By studying the ideals of historic sanatoriums and their influence on modern architecture, the new architecture of this thesis will be referred to as a digital sanatorium dictated through a series of counter tactics in order to achieve an area of escape within a highly surveilled smart city of the current filtered realities of everyday life.

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“WHILE WE FEAR BEING UNDER SURVEILLANCE, WE ARE SLIPPING INTO BECOMING A SOCIETY CARELESS OF THE EXPOSURE OF PERSONAL DATA. THE BORDER BETWEEN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC IS THINNING, REACHING THE CRITICAL POINT WHEN THE QUESTION “WHAT REMAINS PRIVATE?” SHOULD BE ASKED.” - Ku ba Snopek, Surveilla nce Society, Strelka Institute, 2015.i x

Material + For m al collage by aut hor.

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KEY QUESTIONS FILTERED REALITIES: W HAT LAYERS OF PERSONAL SPACE ARE STRIPPED AWAY DUE TO SURVEILLANCE + CONTROL? CANDID ESCAPES: HOW CAN A NEW ARCHITECTURE INTERVENTION INTERRUPT AGENCY IN A SURVEILLANCE STATE?

Government Surveillance: What are the extents of surveillance beyond our knowledge in an urban environment?

Smart Cities or Surveillance Cities: Critical take on public hesitations.

Architecture and Surveillance: Invasive, Complicit, or Protective?

Commercial Surveillance: How does it affect our interactions within an urban fabric on a daily basis?

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Im age collage of OCT Eye Sca n + Ter m s a nd Conditions of Hudson Ya rds by aut hor.

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CASE STUDIES HERZOG + DE MEURON, AI W EIW EI//H A NSEL A ND GR ETEL INSTA LLATION

Ho w a rt h, Da n. “Drones Stalk Visitors to Herzog & De Meuron a nd Ai Weiwei Installation.”

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HERZOG + DE MEURON, AI W EIW EI

The Hansel and Gretel installation uses drones to track the movements of visitors navigating the installation which then gets played back to them.

Visitors’ movements are recorded by infrared cameras and are then broadcast live online. The images being projected back to the floor become disrupted by the drones flying above. The act of being monitored and then becoming the observers transforms the act of surveillance into an eerie experience. The title of Hansel and Gretel, inspired by the fairytale, is due to the theme of disorientation. Rather than

using breadcrumbs to navigate out of a forest, the trail in this installation left behind by the visitors is a white light from their recorded movements, which is then communicated to an unknown public. This transforms what is thought to be a public space - with the illusion of a private space in the Drill Hall at the New York Armory - into a completely controlled environment of participatory surveillance for the sake of an immersive art installation.

The submission to surveillance forfeits their anonymity with no transparency of their rights.

“This project provides a powerful lens for examining surveillance as one of he defining social phenomena of our time and provokes pressing questions about the right to privacy in a hyper-monitored world.”

CHRISTINA W EST

West’s installation Screen at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh consists of eight sculpture, three cameras and three television monitors. The layout of the space reveals itself slowly as visitors walk through, while the 20 second delay of the cameras reveal themselves on the screen creates a separation between a visitors actual self and their image. The presence of human fi gure sculptures create a further sense of being watched, but without any real fear of surveillance. There is no indication of what happens with the camera footage recorded in the space or who has access to viewing it beyond those also in the space at that time.

Ch ristin a West, Screen , 2018.2

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R EFIK A NA DOL//A RT OF INTELLIGENCE

“A rt of Intelligence.”3

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REFIK ANADOL Anadol uses the data collected targeted towards interpreting specific data that serves to deliver results to customers in order to improve technology performance as a means of a tangible art experience. In this piece, The Art of Intelligence , he makes the invisible data visible for people to have a more approachable understanding of the data. His works serves as a wonderful reference for the transformation of invisible data into an image, object, and experience which becomes easily interpreted for those

unfamiliar with data set technology and the invisible data points which we are all connected to. The abstraction and dimensionality brought to the information bridges architectural interpretations with overwhelming technological outputs. Anadol uses architecture as a way to present the data and as a way for visitors to discover his dramatic and emotional point of view. In most of his work, Anadol searches for ways to visualize and remember memories and emotions without breaching privacy.

“When we’re inside these machines, inside meaning, when we’re looking through the lens of a machine, looking through a social network, looking through a world that is not physical here but there, that feeling was my big inspiration.

It’s a sense of displacement, meaning you are not physically there, you’re not virtually there, you’re in between these worlds”

DUNNE + R ABY “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.”

The Publi-Voice design by Dunne + Raby featured in the video Not Here, Not Now (2015) explores what people can say in private and public. In this case, they refer to public as social and online media. They use this design to imagine a time where people have to be hyper aware of how they present themselves in public, even though this imagination is not far off from how society is today. The dependence on technology to inspire such a design can act as a reference for pushing the boundaries of aids among modern surveillance technologies. The isometric projection used in the shots of Publi-Voice give a less natural, more methodical feeling. The material of the design is presented as ambiguous for individual interpretation, whether that be a field, a film, or specifi c material. The form and ambiguous material of Publi-Voice also questions if future technologies will become much more tailored to our bodies and environments.

D u n ne & R a by.4

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LAUR A POITR AS//A NA RCHIST: ISR A ELI DRONE FEED

“Laura Poitras: A stro Noise.”5

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LAUR A POITR AS Laura Poitras’ work (right: ANARCHIST: Israeli Drone Feed) deals with the National Security Agency’s global surveillance programs, warrantless surveillance, and the use of drones for what officials call “targeted killing.” Her work holds a strong political voice as her explorations in the surveillance state began in the wake of 9/11. She even includes documents from the lawsuit where she sued the United States government under the Freedom of Information Act to fi nd what information they had on

her. Furthermore, Astro Noise was the name of an encrypted fi le containing evidence of mass surveillance she received from Edward Snowden, which she made a an Oscar-winning documentary, Citizenfour. Citizenfour gave insight into the NSA’s infrastructure in the US and worldwide that essentially intercepts every digital communication while also working with internet firms to extract audio, videos, photos, emails, documents, and connection logs as well as tech companies to introduce back doors in encryption protocols.

“For now, know that every border you cross, every purchase you make, every call you dial, every cell phone tower you pass, friend you keep, article you write, site you visit, subject line you type, and packet you route is in the hands of a system whose reach is unlimited but whose safeguards are not.”

ELEONOR A TREVISA NUTTO “I think of places such as parks or schools, as well as private gardens, where surveillance becomes part of “familylife,” rendering this item less threatening by decreasing the psychological impact, for example, on children.”

Trevisanutto aims to transform the typical security camera and therefor ideas of surveillance into one that can be cute and cuddly. With inspiration from Charley Harper’s mid-century animal prints as well as industrial craftsmanship of Alessi home goods, these cameras evoke a sense of familiarity and a sense of ease. There is also the goal of creating a less threatening, approachable element of surveillance to decrease the psychological impact, specifically anxiety, that can arise with one’s awareness of being monitored.

The cuteness of these designs does not distract from the questionable issues that arise such as: Is making a camera in the shape of a friendly animal a subtle form of propaganda? Or does creating a familiar, light hearted form help remind us all that we are being watched?

Fla herty, Joe. “Disney Meets Or well Wit h These Super Cute Sur veilla nce Ca m eras.”6

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NOR M A N WILKINSON//DAZZLE CA MOUFLAGE

G o m pertz, Will. “Dazzle Ships a nd t he A rt of Confusion.”7

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DAZZLE CA MOUFLAGE This paint scheme used for military ship camouflage was designed to confuse enemy ships. Rather than trying to become invisible, these patterns were effective by making it difficult to estimate their type, size, speed, and direction. The complex, geometric patterns occur in contrasting colors as well as interrupting and intersecting the shapes. There was also the technique of counter-shading to flatten the appearance of the ships. Is there

a way to implement this approach of camouflage to architecture in order to confuse surveillance methods?

Dazzle camouflage has inspired modern day patterns, such as Hyper face, and various make up techniques to trick surveillance software such as facial recognition. The idea of creating a sort of spectacle rather than attempt to hide completely could inspire the methodology of bringing to light all of the data constantly being taken.

“How about a camouflage that didn’t attempt invisibility, but one that did quite the opposite? One so eye-catching it would dazzle and disorientate.”

SOFTLAB “A closer look has the potential to produce a delightful bewilderment as the exterior leaks in while space and sound become manipulated in unexpected ways.”

SOFTlab’s installation for the Signal Festival in Prague, Iris, consists of an interactive array of responsive mirrors.

The goal of this installation was to blend or confuse light and sound, creating a fragmented experience. The reflections of the existing chapel rotating from the outer side of the installation and inwards creates further disorientation.

This piece begins to act not as an object, image, or artifact on its own, but treats the existing space as an additional and crucial medium. The responsive element of this installation in addition to the distortion qualities make this a good case study when generating ideas of how this thesis can become a physical architectural intervention.

“Iris.” SOFTla b.8

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COOP HIM MELB(L)AU//CHBL JA M MER COAT

“CHBL Ja m m er Coat.” Coop Hi m m el b(l)au.9

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COOP HIM MELB(L)AU Coop Himmelb(l)au’s anti-surveillance coat uses historical methods of antisurveillance mixed with modern fabric technologies. By incorporating an abstract pattern inspired by submarine camoufl age used during World War One along with unusual fabric gathering methods allows for the wearer to in a way hide and free their physicality.

The gatherings, puckering, and inflated sense of the fabric in a way give the illusion of strange, multiple body

parts. The conductive metal in the fabric disrupts radio signals, creating an escape from cell phone and other electronics location services from being tracked and contacted. The fabric’s protective quality also keeps the NSA from watching screens through their means of bouncing a signal off phones. Credit card information is also not reachable when in the coat, keeping all realms of identity and information private to the wearer.

“So will defensive design become a normal part of wardrobes or buildings?

And should architects be the ones to attempt it?”

NICK ROSS Nick Ross’s furniture series, Confession, studies the desire for mobilized private spaces through a lightweight, deployable piece to create an area of privacy and seclusion in public areas. Ross observed the lack of discrete, private areas in modern day life and wanted to create a simple moment of relief for either personal phone calls, private conversations, and brief mental break from one’s surroundings. While noise pollution has become a thing expected throughout large cities, there have been few to no attempts to provide recluse from such distractions. The inspiration from a Catholic confessional aims to enhance the sense of privacy as well as a comfortable, free space to be open from outside judgments.

Metcalfe, Joh n, a nd Joh n Metcalfe. “Sick of City Noise? Just D uck Into This Street-Cor ner Confession al.”10 19

ASHER KOHN//SHUR A CITY

G oodyea r, Sa ra h, Sa ra h G oodyea r, a nd CityLa b. “Im agining a Drone-Proof City.”11

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ASHER KOHN Asher Kohn states that “architecture against drones is not just a sciencefiction scenario but a contemporary imperative.” Kohn envisions a droneproof community filled with elaborate architectural devices designed to be drone free. Such devices include minarets to obstruct flight paths, latticed roof patterns to make visual target identification difficult through shade patterns, as well as fully climatecontrolled areas to confuse heat-seeking detection systems. “Architecture can

adapt, and this project clearly aims to show just those adaptations, but American jurisprudence is simply not capable of making clear, comforting, adjudications on drones and the sorts of crimes they have been created to deter. Architecture as a discipline has a long history of being capable of developing within the cracks left by law.” This project serves as a reference how standard architecture devices can adapt to meet the needs of protection from modern technology.

“Architecture can work where law cannot by giving dignity and safety to people physically when they are not afforded those privileges legally.”

DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO DS+R’s project Brasserie uses the element of surveillance to become the backdrop of the bar area they renovated in the Seagram Building. The space includes a monitor at the entrance and a video camera directed at the street for virtual transparency. The surveillance footage becomes a visual artifact displayed for people in the space with a direct view. With the most recent portrait taking the first position in the line of screens above the bar area, the element of time alongside surveillance becomes an active element of the space. While this project plays on the themes of glass and vision, there lacks a critique on issues of privacy, consent, and identity among surveillance.

“Brasserie.” DS R.12

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BLACK MIR ROR// NOSEDIV E

“Nose d ive”, Black M irror.13

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BLACK MIRROR While many of the technologies depicted in Black Mirror are made to feel far in the future, there are some that have roots in current realities. From tracking implants, artificial intelligence explorations, and a social scoring system, these technologies all contain underlying themes of surveillance and issues of privacy that are creeping into our daily lives. The story lines themselves dive into the psychological implications, leaving the architecture

and settings speak to the relationship of the private individual and lack of transparency. If TSA agents were able to watch every moment of your past few days, the already intensified feeling of being monitored at airports would increase drastically therefore releasing all elements of privacy. Black Mirror assists in imagining the future dangers of where our surveillance methods are heading, and mostly for the worse.

“Several episodes allegorise the “unhomely” effects of surveillance in contemporary society, dramatizing voyeurism and exhibitionism as not only corrosive to but also constitutive of the construction of the self.”

SITU SITU’s research division uses an investigative architecture methodology to visualize data into series of drawings, images, videos and models.

For the Section 581 project, SITU created a series of renders to expose the disparities in the New York City property tax code while physicality the relationship between sales prices and asses values in a stacked acrylic model. The way SITU uses the approach of an investigator serves as a good example of how to uncover the architects and developers that are complicit with surveillance methods implemented in smart cities, questioning their ideals of private vs public spaces.

Se ction 581, SITU Resea rch.14

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SOCIA L CR EDIT SCOR E CHINA 15

FACEBOOK DATA CENTER SHEEH A N PA RTNERS16

PIXEL FOR EST PIPILOTTI RIST 17

STR EET|SCA PE A LA M/PROFETA 18

Researching a broad field of case studies for this thesis creates a larger narrative that has a critical stance which differs from that of the typical method of compliance and assistance in architecture. The range of micro to macro scale and conceptual to real projects further helps gain a sense of where this project can lie in within realism while application methods of different materials and geometries provides a base point for the design methodology of architecture intervention. Another important observation for each case studies is the relationship between surveillance methods and the public//individuals as well as their identity and privacy. Many of

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CV DAZZLE A DA M H A RV EY 19

ON/OFF SIBLING A RCHITECTUR E 20

A POSEM ATIC JACK ET SHINSEUNGBACK KIMYONGHUN 21

THE TRUM A N SHOW (1998) PETER W EIR 22

these case studies show how people’s engagement with their surroundings change based on when they know they are subject to surveillance, unknown of any surveillance, and are ensured total privacy. Others that deal less with surveillance or none at all give reference to transforming invisible data into a understandable visual as well as more generally thinking of how people interact with different scales of architecture.

The films listed in these case studies play heavily into the narrative, whether that be fictional or harrowing facts, and provide full settings of architecture at an urban scale with heightened senses of surveillance.

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HEALTH, CONTROL + SURVEILLANCE When addressing one of the main questions of this thesis, “What layers of personal space are stripped away due to surveillance and control?” it brings up the historical connections between surveillance, health, and control. With the simplifies description of a sanatorium as an institution for rest and recuperation, there is more importance with the connection of control and surveillance within these institutions.

This can be emphasized with Foucault’s term, medical gaze, for the dehumanizing medical separation of the patient’s body and the patient’s identity.x Exploring medical gaze further leads to connections between the knowledge or ignorance of being under surveillance. Establishing control on individual patients’ bodies as well as their location enables a heightened level of surveillance masked behind the notions of what was perceived at the time for successful health. Control further plays a role with the locations of sanatoriums away from cities, towards nature, while maintaining containment of patients, even furthermore with the marginalization of patients with mental health ails.

As many sanatoriums were instated for specifi c illnesses, such as tuberculosis, reformatting the agenda of a sanatorium in current time requires establishing a coinciding ailment, which in this case exists as surveillance itself. Moving the focus towards the proposed site of this new architecture, by locating New York City sanatoriums exhibits how these health institutions were pushed as far out as possible from the city center. This traditional placement directs the counter tactic to situate this digital sanatorium within a heavy populated area of the city, swarmed with surveillance. A location within a major city furthermore reduces the ability to default to a modern architecture style of health clinic with the inability to blend into and exists harmoniously with nature. Additionally, removing the default of allowing nature or removal entirely from location to be the cure all sets the stage to confront these new issues of surveillance within a heightened, pragmatic experience.

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“New objects were to present themselves to the medical gaze in the sense that, and at the same time as, the knowing subject reorganizes himself, changes himself, and begins to function in a new way.�

- Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic

Fe m ale Patients Ex posed at Sta n ning ton Sa n atoriu m.23

HISTORICAL NYC SA NATORIUMS

North Brother Island

Manhattan Psych Center

Renwick Smallpox Hospital

Seaview Hospital 27

Ideas of control within sanatoriums also ties together the history of modernity in architecture with health. Desires for transparency stem from the application of x-ray and dissection of the human body with ideals for exposure as well as thinness, glass and light.xi Allowing a building to reveal itself leads to the reveal of the participants, which in itself can be a form of surveillance. Heightened transparency through the use of spanning glazing in architecture becomes the driving force behind putting participants on display, similarly to how sanatorium patients were frequently on display at the whims of medical practice and lack of privacy from other patients. Examining these connections of surveillance, health and control leads to establishing a table of transparency characteristics (shown right) with their contrasting counter tactics to be applied to the new architecture of a digital sanatorium.

Moder n Managem ent Methods, Caitlin Bla nchfield + Fa rzin Lofti-Ja m.24

Glaspaleis, Frits Peutz.25 28

Transparency Strategies + Counter Tactics open

closed

light

dark

airy

muddy

public

private

simultaneous

scattered

continual

broken

expressionless

character

neutral

agitated

mute

loud

exposed

hidden

unified

separated

public gaze

unknown

submission

resistance

abstraction

disdain

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SITE HUDSON YARDS New York City, NY

The plaza at Hudson Yards has become a privatized plaza - based on the definitions by Beach Beneath the Streets: Contesting New York City’s Public Spacexii - that, given the context, targeted audience and building tenants, is an exclusive public space. The developers and architects of this site are therefore complicit with controlling this exclusive atmosphere, similar to that of the filtered designs in shopping malls that are geared to attract specific users, such as those with a higher disposable income and of a certain class. As with previous privatized plazas in New York City, this site is aimed to make the affluent feel welcome while others uncomfortable. While already criticized as a playground for the rich, there is much to be discussed regarding the access to visitors data and privacy rights that goes beyond the commercial surveillance of the retailers or the polarizing surveillance of the developers and marketing methods.

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Ex terior CCT V Ca m era Locations at Hudson Ya rds.

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This development of Hudson Yards in New York City has become a tourist attracting spectacle with multiple layers of surveillance hidden beneath the terms and agreements. Locating a digital sanatorium for an audience beyond the affluent within a new liberal surveillance project such as Hudson Yards creates tension among the polarizing space.

Rather than having this project exist towards the fringes of the city contrasts the typical action of the city with pushing the marginalized away from major centers. As marginalized people of New York City have been hyper surveillance under various political movements, this new intervention will provide an area of rest from the traditional targeted tactics. With a variety of architecture firms making up the master plan while maintaining shiny, glossy aesthetics, this new architecture intervention to interrupt the filtered reality will have to operate in formally and materiality counter tactic ways to provide an escape from the various forms of surveillance. Beyond the traditional surveillance established by the constant heavy foot traffic, there are data collecting interactive kiosks scattered throughout, WiFi which gives users rights and ownership away, and over eighty visible CCTV cameras.xiii By mapping the CCTV locations and estimated visible range, the areas on the plaza with minimal overlapping camera exposure becomes the targeted area for this new architecture project to emerge.

Sur veilla nce Met hods at Hudson Ya rds.

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Mapping of Aut hor’s Con nections to Sur veilla nce Met hods in a n Average Day. 33

DESIGN EXPLORATIONS

The design explorations to create the formal and material qualities of this new architecture intervention begin with the studying conceptual anti surveillance methods within the realms of protective, complicit and invasive architecture strategies. By establishing these three approaches of architecture’s participation in surveillance methods allows for a categorization process of researched case studies while also creating a format and parameters for the approach of the new architectural digital sanatorium. Protection serving as the ideal approach within the architecture of Hudson Yards that is complicit creates tension within the dichotomies of candid and filtered, engage and escape, presumption and manipulation, and acknowledgment and resistance.

Examining the case studies’ relationship with surveillance agencies explores what represents the current filtered reality we live in and what the candid escape atmosphere can emit.

Screen Cross w alk Collage by Aut hor.

Ba rcode Installation by Aut hor.

Fuzzy A rchitecture Collage by Aut hor.

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Categorization of A rchitecture a nd Sur veilla nce Tactics.

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The overly shiny, transparent and glossy architecture of Hudson Yards needs to be contrasted through counter tactics with qualities of dark, muddy, scattered and agitated, that in a material categorization is referred to as dumb architecture. Running images of these dumb materials through recognition software such as Amazon’s Reckognition and IBM’s Watson proves the inability of smart technology to properly recognize and decipher their true form and qualities. Furthermore, using photographs of physical models made of spray foam to generate a digital 3D model with the process of photogrammetry formulated glitched, incomplete results as the program was unable to stitch together the images cohesively. Applying smart materials, such as a reflective metal, to the incomplete photogrammetry models creates an even more unrecognizable form and begins the exploration of smart materials that can be incorporated while maintain contrast to the existing architecture. The unpredictable nature of spray foam as it expands along with the interior forms revealed when sliced open provide a base material to apply to the new architecture. Gravitating toward unfinished shotcrete as the primary building material for this project allows for similar qualities of the spray foam but with structural integrity.

Both unfinished shotcrete and spray foam read similarly in recognition software, able to confuse and distort surveillance collection from the exterior, while the thickness of shotcrete disrupts wavelengths used for various forms of surveillance and data collection.

A m azon’s Reckog nition + IBM’s Watson readings of du m b m aterials.

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Close Up of Spray Foa m Model.

Spray Foa m Model w/ Light Behind.

Spray Foa m Model.

Photogra m m etr y Tra nslation.

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Returning to the process and effects with likeness of medical imaging tools, dissection of the spray foam models reveals an unfamiliar or digitally recognizable language to use for the architectural geometry.

Examining spray foam models through the process of slicing reveals opportunities to translate the air pockets into architectural spaces.

No one air pocket reading identical or in predictable locations leads to the scattered and agitated manner of drawing and developing how the architecture begins to read in section view. The range of varying thicknesses within the model slices then begins to determine dimensions of the poche of this new architecture. Assigning architectural features to the features within the slice drawings establishes guidelines for representation, while the essence of unpredictability and lack of control of the spray foam dictates how the representation of this digital sanatorium comes into fruition. Examining the ability to reveal and conceal identified spaces within different views of the slice drawings creates the ability to resolve the new architectural forms dimensionally.

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Layered + Ex ploded Slices of Foa m Model.

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MATERIALS

Using both x-ray-based tactics and anti-x-ray, or anti surveillance, tactics categorized materials to be applied to the architectural formal language creates tension while maintain connection to the historical sanatorium building material qualities while formalizing a new muddy, fuzzy effect. Juxtaposing unfinished shotcrete with light transmitting concrete confuses the perception of thickness and thinness while allowing transitional moments of exposure, or rather lack of.

Incorporating surfaces with mosaics of micro digital screen panels creates distortion of a smart technology and imagery displayed in order to enhance notions of unrecognizable forms in multiple dimensions. The tactile qualities of each material become more engaging than normative pristine sanatorium surfaces.

Each material alone and combined aims to act as a counter tactic to what was traditionally used in sanatoriums in efforts to expose patients to light, air and surveillance.

Micro Digital Screen Pa nels.26

Light Tra ns m itting Concrete.27

Unfinished Shotcrete.28

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Interior Representation of Materials a nd Muddy For m s.

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â€œâ€Śsurveillance is an inevitable condition of public space - the question is, to what ends and for what ends is the gaze of the others exercised in such settings, and to what degree are designers, managers, and society more generally complicit when such surveillance is used to restrict liberty and identity as opposed to creating possibility for authentic self-expression and enjoyment?â€?

- Surveillance, Architecture and Control: Discourses on Spatial Culture

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Material Studies on Layered Foa m Slice Drawings.

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ARCHITECTURE INTERVENTION By making use of the platform Hudson Yards is built upon, this new architecture is able to primarily spread and connect within the underbelly of the site and interact with the existing infrastructure. Maintaining rough edges, thick surfaces, obscure materials and fuzzy boundaries, this digital sanatorium rejects the notion of being pushed towards the fringes of an urban setting to embracing the tension between an area of iconicity with notions of the marginalized. Visualizing these counter tactics of material and formal qualities establishes an interruption in the shiny, controlled architecture that creates a candid escape to conflict with not just a smart city, but a surveillance city.

Section Slices of Foa m Model.

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Looking Up View of Inter vention wit hin t he Infrastr ucture.

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Ex terior View of Inter vention Creeping A bove.

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Section Drawing of New Inter vention wit h Surrou nding Infrastr ucture.

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Ex terior View of Inter vention Creeping A bove.

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Interior Representation of Materials a nd Muddy For m s.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Images: 1

Howarth, Dan. “Drones Stalk Visitors to Herzog & De Meuron and Ai Weiwei Installation.” Dezeen. Dezeen, November 13, 2017. https://www.dezeen. com/2017/06/12/drones-stalk-visitors-herzog-de-meuron-ai-weiwei-hanselgretel-park-avenue-armory-installation/.

2

West, Christina. “Christina A . West.” Screen, 2018, www.cwestsculpture.com/ images/screen-2018.

3

“Art of Intelligence.” Refik Anadol.http://refikanadol.com/works/art-ofintelligence/.

4

Dunne & Raby, n.d. http://dunneandraby.co.uk/content/projects/ 772/0.

5

“Laura Poitras: Astro Noise.” Laura Poitras: Astro Noise | Whitney Museum of American Art, n.d. https://whitney.org/Exhibitions/LauraPoitras.

6

Flaherty, Joe. “Disney Meets Orwell With These Super Cute Surveillance Cameras.” Wired. Conde Nast, June 3, 2017. https://www.wired.com/2014/05/ disney-meets-orwell-with-these-super-cute-surveillance-cameras-are/.

7

Gompertz, Will. “Dazzle Ships and the Art of Confusion.” BBC News. BBC, June 12, 2014. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-27818134.

8

“Iris.” SOFTlab. https://softlabnyc.com/portfolio/iris/.

9

“CHBL Jammer Coat.” Coop Himmelb(l)au, n.d. http://www.coop-himmelblau. at/architecture/projects/chbl-jammer-coat/.

10

Metcalfe, John, and John Metcalfe. “Sick of City Noise? Just Duck Into This Street-Corner Confessional.” CityLab, May 1, 2012. https://www.citylab.com/ design/2012/05/sick-noise-pollution-just-duck-urban-confessional/1900/.

11

Goodyear, Sarah, Sarah Goodyear, and CityLab. “Imagining a Drone-Proof City.” CityLab, February 5, 2013. https://www.citylab.com/equity/2013/02/ imagining-drone-proof-city/4606/.

12

“Brasserie.” DS R. Accessed August 28, 2019. https://dsrny.com/project/ brasserie?index=false&search=built§ion&tags=commercial.

13

“Nosedive”, Black Mirror, Netflix.

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14

“Section 581.” SITU, situ.nyc/research/projects/section-581.

15

“How China Is Using Big Data to Create a Social Credit Score.” Time. Time, August 14, 2019. https://time.com/collection/davos-2019/5502592/chinasocial-credit-score/.

16

Sánchez, Daniel. “Facebook Prineville Data Center / Sheehan Partners.”

ArchDaily, ArchDaily, 24 Oct. 2012, www.archdaily.com/285237/facebookprineville-data-center-sheehan-partners.

17

“Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest.” Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest :: New Museum, www. newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/pipilotti-rist-pixel-forest.

18

“Street-Scape.” Alam / Profeta, www.alamprofeta.com/street-i-scape.

19

Harvey, Adam. “Camouflage from Face Detection.” CV Dazzle: Camouflage from Face Detection, cvdazzle.com/.

20

“On/Off.” Sibling, siblingarchitecture.com/projects/on-off/.

21

Shinseungback Kimyonghun, ssbkyh.com/works/aposematic _ jacket/.

22

Weir, Peter, director. The Truman Show. Paramount Pictures, 1998.

“Stannington Sanatorium Photos Shine Light on TB before Antibiotics.” BBC News, BBC, 17 Feb. 2015, www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-31361976.

23

Blanchfield, Caitlin, and Farzin Lotfi-Jam. “Modern Management Methods Shines a Literal Light through the U.N. Headquarters.” Archpaper.com, 9 Sept.

2019, archpaper.com/2019/09/modern-management-methods-united-nationsheadquarters/.

24

“Glaspaleis.” Projects - Wiel Arets Architects, www.wielaretsarchitects.com/ en/projects/glaspaleis/.

25

“Discovery Wall.” Transmaterial, 22 July 2017, transmaterial.net/discoverywall/.

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“Litracon.” Transmaterial, 18 Apr. 2017, transmaterial.net/litracon/.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Shotcrete.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 13 Sept. 2019, www.britannica.com/ technology/shotcrete.

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Text: i

Laperruque, Jake, and Pogo. “The History and Future of Mass Metadata Surveillance.” Project On Government Oversight, www.pogo.org/ analysis/2019/06/the-history-and-future-of-mass-metadata-surveillance/. ii

Ceccato, Vania. “Eyes and Apps on the Streets: From Surveillance to Sousveillance Using Smartphones.” Criminal Justice Review 4 4, no. 1 (March 2019): 25–41. iii

Koolhaas, Rem. “The smart landscape: Rem Koolhaas on intelligent architecture.” Artforum International, Apr. 2015, p. 212+. iv

Ganascia, J.-G. (2010). The Generalized Sousveillance Society. Social Science Information, 49(3), 489–507. v

Poitras, Laura, Edward J. Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, and William Binney. Citizenfour. vi

Zuboff, Shoshana. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism : the Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power . First edition. New York: PublicAffairs, 2019. Print. vii

Flynn, Susan, and Antonia Mackay. Surveillance, Architecture and Control: Discourses On Spatial Culture.

viii

Yakas, Ben. “PSA: The Hudson Yards ‘Vessel’ Has The Right To Use All The Photos & Videos You Take Of It Forever.” Gothamist, Gothamist, 18 Mar. 2019, gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/psa-the-hudson-yards-vessel-has-the-rightto-use-all-the-photos-videos-you-take-of-it-forever. ix

“Surveillance Society.” Strelka Institute - Research. http://strelka.com/en/ research/project/surveillance-society. x

Foucault, Michel. The Birth of the Clinic: an Archaeology of Medical Perception. [1st American ed.] New York: Pantheon Books, 1973. xi

Colomina, Beatriz, X-Ray Architecture.

xii

Shepard, Benjamin, and Gregory Smithsimon. The Beach beneath the Streets: Contesting New York City’s Public Spaces. N.Y., 2011. xiii

“Smart Cities or Surveillance Cities?” American Planning Association. https://www.planning.org/planning/2019/mar/smartcities/.

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Additional Sources: Di Palma, Vittoria. “Google Earth and Global Intimacy.”

Howler, Eric. “Anxious Architectures. The Aesthetics of Surveillance.” Volume.

March 1, 2002. Accessed July 19, 2019. http://volumeproject.org/anxiousarchitectures-the-aesthetics-of-surveillance/.

Howler not only addresses current architectural elements of sur veillance, but also spatial anxieties which he identifies architecture as a “mechanism of sur veillance and power.”

Halter, Ed. 2016. LAURA POITRAS: ASTRO NOISE. Artforum International . 01.

Poitras’ work explores at face level old satellite sur veillance images with a transformation into ar t that addresses the political issues of global sur veillance applications. The transformation of tough data into ar t ser ves as inspiration for the project outcome phase of this thesis.

Howarth, Dan. “Drones Stalk Visitors to Herzog & De Meuron and Ai Weiwei Installation.” Dezeen. Dezeen, November 13, 2017. https://www.dezeen. com/2017/06/12/drones-stalk-visitors-herzog-de-meuron-ai-weiwei-hanselgretel-park-avenue-armory-installation/.

This installation will also ser ve as inspiration for the project outcome, par ticularly the way it becomes an immersive experience that explores how sur veillance transforms public spaces into a controlled environment.

Poitras, Laura, Jay Sanders, and Weiwei Ai. Astro Noise: A Survival Guide for Living Under Total Surveillance.

This book includes responses from ar tists, novelists, technologists, and academics about the modern-day state of mass sur veillance. The extraordinar y amounts of information on individuals sur veillance collects viewed through the lens of people from these various fields will provide a broad span of insight.

McRobbie, Linda Rodriguez. “When the British Wanted to Camouflage Their Warships, They Made Them Dazzle.” Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, April 7, 2016. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-british-wantedcamouflage-their-warships-they-made-them-dazzle-180958657/.

This site gives the basic explanation and theor y behind the dazzle camouflage, which methods will inspire the methods and applications of pat terns for the architectural project of this thesis.

Washburn, Alexandros. “Are Smart Cities Doomed to Promote Inequality?”

ArchDaily. ArchDaily, September 27, 2017. https://www.archdaily.com/880506/ are-smart-cities-doomed-to-promote-inequality?ad _ source=search&ad _ medium=search _ result_ all.

Using smar t cities as a case study for this topic of sur veillance will zoom out to explore the broader implications and negative ef fects, as well as studies on how people interact with their built environment when they are aware or unaware of surrounding sur veillance.

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Erman, Maria. “Eyes of the City: Carlo Ratti, Politecnico Di Torino and SCUT on Their Curatorial Theme of Shenzhen Biennale 2019.” ArchDaily. ArchDaily, April 10, 2019. https://www.archdaily.com/914539/how-will-we-live-with-theeyes-of-the-street-carlo-ratti-michele-bonino-and-sun-yimin-on-the-theme-ofshenzhen-biennial-2019?ad _ source=search&ad _ medium=search _ result_ all.

This exhibition review focuses on the distinction between private and public spaces and the limits of urban anonymity, both topics which will benefit studying the ef fects of sur veillance in smar t cities.

Leardi, Lindsey. “From Smartphones to Smart Cities: What Happens When We Try to Solve Every Problem With Technology?” ArchDaily, November 30, 2017. https://www.archdaily.com/883876/from-smartphones-to-smart-citieswhat-happens-when-we-try-to-solve-every-problem-with-technology?ad _ source=search&ad _ medium=search _ result_ all.

Looking fur ther into smar t cities, this ar ticle takes a more critical view on the excessive application of technology within architecture projects and solutions.

Giordano, Kailey. “‘The Fetishization of the Panopticon’ by Kailey Giordano.”

Aleph, n.d. http://aleph.humanities.ucla.edu/2015/07/26/the-fetishization-ofthe-panopticon/.

“As the panopticon has been decentralized, commodified, and fetishized, panopticonism has diverged from its original mode of operation and become a system of sur veillance that all could par ticipate in, a system in which individuals act as Seer and Seen.”

Laperruque, Jake. “Unmasking the Realities of Facial Recognition.” Project On Government Oversight, n.d. https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2018/12/ unmasking-the-realities-of-facial-recognition/. “ So long as these higher misidentification rates continue, facial-recognition sur veillance will constitute not just a threat to the liber ty and life of innocent people, but also a serious civil rights concern because it could create de-facto algorithm-based racial profiling.” POGO, Project On Government Oversight, brings to light the issues of inclusivity that arise with cer tain sur veillance methods.

Anne Zeitz, « Toward a Practice of Observation », Hybrid [Online], 03 | 2016, Online since 01 December 2016, connection on 29 August 2019. URL : http:// www.hybrid.univ-paris8.fr/lodel/index.php?id=703 With a focus on the work by ar tist Jordan Crandall, Zeitz addresses the topics of an interdependence between people and data. “ The obser ver is now the one who perceives within a complex system of limitations and incitements, to which they adapt - the obser ver and the system in which the obser vation takes place influencing each other.”

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McCullough, Malcolm, Ambient Commons: Attention In the Age of Embodied Information.

McCullough explores the workings of at tention through a rediscover y of surroundings, bringing to light the built environment changes we have encountered due to technological connections.

Saffer, Dan. Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative Applications and Devices . 2nd ed. Berkeley, Calif.: New Riders, 2010.

This book has explorations of interaction design and how it defines how such products behave.

It will give guidance for research and design strategies that have the intention of interaction design with human experience.

Mitchell, William J. Placing Words: Symbols, Space, and the City. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2005.

Mitchell explores the ways urban spaces provide set tings for communication and how they conduct complex flows of information in the modern day. By addressing means of current image mobilization, this book will assist in the project phase.

Sennett, Richard, The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and Social Life of Cities. New York: Knopf, 1990.

E xploring people’s relationships with the built environment, Sennet t ’s writing will give an earlier perspective and insight of the impact technology has on our interactions with our surroundings.

Newman, Oscar. Defensible Space; Crime Prevention through Urban Design.

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972. Print. “ For one group to be able to set the norms of behavior and nature of activity possible within a par ticular place, it is necessar y that it have clear unquestionable control over what can occur there.”

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University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design M ARCH Thesis 2020

Kimberly Shoemaker