Form Follows Famous A critical reconstruction of influencer space
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Peter Maffei Thesis Britt Eversole, Julie Larsen, Sinead MacNamara
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*Menu Part I Statement Context Intention Keywords High Art influences Influencer constructions
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to depict a house striped down to symbols which are associated with the American lifestyle. In a way this is a cloud of status symbols much like the Mc-Mansion which is valued by its curated yet formally jumbled collection of treasures such as walk in closets, en suite bathrooms, finished basements, granite counter tops, white picket fences etc.
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Statement The recent spectacles of news and “fake news,” has made clear that the control and subversion media has measurable bearings on reality. In the same light, humans are tending to prefer to reside within a tailored representation of reality that exists within the media they share on social media. Hence Based on the construction of a digital unreality through the appropriation and reconfiguration of the McMansion, by influencers, this thesis proposes a new housing type that addresses the changing dichotomy of public and private in a post Kardashian cultural landscape. The Influencer McMansion is ultimately a consumer construction. It is a rare piece of architecture that can be evaluated objectively, as each part of the house aids in the construction of a false lifestyle narrative. Even the construction of such houses have served to establish a narrative surrounding their presentation on reality television, in which plans and finishes are carefully presented to an audience. Thus the home has become a Non-Home, as domestic functions have been flayed open for followings. In an ecosystem of radical individualism four disparate influencers have been chosen for their cultural “clout” and are dismantled through a critical reconstruction of their public lifestyles. These influencers are treated as case studies in which one might glean the tactics which allow them to construct a persona, and the ways architecture allows for the commodification of themselves.
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Context More than ever design is becoming democratized on digital platforms, as elements of high art and architecture propagate quicker than ever and have wider influences on mainstream culture. Throughout history most buildings are designed without architects. This becomes even more true in the contemporary era of mass customization, DIY, and HGTV, in which individuals curate their belongings and dwelings as they do their instagram feeds. The dialogue between individual and media which drives the self designed reality is widely known, as architects now have real time information regarding the aspirations and spatial desires of innumerable individuals. If the algorythym that chooses the most popular pictures of houses on instagram, was tasked to design a house, this house would either be the most successful house in history, or a failure that furthur proves the necesity of architectural practice and education. Below: The Instagram world we inhabit has basis in the 80s pop art movement, specifically the work of Dan Graham in which a suburban home is splayed open for all to observe and the mailbox is replaced with a camera observing the family, not unlike the reality television that would alter the built environment decades later Left: Upon initial presentation, Advisor MacNamara explained that she stays away from social media, yet presents an edited reality by placing herself in front of her bookshelf during skype interviews, because displaying books indicates intelligence. This fact prompted a study of bookshelf manipulations in order to showcase the maximum number of books for the skype audience by warping the perspective and manipulating the entasis of the bookshelf
7 Redrawing of Dan Graham, Alteration to a Suburban House 1978
Intention Document the lifestyle of the influencer through their manipulated spatial configurations Critique the absurdities that exist within the architecture of constructed reality Speculate on a new reality in which domestic spaces are reconfigured for a digital
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Keywords Nouns Mcmansion . Celebrity . Economics . Simulations . Artiface Verbs Augment . hybridize . Accommodate
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Left: above collage, Hockney paintings Left: below foremost instagram images when researching “pool” Below Pool based on Hockney’s influence on instagram High Art has an undeniable effect on the subconcious choices made by pop cultural instagram
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A collage produced from the most widely circulated depictions on “Homes� on Instagram in order to understand the phenomena of the of the Mc-Mansion. These homes are imagined by non-architects and real estate speculators produce homes deemed aesthetically pleasing, and spatially desirable to upper middle income demographics with little regard to contemporary architectural discourse, and overly romantic, heavily rendered depictions of historical and modern precedents propagated through digital culture.
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The Construction of a Mcmansion takes ideas from the mass industrialization of the previous era and collides it with the needs in a time of mass customization, resulting in an artiface of simulated material compositions, bizzare substances and oppurtunity nonsense
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Case Study Big Brother House, undisclosed lots around the world A house without privacy, every moment is imagable. The big brother house exists as a house within a warehouse, the big brother manion is cut off from the outside world and exists like a cave dwelling, pockets of space dissected by voyeuristic cavities used by film crew. The absurd fact that the house operates as a panopticon starts to encourage radical behavior by the game show contestants
The rooms of the Big Brother house are splayed open by observation cooridors simmilar to a human aquarium.
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Case Study Kardasian-West
Kardashian-West Master Bathroom, Hidden Hills, California Kanye West, Axel Vervoordt, and Claudio Silvestrin This bathroom has no toilet, and is accessed through a gaping archway from the master bedroom.there is no door, and floor to ceiling glass encases both the shower and exterior facade. This is an attempt to produce a photo studio under the guise of a luxury bathroom. The result is an almost miesian collage of a space. Light comes from a lightbox which covers the entire ceiling providing indirect light reminiscent of the lighting used to sell iphones in an apple store. Intense efforts were made to minimize visual noise, Thus the light fixture is rendered obsolete in the quest to make the most photogenic bathroom. Indirect lighting shapes Mirrors are essential to the influencer. The vanity is removed from the wall so that the mirror is free from splatters and splashes, and could stand floor to ceiling. One might wonder why there is a sink in the absence of a toilet. there is an assumption that a bath or shower would have by default cleaned the hands of the bather, hence making a sink obsolete. Although kim Kardashian runs a cosmetic empire, she never touches her hair or makeup and her makeup is done professionally in a separate, more functional in-house salon, before she enters the bathroom and begins her image making. This is no secret, due to extensive documentation during the shooting of Keeping up with The Kardashians. Such rituals have become symbols of privilege, As a result, even the man who cuts her hair has become famous and fabulously wealthy. as is the picturesque tropical garden which provides the on This is a bathroom which has a singular purpose to be both ornamental and an instrument for digital self portraits.
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A Simulated mirror selfie in the bathroom of Kim Kardashian West
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The Constructed bathroom of Kim Kardashian West
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The Clo-set of Kim Kardashian West
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The Kitchen as a retail showroom in a digital marketplace
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Reconstruction of Kim Kardashian’s Life through the influencer image
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Jeffree Star is a 34 year old Makeup mogul with a multimillion dollar empire and over 1 billion views on youtube.
Reconstruction of Jefree Star’s Life through the influencer image
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Logan Paul is a millionaire youtuber at 24 years old, he creates juvenile prank videos popular amongst young boys
19 year old buys mansion
Lets Buy a giraffe
Giant Jenga!
Reconstruction of Logan Paul’s Life through the influencer image
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Evidence of a crazy party
Chefs Kitchen with a microwave
Never cooks just ordered pizza
Pool Days every day
Stunt man
Look at the cars in my garage
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NBA Player visited once
Threw someone down the stairs on a matress
Heavy timber Jeng for real men only
Kitchen fit for chef, yet only useful item is the microwave
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Jake
Pool chairs arranged to suggest conversation between two individuals “chilling out” Car disposed of in pool from party gone awry
Pool doughnut effortlessly tossed in pool, as false evidence of a pool party
Tropical foliage for a beach resort
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e Paul’s “Team 10 House” a YouTube Incubator
Suggestion of more Lambourgini Lambourgini
They Jumped of the porch riding this
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Dan Bilzerian is a hedge fund child with a weed business and a playboy reputation played out through a serie of wild instagrams.
Reconstruction of Dan Bilzerian’s Life through the influencer image
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Bibliography “73 Questions With Kim Kardashian West (Ft. Kanye West) | Vogue.” YouTube, YouTube, https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaZ93sibpk0. “Dan Bilzerian NEW HOUSE - 10979 Chalon Road, Bel Air CA.” YouTube, YouTube, https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=XiiamqyhX5w. Graham, Dan. “Dan Graham. Alteration to a Suburban House. 1978: MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/147054. “Ignite House: Dan Bilzerian’s Personal Garage & Bowling Alley.” YouTube, YouTube, https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=lVvdKImeEVU. “Kim Kardashian West Bathroom Tour.” YouTube, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=YNX5IC0d5KQ. Paul, Jake. “EXCLUSIVE TOUR OF THE NEW TEAM 10 HOUSE *Amazing*.” YouTube, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDFh-ocrBkQ. “SQM: The Quantified Home.” Studio Folder, 25 Feb. 2019, http://www.studiofolder.it/sqm-thehome-does-not-exist/. Star, Jefree. “Our New DREAM House Tour!” YouTube, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=XHn5H9YdFWw. “Take A Tour Of The Innovative Big Brother 20 House.” CBS, https://www.cbs.com/shows/big_ brother/photos/1008407/take-a-tour-of-the-innovative-big-brother-20-house/.
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