Remi/ Reide McClain — 2019 Portfolio
comparative contents
A.
current interests
— Attention
1. Take a locally pervasive physical condition 2. Exploit this condition to be strangely seductive Quality
Heavily dependent on physical context Examples 1— Reel Rocks 3— The Image Bank 4— House in Los Angeles 5
B.
— Banality — One Liners — Pervasiveness — Quiet Restraint — Referencing the Control — Context
01-03 06-10 25-29
— Networks — Media — Images — Consumers
1. Take something generally pervasive that is easily accessible 2. Apply that thing to the site and make it fit Quality
Heavily dependent on a recognizable type Examples 1— Are we there, there?! 2— House in Los Angeles 4 3— Elysian Dog Park
C.
17-19 20-24 04-05
— Serial Sets — Applied Strategy — Catalogs — Indexes — Types
— Aggregations — Scatterings — Modules — Repetition — Episodes — Assemblies — Identifiable Parts
1. Take the intangible and highly particular research of place or thing 2. Realize it into a physical thing Quality Makes the intangible qualities of place physical Examples 1— Pressured In-Between 3— Beta-Real
Remi/ Reide McClain
11-13 14-16
reidemcclain@gmail.com
203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
— 2019 Portfolio
reel rocks
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Before there was extravagant animation or fantastical cinematography, the Ancient Greek Theater could elicit wonder by simply framing the magnificant landscape that enveloped it. This condition of focused framing occurs naturally in Cypress as well, through the presence of monumental geoforms that are composed of various minerals and local pigments. Gorges, caves, outcrops and mesas frame their environment, producing stages for the natural world. Reel Rocks frames vignettes of Geroskipou Beach in the same effortless and affective way. Reel Rocks is a collection of hollow fiberglass geoforms, identical in shape with varying colors and flattened textures that are abstracted from Cypress Geology. As a collection, Reel Rocks looks like playful colossal pebbles, referencing the shingle beach of Geroskipou, which is characterized by a stone composition rather than a fine sand. Reel rocks can be rotated and organized depending on the desired use and program. During the day, the replica geoforms can be propped to shade the hot Greek sun, they can float for jumping into the sea, or their sculpted surface can support lounging sunbathers. As the sun sets, Reel Rocks can be reorganized into a cinema, with an integrated projector mount, screen surface and terraced seating. Through the assembly of versatile and delightful plastic geoforms, Reel Rocks provides a sense of wonder and playful monumentallity on Geroskipou Beach.
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Collaboration with Jon Anthony Summer 2018, Competition Entry The Beach Cinema/ CYSOA
Remi/ Reide McClain
reidemcclain@gmail.com
203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
— 2019 Portfolio
2
2
Remi/ Reide McClain
reidemcclain@gmail.com
203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
— 2019 Portfolio
elysian dog park
4
Sitting on the peak of a forgotten portion of Elysian Park, the Elysian Dog Park is a study in provocative but accessible public space. The dog park should be understood as a one-liner. There are about 90 million pet dogs in the United States, and in 2018, Americans spent $72 billion on their pets.1 We seek public approval by exploiting the “Dog Economy” of America. This project is interested in being built. By implementing pervasive and inexpensive building techniques, we can test ideas through making. The Elysian Dog Park plays on typical dog show objects – but with a cheeky layering of research. Susan Garret and Nicki Gurr, renowned dog trainers, have conducted research that directly links canine vision with dog agility in relation to the color of objects they train with.2 Typical colors found in dog toys – bright reds, trafficcone orange, etc – are less perceptible to dogs than we think. The Elysian Dog Park implements a color way that hones in on dog vision, while its peak blends in with the greenery of Elysian Park. The Project creates two levels in section: at ground level, a track between pillars for our furry friends; elevated above the chaos a series of propped plinths for human reprieve and lounging.
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1. Wallace, Brian. “In Dog We Trust: A Look at the Dog Economy” Art + Marketing (Medium: May 30, 2019). 2. Garret, Susan. “Susan Garrett with Nicki Gurr – What our dogs see while training and doing agility.” Youtube April 6, 2018
Collaboration with Jon Anthony November 2019 - Ongoing, Concept Proposal Los Angeles County, City of Los Angeles
Remi/ Reide McClain
reidemcclain@gmail.com
203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
— 2019 Portfolio
the image bank
6
This thesis began with a critical investigation of contemporary image culture, and its implications on how we consume art today. In the case of art, often the image of the art object is more consumed than the art object itself. Image culture has drastically increased our access to art through a ubiquitous network that accelerates the publication and consumption of images on endless platforms. Its contributors are scaled from massive institutions down to the individual. The Image Bank questions how this condition of access and image acceleration affect the way we consume art in the museum today? And once we consider its effect, how might we design for the impact of contemporary image culture? The Image Bank is a nomadic art institution that temporarily occupies your neighborhood DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles). Its banality offers a kind of displacement that heightens the viewer’s attention, while its pervasiveness increases access to all. The Image Bank provides custom doppelgangers of elements consistently found in the DMV, hybridized through techniques found in museum storage to subvert our understanding of art display. The doppelganger self-service machine randomly generates one piece of art per patron, from all of the art museum digital archives that are currently available online. As the patron queues through the ardurous DMV procession, the remaining doppelgangers display a seemingly endless flood of digital media content linked to the archived art piece.
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Model Helpers: Kalani Mah, Abbie Campion, Danya Li, Ryan Oeckinghaus, Kokeith Perry, Olivia Binette Shop Guidance: Lou Kerarns, John Bryant Dean’s Citation for Excellence in Thesis Design Citation for Excellence in Thesis Design Fall 2017 Spring 2018, B.Arch Thesis/ Syracuse SoA Thesis Advisor: Daniele Profeta/ A/P Practice Thesis Committee: Mitesh Dixit, Jonathan Louie
Remi/ Reide McClain
reidemcclain@gmail.com
203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
— 2019 Portfolio
(1) (6)
1. Diorama - DMV
2. Projection Models - Modules
A.
A. Edge Module - Compressed Felt
(6C) (6D) (4A)
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7 (1) (6)
B. Passage Module - Polyethylene Bubble Sheeting
B.
(6E)
(1) (6)
C.
Remi/ Reide McClain
C. Saturation Module - Plastic Wrap
reidemcclain@gmail.com
203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
— 2019 Portfolio
0— physical museum
queue
initiation
ticketing
A—
B—
physical storage
digital storage
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B—
physical storage
digital storage
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continued engagement
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Arrive with a fully charged phone battery - Kusama’s latest exhibition, “Festival of Life,” includes two brand new Infinity Mirrored Rooms. HANNAH ONGLEY / 3 days ago
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step inside yayoi kusama’s mind-bending selfie wonderland
Meet the fresh-faced standouts from the New Museum’s intergenerational show “Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon.” COCO ROMACK / 10.26.17
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NEWS
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5 boundary-breaking young artists exploring gender beyond the binary
a museum now attention as currency: level and intensity
Press for more
Arrive with a fully charged phone battery - Kusama’s latest exhibition, “Festival of Life,” includes two brand new Infinity Mirrored Rooms. HANNAH ONGLEY / 3 days ago
now
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24
step inside yayoi kusama’s mind-bending selfie wonderland
Meet the fresh-faced standouts from the New Museum’s intergenerational show “Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon.”
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art_luvr started a live video. Watch it before it ends!
“Talk about taking a long time,” she says.
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the new buffalo zine takes you to the world’s biggest ikea
judy chicago, our most important feminist artist, is finally getting a seat at the table
Liked by art_luvr, _art$sy and 159 others
flavfan05 sundays are for the #museum #flavin
art_luvr
I neeeeed to go!
The cult London magazine’s sixth issue is dedicated to the beauty of the home and the world of interiors. And
Liked by flavfan05, _art$sy and 159 others
Liked by flavfan05, _art$sy and 121 others
art_luvr
art_luvr
amazing art day #danflavin #neon #art
c0llect_0r You look great!
“Talk about taking a long time,” she says.
flavfan05 so glad you got to go !!
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Purpose of Visit: Drivers’ license renewal
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Form #: 13b Estimated Wait: 74 mins.
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process can end, or keep going indefinitely
F584 Petunia Mulaney
DOB: 9/4/94
Purpose of Visit: Drivers’ license renewal Form #: 13b Estimated Wait: 74 mins.
process can end, or keep going indefinitely
the image bank
attention as currency: level and intensity
attention as currency: level and intensity
Remi/ Reide McClain
reidemcclain@gmail.com
203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
— 2019 Portfolio
(1) Contemporary Image Culture This thesis began with a critical investigation of contemporary image culture, and its implications on how we consume art today. In the case of art, often the image of the art piece is more consumed than the art piece itself. Image culture has drastically increased our access to art. Image culture is a ubiquitous network that accelerates the publication and consumption of images on endless platforms. Its contributors are scaled from massive institutions down to the individual. So, how does this condition of access and image acceleration affect the way we consume art in the museum today? Once we consider its effect, how might we design for contemporary image culture? (2) Art Network While the museum is the platform most of us know best when considering art, there is actually an entire network that both supports and is impacted by image culture. Rather than redesigning the museum as we know it, I chose to dissect the institution of art in order to design a new kind of art experience that manages the impact that image culture has on our attention. The art institution is organized into 3 primary branches: the physical public space of museum, the physical private space of storage, and the digital not so private, not so public space of the archive.
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(3) Art Network: The Museum (3A) To understand the impact of image culture on the museum, I’ll begin with an analysis of it idealized, perhaps in the past, but definitely not possible for the present and then compare that to how we experience the museum today. The museum, as we predominantly know it, is naïvely designed for an idealized means of art consumption. In this condition, our attention is singularly focused on the art object in play. This idealization is characterized by Clement Greenberg has having a “slow pace and focus of intellection,” where people move through the space uninterrupted, producing moments of isolated intimacy with less distraction between object and viewer. Now, with a fragmented attention and a growing audience of art consumers, the museum has shifted towards an experience of intensity or immediacy. There is a weak distinction between gallery and circulation, and commercial elements are often scattered within the sacred space of gallery. People are able to publish their very own images, in a way becoming the objects themselves, participating in a network that continuously feeds back to the museum. (3B) Instead of purposing an impossible return to the ideal, I’m interested in seeing how we can design an environment that supports a type of art consumption that lives amongst the impact of image culture. An everyday relative to the white box of the museum, the DMV actually has some very key qualities for supporting a new kind of art consumption. While the art museum is often cited as a democratic civic space, it is still tailored towards a certain demographic. The Image Bank is interested in the dissemination of art objects into a true public realm – one that is class-less and pervasive. The Department of Motor Vehicles is one of the only remaining truly democratic places in the United States. The DMV has a consistent set of elements that produce almost identical interior conditions across all DMVs. The Image Bank displaces
the museum as an alternate experience in the DMV, analyzing potential in both physical storage and the digital archive by utilizing material and movement from physical storage and access from the digital archive. (4) Art Network: Physical Storage The implication of storage as environment is crucial for the design of the Image Bank, considering it is one of the biggest issues facing Museums today. Just as the audience is growing, so is the content. Since deaccessioning is so taboo amongst institutions, museums have turned towards vast storage facilities instead. These facilities are almost synonymous with graveyards for art objects, although some pieces can continue to network through a rental program of sorts. Storage materials are recognizable and varied, they range in opacities, thickness, reflectivity, and so on. (4A) It was discovered that the reading of images can tremendously vary depending on the storage material they project on to. Some materials absorb, some muffle and some distort. What is most intriguing about the use of projected image on storage materials is the difficulty that cameras have capturing these images. The projector and camera clash, producing striated bands of color. This is yet another layer of image distortion, and will play into the way people are able to further publish images of the effects. (4B) Art objects are stacked and stored through crating, these art objects are supported by the crates through internal support framing internally. The art object remains fully anonymous from the outside, while its interior adjust accordingly. (5) Art Network: Digital Archives The internalization of art networks into the fortified walls of art storage facilities is anti-art. In an effort to “increase access” to these collections, many museums have initiated programs to digitally archive their collections. The MoMA’s collection has reached over 200,000 pieces, and more than 76,500 of those pieces are archived on their site. They even include an “on view” indicator, which is currently at 772 pieces. Yet, while I was touring MoMA’s main storage facility earlier this semester, I was told that essentially, as soon as they finish digitally archiving a piece it becomes outdated, due to advancing technology and preservation imagery techniques. So the obsessive process of archiving, justified by “access” is in question. 99% of the MoMA’s digital archive is in storage, and 99.4% of their total collection is in storage. This is not just unique to the MoMA, but museums around the world. Those art pieces can now only be experienced via a digital medium of online archive. (6) The Image Bank The art archive now finds its place to be exposed, experienced and exhibited in the setting of the DMV. The Image Bank will randomly generate one piece of art per patron, from all of the art museum digital archives that are currently available online. Simultaneously, a seemingly endless flood of digital media content linked to the archived art piece will overwhelm the viewer’s vision. A few years ago, the fate of the museum was heavily discussed amongst designers, thinkers and makers. A Museum Director in Madrid, Manuel Borja-Villel,
described his vision of a universal archive, which includes more than just the quantitative data and capital in relation to well as the norms underlying such opinions,” through this type of archive, we can “offer our version of the story and others can also explain their perception of themselves and of us.” (6A) The DMV has started integrating self-service machines that resemble ATMs. These are typically shoved into the corners of the space, or they’re located elsewhere, like at the post-office. The more prevalent system is either a series of check-in screens, or a queue line for reception. Either way, the circulation is designated through these systems. The Image Bank accelerates this notion of self-service and integrates a tunnel of doppelgänger self-service machines along the entrance queue. These “self-service” machines utilize the various Museum digital archives to randomly generate one piece of art per patron. The “self-service” machine then prints a thermally printed paper receipt (the typical format for this type of machine) with the patron’s queue number, the digital archive art image and provided information. After navigating through the tunnel of “self-service machines, the patron can use their receipt as a reference to navigate through the waiting zone – where images of their art piece and associated media posts will be projected onto the modules from edge to internal saturation. (6B) The notoriously dreadful DMV waiting zone becomes the center of art consumption for the Image Bank. A low-resolution fixed aluminum framework is suspended by cables from the existing double drop ceiling, leaving a gap between intervention and existing, to establish the double drop ceiling as its own field. Each bench has its own module that projects the art images. The modules are organized into three categories: edge, passage and saturation. Each module type has 1 or 2 different base profiles, and different materials taken from art storage. A sequence is established from edge to interior saturation, in which the projected images becoming increasingly overwhelming and immersive. (6C) The Edge Modules utilize thicker, insulating material like compressed felt moving blankets and cotton batting. Their profiles are rectilinear, producing a straight flat surface from the low-resolution double ceiling to the floor. The Edge modules collectively form a strong border to the waiting zone, producing a wall-like condition. (6D) The Passage Modules utilize materials that are neither opaque nor transparent, with slight distorting qualities that muffle the images, like polyethylene bubble sheeting and tyvec plastic. Their profiles are either long sweeping curves or taken from the edge module type, depending on their location. The curved profile begins to direct you inwards towards the saturation modules. (6E) The Saturation Modules utilize materials that are the most transparent, reflective, glossy and distorting, like ultraviolet-filtering sleeves and plastic wrap. Their base profiles are small, tight curves which bunch and fold the material as they mediate the space between the ceiling panel and base profile. This effectively distorts the material further, and therefore the reading of their projected images. So while the images are increasingly distorted, the smaller size of the base profile also opens up the space towards the center, this enables the projections to go beyond the framework of the individual module, bouncing off of adjacent modules and the floor and ceiling that surrounds them.
(6F) Some DMVs have a series of mobile tables, which are used for filling out paperwork and forms. These mobile tables will be imbedded into a field of empty crates, which are rotated, flipped on their side, or stacked. Their orientation frames window-like views into the waiting zone, so as patrons fill out their paperwork they can begin to experience the atmosphere of images. They also frame views from the exterior, inside – giving glimpses to those outside of the DMV. Like pixels, these crates break apart from their cluster and step outside the interior walls of the DMV, extending past the exit and into the public. (6G) Typically, the DMV has a system of LED display queue screens. Each counter has its own screen, and there are a few larger LED screens scattered around that show the wait order. The Image Bank integrates another version of these LED queue screens. When it’s the patron’s turn, their queue number and art piece is displayed at their respective counter. Where a series of infinity illusion mirrors are mounted above and behind the counter. This illusion is enabled through mounting the typical LED lights between a mirror in the back and a partial mirror in the front. Just as the receipt and the modules display the art piece in a particular way, the infinity illusion LED screens disintegrate the image uniquely, adding another way of consuming that art piece and therefore another image of it to the network. When they’re done with their services, each patron’s art piece is removed from the Image Bank forever. (6E) Most people will crumple their receipts and leave them on the floor or in the wastebasket – maybe even in their car cup holder. But some might take their receipt with them, as a token of their time spent with the Image Bank. Over time the receipt will fade, as all thermally printed receipts do, and the image of the art object will eventually disappear all together – a kind of deaccessioning. Conclusions (Why does this matter? What is at Stake? What are you asking of Architecture?) The art museum is just one instance of the impact of image culture on the built environment. As I consider the design of museums to be naïve for striving towards an archaic idealization of art consumption, I don’t think we will ever return to predominantly consuming art in an intimately isolated way between viewer and object. However, architecture has the power to play into the affectional regimes that curate our experiences. We can encourage people to stop and consider their environment more critically, offering interruptions for monotonous flows of behavior. When we design, we should consider networked image culture in the same way we consider programming, transportation, systems, ecology, etc. We exist so fully in the network, we should be designing for it.
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How can we start to look at the whole system instead of just one fractional instance of display (the museum)? How can architecture impact multiple aspects of art consumption, across mediums/platforms/formats to impact and focus our attention? How can architecture participate in the design of these varied means of experience and consumption with attention in mind?
Bibliography 1. Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulations (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988). 2. Borja-Villel, Manuel. “The Museum Revisited,” Artforum Summer, 2010. 3. Bradley, Kimberly. “Why museums hide masterpieces way,” Culture BB News, January 2015. 4. Brater, Enoch. “Beckett’s Shades of the Color Gray,” Samuel Beckett Today, Volume 21: Where Never Before: Beckett’s Poetics of Elsewhere, (Brill, 2009). 5. Calinescu, Matei. Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism, (Durham: Duke University Press, 1987) 221-262. 6. Citton, Yves. “Introduction,” The Ecology of Attention (Wiley, 2017). 7. De Botton, Alain. The Architecture of Happiness (New York: Vintage Books, Random House, Inc. 2008). 8. Di Carlo, Tina. Exhibitionism (Sternberg Press, 2010). 9. Eco, Umberto. Travels in Hyperreality (Gruppo Editoriale, 1983).
Remi/ Reide McClain
10. Greenberg, Clement. “Avant-Garde and Kitsch,” Partisan Review (1939). 11. Griffin, Tim. “The Museum Revisited,” Artforum Summer, 2010. 12. Groskopf, Christopher.“Museums are keeping a ton of the world’s most famous art locked away in storage,” The Fine Art Warehouse, Quartz, January 2016. 13. Henry, Mira. Boghosian Fellow Symposium: Ishness & Counter Absolutes, Syracuse University, Syracuse, February 2017. 14. Ho Hing-Kay, Oscar. “The Museum Revisited,” Artforum Summer, 2010. 15. Joselit, David. “The Self Readymade,” Infinite Regress, 158-193. 16. Joselit, David. After Art, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013). 17. Kraus, Chris. Where Art Belongs (South Pasadena: Semiotext(e), 2011). 18. Lavin, Sylvia. “Andy Architect, or, a funny thing that happened on the way to the disco,” Flash in the Pan, (London: Architectural Association, 2010) 95-110.
reidemcclain@gmail.com
19. Lavin, Sylvia. “Architecture in Extremis,” Log, No. 22, The Absurd Spring/Summer 2011, 51-61. 20. Lavin, Sylvia. “The Temporary Contemporary,” Perspecta Volume 34 (The MIT Press, 2003) 128-135. 21. Lavin, Sylvia. Form Follows Libido (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004). 22. Lavin, Sylvia. “The First Kiss,” Kissing Architecture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011) 1-21. 23. Lico, Gerard Rey A. “Architecture & Sexuality: The Politics of Gendered Space.” 24. Linder, Mark. “Images and Other Stuff,” Journal of Architectural Education, Volume 66:1, 2012. 25. Lynn, Greg. Folds, Bodies & Blobs (Bruxelles: La Lettre Volée, 1998). 26. Mouffe, Chantal. “The Museum Revisited,” Artforum Summer, 2010. 27. Nelson, George. “Introduction,” Display [Interiors Library Series Vol Three] (New York: Whitney, 1953). 28. Pedrosa, Adriano. “The Museum Revisited,” Artforum Summer, 2010. 29. Philbin, Ann. “The Museum Revisited,” Artforum Summer, 2010. 30. Roeder, Oliver. “A Nerd’s Guide to the 2,229 Paintings at the MoMA,” FiveThirtyEight, August 2015.
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instagram: @brbconsuming
31. Shelley, Marjorie. “The Care and Handling of Art Objects,” Practices in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987). 32. Smithson, Alison and Peter. “Introduction,” Without Rhetoric (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1974). 33. Smithson, Alison and Peter.“Today We Collect Ads,” L’Architecture d’Aujourd’Hui, January-February, 2003. 34. Steyerl, Hito. “A Tank on a Pedestal,” Duty Free Art: Art in the age of Planetary Civil War (London: Verso, 2017) 1-8. 35. Steyerl, Hito. “Media: Autonomy of Images,” Duty Free Art: Art in the age of Planetary Civil War (London: Verso, 2017) 63-74. 36. Steyerl, Hito. “Duty Free Art,” Duty Free Art: Art in the age of Planetary Civil War (London: Verso, 2017) 75-100. 37. Steyerl, Hito. “If You Don’t Have a Beard: Eat Art! Contemporary Art and Derivative Facisms,” Duty Free Art: Art in the age of Planetary Civil War (London: Verso, 2017) 181-190. 38. Temkin, Ann. “The Museum Revisited,” Artforum Summer, 2010. 39. Vierkant, Artie. “Preface: Being Post-Internet,” The Image Object Post-Internet, 2010.
— 2019 Portfolio
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Remi/ Reide McClain
reidemcclain@gmail.com
203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 2019 Portfolio
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beta-real The Eerie Canal’s ghost, which is also a very present physical twin, Erie Blvd, is a transportation artery for 1-81, more appropriately the contemporary version of the Eerie Canal for Syracuse, where vehicles replace the boats, but direction and motion are still in play. I-81 disconnects two prevalent black neighborhoods in Syracuse, enacted as a response to the potential rise in political power of this black community. We’re interested in exploring the areas that exist between connection and disconnection, exploring the wandering between two oppositions and the implications of that duality on the sensibility of our tiles. Rob Goyanes argues that wandering is a “strategy, a necessary fixture of peace: it teaches humility, the sharing of space, the circulation of concepts and experiences.” In some instances, when opposing grains of vertical deliniations and horizontal sequencing intersect, they cause volatile disruptions to the normative understanding of directionality. In other instances, the disruptions soften, blurring into each other. In all cases, the yellow can only be understood by its connection amongst the other colors, Ponty describes a similar condition, “the red is what it is only by connecting up from its place with other reds about it, with which it forms a constellation, or with other colors it dominates or that dominate it, that it attracts or that attract it, that it repels or that repel it” (Ponty 132). The uncanny yellow begins to disseminate through the tiles, until the sequencing is barren of yellow all together.
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1. Goyanes, Rob. A Palace of Unsaids. 2. Ponty, Marleau. “The Intertwining - The Chiasm,” The Visible and the Invisible, 130-155. Students: Chelsey Albert, Noah Anderson, Dante Baldassin, Sarah Beaudoin, Olivia Binette, Evelyn Brooks, Deena Darby, Elena Echarri Myers, Amelia Gan, Rutuja Ganoo, Raymond Guo, Seokhyung Hong, Joshua Kayden, Thomas Kim, Pattaraporn Kittisapkajon, Madeline Laberge, Amanda Liberty, Michael Lin, Natasha Liston-Beck, Sabrina Logrono, Reide McClain, Hannah Michaelson, Birani Nyanat, Virgina Paulk, Khairi Reynolds, Christine Robillard, Emma Stoll, Sarah Tsang, Ronghui Wu, and Minghuan Xie.
Collaboration with Dante Baldassin Spring 2018, Boghosian Fellowship/ Syracuse SoA Prof. Linda Zhang/ Pararaum
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instagram: @brbconsuming
— 2019 Portfolio
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As an introduction to the slip-casting medium and betareal thinking, the seminar began with an assignment on the monumental death of Michael Brown. Literally monumental - as a series of monuments were born, destroyed and reborn one by one. Across the middle of our tile, in a horiztonal sequence, we track the stages of the present-day memorial of new asphalt. Each instance in the sequence heightens and complicates the topography, acting as disrupting moments to the grain. In the beginning of our process, we interrupt with yellow, bringing an uncanny presence to each of these nodes in the story line. Unsettling in its alienated and eerie existence, the yellow sits among colors that are closer to each other, their difference sometimes barely noticeable.
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are we there, there?! At the grasp of consumerism, New Glarus obediently responds to an absurdly coherent set of codes – codes which encourage the built environment to assimilate into the realm of a commercially driven there, or there, there. The success of New Glarus depends on the perceivability and impact of thematized codes. According to Mark Gottdiener, “the more obscure the sign system and the more foreign the experience, the less able we are to use the space in the manner we desire.”1 In support of this, New Glarus’ approach to codes only allows for certain visual representation and does not allow the built to deviate from stereotypical forms found in a highly curated selection of images based on an American perception of Switzerland. Umberto Eco describes this condition, particularly in America, “the American imagination demands the real thing, and to attain it, must fabricate the absolute fake.”2 Following suit, strange conditions occur when the rebellious bones of non-conforming buildings are forced to thematize through the peculiar attachment of Swiss elements. In an environment where the public “is meant to admire the perfection of the fake and its obedience to the program,”3 all buildings must oblige by these meticulously curated codes. If a Swiss architectural theme can enable commercial success, than the desirable codes for said theme are those that become physical manifestations of popularly understood, generalized images of Swiss vernacular. The implementation of these codes produce the there even though we are not actually there, but rather here. The there, there is realized.
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1 Mark Gottdiener, “Experiencing Themed Environments,” 133. 2 Umberto Eco, “Travels in Hyper Reality,” 8. 3 Ibid, 44. Students (Seminar & Exhibition Models):
Vivian Cheng, Jose Coba, Turku Colak, Dylan Crean, Deena Darby, Andrea Dominguez, Andrea Herrada, Amber Hou, Jerry Yan, Michael Lin, Weiqiao Lin, Remi McClain (14), Alaina Marra, Bram Monson, Ian Mulich, Kyle Neumann, Birani Nyanat, Toluwalope Onabanjo, Tanvi Rao, Silvio Renz, Ethan Russel-Benoit, Irving Shen, Heather Skinner, Hanneke Van Deursen, Kamila Varela, Helna Zhen, Ziyan Zhou
Swissness Applied Exhibition: Spring 2019 - Ongoing Jonathan Louie, Nicole McIntosh/ Architecture Office
Remi/ Reide McClain
reidemcclain@gmail.com
203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
— 2019 Portfolio
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reidemcclain@gmail.com
203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
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house in los angeles 4 House in Los Angeles 4 is a collection of three buildings for an extended family of photographers in Mt. Washington. Rather than cutting into the steep hillside, like most of its neighbors, House in Los Angeles 4 falls with the hillside. The project continues the LADG series that studies the architecture that houses a Southern-California lifestyle. The physics of a box falling gracefully down the hillside enables beautiful moments of interior and exterior ambiguity. The unfolding box offers shade and directs views. The first building, a single-family dwelling, has been arrested by the previously graded portion of the site. Heavy masonry boxes begin to sink into the earth, while the box that once held them props against them and the retaining wall – producing a familiar composition to an alpine typology. The second building, an accessory-dwelling unit (ADU), stacks dubiously on the steepest portion of the site. Its masonry boxes separated by a delicate object-like furniture rooms. At the base of the site, the artist studio sits – a rogue masonry box barely peeking above grade.
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The project consists of a single-family dwelling, an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) and an artists’ studio. The 4,000 sf three-part complex is positioned on three lots, which create an oversized tied flag lot parallel to the hillside slope. In its previous life, the property housed an 800 sf one-bedroom cottage that straddled all three lots. This project is subject to a lengthy and involved permit process, the Mt. Washington-Glassell Park SpecifRole: Project Lead, as Project Designer Full Team Credits: See Hong Quek, Kenji Hattori Forth, Esra Durukan (Preliminary Site Massing), Morgan Starkey (ADU SD Massing), Julian Daly, Son Vu (Physical Model), Xavier Ramirez (Drawing Representation, some modifications made since) January - August 2019. Los Angeles - Design Development Claus Benjamin Freyinger, Andrew Holder/ The LADG
Remi/ Reide McClain
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instagram: @brbconsuming
— 2019 Portfolio
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MAIN HOUSE L2
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Remi/ Reide McClain
ADU L2
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â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 2019 Portfolio
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MAIN HOUSE INTERIOR MODEL PHOTOGRAPHS SECOND FLOOR - LIV ING/DINING PANORAMA
MAIN HOUSE INTERIOR MODEL PHOTOGRAPHS SECOND FLOOR - LOOKING TOWARDS KITCHEN
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house in los angeles 5 House in Los Angeles 5 is the most recent house in the LADG series that negotiates Southern California lifestyle and the architecture that houses it. This project begins with a clustering of pavilions, or totems, that sit rigorously within a cruciform path that defines the entire site. Each pavilion is composed of a room and a roof. From the front, the house of discreet pavilions appears composed, with two totems neatly enclosing the private bedroom suites. An unfamiliar roof system, resembling a box of sorts, sits inconspicuously at the highest pitch. As one navigates the cruciform path towards the rear of the property, the back pavilions begin to fall apart - their components unraveling to loosely bracket the more public living spaces. The roof wedge projects playfully over the pool. The once unassuming roof box splays outwards, propped precariously by the bracketing walls and utilitarian service boxes, to offer shade and shelter for outdoor living.
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House in Los Angeles 5 will house a young couple with professional ties to the arts and architecture, along with their small white dog, Melrose. The house sits within the rising-affluence of the centrally located, renovation-crazed neighborhood of Larchmont Heights. With less land than their Hollywood Hills companions, these homes typify the ever-present desire to cash in on LA outdoor living, despite the constraints of a more densely developed neighborhood. House in Los Angeles 5 is a 2,039 sf renovation/addition three-bedroom, 2.5 bath Single-Family Residence accompanied by a 578 sf one-bedroom, 1 bath Back House. Role: Project Lead, as Project Designer Full Team Credits: Jonathan Rieke (Pre-Design), Kenji Hattori-Forth, Son Vu (Physical Model) Site Photos by Injinash Unshin, 2019 July 2019 - Present. Los Angeles - Construction Documents Claus Benjamin Freyinger, Andrew Holder/ The LADG
Remi/ Reide McClain
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203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 2019 Portfolio
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reidemcclain@gmail.com
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instagram: @brbconsuming
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reidemcclain@gmail.com
203-448-9345
instagram: @brbconsuming
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