"Duplitecture" Reflection on Process by Sarah Pulvirenti

SARAH PULVIRENTI

PROJECT NO. 04

FALL 2018

REFLECTION ON PRACTICE*

Unseen/ Seen

CAPSTONE IN DESIGN FORM + FUNCTION

SARAH PULVIRENTI

FALL 2018

CAPSTONE IN DESIGN FORM + FUNCTION

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Introduction Assignment + Objectives

Pictured: 99% invisible podcast identity and “Duplitecture” episode screenshot

INTRODUCTION

You will select an audio podcast episode from one of five provided options. Then, you will design a book (or some kind of multi-page printed piece) from selected portions of the podcast. Your first step will be to listen to the podcast several times, paying careful attention to dramatic moments, pacing and supporting dialogue. Ultimately, you will pare down the script tot tell your abridge version of the story. Your objectives for this piece are the following:

_ Investigate the relationship between different elements of communication _ Create a shortened story from a full length script that is cohesive and compelling _ Use explicit and implicit methods to inform visual hierarchy _ Experiment with type, layout and image _ Carefully consider how production qualities and layout references can function as metaphorical or otherwise interpretive tools

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Research What did you turn to for reference, inspiration, and understanding for your project? How did it influenceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;directly or indirectlyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;what you made?

Pictured: various samples of Chinese visual design which served as initial inspiration for book design treatment

01_RESEARCH

The episode I transcribed touched on many interesting points that eventually acted as main key words for my design approach. The narrators tell the story in a very unified manner, documenting a unique phenomenon with spoken words. Words like imitation, identical, manufactured, presevation, pride and warped mimicries were just a few of my initial associations. As for reference, I researched a great deal of Chinese graphic (and other visual) design examples. This was mainly in the attempt to have my book assume a more relevant voice and presence in the context it was to ultimately participate in. I took note of the more noteworthy commonalities in contemporary Chinese work, such as justified manipulation of negative space, confident scale shifts, strong grid presence, verticality and hyper-intentional pops of color. Chinese graphic and editorial designers like Guang Yu andLie Xiaoxiang also served as points of reference.

The architecture discussed in my podcast episode, however, proved to be the most influential in terms of visual research. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re absurd level of precision and mimicry is so incredibly interesting, so I had the immediate impulse to highlight this in my book.

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Pictured: transcript of podcast episode, featuring written edits and points of interest

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Pictured: selection of reference images pertaining to Chinese “duplitecture”

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Discovery What was your process for generating possible ideas for the project like? How wide and deep did you explore before coming to a final idea? Did your discovery process generate outcomes that were successful? Why or why not? How did you measure success?

Pictured: preliminary notes and concept thumbnails

02_DISCOVERY

Imagery treatment and how to navigate it consumed much of my discovery process. Because I was relatively quick to decide type treatment, this allotted a respectable amount of time to decide which manipulation approach was the most pertinent concept-wise. I wanted to focus on dichotomy and mirroring, but in the least-cliche way I could think of. Progression across spreads, collage, and a handful of other approaches were tested (and most were thrown out), making this process especially frustrating. My final approach to image manipulation actually did not even come to fruition until the very last few days of the assignmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s timeline.

Retrospectively, I believe this level of experiementation was valuable even if in the moment it felt cumbersome and inefficient. I came to so deeply understand the concept I was desperately grasping for, which allowed me to develop a relationship with my book and its narrative that was really unique. I felt like I weirdly â&#x20AC;&#x153;owedâ&#x20AC;? something to the story and, in the final refinement stage, this relationship felt like it paid off.

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Pictured: drafts for book layout and pacing

02_DISCOVERY

Pictured:

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Pictured: image treatment experiments

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Pictured: digital type and layout studies

03_REFINEMENT

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Refinement How did you refine your work? How did you make decisions as you refined your idea? What criteria did you use to evaluate those decisions? Did you find your final refined idea to be the final iteration of your idea?

This is 99% Invisible. I’m Roman Mars.

The best knockoffs in the world are in China. Sure designer handbags and Rollexs, but also really large-scale immitations like fake Apple stores that are so dead-on that employees of the store think they’re working in a real Apple Store. But beyond just working in knockoffs, many residents of Chinese suburbs live their lives in replica cities. Venices with complete canals and replicas of the Doge’s Palace. Parises with Eiffel Towers and Arc de Triomphes. Chrysler Buildings, Sydney Opera Houses.

Bianca Bosker is the author of the book, Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China,” and she coined a term for these buildings—“duplitecture.”

duplitecture

Driving through the suburbs of any city in China, you find a plethora of fake Versailles, British developments, and Californias bumping up side-by-side. Just Shanghai itself has ten cities all built in the architectural style of different European countries, so it’s possible to travel from Germany to Italy to London in the course of just a couple of hours... provided there’s not too much traffic.

31.1155° N, 121.3834° E

38.8899° N, 77.0091° W

31.2215° N, 121.5444° E

52.1326° N, 5.2913° E

31.2990° N, 120.5853° E

51.5055° N, 0.0754° W

Pictured: experimentation with captioning layout and content

03_REFINEMENT

The refinement process consisted of editing vital details in order to take confident and professional control over the book’s concept. Mirroring page numbers, controlling image scale shits, deliberately limiting pull quotes and repetition, etc. were refinements that made a significant difference to the audience’s reading experience. I spent much more time and effort into focusing on the precision of the book’s smaller elements than in projects’ past. Not only was this because my understanding and respect for these details have expanded since the beginning of the semester, but because I believed the concept really relied on it. The piece was intended to be simple but clean (in its nod to Chinese visual design cues), and thus this level of attention was incredibly valuable.

Due to this obsessive editing, my final iteration does not even feel like a final iteration in its current state. Hyphens could always be addressed, rags could always be tapered and caption phrasing and negative space could always be refined—but the book as it stands conveys my intentions as much as I could in the allotted timeframe.

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Pictured: image treatment and transition-based studies

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Pictured: misprint and “carbon-copy” visual experiments; original color scheme

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Criticism What criticism did you receive from your peers and faculty about your project? Did you agree or disagree with it? What did you learn from criticism?

Modern China and its Fascination with Architectual Mimicry

DUPLI TECTURE

Pictured: cover of final publication

04_CRITICISM

My peers and faculty responded relatively well to the final piece. One of my biggest worries regarding the book was how I chose to handle the imagery in such a nuanced, less-than-didactic manner. I felt that the nod to misprinting and carbon copies was incoherent and too hastily decided. When studying it, however, reviewers seemed to really respect this approach in that they argued it appropriately coexisted with the preexisting photography. Collage was something I had experimented in different ways and my peers, who had seen these past iterations, voiced their appreciation for the ultimate direction. In terms of elements in need of greater attention, my craft was definitely a point of discussion. The binding and trimming of the final book are not as professional as they could have been, unfortunately making them distracting. Craft has always been a difficult thing for me to effectively hone in on, but situations like these when it negatively impacts a highly-considered piece really bring this downfall to the surface. I plan to rebind this piece in the future in order to both practice the binding and improve my overall product. Additionally, it was noted that my pacing throughout the book was thoughtful and consequently a positive asset to the overall piece. The main points in which pacing was somewhat compromised was in the final spreads—especially in the last one. I also plan to address this in the future and reconsider how necessary it is in terms of conveying narrative.

This criticism especially taught me about how important it is to remain true to a concept for the sake of the story, rather than editing just to edit. I had been consistently worried that I wasn’t doing “enough,” but hearing what my peers and faculty had to say when arguing against this really helped me understand the subjective validity of simplicity.

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99% Invisible, episode 125 Aired July 29, 2014

This is 99% Invisible. I’m Roman Mars.

DUPLI TECTURE

Featuring co-narration by:

a b c

Minhang District People’s Court Shanghai, China Holland Town Shanghai, China London Tower Bridge Suzhou, China

Roman Mars Bianca Bosker

These buildings are not just novelties like the Pyramid or the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas.

Even though these tended to be copies, it’s pretty much impossible to just plop a building onto a completely new environment without modifying it a little, or a lot. Often times the dupitecture is larger or smaller than the real thing, or different elements or features might be bloated bigger than others. Sometimes duplitecture gets so twisted and worked until it’s a freakish caricature of the original.

The biggest private property developer in China told me that two-thirds of their residential developments are being built in a European style. Nor are they like American China Towns or German Towns estblished by immigrants. These are Chinese communities, in American or European style buildings, which are often designed by Chinese architects. When visiting China’s copy of Paris on the outskirts of Hangzhou, I found a place that in some ways was really emblematic of Paris— you had the Eiffel Tower, you had to Sean’s Alizee square, but there was no new architecture.

One of the interesting twists on this architectural movement has been the creation of mega high-rises that are built in a Baroque or Neoclassical style. Picture Versailles stretched 20 floors into the air, and you’ll have some idea of what’s going on.

To further create the impression of Paris, there might be a French bakery, or a Bastille Day celebration. There might be a pub in an Irish town, or a real canal network in a knockoff Venice. As odd and uncanny as these buildings can be, duplitecture is These impressive. buildings are not just novelties like pretty These buildings go up the Pyramid or the Eiffel Tower Lasthey Vequickly, and on a massive scale,inand gas. no signs of stopping. Bosker saw new show developments popping up around China all the time, but duplitecture isn’t exactly a new trend.

Developers can take a lot of liberties with duplitecture construction, like making the replicas work in accordance with Feng shui. But, nevertheless, a lot of these duplitecture compounds have rules that actively discourage any type of modification that they think might subvert the simulacrum. They have very very strict rules in place to ensure that Chinese or foreign elements don’t crop in and spoil the impression of a Paris. And these rules have been set up to conserve the European feel of this development. For example:

They have a lot of practice doing this. In pre-modern China, you had Chinese imperial rulers using copycat buildings as a way of showing off their power and establishing their authority. In the third century BC, one of the rulers showed off his conquest of his rival kingdom by recreating their buildings within his own capital city.

Meaning the Chinese weren’t interested in duplicating the newer buildings of Paris— just the old,classic-looking ones that are iconic of the city.

You also had imperial hunting parks, where rulers would import flora and fauna of all kinds to recreate known landscapes within their own domain.

Hallstatt village Guangdong, China Sydney Harbor Bridge Suzhou, China

“No hanging laundry outside!” “No changing the paint!” “No installing air conditioners!” “Don’t leave chickens in the backyard!”

a b

At the same time this is really the most brand new, sparkling Paris I’ve ever seen.

These imperial rulers would copy as a way of showing that they could literally move Heaven and Earth.

Pictured: spreads from final publication

04_CRITICISM

Duplitecture refers to this nationwide movement taking place in China where by people are copying entire cities and towns from the United States and Europe—life-size, or sometimes even bigger than life-size. These are not theme parks. Duplitecture developments are actually living, breathing communities where Chinese families are raising their children, living out their lives in a place that looks like Orange County or Paris, but are actually smack dab in the middle of the People’s Republic.

Bianca Bosker is the author of the book, Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China, and she coined a term for these buildings—“duplitecture.”

Eiffel Tower Tianducheng, China

It was theirs. a

Sydney Opera House Sydney, Australia Sydney Opera House Funing, China

They now possessed this foreign building or place;

a b

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a b

Hallstättersee Salzkammergut, Austria Hallstättersee village Luoyang, China

In keeping with the tradition, one of the most copied buildings in China is the very seed of Western power itself. The White House is generally credited as being the most copied building in China, and it’s used for everything from hotels to restaurants to court houses to homes. Just like the White House has a China collection, China has a White House collection. The different Chinese whitehouse’s serve different purposes, so they’ve morphed into various permutations, but they all have those signature columns and square portico built in the true blue unique style, holy original to the US of A.

It was theirs.

The White House Washington D.C., USA

Stonehenge Wiltshire, England Stonehenge Hefei, China

a a b

Eiffel Tower Paris, France Eiffel Tower Tianducheng, China

a b

04_CRITICISM

It was theirs.

24 b

I hate to break it to everyone, but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not an original building.

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The architect who constructed the White House based design on this huge building in Dublin, Ireland that is now the seat of the country’s Parliament.

Some of the greatest hits of American architecture are copies of the greatest hits of ancient Roman architecture, which are now all being copied by the Chinese.

So...

The Leinster House in Dublin, which turn has elements of classical Greek and Roman architecture, and it pretty much looks like the White House. Even though it’s kind of grey. It’s the grey house. The Founding Father’s were really into duplitecture as well. They were their own form of architectural plagerists. And this is so obvious if you’ve ever seen the buildings that Thomas Jefferson designed—they’re also covered in columns. He based the Virginia state capitol on this ancient Roman temple, and that design in turn has gone on to influence the design of many many state capitals around the country.

So, to Americans, when they construct McMansions or buildings that draw from European elements, they’re just being “inspired.” But, when the Chinese do so, they’re ripping off. They’re copying. They’re conartists. And, I think that’s unfair. You know? We should all recognize what we’re all doing is copying some pretty old buildings because we still find them attractive, and we still think that they have symbolic significance in our everyday lives. And hey, maybe we can even make them a bit better while we’re at it. A lot of the continuation of this trend is due to the Chinese housing market – the boom of private homeownership, as well as developers’ complicated, sometimes corrupt relationship with the state, have brought this international inspiration into the living rooms of contemporary Chinese consumers to reveal their choices, tastes and dreams. Contemporary Chinese culture, class distinctions, urban space, and government power are being reconfigured in this “New China.” Thus, it’s easy to scoff at knockoff Venice, but these warped mimicries are the start of something new. I say this all the time—

stealing + lack of talent =

U.S. Capitol Hill and Chinese Temple of Heaven hybrid construction Shijiazhuang, China

The Leinster House Dublin, Ireland

creativity.

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we did it, too.

What I mean there is that in the effort to copy something, your skills or lack of skills or your different experience, it mutates the original so that very often you come up with something that’s completely new and completely yours. Copying is totally underrated, and mindful iteration is how good things become great things. China’s actually proven quite successful at turning copies into innovation. If you look at the Shangzhai movement in China, which is this name given for copies of the iPhone, sneakers, of social networks; what you find it that often times the copies actually improve on the original in a number of ways. Chinese iPhone knockoff, which I believe is called the XiPhone (but don’t quote me on that) actually had some features that you couldn’t find on Apple’s phone. You had a removable battery, you have multiple SIM cards—all these things that Apple users actually really wanted and coveted, and here you could find it in this knockoff phone. I’m personally fascinated to see how China takes its immitation and turns it into innovation.

“Location, location, location?” More like, “replication, replication, replication.”

a b

Washington Monument Washington D.C., USA Washington Monument Hangzhou, China

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Colophon

Credits

This book was This designed book was by designed Sarah Pulvirenti by Sarah Pulvirenti All of the images All ofused the images in this publication used in this publication in the Fall of in 2018 thefor FallForm of 2018 & Function for Format& Functionwere at provided were by the provided following by the sources: following sources: the Sam Fox the School Samof Fox Design School & Visual of Design Arts& Visual Arts at Washington at Washington University inUniversity St. Louis. in St. Louis.

The copy is typeset The copy in is both typeset Maison in both NeueMaison Neue The BusinessThe Insider Business Insider and Garnett.and Garnett. The GuardianThe Guardian Library of Congress Library of Congress National Public National RadioPublic Radio WIRED Magazine WIRED Magazine

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