DMNO Effect by SCI-Arc

DMNO Effect

Graduate Thesis 2022

David A Garcia

Graduate Thesis 2022 Provocations Positions Project

p.07

p.25

p.41

Thesis Statement The World: The story follows as an optimistic fictional reality in which a city utilized an online decision machine to repair and restore the world against climate disaster. In this reality, a populous city’s inhabitants makes these earthly decisions through an online netspace for discussions, proposals, and voting. Through these voting events, what takes place are fiery discussions from prominent figures to individual nobodies. The ideas and conversations are visualized as object clusters in the digital space and expand or explode as discussions evolve. The best idea materializes into an automated building process voted on by the people. Taking from the excess of the world, the people decide to recycle and remix their city focused on imaging this worldly transition. Where gas stations, oil refineries, and office buildings become skeletons to choose from and car doors, roads, and airplanes become tectonics to build with. As the city is built and clad with these familiar

Graduate Thesis 2022

outdated objects, the architecture around them becomes an ongoing narrative milestone of this optimistic change. Design Process: The process to design this speculative world in a concise short film requires a specific architectural method of storytelling. What will be operated, is an object-oriented design methodology that focuses on clear, concise, but aesthetically interesting, storytelling descriptions. The design approach can be summarized as “Digestible Manipulated Narrative Objects”, concerning aspects of aesthetics and storytelling pieces in conveying a narrative. This design approach will be the most valuable way to convey a digestible story through architecture and the narrative-objects that craft it.

Graduate Thesis 2022

Provocations

Week 01 (January 2022) I have been fascinated and provoked by the digital world of creators, video games, and other media; as well as concerned and interested into the contemporary issues of economics and climate change. These interests and speculations grew exponentially throughout the events of the COVID pandemic. I am concerning myself with the possibilities and speculations of the digital revolution. I am exploring the social, political, economical, and environmental outcomes of a future that embraces an encompassing digital economy. In order to convey this exploration, I envision a fictional narrative that exaggerates and speculates on these potentials. One of the major catalysts of this future involves the spaces and architectures of a digital future. This digital revolution engenders the necessity of advanced digital worlds and processes. In this need for virtual existences, the contemporary processes of blockchain, decentralized

governance systems, and virtual-spatial connectivity provide many provocations to architect a positive future. In popular culture of now, these technologies are reduced to trendy buzzwords for business opportunities. Things like “cryptocurrencies” "NFTs" and the “metaverse” are territories where actors with big capital become the dominant use-case that is advertised to the public, giving these technologies a banal and sort-of negative impression at face value. I am concerned with these negative impressions and want to approach them from different perspectives and show the benefits that can come from these contemporary systems and how they can explore the issues that we face on Earth. Over the summer, these concepts drove me to write about this speculative fiction and possibiltities of an architectural method that inhabits a story like this.

Graduate Thesis 2022

1. Planet City, Liam Young 2. "Everything" Game, David O'Reilly 3. Design Earth, Ghosn and Jazairy

10 1. Planet City, Liam Young 2. Cyberpunk 3. Solarpunk

Graduate Thesis 2022

Week 02 (June2021) Interests,,, (this term of many meanings building up currently as “Metaverse”, coined by Neal Stephenson. Can refer to Virtual Worlds, Digital social systems, Digital ownership systems, video games, simulations, worlds governed with blockchain, worlds owned by its players, some not, digital realities relayed into our physical. Can be through VR and AR, but it is not a requirement) (The popularization/terminology of “HalfEarth” was by E.O. Wilson, referring to a large scale movement to preserve earth's biodiversity by securing 50% of Earth for preservation and leaving the other 50% to humans) (Anthropocene, a term denoting to the geological epoch in which the Anthropos [humans/certain humans] have affected the earth in a prominent way) (DAO stands for decentralized autonomous organization: “Governance that operates through smart contracts. Its financial transactions and rules are encoded on a blockchain, effectively removing the need for a central governing authority”) (Update November2021) Mark Zuckerberg took ownership of the "Meta" from “metaverse” for their company. So, maybe another broad term is better… “cyberspace” “virtual reality” “hyperreality” “virtual world" “cyberverse” “netspace” “digital environment” “net sphere”? Just to protest the now-buzzword ‘metaverse’, soiled by Facebook’s “ownership” in my opinion.

I want to make a story, film, experience, or in simple - a video/videos. NOT a pin up board, some drawings, a PowerPoint of research and theory, a few renders, or a simple walk-thru video. It’s also not just a story that would be written simply in a book, comic, or artpiece; but I would try to utilize the motion-picture to see what visual architectures can narrate. I also wasn’t apposed to making a “video game” experience of this storytelling because I believe it is also a creative way to illustrate a narrative. However, I don’t want to stretch myself into trying to make a full simulated experience that would be as ambitious as it would be in my imagination. Technical ability would get in the way, and I do appreciate the organized composition of a short film. It is not solely an Architecture but also not solely a Story. It would want to be somewhere between proposal and provacation. I don’t want it to just be undermined to an “architectural thesis” that is only understood or seen by architects, but also not undermined to its story or script that people may focus on regardless of the architecture that builds it. A reference: Planet City by Liam Young.

Graduate Thesis 2022

The idea materialized as two writings. The story/lore/future, and a design approaches that they embody

2021-2022

JOURNAL

David A Garcia

THE IDEA JOURNAL (Started Writing June2021) (this term of many meanings building up currently in the crypto community as

2021-2022

JOURNAL ON OBJECTS

David A Garcia

OBJECTS AS MATERIAL ”Material” As Storyteller.

“Metaverse”, coined by Neal Stephenson. Can refer to Virtual Worlds, Digital social systems, Digital ownership

To create novel form, aesthetic and culture while moving away from form that is just this white-clay that’s

systems, video games, simulations, worlds governed with blockchain, worlds owned by its players, some not,

molded, parametric or sculpted. I’m venturing to make form that is driven, or “imaged” (cladded or built)

digital realities relayed into our physical. Can be through VR and AR, but it is not a requirement) (The

by specific objects, things, or materials. And then this allows a meaning, architecturally and social-

popularization/terminology of “Half-Earth” was by E.O. Wilson, referring to a large scale movement to preserve

culturally because of the object choice. It is a Fossil; a new object that morphed from something else in

earth's biodiversity by securing 50% of Earth for preservation and leaving the other 50% to

history, pieced together with other objects and now tells a story as a “corpse” or a “Frankenstein Monster”

humans) (Anthropocene, a term denoting to the geological epoch in which the Anthropos [humans/certain

of itself. I want to veer away from, “Here is my cool form I made in rhino or maya, let’s just clad it with

humans] have affected the earth in a prominent way) (DAO stands for decentralized autonomous

aluminum panels, steel, concrete, stucco, drywall to show off my awesome form.”

organization: “Governance that operates through smart contracts. Its financial transactions and rules are

So, it’s against BIG making a twist building and then just covering it with aluminum, but also against some

encoded on a blockchain, effectively removing the need for a central governing authority”) (Update November2021: Zuckerberg took ownership of the Meta from “metaverse” for their company, so maybe another broad term is better… “cyberspace” “virtual reality” “hyperreality” “virtual world" “cyberverse” “netspace” “digital environment” “net sphere”? Just to protest the buzzworded ‘metaverse’, soiled by Facebook’s “ownership” in my opinion. Not the biggest deal, it’s just pesky that they chose that name)

(June2021, Early Thoughts on a Concept) Currently looking at this potential metaverse idea: the simple premise that I want to speculate on… It is doing something optimistic/ enjoyable by the privileged in a digital world and having that, in some form, benefit the challenges of our time for the underprivileged and voiceless creatures, possibly related to our current crises. Would a massive shift to the virtual world along with other coming shifts of the digital economic revolution and automation allow the feasibility of an idea like Half-Earth, where people democratically vote to save biodiversity? If this is a sort of meta-verse world that could be meant to radically resist the real-world architecture of the current economy. This system isn’t sustainable, so we propose a new one. It allows architects to be able to create something that really takes us into the speculative world funded in an economy of the digital world run on the blockchain to make it effectively decentralized against any one or more countries claiming ownership of it. The cyberspace potentially runs on Ethereum-two or other clean or non-carbon intensive Blockchain systems of course. Whichever imbeds ownership to the people in a secure, hack-less, environmentally conscious, decentralized system. (Common argument against digital things is that everything will get hacked. Bitcoin has never once, since its creation, been successfully hacked) (Other cryptos do get ‘hacked’ though if people find a loophole, exploit in the consensus mechanism, or just scams. This can lead to “hardforking” of the digital asset which resolves the issue. So this story will not be about hacking conflicts) Can It make architecture fun and exciting and worthwhile to the new generation of architecture? Also, it can be financially feasible too under our current system, as an important bonus. Architecture and

A Low-Res Earth

contemporary OOO architectures of clustering a bunch of random objects as a blank white clay and then maybe painting it all blue and green or giving the 3D model a texture/pattern. Needs to be broad, and I think it is, because this is basically any object, thing, or material that one can think of. (And meanings change or fluctuate so it can be explored indefinitely.). it brings a type of “storytelling” and potentially “activism” to architectural materiality or imaging. It is of course, seeming like a thing that focuses on exterior, or aesthetics of the “iconic” image of an architecture rather than anything about the interior or human scale experience, which should be pointed out I believe? I need to figure out if the interior or exterior is more important in terms of conveying story through literal material. Also account for architectural design methods (program, environmental systems, structure, interior experience) This just allows another way to tell a story at the large scale and at the close-up scale. I want to avoid moments when seeing a building from far away and the form is absolutely beautiful, but up close, it’s just your usual bent aluminum, stucco, concrete, wood cladding that’s used to just emulate or quickly solve the fancy form that was designed. I think the extra intrigue of an overall beautiful formal parti with a provoking close-up material/object system is a powerful piece of storytelling. This also very much exists in the digital, and I think it is a whole other spectrum pertaining to these objectoriented architectures. Where the architecture is molded by a clay (clay being the object/thing), and that object has intrinsic meaning to what the building is. Creates novel shapes while imbedding meaning into materiality / formal strategy. It really can be the material of a digital space. When any physics or realworld-material is possible, what does one choose as their “material”? Why choose metal or wood when almost everything is possible? Or the obvious freedoms of environmental factors, gravity, and structural factors? Would the ‘materials’ of a digital world be dictated by the program and purpose of the building. The digital creates enough of a distinction while still retaining a sort of storytelling, so there’s another spectrum for Digital that can be used to tell stories. (Currently I think the design “look” seems inspired by

Graduate Thesis 2022

Chernobyl

Week 04 (January 2022) Workshop: IN OTHER WORLDS: CITIES SHAPED LIKE FICTION. "All cities are fictions. Their literal edges are nebulous, and their physical definitions are being endlessly rewritten, but their boundaries come into focus as shared narratives. The fiction of a city can weigh as much as its physical shadow... The history of future cities is a chronicle of the hopes, dreams, horrors, and anxieties of the time in which they were made. They are the architectural and urban construction of ourselves, fraught with contradictions, encoded with the concerns of the present. Bring to the workshop a collection of images of fictional cities that you feel are useful prompts through which we can engage the urgent realities of today"

I looked at the Disney Pixar animated film Wall-E. I was interested in the fears and critiques that it was making about humanity. The dichotomy of the two built environments was also interesting. On one side, Earth, you see a blatant dystopia of a dead trash-city, and the other end you see a sort-of facade utopia of this bright and orderly spaceship-city. These two different cities work to express and embody the broader narratives all through its built setting, regardless of dialogue.

Graduate Thesis 2022

1. Wall-E - on Earth 2. Wall-E - on Earth 3. Wall-E - In space

Cae Lique Dolest Abo

Graduate Thesis 2022

Week 05 (November 2021) This architecture is potentially one very much of storytelling / narrative / and progress. It can be used as a tool in a film to show progression, to show that one action leads to another action, how a people’s choice can lead to good or bad, and being able to represent that aesthetically and, potentially, clearly to a general consensus. The immediate ideas that I imagine could be possible towards my concerns of ecology and radical ways to save the “earthlings”. It is that through an optimistic broad scale human movement towards a digital cyberspace, an effort can start in preserving the Earth’s biodiversity, and funding/benefiting the humans that will suffer most from the late-Anthropocene. It doesn’t wait for government action, it takes the matter into the population’s hands, an optimistic democratic revolution of the Digital Environment to restore the Physical Natural Environment. The story could be about how the people really made these ultimate choices and how this is possible with a people-focused and people-owned digital world. That the premise of the story may not be specifically about something like half-earth itself, but more in how a proper/successful virtual world thrived to the point of huge economic potency and that some sort of charitable governance protocol (DAO) was formed in a way that could collect and

distribute a massive treasury funded from a sort of tax/donation system, leading to a massive decision(s) of what this wealth could be used for? Optimistically, people could crowdfund the massive governance system that subsidized efforts from small achievements to massive achievements. Like how a national government operates when budgeting how much to subsidize a program with their tax money, but with the complexity of an international virtual world and with the efficiencies of new technologies like blockchain systems. People could gather and send their cryptocurrency tax/donation money and because it is all recorded on the blockchain, every single person can see exactly where and when their tax money went. They could visually experience the effects of their choices. If people voted + paid taxes for an experience or a building in the metaverse, when it arrives – that creation is now linked to those that advocated, voted, and paid for it. That building would be like a trophy of progress and representation that you could guarantee (by checking the blockchain) that it came from people’s decisions and tax money. You could also further this link by providing a divided ownership of this said building/experience and allow this population of donors/taxpayers to receive royalties from any profits that come from the asset. (Much like NFT art’s ownership

Graduate Thesis 2022

and royalties’ system). This representation and ownership could be an enthusiastic way to get people to care about voting, to understand where their money goes, and to learn how one person’s decision matters and how collectives of these individuals make a difference. I then speculate on optimistic fictions of this decentralized “government fund” of the digital world… would a possible ultimate goal of these people be – a halfearth level vote. We could reveal the power of a person’s decision, protest, ownership, freedom, etc.; then start to reveal the outcome or the sort of “domino effects” that alter the Earth/metaverse. What does this look like? What does a transparent democratic governance system or its voting experience look like? What are the experiences, actions,

buildings, worlds that people decide on? Additionally, because I believe some of these aspects are inherently unattainable to a digital world from Facebook, Microsoft or Roblox, what does a digital world look like that these centralized businesses could never make or think of.

A summarized understanding of this speculative fiction could be characterized as an: Anti-Techno Techno-Future. Hyper-optimistic, critical of current structures, clad together object by object

(November 2021) "Object" as "Material" or ”Material” As Storyteller. To create novel form, aesthetic and culture while moving away from form that is just this white-clay that’s molded, parametric or sculpted. I’m venturing to make form that is driven, or “imaged” (cladded or built) by specific objects, things, or materials. And then this allows a meaning, architecturally and socialculturally because of the object choice. It is a Fossil; a new object that morphed from something else in history, pieced together with other objects and now tells a story as a “corpse” or a “Frankenstein Monster” of itself. This just allows another way to tell a story at the large scale and at the closeup scale. I want to avoid moments when seeing a building from far away and the form is absolutely beautiful, but up close, it’s just your usual bent aluminum, stucco, concrete, wood cladding that’s used to just emulate or quickly solve the fancy form that was designed. I think the extra intrigue of an overall beautiful formal parti with a provoking close-up material/object system is a powerful piece of storytelling. It is Object-Oriented but is not necessarily OOO Architecture. This also very much exists in the digital, and I think it is a whole other spectrum pertaining to these object-oriented architectures. Where the architecture is molded by a clay (clay being the object/ thing), and that object has intrinsic meaning to what the building is. Creates novel shapes while imbedding meaning into materiality / formal strategy. It really can be the material of a digital space. When any physics or real-world-material is possible, what does one choose as their “material”? Why choose metal or wood

when almost everything is possible? Or the obvious freedoms of environmental factors, gravity, and structural factors? Would the ‘materials’ of a digital world be dictated by the program and purpose of the building. These objects (Physical world and then digital world) are potential inspirations that could exist in this fictional future that I am conjuring. They are the materials and objects of this world building exercise, so that these speculative world-made buildings aren’t just focused on what they look like but what they are made of. These are real-world objects, and are used literally and not where you can scale up/ down the objects to fake proportions… at the moment where you scale it, it is not the object anymore, but a false recreation, like a sculpture. So these objects can be mangled and “frankenstein’d” in all sorts of ways, but should maybe retain a “realism” or recognizability of the object. (scaling objects should be reserved for the digital world, In the digital, like the physical objects, we can re-use or upcycle objects but in the digital sense, allowing for any “object” and in any way.) These objects will try to go beyond an “installation” style and will also attempt to envision enclosure, shading, heating, ventilation, and other architectural elements. I believe these are most successful when a clear object narrative is told and an innovative tectonic aesthetic can be achieved with these reused materials, rather than only using some recycled material just to be ‘sustainable’. It's sustainability should just be self-evident.

Graduate Thesis 2022

1. Liang Yu Thesis 2. Planet City, Worldbuilding

Graduate Thesis 2022

Positions

Week 06: "Object-Oriented" Architectures from myself

Graduate Thesis 2022

My Works at Sci-Arc

Graduate Thesis 2022

Week 08: Inspirations

Graduate Thesis 2022

Worlds, Futures.

Clear Narratives: (Digestible)

Graduate Thesis 2022

The Opposite (Mysterious)

Graduate Thesis 2022

Project

The World: The story follows as an optimistic fictional reality in which a city utilized an online decision machine to repair and restore the world against climate disaster. In this reality, a populous city’s inhabitants makes these earthly decisions through an online netspace for discussions, proposals, and voting. Through these voting events, what takes place are fiery discussions from prominent figures to individual nobodies. The ideas and conversations are visualized as object clusters in the digital space and expand or explode as discussions evolve. The best idea materializes into an automated building process voted on by the people. Taking from the excess of the world, the people decide to recycle and remix their city focused on imaging this worldly transition. Where gas stations, oil refineries, and office buildings become skeletons to choose from and car doors, roads, and airplanes become tectonics to build with. As the city is built and clad with these familiar outdated objects, the architecture around them becomes an ongoing narrative milestone of this optimistic change. Design Process: The process to design this speculative world in a concise short film requires a specific architectural method of storytelling. What will be operated, is an objectoriented design methodology that focuses on clear, concise, but aesthetically interesting, storytelling descriptions. The design approach can be summarized as “Digestible Manipulated Narrative Objects”, concerning aspects of aesthetics and storytelling pieces in conveying a narrative. This design approach will be the most valuable way to convey a digestible story through architecture and the narrative-objects that craft it.

Graduate Thesis 2022

DMNO DAO A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is an entity with no central authority. Decisions get made from the bottom-up, governed by a community organized around a specific set of rules enforced on a blockchain.

Graduate Thesis 2022

They have built-in treasuries that are only accessible with the approval of their members. Decisions are made via proposals the group votes on during a specified period. This fiction take this real-world basis and exaggerates its possibilities. It becomes exaggerated to the point that the DAO really become a metaphor/visualization of live democracy

Graduate Thesis 2022

Me completing this optimistic speculation is my effort in continuing optimistic conversations in ways to think about contemporary technologies, architecture and our uncertain future .

Graduate Thesis 2022

David A Garcia

DMNO Effect

Articles inside

Provocations