"We are Closed." BFA Thesis

"We are Closed" office by day, speakeasy at night. a discussion on state of total surveillance.

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I n a C h e n , B F A I n t e r i o r D e s i g n Th e s i s

contents P ro lo gu e Th e s i s & r e s e a r c h p r o f e s s o r : K a r i n Te h v e

Researc h: total sur v e illan ce digital panopticon "Samsung City" by Liam Young Project 1984

S ite & co n te x t site condition speculative city

Conc eptual S tu die s the object the room a network

S c hematic strategies & an alysis " Th e w a y t o c o n t r o l p e o p l e i s n o t w i t h p a i n , b u t w i t h p l e a s u r e . " I nter v e n tio n s

Aldous Huxley, "Brave New World"

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prologue

thesis statement

“We are Closed.” is a 9-months thesis BFA Interior Design project (Pratt Institute). A semester research was conducted first. This project is critical on many current social and political discussions. The aim of this thesis is not only using design strategy to bring up such awareness, but to potentially evoke bigger conversation and visions.

In a dystopian totalitarian future, this project exploits visibility and temporality to liberate freedom of expression. Corporations surveil and impact every aspect of people’s lives

The notion of total surveillance was the primary research topic, which covers a big range of studies on literature, news, history, media, design and film that contributes to ideas include panopticon, total states, corporate power, data, digitisation, mobility, adaptability and so on.

Monopolised corporation impacts and watches every aspect of people’s life by storing data, governs people in centralised way. Act as beacons, project sites challenges the idea of being veiled and exposed. To do this, there is a changing program of conditions: A speakeasy space includes a club and a speech space as programs contrast with working office during the day. These will reflect both structural change and phenomenological performance through light, fog and sound to affect the audiovisual material condition.Main site chosen as prototype: MetLife Building to test both street level and upstairs floor activities. This site functions as the umbrella site as others may include Bank of America, Hearts Building, Empire State Building, NY state supreme court, etc.

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This project occupies sites of symbolic corporate power in NYC. The program veils and exposes: a speakeasy (a space of free speech) veiled by a club at night exists as an office of tomorrow during the day.

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RESEARCH

Notes from: Thomas McMullan, "What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital surveillance?", 23 July 2015, thegaurdian: As a work of architecture, the panopticon allows a watchman to observe occupants without the occupants knowing whether or not they are being watched. As a metaphor, the panopticon was commandeered in the latter half of the 20th century as a way to trace the surveillance tendencies of disciplinarian societies.

The basic setup of Bentham’s panopticon is this: there is a central tower surrounded by cells. In the central tower is the watchman. In the cells are prisoners – or workers, or children, depending on the use of the building. The tower shines bright light so that the watchman is able to see everyone in the cells. The people in the cells, however, aren’t able to see the watchman, and therefore have to assume that they are always under observation.

Directed Research: Modern Digital Panopticon

Bentham believes: centralised arrangement could be applied to all sorts of different situations - not just prisons but factories, schools and hospitals.

Michel Foucault describes the prisoner of a panopticon as being at the receiving end of asymmetrical surveillance: “He is seen, but he does not see; he is an object of information, never a subject in communication.”

As a consequence, the inmate polices himself for fear of punishment.

Schofield:“You can do central inspection by CCTV. You don’t need a round building to do it. Monitoring electronic communications from a central location, that is panoptic."

In many ways, the watchtower at the heart of the panopticon is a precursor to the cameras fastened to our buildings – purposely visible machines with human eyes hidden from view. The original emphasis, and still the emphasis today, hasn’t been on correcting behaviour but on providing security, namely from terrorists.

He is seen, but he does not see; he is an object of information, never a subject in communication.”----Michel Foucault Thomas McMullan, "What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital surveillance?", 23 July 2015, thegaurdian.

Everyone's data is under surveillance, not only by government but also by corporations that make enormous amounts of money capitalising on it. Not only that, but the amount of data on offer to governments and corporations is about to go through the roof, and as it does the panopticon may emerge as a model once more.

The looming interconnectivity between objects in our homes, cars and cities, generally referred to as the internet of things, will change digital surveillance substantially. Everything from washing machines to sex toys, from heart-rate monitors in smartwatches to GPS footwear will soon be able to communicate, creating a vast amount of data about our lives. And this deluge of data won’t only be passed back and forth between objects but will most likely wind its way towards corporate and government reservoirs.

Bentham didn’t want the panopticon to be a tool for oppression, and in fact its failure eventually led him to develop a type of anti-panopticon later in life – where a minister sits in an exposed room and is surrounded by members of the public who listen and ask questions.

The idea is that this transparency holds power to account, because the most dangerous people in society can be rulers. It is important that they, as well as prisoners, workers and children, feel watched.

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RESEARCH

Liam Young is a visionary Architect Filmmaker. His "Keeping up apperances" includes 3 installations depicting three visions for the dystopian future.

Directed Research: Keeping Up Appearances by Liam Young

The New City: architecture for data

The City in the Sea: outsourced labour

Samsung City: corporates take over

Speculative & Visionary Design on Dystopian image from:https://www.dezeen.com/2015/03/18/liam-young-tomorrowsthoughts-today-architecture-future-city-dystopia-cities-dystopian-animation/

"Imagine a world in which every building in your neighborhood is owned by Samsung, in this exaggerated scenario the idea of corporate entities as driving forces behind real-estate development and growth becomes disturbingly plausible, while highlighting the real-world fact that many corporations have revenues which surpass the GDP of some countries. We now see new forms of city generated around operating system choices, who we like on facebook, our twitter network and so on. I am much closer to my virtual community than I am to my physical neighbors. The network has allowed ‘non state’ actors to permeate every aspect of our lives."

"Liam Young Tomorrows Thoughts Today", Dezeen

The concept and methodology of this project is inspiring. "Samsung City"'s narriation sets a model/context for me. Resonates with my idea of digitization and

dystopian

visionary design, it narrows down my concept to focus on control, power, digital world aspects in terms of what is happening in my dystopian story.

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RESEARCH

Directed Research: Project 1984 by WAI Architecture Think Tank

Minitrue 1984 “The Ministry of Truth –Minitrue, in Newspeak—was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, 300 meters into the air. From where Winston stood it was just possible to read, picked out on its white face in elegant lettering, the three slogans of the Party: WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGHT” From George Orwell, 1984. https://archinect.com/news/ article/55866680/project-1984-what-about-the-possibility-of-a-kynical-architecture

Totalitarian architecture - 1984 as model "Totalitarian architecture refers to the type of architecture created by totalitarian states. It is typically designed to be imposing and large in size to portray a sense of power, majesty, and virility." https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Totalitarian%20architecture&item_type=topic

Totalitarian architecture - defining the term: POWER & SCALE

"enormous, pyramidal structure of white concrete, soaring up terrace after terrace, three hundred metres into the air".

"1984"'s dystopian and totalitarian ideas are happening now. Aspects like slanted and approved/controlled entertainment social media gains personal information on food, politics, religion, sex, consumer activities, etc. family becomes extension of the government, and every citizen is the property of state.

Conceptual Collage: site development

Four towers rise above the city like muscular trunks in a grass field.

These concrete monoliths, three with facades perforated by square windows, the other one solid like a hermetic bastion, soar until reaching six hundred meters of height. Each of the towers represents one of the four governmental ministries: love, truth, peace, and plenty. https://www.extremetech.com/computing/93698-the-big-brother-tv-that-watches-you

This collage combined the minitrue of project 1984 and NYC skyline, showing the potential of the dystopian future under '1984' model. We may not only continue being faithful contributors to some of the most dangerous regimes in the world, but we may even become the master architects of Project 1984.

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SITE & CONTEXT

MetLife Building: Existing use of light condition.

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SITE & CONTEXT

Thesis Statement: Speculative Future Monopolised corporation impacts and watches every aspect of people’s life by storing data, governs people in centralised way. In a dystopian totalitarianism and surveillance capitalism future, this project addresses visibility and temporality by means of celebrating and liberating freedom of expression, occupying numerous sites stands for symbolic power in NYC: MetLife Building (as umbrella site, other sites include but not limited to: Bank of America, Hearts Building, Empire State Building, NY state supreme court, etc.) Act as beacons, my sites challenges the idea of being veiled and exposed.

United Nations Headquarters

Trump Tower

MetLife Building

Rockefeller Center

Bank of America Tower Empire State Building New York Life

Flatiron Building

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Narrative: When everything (work, life, food, pleasure, etc) are designed to be more efficient. He is told to go to work at different work stations everyday depending on who he will be working with and what to work on at any given day. Same algorithm applies to not only working, but also retail stores, libraries, schools, restaurants, bars…..

Space becomes extremely standardised and modular in order to fit the flexible needs. This totalitarianism system eventually will not be human-driven, but data and calculation based. Only “Crytpunk” - developing tools/objects/space with sensual communication in an infrastructure scale are possible for some people to get away from the situation shortly.

Ina Chen

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SITE & CONTEXT

Accessibility: entrance & elevator

Speculative: urban virtual network

site: bus stops condition

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site: cycling condition

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site: rail condition

CONCEPTUAL STUDIES

The Object: SCAN IT! A structural QR code lighting fixture.

The QR code object addresses the phenomena of mass information and the idea of EXCHANGE. People’s information and data are being stored, but in exchange, they gain efficiency and convenience.

To pass the threshold between physical environment and virtual condition, human body interact with the fixture as they move around. Controlled access virtually like QR code brings people to a safe public digital space, allowing like-minded groups/speech happen “publicly”.

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CONCEPTUAL STUDIES

Dark, subtle sound

The Room: An audiovisual architectural syntax.

The PERCEPTUAL PHENOMENA of audiovisual communication between sound, light, fog and form, generating spatial relationships between different scales/users (Dj/ speaker and audience).

Starting to form/show Dj

The ever-changing audiovisual tectonic resonates and challenges the notion of VISIBILITY AND TEMPORALITY. The SYNCHRONOUS OCCURENCE of form and sound is pushing the limits of architectural scale. Can this composition and topography varies from as small as one person scale, to a city-scale syntax?

Dj's communication with audience through audiovisual

Full room/feedback

FRONT VIEW

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FLOOR PLAN

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SECTION

CONCEPTUAL STUDIES

Precedents: lighting qualities-forming boundaries

Material study: fog machine & lighting test

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CONCEPTUAL STUDIES

City Network: In the proposed dystopian context of totalitarianism state, the ever-expanding surveillance and “prohibition” on freedom of speech controls people under the centralised governance and big corporations.

Occupying numerous of sites rich in symbolic power in NYC, are able to be located via Apps like Citi Bike, Uber, etc. spontaneously. Virtually constructs the urban scale network.

The idea of camouflage/diversion is executed through the use of light, fog and sound as material condition in the architectural scale: A SPEAKEASY SPACE FOR IMMERSIVE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION BY NIGHT, AND TEPORAL OFFICE BY DAY. The notion of audiovisual experience supports different programs on different nights: nightclub, bar, conversation/discussion night, immersive listening session. Physical “boundaries” is flexible and the morphosis idea resonates with the material condition and addresses visibility and temporality in an interior/local scale.

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Interior Scale: Program Morphosis

Architectural Scale: Camouflage/Diversion

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Ubran Scale: Decentralised Virtal Network

SCHEMATIC STRATEGY & ANALYSIS

Proxemics: Edward T. Hall "The Hidden Dimension" Intimate Distance: 1.5' Embracing, touching or whispering Personal Distance: 4' Interaction among good friends and family Social Distance: 12' Interactions among acquaintances Public Distance: 25' Public speaking

Most Overwhelming/Very crowded 4000 ppl max.

Close friends/crowded: 580 ppl max.

Normal Social Interaction: 64 ppl max.

Extremely empty: 16 ppl

In a 10000 sqf. space, a "pretty crowded" event contains around 450650 ppl max. And it needs around 60-100 ppl so that the space won't feel too empty for random social interaction.

Office Initial planning: size/occupants study

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SCHEMATIC STRATEGY & ANALYSIS

schematic/conceptual sketch

existing condition

intervention

schematic/conceptual sketch

initial idea on different lighting quality

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SCHEMATIC STRATEGY & ANALYSIS

Tectonic/form tests:

model: ceiling test

conceptual flow of space

model: ceiling test

system: flexible, adaptable, modular

model: stretchable ceiling

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SCHEMATIC STRATEGY & ANALYSIS

Lighting/material qualities

office: natural light + general lighting + individual light as desired

speakeasy: veiled from/in between light rooms- soft ambient color light

light rooms: small group- laser white sharp edged light

dance floor: immersive video projection

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furniture modules

furniture landscape: infinite combination

model: office condition

model: flexible ceiling

Tectonic/Form & Specification 29

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office during the day

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office during the day

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speakeasy/club at night

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speakeasy/club at night If (one lives in a dystopian surveillance totalitarian future) { return “ monopolised corporate working conditions “ } elseif (one escapes from a dystopian surveillance totalitarianism future) { return “ freedom of expression in a sensual/immaterial condition “ }

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I n a C h e n , B F A I n t e r i o r D e s i g n Th e s i s