The Passage to a new Modernity

Philosophy of the Image and Architecture

The passage to a new Modernity

Rethinking interior spaces through the in6luence of mass media

Jorren Verheesen

November 2018

4342771 jverheesen@student.tudelft.nl 30th november 2018

1 Introduction

As society tends to grow more and more into their electronic devices, it becomes hard to tell where the architecture of mass media stops and where it begins for we are lost between the virtuality of the online world and the reality that is our physical space. Moreover, the value of material possessions, along with our vanity, have become inherent parts of our online culture. In many ways our online personas reClect an image of the ideal self. Here, we like to appear more afCluent and more attractive than our real selves. Moreover, seclusion brings out mystery and piques curiosity. It’s that same mystery that was once speciCic for the Clanêur, a

by Charles Baudelaire Cirst described, but by Walter Benjamin depicted character at the foothold of modernity. Benjamin’s depiction of the Clanêur was that of an ambulant Cigure that captured modernity in nineteenth century Paris. 1 2 The Clanêur was a wanderer, always in the background, and ever observing. A well behaved – and well dressed - man roaming around in post industrial revolution Paris. But this might also exactly be how Benjamin trapped his Cigured of the Clanêur: he was locked up in the Parisian arcades.

The character of the Clanêur was the urban stroller, watching how modernity was folding out in front of him. Roaming around in the Parisian arcades he would observe whilst not drawing any attention to his being. These arcades are a building typology in early 19th century Paris constructed of large glass roofs and a steel structure. Built in between building blocks, they form a shelter from the outdoors and become the hidden shelters in the street. In its prime time, Paris was home to more than 300 of these arcades. 3 In the arcades, the Clanêur would watch how the shops in these arcades were the start of the societal fall for capitalist

1 Benjamin, W. translated by Eiland, H. & McLaughlin, K. (2003). The Arcades Project. Cambridge, Mass:

Harvard University Press.

2 Kompridis, N. (2006). The Idea of a New Beginning: A Romantic Source of Normativity and Freedom.

Abingdon, UK and New York: Routledge.

3 Muschamp, H. (2000, January 16). ART/ARCHITECTURE; The Passages of Paris And of Benjamin's

Mind. Retrieved November 7, 2018, from The New York Times website: https://www.nytimes.com/ 2000/01/16/books/art-architecture-the-passages-of-paris-and-of-benjamin-s-mind.html

consumerism. 4 It was not just the Parisian arcades that made the character of the Clanêur unable to be in any other place than his safe place called the arcades, it was also the characterisation itself.

Benjamin’s Clanêur was a character depicted speciCically to be a person of the Parisian arcades. The demolishing of these arcades resulted in the death of the Clanêur, as the arcades were the biggest part of his character. But in order for the Clanêur to survive the downfall of his environment, Robert Musil took him out of the Parisian arcades and put him in an undeCined place that was much more noisy than it was before. 5 Here, he was freed from the prison that was the arcades for now he could survive without them. But in order for the Clanêur to withstand modern day society, it is not the environment that should change but the character itself for the Clanêur appears to have too many restricting characteristics.

Translating this to modern day society means that he would have to be stripped down to the core. No longer is the Clanêur bound to a speciCic gender, social structure, appearance, or best of all: a place. But above all, he now has 24/7 access to his arcades. The once so mysterious dandies, the capturers of modernity, have evolved into beings that are capable of not only wandering but also creating their own arcades as a consequence of the possibilities of the digital age.

Nowadays, the Clanêur is using modern mass media, to create his own phantasmagorias on platforms such as Instagram or Twitter. The ultimate dreamlike worlds are basically created by capturing, or making copies, parts of the real world and uploading it to the online databases using the applications on our electronic devices. The architecture behind this catalogue of information is thus constructed by the owner of the social media proCile.

virtual arcades courtesy of the writer

It is the owners of these surreal worlds that actually make them not so surreal anymore. But it is also what contemporary space has become: it is the new modernity. This essay therefore forms an excursus written as an attempt to explain and visualise the position of architecture in mass media and vice versa. Furthermore, by acknowledging the role of mass media in architecture my aim is to evoke insights into new mergers of media and space for future architectural design purposes.

4 Benjamin, W. (1983). Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism (H. Zohn, Trans.).

London, UK: Verzo Books.

5 Tester, K. (2014). The Flâneur in Social Theory. London, UK and New York: Routledge.

2 A new space for design One of the new developments in modern social life is that there is an almost constant use of electronic devices. This has led to media and space to be entangled into a complex system, making them almost inseparable. As images and publications are constantly being forced into what we are seeing, it is difCicult to talk about social space without mentioning media. Space, according to Couldry and McCarthy, is a multidimensional one, with on the one hand the resolutely materiality of it, such as screens, and on the other the spectral evanescent characteristics of it. 6 The transmitting and receiving of electromagnetic waves is used for wireless connection between electronic devices and reaches from making phone calls to using WiFi or wireless charging. Electronic media are therefore no longer bound to only the virtual world because they affect the physicality of the body and its environment.

As a result of the growing use of social media throughout society, a new possibility for design has opened up. This is a space where design happens faster than ever before. No longer bound to speciCic places, it is possible to communicate and collaborate with ever wide groups. Applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, Tumblr, WhatsApp, Snapchat, or Tinder have made communication and design accessible to anyone. As Baudrillard described in his Simulacra and Simulation, in order to understand a common existence, it is necessary that there is a certain relationship between reality, symbols and society. Here, he claims that society has replaced reality with the use of symbols and signage.

Baudrillard divides the simulacra, copies without an original, in three orders: the irreproducible, the mass-reproducible and the point where the simulacra precedes the original. 7 8 The problem with the last order is that originality becomes something that loses its meaning because the original is no longer traceable. Baudrillard therefore claims that human existence has become a simulation of reality. An example in modern mass media is for instance brands that copy work of designers in hope that nobody will ever Cind out. This is for instance how fashion brand ZARA took designs from young digital artists and turned their works into prints to put onto their own designs. 9 10 Since we, as consumers, don’t know any

6 Couldry, N. & McCarthy, A. (2004). MediaSpace: Place, Scale, and Culture in a Media Age. London,

UK: Routledge.

7 Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and Simulation (S.F. Gasler, Trans.) Ann Arbor, MI: The University of

Michigan Press.

8 Hegarty, P. (2004). Jean Baudrillard: live theory. London, UK: Continuum Press.

9 Lieber, C. (2018, April 27). Fashion brands steal design ideas all the time. And it’s completely legal.

[Editorial]. Retrieved November 11, 2018, from Vox website: https://www.vox.com/ 2018/4/27/17281022/fashion-brands-knockoffs-copyright-stolen-designs-old-navy-zara-h-and-m 10 Liz, R. (2016, July 25). Zara Has Allegedly Ripped Off Another 30 Indie Designers [Editorial]. Retrieved

November 11, 2018, from Fader website: http://www.thefader.com/2016/07/25/zara-design-rip-off

better the original of the copy unknowingly gets lost. What follows is that society is superseding its own being, both real and virtual. As the relationship between symbolics and society is not clear anymore, it might only be a matter of time before the search for a new kind of private yet public or public yet private space arises.

original (left) ripped off by fast fashion chain (right) courtesy of the writer

3 The architecture of Mass Media Mass media serves as a system for communicating a message or symbol to ordinary people. It is a system for amusement, entertainment and information that instills values, beliefs and customs that aims to cause integration into society. But what is inherently wrong with mass media is that it ‘propagandises on behalf of powerful societal interests that control and 6inance them’. 11 The power sources behind the media are also the ones deCining that media. The high authority Cigures, the wealthy bureaucrats, are causing the discourse between media and the public.

Since platforms such as instagram have grown exponentially they have become catalysers in the inCluence of the market on design through mass media. It can, for example, be of primary concern to clients or designers that a design should be ‘instagrammable’. 12 An example of an

instagrammable wall architecture courtesy of the writer

11 Chomsky, N., & Herman, E. S. (1988). Manufacturing Consent: The political Economy of the Mass Media.

New York: Pantheon Books.

12 Very suitable to be posted on Instagram in order to gather a wide spread of positive attention

‘instagrammable’ project is the Art Depot of the Boijmans van Beuningen by Rotterdam Cirm MVRDV. In this case, the mirroring facade is designed to be Clashy and iconic, and with this mirroring effect it even positions the visitor inside the artwork that is the facade. The architecture is being used as a tool to gather attention through mass media. Nonetheless, it also shows the inCluence of mass media on the looks and use of architecture.

Furthermore, as our worlds have turned inside out, we live in a time where the private has become the epicentre of public space. The bedroom for instance is no longer a place just for resting, it has become the place where you go online, where you project and develop you digital self. 13 And so our smartphones, with all their abilities and applications, can be seen as a simulation of the 19th century arcades. So as we use these phones, we are going back in time to the arcades of Benjamin, where consumer capitalism obtains a central position in society. So as everyone has become a designer of their own world, it is important to understand the effects of mass media on society. In the broadest sense possible it is important to understand how mass media inCluences our every move.

spending saturday in bed and talking about food courtesy of the writer

4 The capitalist arcades In The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre untangles the abominable structures of capitalist dominance on society. This state of economical control is bred by ordinary people interacting. 14 It is through language that we interact with each other, but this social aspect is being dominated by capitalist forces such as media. According to Lefvebre, capitalism controls everyday life through the organisation of space. 15 The difference with this time of age is that it is not just real space anymore but also online space. Therefore, everything within every space is designed to steer human behaviour in certain ways. In our daily lives we are lured into thinking that we are ‘free’ beings, even though everything around us is a constructed reality. And that is not just in the architecture of 30 years ago but also in the new kind of digital architecture. The Parisian arcades are therefore not any different from our screens: heavily bureaucratic governed and capitalist constructed ‘social’ spaces through

13 Colomina, Privacy and Publicity. (1994). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

14 Lefvebre, H. (1991). The Production of Space (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.

15 Poster, M. (2002). Everyday (Virtual) Life. New Literary History, 33(4), 743-760.

which we wander ‘freely’. We are merely prisoners of the arcades that are, just like the 19th century Parisian ones, constructs of capitalist power towards the consumers.

It is difCicult to understand how the architecture that constructs us into thinking certain ways, is so greatly disguised as being transparent. The illusion of it all is the transparency that is subject to living in a consumerist society. But as Baudelaire was already depicting this in the archetype that was later to become the Clanêur in the Parisian arcades, this was not something new.

consumer prison courtesy of the writer

5 From mass media to social mass media (a social mess media) The arrival of social media has broadened the reach of mass media. Social media caused a new space for design to open up, accessible to anyone. It is a place where design constantly happens. The concept of mass media is everything published in print, digital, or broadcast, but with the introduction of social media has grown exponentially over the span of the past decade. 16 And with this, it seems as though everyone has become the designer of their own reality. Moreover, a wider audience encounters your online self, which gradually eclipses the analog self.

Social media construct new sorts of virtual cityscapes that take over many functions of the ‘real’ city. These construction are online versions of ourselves that will be experienced not only more than our physical selves would but also exactly the way we would want them to be experienced. 17 Social media as a construct within mass media, therefore allows for redeCining and restructuring of physical space.

With the manipulation in the digital age, it has become difCicult to sense what is real and what is not. Surrounded by mass media, it might therefore become unclear where reality stops and begins. When the lighting in the Arcades of Paris changed from oil lamp odalisques to electric lights, Walter Benjamin stated that it was certainly not a decline of the arcade. It was rather the transformation of it, and with that change ‘the hollow mold from which the

16 Gawlikowska, A. P. (2013). Communication and buildings: Space as Mass Media. Budownictwo i

Architektura, 12(4), 7-20.

17 Colomina, Privacy and Publicity.

image of ‘modernity’ was cast’. 18 These galleries suddenly became more difCicult to Cind and lost connection with what was on the outside – they had become almost unrecognisable in the small streets of Paris. It is interesting to look into design and the relationship to the social constructs that are developing for we are the designers, or the architects, of our own theatres through the use of applications on our phones.

Mass media appears to distract from the problem of capitalist oppression in mass media. We are not just distracted in the real world, but also in the virtual world. And because social media is where cultural expression comes into being, the reality of it becomes mere theatre.

Above that, true surrealism is when one can protect oneself from the levels of noise and smell from the surroundings. 19 So when isolated from any negative inCluences of reality on an object, the surrealism of it can survive. Therefore, the online world appears to have become surrealist theatre in which no one really knows anymore what is real and what is not.

Roaming around in these spaces, but also designing them, has made us both the creator and spectator of surrealistic theatre. And the new reality of these spaces is the unavoidable capitalist force that is projected on them. Even though accessibility to mass media has led to maybe the most wide spread right of free expression ever, since ‘public communication is transformed into the politics of consumerism’20 it is ignorant to say that we simply need to escape this occupation by the repressive state of power for it is just too idealistic.

distracting myself from capitalist oppression with dog videos courtesy of the writer

6 Manipulation in mass media through architecture

It is not as though the constructed theatre of mass media is something of this speciCic time and age. Decades ago Adolf Loos was altering his media publications by manipulating images of his architectural designs in order to give a certain feeling to his works. Loos was an architect who was, in his time, mainly known for his publications. Had it not been for mass media, very little would have guessed who Adolf Loos was when he was still alive. 21 And 18 Benjamin, W. translated by Eiland, H. & McLaughlin, K. (2003). The Arcades Project. Cambridge, Mass:

Harvard University Press. <a°,1> 874 19 Bucks-Morrs, S. (1991). The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project.

Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

20 Webster, F. (Ed.). (2004). The Information Society Reader. London, UK; New York: Routledge. p363 21 Colomina, Privacy and Publicity.

nowadays, we are all designers and we are doing the same as Loos was doing decades ago. It has become a regularity to design for the ‘’instagrammable’’ because design will have a broader reach on social media than it will probably ever experience in the streets. Therefore not only does design make mass media popular but mass media also makes design popular.

cute concrete building because cute baby playing courtesy of writer

Since private and public have almost Clipped, it has become difCicult to navigate through this world without our Maps, Yelp, Happy Cows or UberX. 22 Social media has become a new sort of urbanisation that grows at rapid speed. Therefore it is import to understand the world in which we live and what exactly the architecture of this social media is. Even as we are celebrating our endless connectivity, we appear imprisoned and under permanent surveillance. But with the growing use of electronic devices, the city has started to redesign itself by means of endless virtual worlds that are happening within because interior of the city is now bound to the hyper connectivity of the user.

The growth of the use of social media makes capitalist forces, whether political or economical, see an opportunity for marketing strategies through online communication platforms. In his Reading Capital, Althusser draws attention to the radical new way with which Marx posits the relation between economic phenomena and other forms of social production. The political economy was a driver then, and is still so now. So as Cohen describes Benjamin’s arcades as ‘spaces ruled by the form of light which traditional epistemology uses to 6igure mental delusion’, 23 I wonder whether that is any different now for is it not the online world that is a true homage to the dream space of surrealism?

7.

MassMediaDesign The architecture that is all around us, also digitally, is designed steer us into living a perfect bubble, our own phantasmagoria. Society is lost in virtuality and is trapped into thinking of how to constantly make our lives more interesting and thus are convinced that that makes our being of bigger value to others. The digital hallways, Cilled with applications, on our phones, tablets and computers are hardly a simulation of the post industrial revolution arcades of 19th century Paris. It is therefore interesting that on the streets we are acting 22 Examples of applications that use geodata in order to make going and getting around in urban areas

more easy.

23 Cohen, M. (1995). Profane Illumination: Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution.

Berkely, CA: University of California Press. p174

more and more like Clanêurs, positioning ourselves into the background and observe behaviour of others. And even though we are now the observers in the streets, we have become the wanderers in the house. We have become private in public and public in private.

Instagram and applications as such have therefore become the gateway to the harsh reality that is the discourse of societal publicity in the Digital age.

not really rolling on the floor laughing courtesy of the writer

8.

Conclusions: rethinking space The value of material possessions has become an inherent part of our culture and in many ways the online personas reClect our dreams in which we appear better, more afCluent and more attractive than the real versions. Moreover, seclusion brings out mystery and arouses curiosity. The constant fear of missing out is one of the biggest constructs created by corporate consumerism and guided by architectural design. This is turning what was once private space into the epicentres of public life. Mass media has therefore become of ever importance on the spaces we live in. Rethinking and redeCining these spaces through understanding the inCluence of mass media on architecture leads to new ways of designing for the future.

Social media is where our cultural expression comes into being, making all of us the architect of our own constructed reality. Benjamin’s arcades have become architectural constructs, both in reality and online, that allows us to roam around without being on the foreground of that space. The online dreamworlds have become the ultimate form of surrealist design, but they grip into reality through their virtuality. The presence of these dreamworlds is inevitable in contemporary design, resulting in where we are now to become the new reality.

How do we design our spaces to support the changing position of digital technology for the bedroom has turned into the public plaza and the toilet has become the café on the corner of 13th street?

It is the Clanêur in the post industrial revolutionised arcades of 19th century Paris that was once at the foothold of modernity. But these arcades have been demolished and rebuilt, only now are they a virtual presence. And even though they have been deconstructed, the concept of the arcades has not changed much from how Walter Benjamin once depicted them. They are still the epicentres of capitalist consumerism, only now they are digital. These virtual

arcades have a strong hold on our daily activities and make us pay less attention to what is happening in the real world. It is the online depictions of the real world that are just mere copies of which we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even know if there ever was an original. So how do we start designing space where the life inside the shells is so different from how it was before the eruption of modern mass media? And since the virtually of the online world has become something measurable in the real world, how can architectural design become suitable for both realities at once? Designing these constructed memory palaces and rethinking the interior spaces, where privacy and publicity have switched place and where simulation has become reality, therefore remains as one of the biggest tasks for future designers.

Referencing

1 Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and Simulation (S.F. Gasler, Trans.) Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

2 Benjamin, W. (1983). Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism (H. Zohn, Trans.). London, UK: Verzo Books.

3 Benjamin, W. translated by Eiland, H. & McLaughlin, K. (2003). The Arcades Project.

Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

4 Bucks-Morrs, S. (1991). The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

5 Chomsky, N., & Herman, E. S. (1988). Manufacturing Consent: The political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books.

6 Cohen, M. (1995). Profane Illumination: Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution. Berkely, CA: University of California Press.

7 Colomina, Privacy and Publicity. (1994). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

8 Couldry, N. & McCarthy, A. (2004). MediaSpace: Place, Scale, and Culture in a Media Age. London, UK: Routledge.

9 Gawlikowska, A. P. (2013). Communication and buildings: Space as Mass Media.

Budownictwo i Architektura, 12(4).

10

Hegarty, P. (2004). Jean Baudrillard: live theory. London, UK: Continuum Press.

11 Kompridis, N. (2006). The Idea of a New Beginning: A Romantic Source of Normativity and Freedom. Abingdon, UK and New York: Routledge.

12 Lieber, C. (2018, April 27). Fashion brands steal design ideas all the time. And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s completely legal. [Editorial]. Retrieved November 11, 2018, from Vox website: https:// www.vox.com/2018/4/27/17281022/fashion-brands-knockoffs-copyright-stolen-designsold-navy-zara-h-and-m 13 Liz, R. (2016, July 25). Zara Has Allegedly Ripped Off Another 30 Indie Designers [Editorial]. Retrieved November 11, 2018, from Fader website: http://www.thefader.com/ 2016/07/25/zara-design-rip-off 14 Lefvebre, H. (1991). The Production of Space (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.

Muschamp, H. (2000, January 16). ART/ARCHITECTURE; The Passages of Paris And of Benjamin's Mind. [Editorial]. Retrieved November 7, 2018, from The New York Times website: https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/16/books/art-architecture-the-passages-ofparis-and-of-benjamin-s-mind.html 15

16

Poster, M. (2002). Everyday (Virtual) Life. New Literary History, 33(4).

17

Tester, K. (2014). The Flâneur in Social Theory. London, UK and New York: Routledge.

18 Webster, F. (Ed.). (2004). The Information Society Reader. London, UK; New York: Routledge.