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y2s1-20192020 · 6 years ago

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The Desensitization Pavilion: The 37 Hrs. Course - A manifesto against mass surveillance and the unseen forces which govern our everyday lives.

*This is a written manifesto which describes my project’s ideas in detail, includes references and includes insights into my thought and design processes - please refer to other deliverables for further clarification*

Before we can fully understand the desensitization pavilion, we need to take a step back in time and take a look at the past; particularly to the year 1988. 1988 was the year in which Lebbeus Woods, an American war architect known for his timeless experimental sketches and designs, drew up his proposal for a structure that would be defined as the embodiment of the essential properties of architecture that’s fundamental to building up the molecules for building groups or cities – The Solo House. Lebbeus Woods intended the design for the Solo House to be a blueprint as a single dwelling which would be mutated and repeated.

Usually targeting disaster-struck cities (brought about by technological innovations) as inspiration for his designs. The contemporary type of global struggle used as the case – study for the design of the Solo House could be argued as being derived from “Terrorism” – conflict is no longer based on vast armies clashing on the field, but on small-scale insurgencies attacking the centers of their enemies’ power. This explosion of terrorism as a phenomenon is also made evident not only through statistical analysis (sudden frequent use of the word in the 70s/80s) but also through the representation of the media. It could be argued that the contemporary “terrorists” is the rise of mass surveillance.

We are currently living in a world best put by Liam Young as an age where "our generation’s cultural legacy are large data storages instead of libraries". An age where "objects listen and talk back. An age where "everyone boasts technology being the answer but never asks what the question was". The infrastructure has become so large it’s practically invisible to the point where you can call on technology with a snap of your fingers. But with every new invention, misuse follows. The last few decades have been focused on the contemporary type of warfare - terrorism. However, with this new age of technology, a new kind of terrorism known as cyber terrorism has officially begun – a battle fought in both the domestic and international fronts.

By tracing newly formed parallels and ruptures, time could be used as a structure where cultural, historical and political phenomena could be derived. Thus, resulting in a handful of alternative projections of what could happen in the not so distant future ranging from as the aftermath of not WW3, but WW4 as predicted by Einstein (hinting that humanity would resume back to the dark ages). Conversely, more “realistic” projections could be more viable to some such as an inc. in mass surveillance as a way for the government to combat this contemporary terrorist resulting in questions about whether we would trade personal security for privacy. The fact that you never know whether u are being watched or not suggests that question “to what extent are we governed by an unseen force (the media, government or even algorithms which subconsciously control us for example product placement used to groom our decisions).

In this age of increased surveillance, privacy is becoming a commodity of the old world and is rapidly moving further away from our reach. Thus, a highly sophisticated protest group developed “The ultra-privacy cloaking Accessory”, which is a privacy-enhancing wearable that would cloak your phone from both digital and physical surveillance by techniques implemented by computer vision dazzle (CV Dazzle). The accessory transforms the hand into a mess of pixels confusing the computer’s vision. The goal is to keep biometric recognition algorithms from seeing regularities and patterns in the typical detection points of the hand so that cameras will be unable to record and surveil you.

The product is essentially a disaster kit for a worst-case scenario in the not so distant future where we have little to no privacy as everything we do is being scanned and surveilled via camera scanners implemented around the whole city. The product trains people with the art of digital camouflage to further retaliate mass surveillance by allowing you to either build via instructions or configure personalized designs through a precision configuration app. The absurd, over the top, exaggerated features on the product could be justified as "the very thing that makes you invisible to computers makes you glaringly obvious to other humans”. However, if the whole community wears it, then everyone is somewhat camouflaged and becomes invisible – made evident by the anonymous protests in London. This then becomes the envisioned future for the project.

The intentional obscurity of the use is meant to embed enough curiosity within the public so that it becomes viral as a way to advertise/propagate the product. Inspiration for the distribution of the product comes from "Banksy museum art" and how the art is being inserted into places where they are not supposed to be. The product would be placed in another box as a ruse and will Infiltrate stores of all sorts. As the product is an open rebellion against the government, the dependence on masking/deceiving the true nature and purpose of the product relies on the manifestation of Easter eggs and hidden messages all over the product - only for the eyes of those who are worthy enough to detect and decode the message.

The main ethos of the pavilion is derived from disappearing by the virtue of the many. The desensitization pavilion allows for viewers to experience objects which would usually look typically odd completely normal – when you drive along the course, the driver’s senses would be so in-tuned and accustomed with the new changing surroundings (these odd objects) to the degree that the pavilion practically disappears – the driver would arrive at the nucleus of the pavilion without actually knowing it.

Considering the fact that the pavilion is designed to be experienced behind the wheel of a car, it is essentially embodiments of the architectural interventions along the 37 Hrs. course with both the “limitations” being integrated as part of the Pavilion and the “cancelations” being implemented on the interface in the windshield of the vehicle. The interface is needed to successfully navigate the course and would be equipped with features that will “cancel” out these sensory overloads which in turn would gradually tune your senses along the course and help you overcome these “glitches”.

Similar to the idea behind the conventional terrorist, the pavilion is decentralized with no sense of origin (everything seems scattered). It isn’t a single entity, but rather an interactive experience where the importance of the pavilion eventually disappears along the course as a result of the architectural interventions spaced throughout the course with an increasing intensity as you get closer to the nucleus. As the mock-up model is an illustration of only a fragment of the nucleus, it is necessary to demonstrate the functionality and effect (being the limitations and cancellations) on fully working models – that being the architectural interventions. Each architectural intervention is designed in such a way that there are always 5 constants: Existing fragments, the intervention, landscape topography, viewfinder, and diagrammatic route.

These sensory overloads/interventions are derived from the collective, mutually exclusive limitations between Radar, LiDAR and Photogrammetry - the 3 main methods currently used for surveillance. These will be the “analog” factors which the pavilion will extrapolate to disrupt and render surveillance gear ineffective. Thus, the pavilion could, in reality, be better described as a forest of interventions where the frequency of these scattered interventions would increase as you get closer to the nucleus of the pavilion itself. Instead of an actual physical form, these highly intensified interventions (placed at a higher freq.) will be used to guide the drivers to the nucleus. Structure and cladding would be defined by the frequency, placement, and orientation of these existing interventions - where the form is simple but the complexity is in the layering. The functionality of the interventions are then extrapolated from the existing fragments so that they become architecture by placing them on mounts and forming structure.

The locations for the course’s start and finish line were selected from a study into camouflage patterns used by various militaries around the world. Then, the degree of pixelation on camouflage patterns would then determine the aesthetics, shape, and form of the landscape eg. highly pixelated camouflage works better in urban areas as opposed to more blotchy patterns (Low Res). The pavilion’s nucleus is located in Supai, Arizona but the course itself starts in Toronto, Ontario. It was designed using the binary idea of something that is blotchy Vs. something that is very pixelated – the idea that these interventions when you start driving in Ontario would look very foreign – almost an outlier in the canon, however, as you continue to drive, it somewhat becomes very normal and “camouflaged”.

The existence of this course is a gentle reminder that it is impossible to “beat” the course, mass surveillance and thus the government. This suggests that you should in turn just come to terms with your fate. Even though the architectural interventions offer a sort of psychological oasis – they are just temporary. This course is just an ironic funhouse image of a what-if scenario that would never become.

Once you have completed the course, you will currently be in the state of desensitization. However, similar to after a race, you would need to replenish and “reset” your body. Thus, comes the re-sensitization area/area of reflection. As it is an Interactive Pavilion, once you have arrived at your destination, you are immediately re-sensitized and guided into the “area of reflection” - an area that forces you to accept your “fate”. Only when you have accepted your fate will you be released and free to leave. Those who haven’t accepted their fate would forever remain at the desensitization pavilion.

In conclusion, the Desensitization Pavilion is a manifesto against mass surveillance in a dystopian not-so-distant future derived from an intense research based on the initial canonical and trans-canonical factors of Lebbeus Woods’ “Solo House” resulting in something that is very real and very well could happen in the not so distant future.

#Christo Meyer #2 Finley Poranon Thitaparun #Phase 3 #Trans-Canonical Diagram #Altering Device #Alternative Projection #Pavilion Technical #Pavilion Relational #Pavilion Narrative #Pavilion Atmospheric #Pavilion Mock up

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