Archigram.
Archigram was a group of radical experimentalistic architects that stood at the forefront of
Artistic expression of technology. They drew inspiration from the infiltration of technology and based their works solely on hypothetical realities of future machine age with a disregard for social and environmental issues. Their works also reflected the attitudes of pop artists at the time, using bright colours to demonstrate the explosions of technological change and consumer culture at the time. Their aim was to bridge the gap between what was already built and what could be built.
The walking city.
The walking city is a depiction of a hypothetical future where cities are consisted of self contained pods constituted together into an “insect-like” shape of highly intelligent roaming robots. The design was a literal interpretation of an insect as the pods were independent yet parasitic in their ability to be removed and “plugged into” stations where occupants could be exchanged and resources replenished. The work assumed the possible future context of a war ruined world where cities have to deal with the aftermath of a nuclear destroyed planet. The group urged that in order to survive, we must always design new possibilities and contexts that do not require large structures such as whole cities. The piece consists of both drawings and photography.
The instant city.
The instant city was Archigrams attempt at depicting provisional spaces. It was to overblow consumer culture and advertisement aesthetics. It was not one piece of work but a whole series. The idea was a floating or flying city with aerial technology such as airships and tents. Archigrams works are usually in monotonous colours with the occasional explosion of colour here and there. Their works incorporate both 2D and 3D techniques. Whilst structures and perspectives are drawn in 3D, the colours are flat and betray no hint of depth. Depth is shown purely with lines which creates a conflicting interpretations of the art by the audience. There is also the use of pop art such as bold lettering or recurring shapes and bold colours.
This is another piece of the instant city. The piece creates an illusion of a pop up book by trimming black and white images into 2 dimensional shapes and placing them in angles that contrast against the coloured 3 dimensional background. Facial expression is also a focal point of most of Archigram’s works. The aim is to deliver the feelings and emotions of the inhabitants of the theoretical context.
The final picture is a poster for the instant city. This image is a prime example of Archigram’s tendency to flip the norm. As seen, the water and greenery is hand drawn whilst the airship is an image. This is abstract because all the natural and existing things have been portrayed in a 2 dimensional way with hand drawings whilst the object of hypothesis is a photograph- the realist factor in the image. It is through their use of mixing reality with illusion that they deliver a sense of the pop up feel.
Failed draft.
This was a half hearted attempt at creating a city space based on Archigram’s philosophy of design purely for the pleasure of designing. The idea was to show the campus and the city as a landscape that could be travelled from one end to the other by rollercoaster.
The draft was abandoned after re-examining and researching deeper into Archigrams artwork. The work did not address issues of technology nor consumer trends and was made purely as a misinterpretation of the reasoning behind Archigram’s works.
Digital City.
This is the final piece after considering the modern technological changes. The digital realm is undoubtedly the biggest games changer for society and consumer culture. All aspects of our lives are now connected to the internet so much so that it has become a part of our reality. The concept behind this piece was a a gigantic tower consisted of tiny rooms in which the citizens sleep. The City is a storage for physical bodies, whilst the conscious is plugged into the internet where they live their lives. Main focus of this piece is the motherboard installed on the top of the tower with projections of the inhabitants’ cyber world.
Development process.
The piece started with a basic drawing of a motherboard. It does not include some of the finer details as the purpose was only to have the basic shapes. The motherboard strays from the regular appearance of some motherboards as this was modelled after the ones used for gaming. With the rapid increase of game consumers over the past decade, this was deemed the most appropriate choice.
The next step was the division of the board. This was the deciding line as to where the board would differ by monotone and colour. It framed the “inner” and “outer” areas of the board. It was also an imitation of the increasingly aesthetic boards recently appearing on the market.
Next was the colour coding. The colours chosen were purely for the purpose of catching one’s attention and to deliver a feeling of pop or comic art. The colours are flat and refrain from adding depth. There is no use of shadow or light, remaining completely 2-dimensional. This contrasts the 3-dimensional structure of the base line drawing which leaves a deeper impression of pop art.
To complete the motherboard, the last of the finer details were added. The colours were not changed for the small details in order to keep some of the authenticity of the motherboard such as the green and gold. The piece, like many of Archigrams, is made of collaged material. The sides of the tower are photographs of glass windows of a business building. The lines in the photograph are not linear to the structure of the building. This was intentional to draw the viewer’s focus and to make the photographs stand out instead of blend into the background of the drawing. It also creates a rift between what is 2D and 3D, as well as what is reality and what is digital.
The goal was to present this work as a pop up image. That is dependant on the contrasting rifts between the 2 and 3 dimensional factors of this piece. The projections are drawn as 2 dimensional as opposed to the 3 dimensional motherboard which creates a conflicting reaction often present in Archigram’s works. The photographs of the people are 3 dimensional however, because of the outlining around their bodies, it appears as a cut out and throws the viewer off due to the opposite effect of the digital art being 3D and the photograph being 2D.
At this point, the piece was still too 3 dimensional. After observing more of Archigram’s art, it appeared that they had the habit of layering and downplaying 3D factors. The moon was intentionally made to technically be 3 dimensional, however the airbrushing would make it appear as a drawing- a sticker stuck onto the piece as an afterthought. To balance it out across the page, the same airbrush technique was added to the building photos.
As a final touch and attempt to create a deeper pop art feel, the smoking clouds were added into the background. This is a popular design seen in pop art and western comic strips. It also added a bright contrast to the dullness of the tower, lightening the overall mood of the image to be less serious and more enjoyable.
The program used to make this piece is an iPad application called IBIS paint. This piece was completely done on the iPad. The photographs used are royalty free stock images. The reason for choosing this method was because of the precision needed to make this piece which was incredibly difficult if it was to be done on paper as one mistake was irreversible and could mean the restart of the entire work.
