ARCH1101 Arguelles-Ling Experiment Three

Approved: Permission to submit on Sunday 24 June 2012, 21:00.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF POWER
Mention of the word "power" conjures up images of who's on top and who's at the bottom. Those images are present in this project but there are also others which subvert this dichotomy and propose and more inter-relational stance, as exemplified by the "dining table." The mashup of the two companies, Facebook and Take Two interactive indicate moments of questioning their prominence, even eminence, in their fields.

At first glance, this mashup portrays a certain statement of power by the presence and absence of company logos. Coca-Cola and Facebook have control over use and abuse of their logo; that is why they are absent here. However, T2 Interactive have not found it important to control this or they haven't gotten around to it.

(See also Post: ARCH1101 Exp 3: MashUp of Three Articles)

I chose to design offices for T2 Interactive and Facebook because they have attitudes toward the self that are on either side of the wasll. T2 wants to create a parallel world where destruction can take place, thereby, sparing the player's world from it. The player can fully identify with his avatar in the game. Facebook makes the self the center of its endeavors and makes it interact via the same environment as afficionados of T2 (the computer, internet) but with a difference in that they interact with others, and recognize them as such.

 

 Dining table and elevators.
 I took the assignment for the dining table as more than just for eating. In fact, dining is a time for communicating information and ideas as well as a way of communicating power. A big table that is well set with complicated cutlery parades a certain kind of status.

My table is based on talking, actually whispering: its shape is a half circle. The whispering galleries of St Paul's Cathedral, London, and that of San Pietro, Roma patterned my "table." Richard Serra also has a very big sculpture curved and slightly rotated where this effect happens.

On a nice day employees of both Facebook and T2 could have lunch sitting on the ground next to the protective grey wall and they would be able to hear what each other says, in whispers.They can have conferences where the speaker is on one end and everyone along the wall can hear him, sans speakers.

This structure and the interactions it demands diffuses power and at the same time empowers everyone because they can speak from anywhere on the semi-circle and they can be heard and they can hear.

 
The elevators of Facebook and Take Two Interactive are the same in shape and color, except for the corresponding white and black bottom sections, a cue taken from their logos, whereby they can be recognizable from below. This is me making an attempt to foster equality between the two companies by having one see a similarity in the other.

The link to my SketchUp file with my T2 an FB dining/meeting space and elevators is:
https://www.dropbox.com/home/Public/ARCH1101%202012%20Experiment3/DineTwoElev.skp
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The five photographs of my CryEngine3 environment follow:

The link to my Cryengine3 environment is:
https://www.dropbox.com/home/Public/ARCH1101%202012%20Experiment3/ChicagoAl
I had trouble with my elevators. One was working fine when at a certain point the soldier started to fall through the floor. Sometimes he would be taken up part way and in the end the elevator wouldn't even take him up. I spend two days trying to fix this changing elevator design (less holes, making sure the edges are clean), changing material in Sketchup and in Cry. Nothing worked and I submit my environment with elevators that do not work. Well they work without the spawn.

TheT2 elevator by the Leo Burnett Building  works, although slow. The elevator was too fast and the avator just kept falling through.