Last month we launched The Complicity and Defiance in Architecture Charrette which asked participants to create an architectural image that communicates a clear and provocative message of critique and/or defiance towards any one of President Trump’s authoritarian legislation measures. The responses were overwhelming. Now is the time for architects to act. In this era of interactive digital and social media, creating high-powered visuals (our specialty) is the only way to communicate. Within this mashup culture where reposting, reblogging, and retweeting meet fake news and alternative facts is the opportunity to modify and subvert prevailing tendencies. These dynamics can be harnessed for the worse, but these entries show how we can use them for the better.
Congratulations to the winners and everyone who participated!
Jury Comments:
“Drawing on a large array of political, contemporary and historical references, the submitted images tend to offer criticisms and provocations more than solutions – proof that the architectural imagination is still very much alive and is being used as a productive tool for political intervention. Each image asserts architecture as a political act. We are skipping the middle man. Instead of architecture responding to a brief (that is responding to contemporary conditions left unquestioned), architecture is now responding directly. In this way, architecture has the possibility for significant influence or disruption in popular culture, and the image as provocateur seems to be the most viral candidate for the job.” – Kyle May – Founder, Kyle May, Architect | Editor in Chief, CLOG
Follow @Archistophanes for updates on Charrette 03!
Best Overall Image: “Oil Border” by Elisabeth Drumpf
Second Place: “Absurdity Redlined” by SJ Kwon
Third Place: “Humane Security Corridor” by Zachary Wilson
Honorable Mention: “EcoPorn” by Yoshihara Hisao
Honorable Mention: “Scare Immigrants” by Ernesto Preciado
Honorable Mention: “Welcome to Sunny Trump Isles!” by Mykhailo Ponomarenko
Honorable Mention: “The Garden of Contemporary Blight” by Hadin Charbel and Deborah Lopez
Honorable Mention: “How to (Theoretically) Travel to the Alternative Fact Universe” by Em Cheng
Honorable Mention: “Trumpe L’œil” by Sara Castillo
Honorable Mention: “A Monumental Protest” by Rajiv Fernandez
Honorable Mention: “#dismantle” by AfterArch Collective
“Equipped” by Dan Edwards
“Not Just Hot Air” by Alex Olevitch
“Tower of Babble” by John Allyn
“Hell Toupee” by Adriana Davis & Maria Syed
“Money Shot” by Paige Davidson
“Pollen Attacks!!!” by Expose Propose Politicise
“FACTCORP” by Sophie Gallatin Nichols and Daniel Simon Ayat
“GargarnTrump’s Meal” by Federico Demoro
“All that is solid melts into air…” by Alex McGlade
“#Error” by Emma Peng and Gary Polk
“Ham York City” by IA. Irma Arribas
“Taking a Bite out of Meals on Wheels” by Thomas Alia
“Security Mk2” by Terrence Hector
“The Wall of Hate” by Babak Talai
“White Under Blasé” by Jaime Rivera
“Your reality no longer counts. Your dreams have been rendered” by Sanjana Paramhans
“The Man In The Highest Castle” by Matthew Niebeling
“The Test” by Alex Solbes, AOS works
“Ignorance Wall” by Sebastián Rodríguez Lemoine (Sebazo)
“First In War” by Christian O. Strom
“Walled In” by Bert Meekins
“We Against Wall” by Adela Ho
“DeVos Island” by Emily Johnson
“Winter Is Coming” by Aly Perez
“Twelve Miles Out” by J. Solares
Charrette 2 – Complicity and Defiance in Architecture
The Premise – When The Shit Goes Down
Architecture is historically complicit with the policies of those in power, both symbolically and functionally. It offers not only representations of power, but also vehicles for enacting power in its most grandiose, oppressive, and physically enduring expressions, from palaces and corporate skyscrapers to border walls and prisons.
Art that opposes power, on the other hand, is more fluid. Graffiti, protest songs, and written manifestos cost nothing and are easily disseminated–all things that architecture has historically never been. As such, there is no canon of activist built architecture. And while there have been revolutionary movements and utopian visionaries in the history of architecture, only now through Photoshop and the internet can an architecture of protest and revolution truly form and proliferate, through imagery that is arguably more provocative in imagined scenarios than built projects in their real-life executions.
We are only a few weeks into his presidency and Donald Trump has already taken steps toward his promised authoritarian legislation: enacting an immigration ban, threatening existing allies, ordering the construction of a border wall, deregulating banks, attempting to repeal universal health care, reproductive rights laws, and years of environmental protection. These displays of power mongering have sent shockwaves through the design community and have already sparked debate about complicity and defiance.
The Proposal – You Better Be Ready
Through original design or borrowed content, we want you to create one architectural image that communicates a clear and provocative message of critique and/or defiance towards any one of President Trump’s authoritarian legislation measures. Now is the time for architects to act, and in this era of digital and social media, and interactivity, creating high-powered visuals (our specialty) is the only way to communicate. Within this mashup culture where reposting, reblogging, and retweeting meet fake news and alternative facts is the opportunity to modify and subvert prevailing tendencies. These dynamics can be harnessed for the worse, but with your help, we can use them for the better.
Prizes
+ First Place – $1000 + Publication (visit recent press)
+ Second Place – $500 + Publication
+ Third Place – $250 + Publication
+ All entries will receive (1) print from the Trojan Developer drawing series (see below)
+ All entries will be posted on the Reality Cues website
Oil Rig | Embassy by Archistophanes
Drug Trafficking | Light Manufacturing by Archistophanes
Human Trafficking | Hotel and Casino by Archistophanes
Wall Mounted
Human Trafficking Detail
Oil Rig Detail
Drug Running Detail
Signature
On Table
Reality Cues 