When it becomes job search time for an architect, in order to get an overview of firms and potential internships, the search starts where most searches these days start, Google. That search may lead to some other websites that specialize in job or internship postings, but something interesting continues to happen when using the keyword ‘architect’. Intermixed with a few listings that meet the generally expected criteria are companies like IBM, Google, and others specializing within the technology sector. Facebook lists ‘Optical Systems Architect’ and ‘Solutions Architect’ on their careers page, Google has an opening for a ‘Cloud Architect’, and Apple is searching for an ‘Imaging and Vision Architect’ along with 600 listed jobs that appear with the keyword ‘architect’. Although the amount of tech jobs, the search for that elusive job goes on, unknowingly witnessing a phenomenon that seems to raise profound questions about architecture and the architect in today’s world and in the future.

​Whose systems are dependent on who? Does space in the city have value if it does not have Wi-Fi or other means to activate social media services, regardless of built architecture?  Which architects really influence and shape our environments? 

We manage more than one “me”. Our digital persona is carefully curated and exaggerated, while behind closed doors there is chaos. The spectrum of human emotion is dense. Happiness, sadness, and anger only begin to scratch the surface, there is no longer a need to manage them, just fabricate them. Thoughts are constrained to 140 characters, connections are made through hashtags, and memories are not memories without the right filter. Everyone else, they are just pretending too.

Fake it, Photoshop it, google it, hashtag it…chaos chaos chaos….but the screen does not speak. Silent in your hands, but only for a second….like it, favorite it, comment on it….chaos chaos chaos. Fear of missing out? No. Fear of not posting it. Fear of being judged. Fear of our physical persona not living up digital….chaos chaos chaos. Battery is low, it is red, and now it is dead, chaos? Not anymore. Quiet and lonely. Scream, but who will hear you? Who will like it? Who will comment?
The only life worth living is a life online. Narrating your own story carefully behind the safety of your screen. Reality is the only realm for sad now. Avoid it at all cost.  We are conceding to the digital world and declaring our independence from reality. No longer chaos, just life, a life finally in our control.

​Retweet. 

Cutout Collage- Fall 2017

At the 8:50 mark in this interview with Madelon Vriesendorp, she answers a question about 'Bad Taste'.  Her explanation of embracing of bad taste within her work is a great context when understanding some of the early work of OMA. It is something that we are interested in exploring further this summer and beyond in new work. In order to set the stage for that, the following is the Manifesto for Bad Taste. 

Good taste is accepted as the ideal object, representation, or moment in time. Is good taste the ideal? Who decides the ideal? Status quo is the ideal. Fame is the ideal. Security the ideal. Comfort is the ideal. Routine is the ideal. Wealth is the ideal. A fence is the ideal. The ideal is binary. The ideal becomes standardization.  Expression and provocation. The anti-ideal. When seeking the ideal, anything less than conformity fails you. 

​The embracing of bad taste is the embracing of a world of possibilities and accepting beyond personal belief. In an ideal world, nothing is ideal. ​

​Architecture is meaningless. An empty void of orthographic projection. Without image, architecture is meaningless. Without architecture, image is still powerful. Image transcends medium. It is photograph, painting, drawing, sculpture, collage, writing, and craft. Image transcends scale. It is objects, people, communities, towns, cities, countries, and worlds. Image transcends reality. It is rational, surreal, speculative, narrative, dystopian, and utopian. Image transcends language. It is political, social, provocative, satire, experiential, cultural, and worth more than a thousand words. Image goes places that architecture cannot. Architecture’s rejection of image does not condemn the image. It proves the power of image. While social movement, cultural engagement, and political provocation moves forward, architecture will be left meaningless, four walls and roof. 

Modernism and Internet State of Mind
Modernism was in large part defined by the relationship between craft and emerging technologies. This allowed the modernist movement to situate itself within history in a way that effected a wide range of disciplines. In a similar way Post-Internet is attempting to reach an “Internet State of Mind” in order to position its self within contemporary culture. Post-Internet can be a misleading term primarily due to the prefix post-. Thanks to the postmodern movement, the prefix post- has been associated with anti- however it originally means after, beyond, or derived from. Post-Internet describes an object created with consciousness of the networks within which it exists.
 
Post-Internet Era
The Post-Internet movement is something of an anomaly because its stance within the digital era is ambiguous. In the publication, “You are Here: Art After the Internet” explores both the effects and affects that the internet has had on recent artistic practices describing Post-Internet as an era. The era can be defined as the generation that experienced life pre- mainstream internet. In a sense Post-Internet is a once removed understanding of the current condition. Its situates itself outside of mainstream culture allowing for a critique of a society that is completely enveloped within the electromagnetic fog of information. However, the critique is presented through mainstream media not specifically tailored to virtual but to the brick and mortar of the museum. The true understanding of Post-Internet is the cognizance that the internet has its own system and power, which affect the way we evaluate physical existence.
 
Sub themes
As with ever art movement the classification of the art has been divided into sub-themes derived from the intent of the critique. Distortion explores the modern viewing of art through a digital existence. Language comments on the abbreviation and deterioration of the written language through digital media. The Posthuman Body speculates on the dystonia future of devices tethered to our existence creating new forms of existence. Radical Identification investigates the way that personal profiles can be repackaged and re-purposed within society creating a curated existence. Branding and Corporate Aesthetics focuses itself on the role of internet and marketing exploring the relationships between startups and international tech giants. Painting and Gesture begins to understand the evolution of painting within the digital world. Infrastructure explores post Internets relationship to digital art and net art and the issues with these movement that have created the rise of post Internet as a movement. These sub-themes are exactly that, they are not designed to constrain the art or exploration. The exploration can span multiple sub themes thus commenting on a range of issues that affect macro conditions.

AW

Sources:
Art Post-Internet 
http://ucca.org.cn/en/exhibition/art-post-internet/
The Perils of Post Internet Art
http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazine/the-perils-of-post-internet-art/
What is Post Internet Art?
http://www.widewalls.ch/post-internet-art/
What is Post Internet Art? Understanding the Revolutionary New Art Movement
http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/trend_report/post_internet_art-52138