Experience as Material marzo 15, 2010

Photo: Foghorn Creative’s branding videos for Victory Park were designed as works of fine art. They are essentially indistinguishable from the artists’ work displayed in the Victory Park collection.

Experience as Material: Transforming Architecture into Communications Media

Don Richards

New developments and innovations create unique opportunities for each generation of architects. One of the most significant developments of our time, digital display technology, has literally changed the face of architecture. Media has become a vital material.

The emergence of “experience” as a material began in the theater. Set designers (many trained as architects) such as Mark Fisher in Great Britain and Jerome Serlin in the United States began using integrated, panoramic projection to create image-driven spaces in the 1970s. A seminal event in the public conscience was Pink Floyd’s 1980 production of The Wall Live, which merged engineered architectural forms with dramatic, filmic storytelling to create something new and remarkable. These evocative theatrical environments created their own inertia, and soon every major rock tour, theme park, and Broadway show seemed to have “spectacular” visual effects.

Today, the image surface has become part of our daily context at every level (take a look down at your phone). In the architectural world, the primary driver behind image surface has been marketing and sales. Urban media structures, by their sheer scale and proximity, provide a powerful means to communicate and sell. In many cases the designs have been little more than 3-D billboards, but as the public grows more discriminating this has begun to change.

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