Bodyscapes : body to body, body to city, body to self

Abstract

Our modern spaces are a result of a history of architects losing agency to technology. In the era of climate control spaces and the digital interfaces of social media, a sense of place and association with others is lost to enclosed spaces of satellite conversations detailed with attention to standardization rather than customization. These desires for comfort and control manifest in the lack of friction in our built realm. Spaces mirror the scaleless quality of the digital, impose no physical friction of environment and allow for isolation between bodies in the same room. Boarded in these spaces with the disappearing digital threshold, our friends fall in the same political silos as ourselves, empathy for others falters, context is arbitrary and we never have to be 'alone' when we have our phones. The tech industry tries to offer solutions to alleviate these problems with apps and devices. However, without a violent change in environment - engaging the physicality of the body, its senses and its association to others and site, the problems will persist. 'Bodyscapes' is a series of provocations at varying scales that subvert the language of corporate standardization to allow new opportunities for human interface where the public and private realm meet.