As the novelty of the digital wanes, the discipline of architecture has begun to question its relationship to a changing landscape of media, multiple realities, and accelerated modes of operating. This move has enabled the emergence of new forms of participation and discourse through quick, ephemeral, social platforms whose mechanisms of infinitely scrolling and swiping demand another way of interacting with architecture. Hashtag architecture has come to the fore, not as an overarching authority of what should be categorized as architecture (with a capital ‘A’) but rather as a genre of work which originates in, and never leaves the virtual world. Yet contrary to what may be perceived as “paper architecture,” the experience of the work in some instances is becoming less about a physical product and more about the rumors, hashtags, time-lapses, slideshows, GIFs, or selfies that accompany it.
Moreover, as advanced software allows us to replicate the real world with increasing fidelity, the image of a project can no longer serve as evidence in itself. In this light, processes of making architecture gain a new agency where documenting the act of being there (doing it) may in fact be the only proof that design ever actually happens. As a result, architectural practices may benefit from adopting methodologies from tangential fields such as performance art, theater, or filmmaking as well as its own rich history of performative representations.
Three Acts of #Architecture is an exhibition addressing this cultural shift. It collects a series of acts in which each project leads a double (or sometimes triple) life. The projects are witting diagrams oscillating between the real, material world, and the virtual, infinite realm. Together they constitute an emerging mode of inquiry into the discipline’s attitude towards these fluid realities. Through the production of metanarratives about objects with primitive formal qualities and a rich catalog of references, these acts warrant multiple double-takes and re-watching sessions. Some may seem vaguely familiar, a few may have already appeared online, and others...well, you just had to be there.
