Keith L. Brown

Cover sheet (Section S: 0.0) Introduction - This 150 page completely collaged document is an attempt to occupy the tenuous gap between architecture and appropriation culture. The manuscript acts as a literal example, illustrating many of the tenants associated with appropriation culture (boundary crossing, genre blurring, exploitation, ownership negation, displacement, data overload) simultaneously, documenting numerous case studies, while asking, how should architectural designers respond in such a dynamic, epicurean environment?

Meet the narrator: Mike Michealson (Section I: 1.1) In the film, "The Truman show," a life and an entire town is appropriated for the entertainment of popular culture. Mike Michealson is the host. He has been appropriated and used to narrate this document. "Ambitious work doesn't resolve contradictions in a spurious harmony but instead embodies the contradictions, pure and uncompromised, in its innermost structure." -Adorno-

Epiphany (Section I: 1.3) The epiphany page. Lessons were learned during the research process that altered the course of the study. I share those moments here. "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see, and what it means." -Didion-

Section M: 0.0 Table of contents (pg 1 of 3) Conceptually, 3 books have been mashed to make one. Each over steps and invades the others boundaries offering visual conflicts and tension. A scaled version of the multi channeled, chaotic, data rich environments we are becoming accustomed to.

Section D1:1.0 The abstract Multiple ways of reading are offered as the document attempts to speak in a tone simulating our present day, multi media culture. EXERT: THE SO WHAT When subcultures overlap and appropriate space, they've created oppurtunities for designers to respond and develop new kinds of hybrid places. Resolution isn't the solution. Rather than resolve the tensions of conflict through seperation, I propose explotation. Potential to broaden the definition of place occurs by forcing entities to coexist.

Section D1:2.0 The process Communicative devices from construction documents have been appropriated (detail bubbles, section marks) to expand upon topics and offer other ways of progressing through the document. EXERT: CATFISH Art must satisfy this perpetual urge to swing from contrast to contrast; the spark generated by tension of opposites, creates the peculiar vitality of a work of art.

Section S: 0.5 A commercial break Commercial breaks are inserted as propaganda commentary to offer more perspective on the subject(s). EXERT: EMINENT "The bedfellows politics make are never strange. It just seems that way to those who have not watched the courtship." NORWOOD LOVES ROOKWOOD

Section D1:4.8 The Precedents Excerpt: CHRISTO & JEANNE CLAUDE "Our work isn't just painting or sculpture, even though it has elements of both but it's also architecture, environmental planning, all these things. No one ever discusses a painting before the painter has painted it or a sculpture before its been sculpted. But everybody discusses a projected new airport, highway or bridge before they are created. Our work encompasses all these elements."

Section I:3.1 An Interview with the Instigator EXCERPT: "We recently caught up with the elusive instigator and asked him to explain his role in the CCPAS project. His response took us into a discusion about the relationship between architecture and fiction."

Section D1:3.2 The 4 roles Excerpt: MUSIC HALLUCINATIONS Sheryl C wanted the music in her head to stop. She began having music hallucinations after she went deaf. She got a cochlear implant, but it didn't help, she continued to hear music. Dr. Oliver Sax says, "As a physician, you ask patients about their symptoms, but it's equally important to see the connection of the symptoms (of the disease) to the person themselves, to their identity. One sees interaction, a collision, a zone between the self and the symptom."

Section E1:3.4 The 4 roles EXCERPT: APOLOGIZE PERVERT The settlement calls for Hamilton County to issue a formal apology to the families in the lawsuit, "expressing sincere regret for the deeply troubling actions that unfolded under prior leadership at the coroner’s office," according to a statement. Also, every copy of photographs taken by Condon in the morgue will be transferred to the families' attorneys and destroyed.

Section F: 0.6 A commercial break EXCERPT: ORSON WELLES “We were fed up with the way in which everything that came over this new magic box, the radio, was being swallowed, so in a way our broadcast was an assault on the credibility of that machine. We wanted people to understand they shouldn’t swallow everything that came out of the tap.”

Section E1:6.0 Reflections on it This page is a diagrammatic comparison between the film characters of the "Truman show" and the real characters of the eminent domain conflict in Norwood, Ohio. "An awful lot of fiction is immensely autobiographical, and alot of nonfiction is highly imagined. We dream ourselves awke every minute of the day. Fiction/nonfiction is an utterly useless distinction" -David Shields-

Section E3:1.0 Consumer EXCERPT: I was just thinking - in order to have this conversation, we need to be talking about the same thing - or else we would have speech - but not a conversation. I think if I throw out a word - that would help narrow the topic enough (yet still allow a lot of freedom) so that we would at least be in the same realm. This word may or may not be a factor - don’t feel constraints. I have placed the origin piece on your desk. Here is a word: CONSUMER

Section E2:4.0 The Culture EXCERPT: "A culture may be conceived as a network of beliefs and purposes in which any string in the net pulls and is pulled by the others, thus perpetually changing the configuration of the whole. If the cultural element called morals takes on a new shape, we must ask what other strings have pulled it out of line. It cannot be one solitary string, nor even the string nearby, for the network is three-dimensional at least. "

Section E2:4.2 Remix culture EXCERPT: CORPORATISM “I REALIZED THESE PEOPLE WERE MORE CONCERNED ABOUT THE SHORT TERM ASSET VALUE OF THEIR PROPERTY THAN THEY WERE THE LONG TERM EXPERIENTIAL VALUE OF THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD. WHAT I REALIZED WAS THAT THE PROBLEM WAS NOT JUST THAT THERE ARE THESE BIG CORPORATIONS OUT THERE OR THAT THERE WAS ANOTHER STARBUCKS ON THE BLOCK, THE PROBLEM IS THAT PEOPLE HAVE INTERNALIZED THE VALUES OF CORPORATIONS AND REPLACED HUMAN VALUES WITH THESE CORPORATE METRICS”.

Section D2:5.12 Appropriations EXCERPT: TRUMAN SHOW SYNDROME Psychiatric experts have identified a 21st century form of delusion, dubbed the 'Truman Show Syndrome' whose sufferers are convinced their lives are being played out in front of an audience. Self exposure culture peddled by reality shows and internet sites like Face book has provided a perfect storm for delusional people, encouraging them to put their fantasies on a global stage. Joel Gold, NY psychiatrist says they've been inundated with cases.

Wolves in the walls (an installation) Section E3:10.2 EXCERPT: THE CONCEPT "WE WERE INTERESTED IN THE IDEA OF USING A FICTION ABOUT APPROPRIATED SPACE TO ACT AS A MEDIUM TO ACTUALLY APROPRIATE A SPACE. WE TOOK THE PAGES FROM THE BOOK, “THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS” AND PUT THEM UP IN 3 LOCATIONS. WE WANTED TO CREATE A ‘PETER’ BY TRANSFORMING A UTILITARIAN CIRCULATION SPACE INTO A DESTINATION. WE ALSO TRIED TO ENCOURAGE LOITERING IN THESE SPACES BY PROVIDING PENS SO THAT SPECTATORS COULD ADD TOO / ALTER THE STORY."

Wolves in the walls (an installation) Section E3:11.0 EXCERPT: DAAP NOTES "THE HANDICAP STALLS TEND TO BE APPROPRIATED THE MOST. IT’S THE ONE STALL BIG ENOUGH TO FEEL LIKE A SMALL PRIVATE ROOM. THE CONVERSATION AND COMMENTS RANGE FROM SILLY TO SERIOUS. A DRAWING OF JESUS NAILED TO A DRUG NEEDLE HAS THE FOLLOWING EXCHANGE WRITTEN NEXT TO IT: “WHY DOES A JEWISH CARPENTAR OFFEND SO MANY?” REPLY: “NOT OFFENDED, DISGUSTED WITH THE MISINTERPRETATION OF CHRISTIAN IDEOLOGY BY THE RULING CLASS.”

How to read the document Section I: 6.1 - "How to read the document," is a breakdown of different components and systems operating within the document. EXCERPT: THE QUADRANTS "The challenge: Provide a substructure of components to allow one to navigate through a collage while maintaining the artistic quality. The desire is to create a document that offers multiple ways of reading and presenting information."