THE POST OLYMPIC TOURIST TRAP

Stuck inside a system that is all-encompassing, and that holds thinking and acting captive in a predetermined way, contemporary society seems incapable of imagining alternatives. A feeling of hopelessness and an urge and inability to find ‘the new’ define this state of being. Melancholy overtakes the mind and traps the individual in a constant rebooting of their own memories. Comfort is found in the safe cocoon of sameness and the known surroundings. To change or react to the system we are in, seems increasingly more difficult.

“Is there no alternative?”, asks Mark Fisher. In relation to this question, the concepts of desire and hyperreality are researched in an architectural context through a fieldtrip undertaken in physical and virtual ways. A newly developed tool ‘Accelerated Memory Construction’ (AMC)* and a compatible medium ‘Obstructing Architecture’ (OA)* aid in the understanding and reworking of this trip. To understand reality and the way in which desire influences it, AMC and OA are combined to develop an architectural project called ‘The Post Olympic Tourist Trap’. The initial research trip experience unlocked the conception of new knowledge and understanding. By accelerating, transforming and fictionalizing the experience a new story is formed. This new story brings forward the memory that was created through different encounters during the trip. From this, an architecture was developed, using film and text, in which reality and desire are rearranged as to create a deeper understanding of our surroundings. *AMC is the deliberate use of existing content, addressing the memory it contains, in the process of new content creation. By speeding up the artificial formation of meaning AMC questions the world that this content originates in. *OA becomes the environment in which AMC is active. Obstructing Architectures are designed as to understand and respond to notions of desire in contemporary society, and the role architecture plays therein. Working together with AMC the obstructed experience in OA could help create meaning in an accelerated way. Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppEefev-RiA