Screen Time
In Times Square, architecture is inextricable from mediated representations. The place is dislocated by the screens that envelop its buildings and the other screens, around the world, upon which its image is ceaselessly presented. The neighborhood itself is named after the Times Tower, which was ope...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2025
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/158318 |
| _version_ | 1826190823122796544 |
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| author | Landman, Jeffrey |
| author2 | Ghosn, Rania |
| author_facet | Ghosn, Rania Landman, Jeffrey |
| author_sort | Landman, Jeffrey |
| collection | MIT |
| description | In Times Square, architecture is inextricable from mediated representations. The place is dislocated by the screens that envelop its buildings and the other screens, around the world, upon which its image is ceaselessly presented. The neighborhood itself is named after the Times Tower, which was opened in 1905 as the office and printing press of The New York Times, and remains at the center of the square today, entirely empty, voided by the advertising value of its screens. But this condition is not a contemporary anomaly. If the screens, flowed through by consumer desire, currently vaporise the building’s edge, in 1904, before it was even occupied, the building summoned the city with the results of the general election, broadcast to the metropolis via searchlight. The building has always extended its edge, projecting public messages while concealing private concerns.
This thesis understands the building as one actor in a media apparatus: a network of interconnections between broadcasting devices and media, infrastructure, public and political events, development policy and financial systems. The Tower indexes 20th century architecture’s participation in this media apparatus, telling a story in which communication and the distribution of power predate and outlast inhabitation, a story in which occupation is not part of the program. The thesis tracks the tower through six innovative broadcasting devices which the building sponsored, including the world’s first moving electric sign, the New Year’s Eve Ball, the world’s first changeable architectural screen, and the world’s largest open architectural competition.
The form of the thesis is a short movie that uses found footage and computer generated animations to apprehend the Tower amid its myriad images. In designing for animated representation the thesis is positioned in a lineage of paper architectures, proposing a form of architectural production which embraces and redirects the forces of the media apparatus. The movie reconfigures, misaligns and misuses its historical sources to reproduce and subvert the Screen Time from which architecture can now never be distinct. |
| first_indexed | 2025-03-10T07:21:24Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/158318 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2025-03-10T07:21:24Z |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1583182025-03-05T15:27:21Z Screen Time Landman, Jeffrey Ghosn, Rania Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture In Times Square, architecture is inextricable from mediated representations. The place is dislocated by the screens that envelop its buildings and the other screens, around the world, upon which its image is ceaselessly presented. The neighborhood itself is named after the Times Tower, which was opened in 1905 as the office and printing press of The New York Times, and remains at the center of the square today, entirely empty, voided by the advertising value of its screens. But this condition is not a contemporary anomaly. If the screens, flowed through by consumer desire, currently vaporise the building’s edge, in 1904, before it was even occupied, the building summoned the city with the results of the general election, broadcast to the metropolis via searchlight. The building has always extended its edge, projecting public messages while concealing private concerns. This thesis understands the building as one actor in a media apparatus: a network of interconnections between broadcasting devices and media, infrastructure, public and political events, development policy and financial systems. The Tower indexes 20th century architecture’s participation in this media apparatus, telling a story in which communication and the distribution of power predate and outlast inhabitation, a story in which occupation is not part of the program. The thesis tracks the tower through six innovative broadcasting devices which the building sponsored, including the world’s first moving electric sign, the New Year’s Eve Ball, the world’s first changeable architectural screen, and the world’s largest open architectural competition. The form of the thesis is a short movie that uses found footage and computer generated animations to apprehend the Tower amid its myriad images. In designing for animated representation the thesis is positioned in a lineage of paper architectures, proposing a form of architectural production which embraces and redirects the forces of the media apparatus. The movie reconfigures, misaligns and misuses its historical sources to reproduce and subvert the Screen Time from which architecture can now never be distinct. M.Arch. 2025-03-05T15:27:08Z 2025-03-05T15:27:08Z 2021-02 2025-03-04T15:59:44.466Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/158318 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright retained by author(s) https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Landman, Jeffrey Screen Time |
| title | Screen Time |
| title_full | Screen Time |
| title_fullStr | Screen Time |
| title_full_unstemmed | Screen Time |
| title_short | Screen Time |
| title_sort | screen time |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/158318 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT landmanjeffrey screentime |