Conceptual Tests

An installation exhibited at the AA was used as a test of involuntary participation in propaganda; viewer, standing in a certain position, switches on a beautiful and magical recreation of the Lord Mayor’s show - an annual parade in the City of London. The forced position of the viewer is then abused by projections on the back, making him/her an unconscious part of a propaganda show.

Technological Tests

The project is interactive and allows for personalization of propaganda images through the use of augmented reality technologies in one’s phone.

If a protest does not appear to be large or impressive enough in real life, it is instantly made such in images; politically charged objects and scenarios are applied to dull real-life situations to ensure a scandalous end result.

Guildhall: 2012

The project brings together the rigid and hierarchical political system of the City of London - the small historical core of London - with internet-based social technologies used for propaganda creation by political activists like the Occupy movement.

Guildhall: 2012 is an architecture that exists in media-space. It is physical as a series of inflatable objects that manipulate crowds of protesters to create impressive mass scenes for propaganda images; it is also virtual as the augmentation of those images to add extra political friction.

As most people will only ever experience the protest or any other political activity through its internet representation instead of real-life participation, the physicality of the project becomes secondary to its virtual images; simulation and simulacra switch places.

The project was developed within the framework of AA Diploma Unit 1, led by Tobias Klein, in the academic year 2011/12.