My reaction to the new ‘thisbuildingleaks’ project is an overwhelming desire to stage a massive public argument, a spontaneous musical, or perhaps an architecture-themed soap opera.
The opportunities seem endless for a Big Brother generation – and yet no interesting characters have emerged.
The Union elections could be surpassed by ballots on our fellow students high in the Arts Tower.
Tuesday, 5.30pm: In the First Year Architecture studio, a student wheels trolley with an interesting looking box on it. Male students stretch.
5.32 pm: Female student opens the door. It’s almost as good as real life.
Thursday, 10.34am: in the MArch Architecture studio, a male student is tired, after a big night last night. Now one can experience fully the numbingly mindless buzz of the Arts Tower in one’s very own home.
With Architecture students being in until the early hours, you need never miss the action.
Anyone can watch for no discernible reason other than ‘art’, and it’s possible that a student could be unaware of the cameras, leaving questions of privacy unanswered.
Of course my own comments in seminars – and indeed in all conversation – never fail to be enlightening, witty, and original.
I am nevertheless doubtful that I’d like anyone, anywhere, to hear what I’m saying or to see me struggling to stay awake.
The project is an exhibition of the School of Architecture rather than by the School of Architecture, but one wonders, after even a couple of minutes on the website, why exactly they feel it worth exhibiting.
My interest was piqued, once, by a round of applause in the studio, but I could not discern a reason for it from the mush of noise.
I eagerly followed a link to ascertain the ‘Upcoming Events’, thinking that perhaps my hopes were about to be realised, but the calendar is blank.
The website claims that it is an exhibition without curators or selection, but there is still an element of decision and selection.
We cannot, after all, see every room, or hear every conversation – it is as selective as any other gallery as the creators chose what in the Arts Tower is worth exhibiting.
Here modern surveillance culture is turned to art, and yet surely there is little art in which the idea is more interesting than the content.
The ‘thisbuildingleaks’ project is innovative and provocative – it’s just a shame that it’s so boring.