We have our first critical review tomorrow for the project, and my biggest concern is whether I have managed to string together a coherent argument for my research direction. I’ve been pulling at a lot of threads over the past 4 weeks, my brain is fried, and I worry that I’ve overstretched and still have a too abstract approach to it. I’ve uploaded what I plan to present tomorrow, and it is shown below.

One of the other criticisms I’m expecting is that it is very information dense, and light on the explanatory graphics which would otherwise aid in my case. After the crit tomorrow, I plan on taking a full day off and then pivot to dissertation research and writing; as realistically I’ve got at least three days next week where I’ll be packing and moving, so I won’t have much time to hunker down and read or write. Our written draft is due first week of January, which really isn’t that far away.

Overview

We exist in an environment that is in various stages of crisis and flux. To investigate, I have chosen to look at the intersection of information warfare and the LGBTQ+ community. In addition, I have briefly touched upon the visualisation of corruption, the differing approaches to economic systems and the integration of agricultural systems into architectural design.

When discussing information warfare, I look into the usage of bots on Twitter to leverage differing dialogues; followed by a brief look at misinformation in the Hispanic community during the 2020 US Elections. This leads to an overview of the resurgent clash between the LGBTQ+ community and ‘big C’ conservative religious forces, touching on its relationship to transatlantic politics and the disquiet caused, along with historical context.

The research into economics is itself very light touch, as I wished to get an understanding of contemporary moves towards a circular economy – and implications for architectural practice such as embodied carbon cycles. My focus for ecological analysis builds upon prior research into the integration of agricultural and horticultural practices within architectural practice. This is followed by a look into the key actors & concerns underpinning the proposed design direction for this project.

Declaration

With warfare taking on old forms in new dimensions, it is critical that a suitable bulwark be erected, to aid in the mitigation of bad actors, restoration of collective purpose and safeguarding of besieged minorities. In conjunction with this new paradigm, we face a disintegrating socio-political contract in the face of a decaying ecological environment providing a dual blow to economic recalculation. It is however these conditions that may perhaps paradoxically provide the best operating environment for such recalculations.

Neutralisation of bad actors would require strategic development and testing of counters, manoeuvres, and sorties; and a secure bulwark from which to do so. Recruitment and training from perhaps under-utilised sectors of society who have a vested interest in defence and counter-attack would ensure a dual level of safeguarding. This would result from the unique development of social infrastructure aiding in cultural defence at a local level, which would provide an anchor from which to negotiate with surrounding cultural infrastructures both physically and digitally. To that end, a new network would need to be established.

The network is centred around the ‘cultural machines’ (Finn, 2017:18,19,34,41), which are carefully maintained by the interrogator/investigator and the coder to prevent system collapse (Langley in: Petrescu and Trogal, 2017:134). In turn, the investigator/interrogator monitors the cultural machine and reports any irregularities to the lawyer & the three social mediators such that a counter can be formulated and passed to the coder to implement; whilst the mediators & lawyer ensure the neutralisation of any irregularities that have caused a malignant mutation in the socio-political fabric. These roles are supported by that of the librarian and archivist to ensure rigorous data versioning, logging and archival.

The engineer works with the socio-ecological & socio-political mediators to ensure that the entirety of the physical infrastructure supporting the other actors, and cultural machines, functions optimally. Their roles are also supported by the librarian & archivist with logging & resourcing. The social fabric of the network is maintained by the three socio-mediators, lawyer and librarian/archivist who ensures free, equitable access to all available data within the network; whilst working with the socio-cultural mediator to ensure the continued education of the entire network.