In its early stages the focus of the research were the drawings for architectural patents and the frontispieces for architectural treatises, but further research showed that the patent drawings for new technologies, especially for those that deal with still highly speculative technologies, were far more spatial and visually interesting than patents for explicitly architectural technologies. Interestingly I found the same for frontispieces - those fronting speculative texts about science or philosophy tended to move beyond flat architectural detailing on ornate scrollwork and became fully spatialised dioramas of the complex ideas within.
I chose to produce a large drawing (2.4 x 1.2m) that began to embody all of the ideas uncovered in the research, using the images uncovered to rebuild an edifice that embodied every aspect of the thesis.
All 9,552 words of the written thesis are included on the drawing. In the spirit of the representations studied, the work presented is only the facade for a much larger research project, with countless conclusions still to be drawn.
Work achieved a First/Distinction.
Researched and written under the direction of Mark Garcia, Jonathan Hagos and Simon Herron.