#ArchinectMeets is a series of interviews with members of the architecture community that use Instagram as a creative medium. With the series, we ask some of Instagram’s architectural photographers, producers and curators about their relationship to the social media platform and how it has affected their practice.
Social media has undeniably affected the way we perceive, interpret and share opinions about architecture today. While we use our own account, @Archinect, as a site for image curation and news content, we wanted to ask fellow Instagram users how they navigated the platform.
We spoke to the curators of @shitgardens, a curated selection of the worst landscaping the internet has to offer. A viable theory suggests that there is more to learn about humanity from the deplorable than the exemplary, either because it is in much greater numbers or it reveals basic human desires with less inhibition. As subscribers to this belief system, especially as it applies to our relationship to Nature (or, rather, our assumed relationship to Nature), @shitgardens has developed an online reputation for finding the best in the worst.
How did @shitgardens begin?
It started as an in-joke between a bunch of friends, photographing the worst gardens we saw walking around our respective Melbourne neighborhoods. When James thought of captions for a few of them we decided they could go on Instagram. Since then it has ballooned, with a series of exhibitions and now a coffee table book.
View this post on InstagramThe car oil companies are trying to hide @thekidfuture @jaime_o_garcia
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What, in your opinion, makes a garden qualify as a 'shit garden?'
I guess shit is in the eye of the beholder. We tend to favor those gardens which show lofty design ambition, but which perhaps don’t meet the creators' expectation.
What have you hoped to communicate about architecture or the built environment through @shitgardens?
View this post on InstagramFreud’s work on swimming pool design is worth a read @jenbilik @pleasehatethesethings
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Good question.
I guess that there is merit in failed design. The unique character of many 'shit gardens' is something we want to celebrate. Everyone knows a shit garden or two from their local area, and perhaps these create a stronger sense of place than any slick urban design. And I guess the idea that the built environment can be humorous - not always so serious.
View this post on Instagram“It’s ok ma’am. Elephants are herbivores. Your children will be safe”. @thinktankfx
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Has Instagram (or social media in general) affected your views toward the production and consumption of imagery?
Oh, absolutely. People are ravenous for imagery.
But there is an interesting paradox in searching for the perfect photo of something that is shit. We really notice that even when the subject matter is broken gnomes or gaudy fountains, that lighting, framing and resolution of shot are really important in forming a response to that shot.
View this post on InstagramHave ‘indoor plants’ gone too far? @gab___gab @grouppartner
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Do you post your work anywhere else online? Is Instagram your social media channel of choice?
Shit gardens began as a Tumblr briefly, many years ago. But now Instagram has become its home. We also saved many of our best shots over the last few years to go in our coffee table book.
What are some of your favorite Instagram profiles to follow?
@ruralmurals69 – documenting the bizarre and occasionally beautiful world of rural murals, with enlightening captions.
@thenortherndelights & @sublurb – Both of these accounts document a similar type of suburban surrealism that we love, only they are both much better photographers than us.
And @yorgosphoto & @regressionarymovements – Probably our favorite photographers of the everyday.
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