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Michael Villegas

Michael Villegas

Philadelphia, PA, US

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TRANSLATING ANTONIONI

The Passenger and Blowup, two films by prominent Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, serve as the source for a competition entry asking how one would propose to house this artist.  To understand exactly what would be considered spatially relevant for Antonioni I begin by first attempting to analyze how he explores/portrays space through his own work.  Filtering both pieces through nine categories (music, ambient noise, dialogue, camera pans, character activity, color, light quality, scene cuts, and duration) outlines how the relationship and timing of disparate sensory details is carefully considered to evoke specific spatial reactions from the viewer.  Similarly an abandoned viaduct in downtown Philadelphia, inherited as a speculative site, is mapped through these same categories to find any shared links between Antonioni’s process and the workings of a physical place.  The results correlate with qualities exhibited by the homeless and transient individuals who claim this district as their own.  Rather than creating shelter, the project instead uses local data to establish an obscure network of site-specific monitoring devices that collectively archive these daily use patterns, acting as a billboard to reveal those users who are typically hidden and/or ignored.  Appropriately enough, this work gets expanded by a follow up project asking for the design of a Salvation Army homeless shelter located less than one mile from the previous location.  A grid of personal sleeping modules are the organizing principle that partitions program into defined zones.  However, tapping into the underground concourse running beneath the city is the unique connection that directly links this shell to its users.

 
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Status: School Project
Location: 39°57'18.46"N 75°9'54.18"W