Fragments of Dystopia
Fragments of Dystopia
These works are a selection from a larger project, titled Fragments of Dystopia, which relates to fictional representations of intertemporal urban Dystopia. It started in 2008, the year that overlapped with the beginning of the global financial crisis and melt down, and is on a continuous process of evolution. The works aggregate fragments that depict socio-political, urban and cultural issues, and also structures of activity within the human habitat. A key tenet in these representations of elements of our decaying global community is a perceived relation between built environment and man. Urban fabric is seen here as an organism consisting of cells, tissues, organs and systems. Sometimes these works seem as layered "aerial x-rays", creating a kind of urban palimpsests that encode information on urbanization.
From a formal point of view they resemble master plans of dystopic landscapes created by man, although he is absent. In this mapping of human geography these Kafkaesque fields are composed by hybridizing many elements: buildings, urban plans, mechanical branches, biological structures, archaeological plans, computer hardware networks and lettering that ranges from ancient symbols to binary code.
Reflecting my views on the nature of architectural space, these can be considered as alternative blueprints. Beneath the chaotic geometry lies a narrative, the syntax of which reflects the current sweeping crises. Looking as though they might have been visual texts produced by machines, these works seek to give visual form to a new and ambiguous spatial world emerging from the interaction of various data gathered. This method opens architecture to a wide range of knowledge coming from different fields of thought and work, which is sorely needed in a time such as the present, characterized by increasing diversity in the human situation.
Tolis Tatolas
These works are a selection from a larger project, titled Fragments of Dystopia, which relates to fictional representations of intertemporal urban Dystopia. It started in 2008, the year that overlapped with the beginning of the global financial crisis and melt down, and is on a continuous process of evolution. The works aggregate fragments that depict socio-political, urban and cultural issues, and also structures of activity within the human habitat. A key tenet in these representations of elements of our decaying global community is a perceived relation between built environment and man. Urban fabric is seen here as an organism consisting of cells, tissues, organs and systems. Sometimes these works seem as layered "aerial x-rays", creating a kind of urban palimpsests that encode information on urbanization.
From a formal point of view they resemble master plans of dystopic landscapes created by man, although he is absent. In this mapping of human geography these Kafkaesque fields are composed by hybridizing many elements: buildings, urban plans, mechanical branches, biological structures, archaeological plans, computer hardware networks and lettering that ranges from ancient symbols to binary code.
Reflecting my views on the nature of architectural space, these can be considered as alternative blueprints. Beneath the chaotic geometry lies a narrative, the syntax of which reflects the current sweeping crises. Looking as though they might have been visual texts produced by machines, these works seek to give visual form to a new and ambiguous spatial world emerging from the interaction of various data gathered. This method opens architecture to a wide range of knowledge coming from different fields of thought and work, which is sorely needed in a time such as the present, characterized by increasing diversity in the human situation.
Tolis Tatolas