Social Epidemics
Social Epidemics
All of us, anyone who participates in society (and even those who do not) are infected by social epidemics.
In scientific terms, an epidemic is a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease where many people are infected at the same time; in non-scientific terms, a sudden, widespread occurrence of a particular phenomenon.
In his book The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwel describes those who shape and spread social epidemics. His writing suggests that humans are very sensitive to context, that our external environment plays an exceedingly important role in how we behave and who we are. Very subtle changes can have a profound effect. The visual communicator creates messaging through images; the architect creates space through form, the architect of landscape creates experience through registration of process. Together there is great potential for shaping cultural narratives.
All aspects of the city compose a holistic ecology. Those who inhabit the urban environment compose a collective consciousness; they are the producers of space in the Lefebvrian sense. This phenomena should be viewed as fertile ground to the landscape architect, an intangible territory of collective conscious where foundations can be laid prior to physical construction. (And with half of the world’s 6.7 billion now living in urbanized settings, the territory is significant.)
Perception is a powerful tool. Our perception influences how we understand the world around us, how we interact with it. Our perception of reality dictates what we build, how we build, and for whom. In other words, our perception of reality dictates future realties. Architects, politicians and dictators have long recognized the power of perception in defining reality, leveraging it through a multitude of means towards various ends.
Indeed, strategies can be deployed to alter perception of place without any direct physical intervention in the place itself – and if perception of a place changes, does not the place itself change? Accordingly, altering public perception of what is and what might be possible, can be a uniquely tactical and efficacious method for initiating massive change in the concrete stock of reality.
If these social epidemics exist – and perception becomes the affected cells – then how can the architecture of landscape host the disease? Groundwork for opportunity forms while physical surroundings blur into subliminal and our society moves deeper into the interface. This line of questioning calls for an architecture that will change state, like water, responding to the armatures existing networks provide.
At Forge, we investigate the individual’s interpretation of their context to understand: How sense of place manifests and how do urban and social networks influence one’s sense of place?