Coney Island

This slideshow is part of: Selected Undergraduate Design Studio Projects--Thesis 2011-12

Coney Island: Shadows of a Spectacle

Andres E. Larrauri

The place of fantasy, ease, and plenty has many names. Its form and image necessary for its existence beyond the physical, a construction that is constant in the re-telling of their legend. These fantasies and their aforemen­tioned spaces/tectonics become incarnations in our own pleasure/leisure seeking society, modern places of pilgrimage that provide the overwhelming stimulation only possible in dreams. With Coney Island, what once was a simulacrum of fantasy, real fantasy in and of itself, has become a ruin. This thesis explores its ruin in close relationship to its previous and nostalgic image to create an exhibitionary process of embalmment, which crystal­lizes the melancholic atmosphere of its demise and celebrates the passing of its architecture and image. Proposed as a touring exhibition, the artifacts would disseminate its current state much like its former self disseminated various technologies and images of its grandeur.

 

 

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