Architecture and the Selfie

Last Tuesday night I had the pleasure of attending a lecture on architecture in the digital age. Although many people would consider the rise of digital consumption largely separate from the physical world of architecture and buildings, Alice Kimm deftly demonstrated that the rise of Instagram has altered the way that we view buildings, the architectural landscape, and design. I was surprised to learn that the attention span of the digital age begets more distinct architectural facets and forces the design of appealing “selfie walls” or other various ways of generating attention and notoriety for a building. Moreover, Mrs. Kimm discussed how the digital age had manifested itself through a newfound understanding and contextualization of the cities we live in; today, we define cities by recognizable landmarks that we have previously seen in photographs, creating a situation where architecture we experience for the first time is already familiar. Throughout the talk, I was especially amazed as I realized the extent of social media’s influence on our perception of the world, where buildings are no longer appreciated for their striking architecture but for their “likeability.” Lastly, I was struck by the increasingly large role that architecture plays in everyday life. I was left wondering about the lasting impacts of the digital age on architecture, and I am curious to learn more about how landscapes alter as people become more attentive to them (and use buildings to define parts of their own personal identity of experience through photos online). Ultimately, architecture, much like social media, is focused on both aesthetics and practicality, and I think it will be fascinating to see how the two evolve over time.