André Kong
MA work
MA work
Hack Circus
Hack Circus: A theatre for the post-tragic condition of subverted capitalist technologies
The Hack Circus is a post-tragic critique of current technologies, which are masking real climate change under the guise of a seamless, virtually augmented, continuum of trivial delights. Reacting to a digitally ‘media-ted’ surveillance society, Hack Circus proposes a radical, social-libertarian, self-sustainable community, leveraging itself off existing hardware, hacking ‘alternatives,’ unlocking their full potential and going beyond the narrow limitations of ecological design towards a wider ecological ontology.
Mashing
the subversive model of Burning Man festival and the formative role of
Hackspaces, together with the belief that escape is only possible
through an offensive system reset, the ‘Ad-hackers’ (a group of
tinkerers who redefine the possibilities of existing technology), leave
London for the water. Here the first crowd-funded Hackfest (the annual
hackathon event) is hosted in its germinal amphitheatre and from it THE
CIRCUS IS BORN. As the alienated community grows and floats down the
Thames, ties with power structures, ideology and the obsolete value
system of the city are gradually severed until it sets itself free,
beyond territorial waters and, in an act of ‘sousveillance,’ taps into a submarine Internet cable in the North Sea.
The Hack Circus is potentially the
first node in a wider global network of linked hacker-maker communities.
Set within a dialogue of bottom-up and top-down design, the
architecture of the Circus is hackable, adaptive and augmentable; it is
receptive, open-source, and resilient.
Info
Info
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MA Degree
School
School of Architecture
Programme
MA Architecture, 2014
Specialism
ADS1 (Yr1), ADS5 (Yr2)
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Contact
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07964 325748
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My architectural practice and research is set at the intersection of social behaviour and digital culture. I am interested in the interface between the fields of emerging technology and architecture. I am particularly attracted to exploring open-source design, social networks, augmentation, and digital ecologies. Throughout my work there is a concern for innovative sustainability – a bottom line I believe should be a common denominator in all design work today.
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Degrees
- MSc Construction Management, Cass Business Scool (City), 2012; MA (Hons) Architectural Design, University of Edinburgh, 2011
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Experience
- Architectural assistant, Grimshaw, London, 2013; Architectural assistant, Aires Mateus, Lisbon, 2009, 2010; Architectural assistant, Opera Projects, Barcelona, 2010
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Exhibitions
- School of Architecture Work-in-progress Show, RCA, London, 2013; School of Architecture Work-in-progress Show, RCA, London, 2012; Dataspace, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2012; RIAS Awards, The Lighthouse, Glasgow, 2011; Degree Show, University of Edinburgh, 2011
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Awards
- RIBA WLAS Award, First Year Work (RCA), 2013; Santander Award for Postgraduate Performance, 2012
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Publications
- Harold Linton, Portfolio Design (Fourth edition), 2012; Xinru Long and Jiangshan Zhou, The Art of Data Visualization: Decoding Visual Dialogues in Information Visualisation in the UK, due 2015