Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2014
Capstone Advisor
Assistant Professor Anda French
Honors Reader
Assistant Professor Jonathan Louie
Capstone Major
Architecture
Capstone College
Architecture
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
yes
Honors Categories
Creative
Subject Categories
Architecture | Other Architecture | Urban, Community and Regional Planning
Abstract
900 million people across the globe tuned in to watch the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony on television. The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) own broadcasting division circulated over 100,000 hours of coverage to respective national networks, extending the breadth of the Olympic telecast into every one of the 204 participating countries. At the conclusion of the Games, more than 1 billion views had been recorded on NBC’s YouTube webpage specifically designed for Olympic coverage. In a time when occupation of space via digital media is the preferred method of experience, what is the agency of the architect? Stadiums once designed for hundreds of thousands are left empty while ceremonies and events are choreographed for live television audiences. Not only has architecture become a picturesque backdrop in a finite number of pixels, but the crafting of experience has been delegated to filmmakers, broadcast media conglomerates, and social media users. If the habitation of the Olympic Park now occurs primarily in digital space, this must become the realm of the architect. This project operates through the analysis and imaging of several concepts situated within and outside of architectural discourse in order to redefine the role of the architect before it becomes obsolete. The role of architecture in the Olympic Movement has shifted from dependence on outdated physical and infrastructural models to integration with broadcast, digital, and social media on a fundamental level. Through the design and occupation of these spaces created in media, architecture has the potential to redefine Spectator, Spectacle, and Site and thus reinvent the Olympic Games.
Recommended Citation
Royyuru, Harsha, "Five Rings to Rule Them All / Olympus The Architecture of the Olympics & Global Media" (2014). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 742.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/742
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