Copying, Cutting and Pasting Social Spheres

In architecture, projects are developed through a series of graphic productions. This space of representation can be accessed using visual effects. Among the documents (plans, sections, details, etc.) used to give shape to a building, so-called ‘perspective drawings’ play a decisive role, as they make a whole world come alive and, at the same time, act to convince a multiple audience of this world’s ability to function. Created using computer-aided design (CAD), perspective drawings aim to ‘render’ space by projecting potential uses, light, and intangible things such as atmosphere. These drawings provide architects and designers with an opportunity to redefine the nature of beings and act on the peculiarity of their relationships, and constitute an interesting support to consider the projection of new cosmologies, anticipating the cohabitation of such diverse things as human beings, buildings, roads, trees, skies, cars and their respective ways of existing. This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Japanese architect’s office and a computer designer’s studio, and focuses on the architectural setting of the Japanese World Fair, Aichi 2005.