Body Double: Mythmaking and Identity in a Virtual Countryside
| dc.contributor.author | Caywood, Collin Chandler | en |
| dc.contributor.committeechair | Borunda Monsivais, Luis Ricardo | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Gipe, Andrew | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Garcia Carrasco, Edgar Eduardo | en |
| dc.contributor.department | Architecture | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-05-28T08:02:01Z | en |
| dc.date.available | 2025-05-28T08:02:01Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-05-27 | en |
| dc.description.abstractgeneral | This thesis looks at how the romanticized image of the American countryside has shifted over the last century. By tracing a lineage of mediation through different mediums (print, television, internet), we argue that there has never been a pure rural condition. Currently, the countryside is undergoing new changes brought about largely by the connectedness of an ever-shrinking internet. Everything at this moment seems more local, personal, and urgent than before. We describe this condition as a 'flattened' state, where information no longer encounters the same thresholds of legacy media, where 'facts' are handed from above and distributed outward. In this context, there is no truth or falsity, only indeterminacy. This poses challenges for the discipline of architecture, long considered a cultural practice, as the internet and its infrastructures blur distinctions between place, time, and identity. The goal of this work is twofold: first, to develop a clearer understanding of this condition; and second, to propose a conceptual framework for architects to design within moving forward. | en |
| dc.description.degree | Master of Architecture | en |
| dc.format.medium | ETD | en |
| dc.identifier.other | vt_gsexam:44202 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10919/134249 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Virginia Tech | en |
| dc.rights | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | Platform Capitalism | en |
| dc.subject | Identity | en |
| dc.subject | Culture | en |
| dc.subject | Representation | en |
| dc.subject | Rural Idyll | en |
| dc.subject | Digital Labor | en |
| dc.subject | Critical Theory | en |
| dc.title | Body Double: Mythmaking and Identity in a Virtual Countryside | en |
| dc.type | Thesis | en |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Architecture | en |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | en |
| thesis.degree.level | masters | en |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Architecture | en |