The Shape of Consent: A Commentary on Emergent Forms within Suburbia

Abstract

This thesis reveals relationships between the neoliberal subject and the suburban subject relative to the built environment. It argues that today's "architecture" is an integration of digital and analog worlds. The thesis articulates that American society's subjectivity is imposed by a consumer condition that is tied to the iconography of suburban landscape, such as the iconic house shape or a recognizable brand icon. The advent of the internet accelerated this condition by providing additional conduits of capital-based icons to emerge from and merge with the suburbs. The work focuses on creating parallels between the American suburban landscape, the suburban home, digital infrastructure, and the emerging structures which merge with the internet. The thesis asserts that the suburban project dominates the entirety of the landscape and is the governing force building an incipient landscape. The written part of the thesis discusses how our modern identity, influenced by both physical and digital worlds, has evolved from suburban roots, while the visual commentary uses architectural drawings to reveal four modalities which frame our environment and shape our lives and interactions.