Literally Anything At All: Ornament in the Age of Seapunk

In its latest resurgence, architectural ornament has evolved from a responsibility towards symbolic significance to the ambition of sensual communication through affect. In some cases the visible aspect of affect is accomplished through the tectonic consequences of digitally fabricated assemblies, which though they are nonlinguistic are nonetheless exceedingly complex and dense. Art and media practices of the current moment as embodied in the seapunk subculture engage in far less complex strategies for decoration and ornament. Seapunk aesthetics rely on the expedient layering of readymade image and pattern without syntactic or semiotic relations but with new rationales for composition and arrangement capable of containing “literally anything at all”. The sea punk phenomenon was predicted by Nicolas Bourriaud’s concept of altemoderism, an optimistic vision of human history as atemporal, non-linear, and simultaneously complex. At the same time the oscillation of attention and distraction that epitomizes internet culture has created an accelerated appetite and pressure for novelty which constantly requires new operative modes for decoration and visual expression. By tracing through this logic, the following paper presents the potentials of this nascent “seapunk” ethos as a conceptual framework for architectural ornament. Methodologically, the authors have experimented, with students and in practice, to borrow techniques from surrealist automatism, optical art, and aqueous craft techniques. The results of these endeavors outline unique approaches to composition, craft, labor, and optical fascination in ornament.

Volume Editors
David Ruy & Lola Sheppard

ISBN
978-0-935502-95-4