Physical bodies occupying one actual space at a time but simultaneously existing in– and being connected to– many others through cameras, networks, and screens has become the most iconic reality of the modern city. Since coronavirus shelter-in-place orders taking place across the US starting mid-March in 2020, such multiplicity of presence has spurred a cultural shift much more drastically than any has come before. The pivots from situated towards remoteness in social and professional lives urge new definitions of architectural boundary, techno-aesthetics, domesticity, and public space. Interior Cities is a multimedia exhibition that explores the networked camera spaces as tools for placemaking, reflecting the short- and long-term shifted living, working, and social interaction modes since the pandemic lockdown across the globe. Designing with webcams, inhabitable screens, domestic archetypes, and daily life activities, the exhibition reimagines cityscapes of Charlotte as interactive fictions of its citizens from within their personal spaces, and of visitors in the gallery. It invites public engagements when examining the world around publics and individuals during, and possibly after COVID-19 through an immersive environment. The project questions what existing architecture and digital media could offer in their radically transformed relationships with social mechanism, humanity, and wellbeing.

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* This work has been supported by the Faculty Research Grant Program in the School of Architecture at UNC Charlotte.