PROFESSOR

Jonathan Rule

STUDIO THEME

Model: As a staple of popular culture for more than a century, the times have changed. Once frequented regularly by the masses, movie theaters are struggling to keep the screens on. How people consume media has drastically changed in the last decade. This has required some theaters to adapt to new models of operation to stay open, including shifting from a commercial business to a cooperative and independent movie house. Students will reflect on the idea of a cinema+ which incorporates cooperative programming that goes beyond the movie experience. Method: Kitbashing or model bashing is the process by which something new is created using components from different model kits. It is an analog and digital technique used prevalently to produce cinematic models in movies such as George Lucas’s original Star Wars trilogy. While bashing suggests an assembly by brute force, the outcome is quite the contrary. The results reveal a carefully composed and constructed artifact that is both functional and aesthetically harmonious. Architecture and space also has the potential to be created by this process. Using both analog and digital methods of working, students were asked to critically select, study, and co-opt a lexicon of ‘parts’, building or other, to be recomposed for a new cinema+ in Ann Arbor.