Grabhub
2022 Spring
Syracuse, NY
The vending machine as a metaphor for such omnipresence that displays materialism and our blasé consumerism as a mass spectacle.
The project addresses the overwhelming amount of material transactions that facilitate and perpetuate the overstimulation of the urban experience. This was due to the absence of a programmatic and infrastructure-based central commercial system (specifically grocery stores) that anchors the city's activity in Downtown Syracuse and its Connective bus Corridor. The project uses the vending machine as a metaphor for the statelessness and ubiquity of transactional experiences, putting materialism and our culture of blasé consumerism on display as a mass spectacle.
The proposal takes the conventional linear supply chain and the enfilade of logistic spaces (unloading, back of house, floor space, storefront window display) and collapses them into a series of planar moments. Like the vending machine, the window display, the inventory behind, the transaction interface, and the projected social bubble all exist within a thin slither of space while arousing the context. Each programmatic element takes on multiple agendas: socializing while shopping, eating while performing, exhibiting while browsing, which all are supported by the systematic loop with the public resources.
Collaborate with Nicholas Chung