What role does social media play in our research and practice as design professionals? And what role, if any, do we play in the ‘Instagramifaction’ of our cities and landscapes?
“This Salon is a product of social media, specifically Instagram, in connecting individuals literally on opposite sides of the globe as a platform for organising, showcasing, and disseminating of our research and practice. This is a concept that, for individuals who deal in the manipulation of space, should always be astonishing, no matter how ubiquitous it might seem. The content itself also stretches and alters time and space by enabling a sweep through history with a vast digital knowledge base that, whilst resembling a Situationist’s psychographic map, can inform and enliven those who allow themselves to be interested enough to follow these threads.
Walter Benjamin categorised cultural expression as either being aesthetic, that is that the senses are pricked; or anaesthetic, that they are deadened. So here we are floating around the ether, posting stuff and connecting via the very same medium by which people post all manner of repetition. Are we contributing to the blurring between these two polar opposites, where people enjoy both discovery and cultural opium all at once?”
Duncan Gibbs is a landscape architect based in the small town of Murwillumbah in Northern New South Wales (Duncan Gibbs - Home). He is originally from Melbourne, where he completed an honours undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture and a master's in urban design, both from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). He has thirty years of design experience, completing a wide range of projects and being involved in various practices, from his own sole practitioner consultancy to contract work for large private and government organisations. He has also tutored and lectured in landscape architecture and urban design at Queens University of Technology (QUT), the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), and the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He has practised internationally, including in Ames, Iowa (USA), Melbourne, Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney, Qatar and now the Gold Coast / Northern NSW region. His meticulously detailed posts on his Instagram page (@duncan.gibbs) showcase his research and font of information on the Modernist Garden.