The strange and soothing world of "rendering porn" on Instagram

In the spring of 2020, a few months after the pandemic, a series of images of a mansion on the cliffs of Skala dei Turki on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, appeared on Instagram.

The building appears to be made of cream-colored adobe bricks, with uncovered round windows and doors overlooking the calm aquamarine sea. Bofinger chairs and Le Corbusier furniture designed by Gerd Lange are placed beside the pool with seawater to lure people. Inside, Picasso's pottery is skillfully placed here and there in the minimalist living room, and the sun is still early in the afternoon.

This mansion Villa Saraceni is the work of two designers, Ricardo Fornoni and Charlotte Taylor. However, this building does not actually exist. It was drawn with rendering software, and its design is completely speculative.

In reality, the Skala dei Turki cliffs are tourist destinations, but they have been eroded and damaged by excessive tourist acceptance. In 2007, the municipalities around the coast filed an application to be designated as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, and in 20 the area was put under control by the Italian authorities concerned about its protection. Still, people who were fascinated by the pictures of Villa Saraceni asked if they could make a reservation. An Instagram user left a comment saying "great!" "Can I borrow here?"

An illusion that heals our hearts

Instagram is full of images like this. Living rooms, patios, bedrooms, and mansions that never exist today and in the future. The unrealistic tones and memories of such photographs, the silhouettes that attract people, and the images of water that attract people heal our hearts for some reason.

The lower living room is lined with fluffy cushions, and the spiral staircase is wrapped in blue glass. With a Mediterranean landscape in the background, there is a chaise longue (chaise longue) that is eye-catching but not very popular in terms of ergonomics, and next to it are two vases that are as tall as a person, climatically. There is a cactus that doesn't fit. Behind the high-ceilinged sky-blue spa covered with white tiles is a relaxing corner painted in pale pink with arches and curtains. In front of the geometric tiled wall is a console table with a brass top plate, on which flower arrangements are displayed, but it seems that it is dying due to lack of water. Just like reality.

These spaces project order and silence, and the photographs recall the words abundance, indulgence, and restraint. The neat and tidy private space welcomes people happily, but there is no damage caused by human use. It looks like a clean room. There are traces of someone there-disturbed bed spreads, open magazines by the pool, etc.-but no one lives there. The important point of this illusion seems to be the absence of others.

Make more realistic images faster and cheaper

The CGI (computer-generated image) model isn't particularly new, but its technology has evolved over time, making it possible to create more realistic images faster and cheaper (since 2014, the IKEA catalog). Most of them are CG).

Digital artists' computers now have a menu of software tools, from 3D modeling programs like SketchUp and Rhinoceros 3D, and rendering engines like OctaneRender and Enscape. You can choose and use what you like.

There is also a large international talent pool with a large number of rendering artists. Fiverr, a freelancer talent marketplace, has hundreds of artists in Nigeria, Ukraine, Vietnam and Turkey, and undertakes rendering and 3D modeling services. YouTube has tutorials such as "10 Tips for Creating Really Realistic Interior Rendering," many of which have been viewed millions of times. For advanced users, some of these images are not recommended. But for those who just want to refer to it, that's enough.

With 3D modeling software, it's easy to create some elements such as plastic, curves, and soft interior lights, and even a rendering engine can process them relatively quickly. That's why these elements are often used in CG fantasy architecture (human eyes tend to recognize curves, but sharp and accurate corners tend to look unrealistic).

These elements and trends combine to form an aesthetic standard-a colorful, spacious, shaded and clear space. The lighting accentuates the interior, with rounded corners and ripples on the surface of the water. "We are always trying to create an atmosphere in the space." Taylor, one of the artists who created Villa Saraceni, said in a telephone interview. "Always dim the lights, creating that calm atmosphere that lies between fiction and reality."

CGI interior showcase

Taylor is a co-founder of Dello Studio, a London-based stage design company, and also directs 3D and video studio Maison de Sable. The Maison de Sable collaborates with rendering artists to create a digital diorama using dreamy futuristic elements such as sliding terrazzo walls and unrealistic rock formations.

Taylor usually works on 5 to 10 fictional interiors at the same time, but he says he first sketches by hand before handing over his design to the rendering artist. Sketching can be done in a week or months.

Taylor often meets his collaborators on Instagram. There is a loose community of designers with similar tastes to her, and she is one of them. "Dreamscapes & Artificial Architecture" and "Dreamscapes & Artificial Architecture" published as a collection of high-design rendering art by the German publisher Gestalten in 20. ) ”[Untranslated] is a showcase for CGI interiors.

"We've never been able to render the world as much as we want, which means that 3D modeling software has the power to greatly liberate humanity," Rosie Flanagan said in the preface of the book. .. Further on, Flanagan says. "If it can free architecture and design from the yoke of reality, it definitely has the power to free us from other aspects of life."

Affiliates and product placements

Like any high-end interior design, the CG interiors on Instagram were created for her longing and projection. In an era when "Instagram" is everything, such images are well thought out, but they are not complicated.

Like the heavy wallpaper in the restroom of a restaurant or the flashy decoration of the Museum of Ice Cream, the CG interior fits perfectly on the screen of your smartphone. Some of them are clearly dreamy or surrealistic, but most of them are strangely realistic. With enough money and time, you might be able to live in a house with a bathroom with a VitrA bathtub and a huge bonsai tree.

These renderings come from other lifestyle-related content found all over the Internet and often reflect real-world design trends, but when it comes to monetization, the story gets a little confusing. .. You can't tag or earn affiliate income for discontinued antiques or non-existent items.

Some of the gorgeous interiors on Instagram are posted by illustrators and design studios as swatches of actual interior equipment, with marketing and advertising fees. A studio called Six N. Five, based in Barcelona, ​​regularly posts 3D rendering interior designs in partnership with high-end brands. In 2018, as part of a household goods line campaign, one of the studio members, Andre Reisinger, was enormously black in the landscape of pink tiles, pink sand, arched entrances, and fluffy pile undulating rugs. I created an animated image of a round stone rolling.

In 20 years, the Maison de Sable created a model of a house in Southern France, Villa Ortize ("It's set to be in Southern France," Taylor said over the phone). At first Taylor and his collaborator on the project, Zyva Studio architect Antony Otier, said they intended to place their favorite designer's items inside the villa. I thought that this villa could later be monetized as a platform for product placement [Note: an advertising method that promotes products as props in content].

Recently, however, Taylor finds it more interesting to put things in his own house or the works of young artists and furniture writers to create a personal atmosphere. But for many designers and architects who trade in these fancy interiors, the product is insubstantial. In other words, what is being promoted there is the creator's artistic service itself.

Non-political "paper architecture"

Among architects, the term "paper architecture" is used to describe concept design, non-permanent models, artistic--or technical--provocation. Often used derogatoryly, it was given a new meaning, albeit briefly, by young Soviet architects in the 1980s. It used imaginary architecture as a means of ridiculing the uniformity of Practical, undecorated and bureaucratic Communist architecture. Compared to the Communist Party buildings, the architects' designs use more domes and columns that take in natural light, and are full of cheerful chaos.

"Paper architecture is often about real utopia and the critical intent behind it," says Lindsay Caplan, associate professor of art history at Brown University. Fictional architecture was often clearly anti-capitalist, emphasizing the various possibilities of post-revolutionary society. Modern CGI, on the other hand, offers illusions for personal consumption and comfort, but is largely indifferent to the political ones.

"There seems to be no plan, no social vision, no criticism," says Caplan. "From a historical point of view, the world of continuing to create fictional utopian architecture without any utopian vision is a bit depressing."

"Rendering porn" and freedom

In the early 2010s, "Cabin Porn [Note: Maniac posts of people who yearn for a forest hut life]" became an explosive trend on Tumblr. The nostalgic and earthy aesthetics of the cutting-edge Americans of the Obama era-love 100% wool blankets, gas lanterns, flannel jackets, etc.-accelerate when you think about it now. It may have been the flip side of growing anxiety about digitization.

In comparison, Instagram-filled, longing-filled, hyper-realistic interior design images-some called "Rendering Porn [Note: Maniac Posts of Ideal Rendered Images]"- ─ is not wary of digital life.

It's reminiscent of screen savers and video games. No time passes there, and it is unaffected by climate change and dark seasons. "CGI architecture may seem attractive because it completely denies the reality of lack of money and the destruction of the global environment," says Caplan. "This is an illusion named freedom. The illusion that the true essence of freedom is to do what you want to do without the restrictions of any substance is visible here."

This interpretation of freedom was born out of our involvement with the Internet. CGI interiors embody that interpretation in the field of architecture. "Of course, these technologies themselves can suck out resources and deplete them," Caplan adds. "Not only that, the illusion of being free from all constraints can lead to the denial of others, and the denial of the material constraints themselves." This illusion is also a kind of financial escapism. Nothing in CGI's dreamy images isn't available, and you don't have to pay any rent.

To NFT Marketplace

Historically, paper architecture has flourished during times of economic recession ("What architects are always doing in some way-the point is, create your work the way you like it." And then you have to get someone to pay for it, "a friend of an architect told me," Architecture is vulnerable to market fluctuations, so when the economy goes down, everyone has a job. Until you find it, just make what you want to make. ")

Twenty years was a year of trials for artists, but it was also a time when new opportunities were born. In May 2009, Taylor and Autier launched a series of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) called Architoys at the Foundation, the NFT marketplace. Architoys is a digitally rendered palm-sized capsule that displays CG-based fictional interiors one after another (somehow reminiscent of the Viewmaster [editor: binocular-shaped toys with 3D images]).

One of them, Villa Biarritz, is "a renovation of a traditional building in southwestern France into an eccentric and futuristic dwelling." The villa is pearly, dollhouse-like, with a white tiled spa, soft magenta window benches, and spacious pink chairs that look a bit like ice cream.

Of course, Villa Biarritz doesn't exist anywhere in the physical sense, nor does Architoys. But the pink chair-a lorry Pauly armchair designed by Faye Toogood, popular with rendering artists-is a real-world interior staple and sold at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) design store. ing.

Even if the polished silver capsule looks a little annoying, it's a perfect container for an eerie and graceful image. It mimics the bondage of the real world and reflects the lack of art created by the NFT economy. "The virtual world offers a very exciting opportunity," says Taylor. The "movement toward the Metaverse" seems to be the logical next step.