Cameron Spicer
University of Auckland
Following last weeks post for Show Us Your Thesis, we are in conversation with Cameron Spicer. Cameron’s thesis explores our understanding of the fictional in architecture, and the blurring of the real and unreal. Through an exploration of narratives, renders and physical objects Cameron comes to see that meaningful fiction can only exist through constant engagement with reality.
SANNZ: Hi Cam! Thanks for being a part of Show Us Your Thesis! First off, what’s your thesis all about? How do you explain it when people ask?
Cameron: Thank you for having me! My thesis is titled An Anthology of Fictional Objects, and in short it's about fiction and its role in architecture, design and creative thought. The thesis revolves around 3 short stories, so I usually just tell people a story then it ends up in outer space.
SANNZ: Who was your supervisor? Why did you choose to work with them?
Cameron: Dr. Dermott Mc Meel. I worked with him for a long time as his research assistant before the thesis. Our work started when I was a second year and I did a project where we programmed robot arms to draw pictures of people. Over time there was a series of projects including a conference presentation where I programmed a residential lot masterplanning script and Dermott proposed all architects would soon be automated. I think he won an award for that one.
SANNZ: How did you approach the daunting task of starting a thesis and choosing a topic?
Cameron: I remember asking a number of other students through the year if they thought their thesis would always have ended up in the same place, and most said yes. I think there’s always something hidden that drives the thesis and it’s important to listen to that thing.
SANNZ : Did your thesis or topic change? And if so, how?
Cameron: I mean… Kind of? My initial proposal was very technology focussed, but I quickly realised that wasn't going to satisfy me. The thesis year was explained to us as a perpetual argument with yourself that starts incredibly wide and gets very narrow, and I think that's true. The key ideas, anxieties and concerns I had at the beginning always stayed throughout. Sometimes I danced around them a bit, but even when I wasn't totally aware of them, I think they were always there driving the thesis.
So it definitely ‘changed,’ although I can't exactly trace how. I think it all came full circle in the end - the stuff I was interested in at the start was all still there at the end.
SANNZ: How did you come to forming the three narratives that frame your thesis? And did this change the course of the project?
Cameron: I remember having about 6 narratives drafted in the first few months to varying degrees of completion. They were initially film scripts, but I quickly realised that my entire word count would soon be eaten up so some were dropped and others amalgamated. The more I wrote them, the more I realised I was just channeling those things that annoyed me.
SANNZ: Can you give us an overview of your methodology or process? How did it develop over the course of your thesis year?
Cameron: The thesis is structured in 3 episodes. Each episode starts with a story that has two important scenes designed and rendered. Within those scenes are objects and some of those particularly special objects were fabricated at 1:1 scale. That's the ideal version, but it was actually far messier than that. Each section is a sort of circular and recursive process that refined itself over time and as more research was fed into the process.
SANNZ: Could you talk a bit about the real and the unreal? And how that relates to your final project? (the furniture and the ‘photos’)
Cameron: I was really interested in exploring that boundary between fact and fiction, or the real and unreal. The narratives, the renders and the objects all sort of sit in constant dialogue with one another and I think the biggest revelation was that the boundary between it all is extremely blurry. But further than that, the production of reality always exists initially as a form of fiction. However, meaningful fiction that resonates with observers can only exist through a constant engagement with reality.
SANNZ | What are some of the key readings and/or influences on your work?
Cameron: Jean Baudrillard, Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco, Italio Calvino, Gaspar Noe, David Fincher, Andrei Tarkovsky, Christopher Wylie, David Mitchell, Bill Mckay, Stanley Kubrick, Yorgos Lanthimos, Berger and Luckmann, Lewis Hyde, J.G Ballard, Pallasmaa, Donna Haraway, Venturi and Scott Brown, Ridley Scott, Alex Garland, Quentin Tarrantino, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Koolhaas, Daniel Davis, Matthew Walker.
SANNZ: What part of your thesis year did you enjoy the most? Why?
Probably now it's over and I can remember it as a fond memory opposed to a stressful present. There's something incredibly satisfying about sitting at home on a rainy evening with my kitten asleep on a chair that I built.
Plus my girlfriend has stopped complaining that all we have in our living room is a couch.
SANNZ: Has your thesis prepared you for what you wanted to do next?
Cameron: I’m back into practice now, and I’m trying to take it slower at the moment to mentally recover from the 5 years at architecture school. I think there were a series of lessons and thoughts that were incredibly important to articulate and have sort of set up me for a more holistic approach to practice. The satisfaction found in those smaller personal projects still continues. And I think most critically, the project taught me more about myself than I ever anticipated. I’m more comfortable in my position.
SANNZ: What experiences did you have in the school that aided you in your thesis? Eg: Particular classes, projects, techniques or tutors?
Cameron: Far too many to list. I’m sure consciously or unconsciously it's probably everything. Calvino once said:
“Who are we, who is each one of us, if not a combination of experiences, information, books we have read, things imagined? Each life is an encyclopedia, a library, an inventory of objects, a series of styles, and everything can be constantly shuffled and reordered in every way conceivable.”
SANNZ: Lastly, what advice would you give to future thesis-goers?
Cameron: I think the best advice I received was from Bill Mckay. He simply told me he had a student's thesis graded an A+ by one reviewer and a C by another. All that matters is that you are happy with your project.
Images of work provided by Cameron Spicer
Interview by Tane Pamatatau-Marques
