“All the world’s a stage!” The famous line from Shakespeare’s As You Like It introduces the seven ages of man, from infancy to death, likening life’s ineluctable transformations to the narrative arc of a play. The fundamental things haven’t changed since the great bard penned those words over 400 years ago, least of all the fact that the stage upon which most of our lives unfold isn’t the great expanse of nature. Rather, it’s indoors, inside built space, public as well as private, in offices, restaurants, nightclubs, and of course our homes. These are the places where we congregate, socialize, and celebrate, where we reflect, relax, and come to rest. Against these backdrops, where the drama that is our lives unfolds, art and design have historically played the necessary extras. If there is one thing, however, that has changed since the Elizabethan era, it’s the introduction of the digital dimension. Not only is our built environment conceived with the help of digital technology — from modeling software to computer-assisted construction drawings to the photo-realistic renderings used to sell real estate — but large parts of our lives now take place digitally, from online retail services to video games to social media, increasingly blurring the lines between what is real and what is virtual. The 240 pages of PIN–UP 19, which was designed by our new Art Director Erin Knutson, are a paean to the infinite variety of sets and stages that architecture and design provide for the performance of our lives — whether digital or IRL — and to the objects that fill them. From remote country refuges to buoyant urban cathedrals of culture, commerce, or consumption, from repositories of our fondest memories to utopian visions of the future, it’s all in the great indoors.
--- EURO 18.00
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