THE FRAGILITY OF PAPER MÂCHÉ MEN

CREATOR, DIRECTOR AND EDITOR: Rory Johnson

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CINEMATOGRAPHY, CREDITS, AND EDITING ASSISTANT: Charlie Flaherty

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ACTORS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE): Rory Johnson, Shea Hampson, Eli Croft, Shelby Hutchinson, John Wallace, Jacinta Portelli, Charlie Flaherty.

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FROM THE CREATOR:

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THE ETHIC:

This short film explores the topic of a self-discovered architectural ethic titled ‘Personalitisation’. Personalitisation stems from the anthropomorphising of items in the built environment. It tackles the perspective of buildings & homes and how they withstand history or experiences like all humans, allowing these buildings to develop memories carried throughout their lives, like chips in paint, or stains on carpet; the idea of finding agency within a home. The essence of a personality is found within the building due to its longevity and the evidence of decay on site; this evidence can often be used to tell a story about the building and the people who have inhabited or used the space. Personalitization is the concept of a house or building providing agency to personable traits such as emotions, feelings and history, as well as the reflection of that sensation influencing change or atmosphere in an environment. Modernity within architecture often uses coats of white to represent a time of purity & cleanliness at the post-construction of a building, where dirt and decay are absent, and so is the building’s character. As a building is lived-in and experienced those small changes that occur due to decay and living give the building the scars that any person would have when living a life. Granting the building a history, a personality.Le Corbusier has a contemplative book titled ‘When the Cathedrals Were White’ which proves both in title and context, the obsolete ideologies of past architects and the practice of praising cleanliness and sterility around buildings. His own buildings like the Villa Savoye and the Colline Notre Dame du Haut are constructed from white-washed cement and stone masonry, allowing his builds to avoid decay overtime. This reduces the building’s from constructing personality from their destruction or use, and retains their original intentions with nothing more.Jeremy Till in ‘Architecture Depends’ also explores the notions of Personalitisation. “In raising the specter of dirt, he goes straight to the heart of Giedion’s (and his associated architects’) anxieties about time. The issue is not so much dirt per se, but dirt as the signal of the encroachment oftime into the sterile perfection of architecture.” Till doesn’t mean throwing dirt in a literal sense, but simply as an appeal to architects to allow their projects into a place where a buildings personality can be shown through decay and the passing of time. He pleads for architects to allow the buildings to live their own lives, without taking complete agency of the direction.

THE FILM:

Paper Mache Men explores the life of a freshly built building, experiencing decay over time, and becoming a character the audience can both relate and sympathise with. Masky (The characters nickname) is depicted wearing a Paper Mache Mask, that is easily malleable and suffers decay through the passing of time and events in the film.Masky steps out of his comfort zone after his construction, and is immediately hit with the harsh realities of todays society, developers and architects are looking for buildings where they can create their own vision, not relish in the beauty of visions prior and build upon. This leads the 1900’s house to be rejected from the market, and begin to decay on its own.A family eventually stumbles upon Masky, and decides to inhabit the home, repairing, renovating, playing, living. Masky’s face becomes torn and worn, creating an iconic character with both story and life. Eventually the family moves away, and the 1900’s home is demolished. Leaving a newly painted emotionless shell in its place.