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Star Architecture from Below: Narratives and Images from Social Networks

Abstract

This chapter studies star architecture through the analysis of tags and comments on social networks (TripAdvisor and Instagram). The objective is the analysis of star architectural projects from below, that is, the way visitors depict and frame star architecture and express aesthetical judgement, to characterise “star architecture” and “iconicity” from the point of view of its reception. The analysis of the comments on a selection of sites shows the importance of the architectural component in the tourist experience, not reducible to the mention of the star architect, but presenting multiple types of discourse, pluralising the reception of star architecture. The purely “star” architectural dimension, based on the notoriety of the architect, can then be distinguished from the elements referring to the visual effects of buildings or to a perception of the building in its environment, closer to the notion of iconic building.

Keywords

  • Big data
  • Social networks
  • Tourism
  • Star architecture
  • Digital footprint

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This identification was made from the period available on Instagram, that is to say since February 19, 2012 (while Instagram has been in existence since 2010), and considering only tags in Latin alphabet.

  2. 2.

    It is a free software developed under R, based on Reinert’s classification methods. It can be downloaded at the following address: http://iramuteq.org/

  3. 3.

    Each comment may tell the experience of architecture but also buying a ticket and visiting the restaurant, so it would be a methodological mistake to take each comment as a unit of meaning.

  4. 4.

    Nevertheless, attention was paid to the fact that some tags are equivocal, for example, “Foster”, which may also refer to a brand of beer or the act of fostering a dog. In this case only the tag “normanfoster” was considered.

  5. 5.

    The data was collected on September 2017.

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Correspondence to Sébastien Jacquot .

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Jacquot, S., Chareyron, G. (2020). Star Architecture from Below: Narratives and Images from Social Networks. In: Alaily-Mattar, N., Ponzini, D., Thierstein, A. (eds) About Star Architecture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23925-1_9

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