Domestic Datascapes
This video installation examines the transformative effects of "PropTech" platforms on domestic life. While real estate has traditionally been a conservative industry, recent technological disruptions—from algorithmic valuation to new debt‐financing mechanisms—are reshaping how we experience and understand our homes. By exploring the financialization of housing, the project reveals how spaces once rooted in social or personal utility are increasingly commodified.
In 2018, so-called “PropTech” companies raised over $9.7B in funding, almost 500x the sector's worth in 2008. Technological transformations are increasingly affecting one of the world's most conservative and slow-moving industries - real estate. From listings and property management to algorithmic value assessment and trickier debt production mechanisms — these companies are changing the experience of domesticity.
The financialization of housing is gaining new momentum: the process of transforming housing into a commodity - a tool for enrichment and financial speculation - as opposed to housing as a social good.
The video work "Domestic Datascapes" seeks to understand the consequences of these technological changes by looking at the most personal domestic space through the lens of technological platforms.
Center for Spatial Technologies, for “Eyes of the City” 2019 Bi-City Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture curated by Carlo Ratti