Project by Haniqa Rahardjo
The project’s final phase expanded outward to study precedent environments that manipulate perception through spatial and aesthetic tactics. It examined the disneyfication of Times Square, where policies like the 1995 “60/40 rule” sanitized adult content through loophole-driven compliance; the casinofication of Las Vegas, where miniaturized monuments, maze-like layouts, and immersive comfort encourage prolonged consumption and detachment from reality; and the caricaturization of the Portland protests, where playful costumes and cohesive graphics softened perceived threat. These cases reveal how environments curate, distort, or simplify reality to redirect attention and manufacture fantasy. In parallel, the project analyzed gamification as a tool of persuasion, focusing on QAnon’s use of puzzles, “breadcrumbs,” and collaborative decoding to transform extremist ideology into an engaging communal game. Synthesizing these tactics, the final intervention materializes disneyfication, casinofication, caricaturization, and gamification into a spatial sequence that draws visitors into cycles of curiosity, speculation, collective validation, and endlessly reinforced belief, ultimately pulling them away from reality.
