Miami Attitude

I captured the photo shown my first week here on campus. Ben, my roommate and the one who is shown, displays his excitement for the end of the school week. After the image was taken, Ben and I planed to go to a music party, our first college party. 

         The focus for me is the sign labeled “wet-paint”. The wet paint sign caught my attention because the color itself was such a pasty white. The thought that there had been a subconscious choice to paint the music building such a distinguishable milk white occupied my attention for most of the beginning of the school year, and only now to I find myself revisiting the phenomenon.

         The University of Miami works so hard to keep the image people associate with the school. The white walls will undoubtedly get dirty, but the school can just paint over the dirt. These white walls relate directly to the mobiles of Miami and how they act. The idea that decisions and actions do not have consequences because whatever happens can just be painted over and forgot. The real colors of the wall, and Miami as a locale, are hidden beneath layers of think milky paint (not to mention, more paint is on its way).

         For me this picture stood out because I could not understand the easily dirtied, yet still extremely gaudy, milk walls. Regular walls would have functioned fine. With time, many buildings in other college campuses seem to age. The process of aging buildings shows signs of heavy use, security, comfort, and nostalgia. But this is not the way the buildings in University of Miami are. This is not how the mobiles act. Architecture must function as an indicator of money. Everything always needs to be new.