Ramping off exit 22 at Science and Technology Park along No. 8 National Freeway in Tainan, one is greeted with billboards peppered around strategic roadways and intersections, many of which are plastered with vividly rendered architectural visualizations. The sprawling landscape is littered with advertisements for condominiums of different sizes, configurations and amenities each with its own pastiche names derived from literary fables. The free-standing signage, typically measures between 8 meter to 14 meter in width, is literally invading, like a swarm of locusts, the New Town landscape. Beginning in the 1890s in Europe and the United States, advertisers began exploiting public space as a marketing medium (Baker, 2007). Ever since it has received great attention and became a discussion point in the public discourse over its value as an emergent subject of mass cultural spectacle (Cronin, 2006). Although research of billboards in the public domain is well documented and researched, using it as an instrument for architectural or property speculation remains under-studied by researchers (Koeck & Warnaby, 2014). Against this backdrop, the proposed research investigates the impact of architectural visualizations by developers and architects on enticing land and property transactions. Using photo-realistic images on billboards as an instrument to advertise “architectural hypothesis” is commonly deployed by developers with architects as their partner-in-crime (Guimapang, 2021). Two critical impacts have emerged as a result. First, although billboard legislations are written as bylaws, contents which are displayed through the billboards are rarely enforced, therefore the great chasm between the promised and the constructed is often at great odds. Second, the advertisement presents a great intrusion into the public domain and has played a vital role in shaping the image of the city. Building upon these visual, aesthetic and regulatory factors, the research aims to study and analyze the billboard’s spatial and temporal impact within 2 areas around Tainan through the method of graphic ethnography, and aerial scanning so as to understand its impact in affecting both the public and consumers at large.
Research supported by Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council
