I contributed a text for Eye on Design’s issue # 3 on the theme of gossip entitled Churches of Chatter, which explored “how the sauna, nail salon, and watercooler became hallowed ground for idle talk”. This and other issues are available to buy here.
“In public space, the precise arrangement of bodies within the solar system of gossip—inner orbit: the talkers and listeners; secondary orbit: the onlookers and eavesdroppers—is largely determined by the backdrop. The physical architecture of a space molds the social architecture of gossip. Take, for example, the salon, the nail salon, and the office watercooler. Subconsciously or not, we use these spaces for chatter, and we preserve their gossip-facilitating designs when we build them anew.”
Featuring photography by Nora Hollstein
Fiona Shipwright 