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The project critiques contemporary design strategies in landscape architecture that reinforce capitalist accumulation, focusing on subcultures like underground electronic music.

May 8, 2026Open Access

Deep UnderGround : Spaces for Subculture Under Postmodern Capitalism : A Cruel Angel's Thesis

Key Points

The project critiques contemporary design strategies in landscape architecture that reinforce capitalist accumulation, focusing on subcultures like underground electronic music.
Analyzes design strategies in postmodern landscape architecture
Examines the role of spatial friction in community building
Focuses on underground electronic music as a case study for cultural resistance
Highlights how design can protect cultural difference and foster political antagonism
Illustrates the impact of underground music on resisting cultural commodification

Abstract

This project emerges from a critique of design’s postmodern direction, arguing that many of the design strategies adopted by landscape architects reify flexible forms of capitalist accumulation that have become dominant in the Global North over recent decades. It aims to deploy spatial friction as a method of protecting difference and heightening political antagonism, with a focus on underground electronic music as one form of community building and resistance against cultural commodification.

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Eric Thiessen

University of British Columbia

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Deep UnderGround : Spaces for Subculture Under Postmodern Capitalism : A Cruel Angel's Thesis

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