Scott Overall Academic Portfolio

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Cult Classic The term “cult” stirs up many negative proposed, with one tier acting as a traditionalimpressions of gullible individuals blindly movie theater where the movie is playedfollowing delusional groups, but the cult does and the audience participates, while alsosomething very important for those individuals. introducing a second tier meant for watchingThe cult offers inclusiveness while providing the audience instead. An important componentthe feeling of being socially exclusive, of midnight movies is the elaborate acting outsatisfying human needs for connections to of scenes in addition to large-scale audienceothers and the feeling of moral or intellectual participation. The acting is a performancesuperiority (regardless of whether or not it is in itself, which now become the center ofjustified). It may seem to be a paradox, but attention for the public. At the conclusion ofthese two offerings are what drives the cult. the movie, the public may then join the actingA cult cannot survive without inducting new audience through in-house after-parties wheremembers, so the process of joining must they then join the cult.be relatively easy, but provide enough of abarrier so that the inductee feels that they must The theater protrudes strangely fromcontinue on the path or their time and effort be the city block, almost mimicking an air ventwasted. or other mechanical object, but entirely out of scale. The louvers on the main window are The process of indoctrination is not positioned in a way to prevent the public fromrestricted to religious cults. The tern “cult seeing in, but allowing just enough of a view toclassic” refers to niche movies popular among tell that there is something beyond.subsets of the population, seemingly havinga loose relationship at best to religious cults, The building has only a single doorbut some particular movies exhibit striking as a street-facing facade, serving as a publiccharacteristics of the stereotypical cult. entrance. The cult entrance is hidden away in the sunken plaza of the building next to it. The The “midnight movie” phenomenon bollards are set up almost as if to protect thein particular has included community-based building, but the sheer proliferation of bollardsactivities that accompany the movie watching crates confusion as to what is actually beingexperience. Learning the actives is not difficult, protected. The bollards become quite tallbut it requires enthusiasm and some effort to and dense, but never so dense that someonememorize and perform each activity. Once cannot walk through the bollards right up tothe individual learns the activities, they may any part of the building.attend the movie and enjoy themselves. Inorder to fully enjoy what they have learned, The public can climb the building,the individual must hope that others are also discovering that they have views into theinterested enough to hold the event, or they building through the steps of the slope, but thetake a more proactive approach to recruiting views are restricted to prevent understandingnew audience members. Many different of the building’s function. It is only once themidnight movies exist that follow this model, user investigates the building and discoversbut many fall out of favor over time with only a the side entrance that one can experience thefew maintaining popularity cult theater. What if the midnight movie communityhad another means of initiating new members?In “Cult Classic”, a multi-tiered theater is 63

The Midnight Movie64

A Critical Mass 65

Audience-watching-Audience66

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12:00 AM: Midnight Movie68

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1:00 AM: Indoctrination70

2:00 AM: After Party 71

Ground Floor Plan INDOCTRINATIONPUBLIC ENTRANCE THEATER PERFORMANCE THEATER72

Basement Plan 73 DANCE FLOOR BAR CULT ENTRANCESTAGE PROP STAGING PERFORMANCE STORAGE UP FILM THEATER ROOM

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Condition: Forced Calm (or the act of thinking, before the first question is asked)80

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Home, sweet home.94

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