Ryan Waller is a partner at Other Means, a Brooklyn-based graphic design studio working with architects, artists, curators, editors, institutions, and schools.
The architectural implications of the intangible guidelines of happiness indexes, the new marketplace of emotions. and the relentless ideology of positivity. How do we design our cities when our most intimate experiences are incessantly tracked and our feelings become the base of new modes of production that prioritize the immaterial over the material? Since the 2008 financial crisis, lists of well-being indicators, happiness indexes, and quality-of-life rankings have gone viral. Concurrently, the emotional data presented in these surveys—including perceptions on questions such as loneliness, friendship, and intimate fears—feed an expanding political agenda of happiness and a new form of market…