Time travel on the instalment plan: The index and future form in building

The contemporary architectural rendering, digitally engineered and published in advance of construction, has come to resemble an image of an existing building so closely that it is hard to tell future from past. In constructing an appearance of an existing lived reality, which previously arose from the camera's re-presentation of the trace of past circumstances, has it now become possible to speak of the trace of future events? With regard to property as commodity, the more believable these projected forms, the more capital may be invested, and the more likely it is that the depicted building will be constructed. Notwithstanding the possibly deceptive intentions of the image-maker, excess of signification becomes directly linked to the eventual existence of the building in that the more realistic it appears, the more likely it is to become reality