Like the invention of photography before it, muography promises a whole new science and art of visualization—one that records not the outward surfaces of things, but their deepest, most inaccessible interiors. By recording the path, speed, and velocity of cosmic particles known as muons, muography reveals unknown voids—rooms, tombs, caves, tunnels—inside mountains, pyramids, and cathedrals alike. Muons can also be used to inspect urban infrastructure, from hydroelectric dams and concrete freeways to the foundations of skyscrapers, suggesting a coming age of literal architectural transparency.
Geoff Manaugh and John Becker
Geoff Manaugh is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer regularly covering topics related to architecture and design for publications such as The New York Times Magazine, MIT Technology Review, WIRED, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and many others. His 2016 book, A Burglar’s Guide to the City, on the relationship between crime and architecture, was a New York Times bestseller, and his 2021 book, Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine, written with Nicola Twilley, was an NPR, Guardian, Financial Times, and Time Magazine book of the year. In 2023, his short story “Ernest” was adapted into the hit Netflix film We Have A Ghost. Manaugh has taught graduate design studios at Columbia GSAPP, USC, and UC Berkeley, and has exhibited twice, in partnership with Smout Allen, at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. Since 2014, he has collaborated with John Becker to design and publish speculative architectural narratives. He is also the author of BLDGBLOG, launched in 2004.
For over 15 years, John Becker has produced visuals for world-renowned works of architecture, designed digital sets, and produced internationally-recognized real estate marketing campaigns as the Creative Director at MARCH. Drawing from the cycle of life and the passage of time, Becker has molded his career as a designer and visual narrator around these concepts, illustrating novel details of a world yet to be. Each project is carefully matched with the most fitting form of representation, whether it be photography, graphite, pen and ink, digital drafting, CGI, or AI. In 2023, he founded Wrot, a design and visual research studio to further development of his visual language. He also maintains an ongoing collaboration with author Geoff Manaugh, resulting in a collection of speculative projects.