thesis excerpts

 

this inquiry started with an interest in finding an antidote or alternative to the increasingly privatized and scripted spaces we think of as the public realm, particularly in urban settings.  my premise was that an encounter with the unknown could provide an alternative, by allowing for open interpretation, rather than automatic plugging in.  when all information is given in a situation it leaves no room for someone to participate, in the act of looking, or in the way of being.  the connective tissue between elements we experience and our meaning of them is a tertiary one - new meaning is derived from that which is not there.  

 

patterns, pairings, critical mass, rhythm and context were all explored as well as contrapuntal music and the theory of montage as possible corrallaries to, or methods for organizing space that actively engages the user's imagination.  

 

in shadows layered sets of information were found to provide a heightened knowledge of the object casting them, at the same time as undermining each other as to which gave a truer understanding. a layered understanding of one moment in time was possible, where interpretation by the viewer of the elements and the information available was required.  thread dissections of shadow studies pulled apart layers of simultaneously occuring information and re-juxtaposed them, creating new readings as well as new information to interpret.

 

in exploring shadows, simulacra, and the antisolar point (the hypothetical spot on the celestial sphere exactly opposite the sun relative to a given object) a way of working came about: using shadows to pierce ground, much in the same manner as the thread had pierced the plane of paper in order to translate a curve from idea to reality.  this gave rise to a method of building where the shadows became blueprints for excavation. 

 

the accumulation of traces above the horizon of shadows became a subtractive process below the horizon.  drawings to explore depth, successive casting of shadows, and cumulative possibilities of interactions were undertaken, at the same time as a site became clearer.  a wooded area in a city, to host a public forum, where a multiplicity of paths, non-hierarchical, winding, based on whim or intution through the trees, which themselves becamse the initial progenitors of the shadows.

 

from the trees three sets of shadows would be cast - two from the sun, from the winter and the summer, and one from the moon.  each of these would create a constellation of pillars to mark the apex, which would be connected to one another, and new shadows cast from this set, and excavated.  the overlap of shadow imprints on the ground would be excavated in layers, and each would be experienced over time in the space, as the sunlight and moonlight moved through it.