Tuesday, December 06, 2005

presentation 02: conclusion

It all began with one camera: the Holga camera. Last winter session, to be precise. With this simple toy camera, I discovered the art of the double exposure and the powerful process of shooting a continuous strip of film, in which I control the advancement but cannot control the superimposition and juxtaposition which inevitably develop. Almost immediately, I started using the camera in the transformation of an existing place. This twenty dollar toy has changed how I document and transform, and how I am able to construct translations.

Since working with this camera, I have begun to question how different mediums can capture the same place differently. I have been studying the nature of multiple perspectives, and used fragmenting and layering as subtractive and additive methods of form generation to study specific places. I have investigated how to construct simultaneity by using the same image which holds different scales and layerings of space. The photographic image became a transformation of its surroundings, and a documentation and translation of the original context.

The Holga was not exactly the beginning. USC architecture was. Studying place and space is not a new endeavor. Documentation, transformation, and construction are the means I have been working with since I started my architecture education. It all began eight years ago with the first day of my undergraduate program. Looking at the world around me—and responding to existing context—were approaches I investigated time and again. I did not start from scratch, but responded to a specific sites and programs. In school, I learned about the importance of surroundings and the nature of space and place in buildings and landscape projects. I was profoundly influenced by how people navigate buildings, how they intuitively react to their surroundings, and how they are influenced by the places they inhabit.

Through those projects, I created spaces dealing with the total inhabited experience. I saw the power of constructing an experiential environment and building space. During that process, I became aware that a building is a collection of multiple vantage points and simultaneous moments people experience through circulation and progression.

The vocabulary of discussion and evaluation of my work stems from the architectural studio. I do not have to utilize concrete or drafting tools to build space. I have continued to build, using photographic setups, exhibitions, or interactive book works as the methods of achieving spatial construction. This thesis inquiry delves into the nature of construction and construction, the process of building space in a two dimensional realm, and the endeavor of creating interactive objects. The means have changed, but the process is similar and the goals are the same.