Nostalgia for a
world Unknown
Based on an original poem, this project concerned itself with the infinitessimally thin barrier of the skin of the water. The poem raised the idea of estrangement from one's reflection: What if we are the reflection--rather than the originator--stuck on the wrong side of the water?
The final proposal was a community center for trans and non-binary persons: a place where the trans body and mind need not feel estranged from one another. Content to be reflections of themselves, visitors view my original poem in its reflection, as though on the wrong side of the paper: the wrong side of the proverbial water.
01
Becoming the Other
The first step of this project included laser cutting the aforementioned folktale into images of water. When displayed, one could either read the poem or see the skin of the water. To this end, the audience was cast as the reflection, rather than the original.
02
Nursery Rhyme
The next step was a children's book, in which identical twins live in the poor Jewish ghetto of Josefov and the rich palace of Castle Hill of eighteenth century Prague. Essentially separated reflections, the girls find that one cannot survive without the other.
03
Narrative Tangling
These apparatus are narrative drawings that, when folded in particular ways, reveal a pictorial retelling of the above children's story.
04
Final Intervention
The trans and non-binary community center, designed through a series of vignettes, the integral method of understanding the architecture was through the perspective of the user.
