A Stagnant Moment in Time
By Jennifer Chen
A Stagnant Moment in Time
By Jennifer Chen
Confined within our homes, our understanding of walls and their enclosed space has shifted into a somewhat antithetical knowing. While they bring a sense of familiarity, our occupation of them is increasingly difficult to describe. Walls have become mere surfaces that define the boundaries, the edges, and the limit of our occupiable spaces. These surfaces both protect and inhibit us as we find creative ways to reach out of our boundaries to connect again with our close friends and family.
A similar thought can be applied to a place we have all familiarised ourselves with, the Melbourne Central Business District. A description of civic spaces once filled with activity can be reduced to void space, defined by the series of surfaces arranged around it.
This project attempts to reconcile this understanding of surfaces and space as it has emerged during the pandemic. An exploration of surfaces and their ability to affect the ever-changing spaces above, below, around, over, or next to. With no space perceived to be the excess, but rather a series of thresholds marking and defining the beginning of new conditions. Testing the boundary at which corridor becomes space, air gap meets minimum clearance and the point at which a semi-enclosed platform can be described as an enclosed room.
A series of still images provide moments of speculation within these rooms, showcasing how the ephemeral events of every day transform surfaces and spaces that may at first be perceived to be empty into objects whose qualities are in a perpetual state of shift.
A similar thought can be applied to a place we have all familiarised ourselves with, the Melbourne Central Business District. A description of civic spaces once filled with activity can be reduced to void space, defined by the series of surfaces arranged around it.
This project attempts to reconcile this understanding of surfaces and space as it has emerged during the pandemic. An exploration of surfaces and their ability to affect the ever-changing spaces above, below, around, over, or next to. With no space perceived to be the excess, but rather a series of thresholds marking and defining the beginning of new conditions. Testing the boundary at which corridor becomes space, air gap meets minimum clearance and the point at which a semi-enclosed platform can be described as an enclosed room.
A series of still images provide moments of speculation within these rooms, showcasing how the ephemeral events of every day transform surfaces and spaces that may at first be perceived to be empty into objects whose qualities are in a perpetual state of shift.
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Note from the editor:
As our understanding of both domestic and public space continues to shift during these strange times, we are becoming more conscious of what is constant, stagnant and what articulates boundaries.
Jennifer's project investigates the symbiotic architectural condition between Walls, Surfaces, Spaces and the Ephemeral.
It is "An exploration of surfaces and their ability to affect the ever-changing spaces above, below, around, over, or next to.
With no space perceived to be the excess, but rather a series of thresholds marking and defining the beginning of new conditions.”
By placing these elements of space at centre stage, Jennifer brings our attention to their subservience to and framing of, everyday life. Her proposition posits the idea that although our public spaces may appear empty, and surfaces appear static, both are far from stagnant. And instead, reminds us of a perpetual state of shift.