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Here’s a montage of the many projection tests I did and at the end a behind the scenes of how Judy art directed the shots of my installation 😬.

Final rough video of a POV experience (this is Susan’s experience).

Moving from layers 1-8.

Projections and layering.

People interacting with the installation.

Installation shots.

The next thing that bothered me about my installation was that the construction of it looked cheap and shoddy. I knew that I couldn’t use rope to attach the layers of fabric and to keep the fabric straight I somehow needed to weight it down. I also realized that if I wanted people to now walk through it that I needed to build it a lot taller. I decided 6″5 would suffice and went back to Home Depot and Fabricland to buy more materials.

Finally I created a structure like so where the layers in between myself and the other were adjustable (they are secured with velcro at the top, so they are very modular), each representing a year. The participant would walk towards me through the layers with the memories (projections) getting clearer with each layer. Eventually the other person and I would meet at the end, with the other person deciding if they would like to confront me or keep the distance away in the end.

So then I basically made this super quickly just to see how it would look like and how the projector would affect it. It created an interesting effect that would grow and create a larger image with each layer and would gradually fade each time because of the number of growing layers. I realized that this fading and distortion was very similar to the effect of my memory when I tried to recall moments of people in the past in my accordion style book. With the number of layers of distance, the more the memory was hazy and only the ones closest to the present were the most clear.

So then I started to panic because nothing was working 🤯. I then did what any normal person would do and started venting to my friend with my mental breakdown. We basically kept sending ugly Facebook drawings to each other on messenger, till I realized that I could do this with the materials I already have and not start from scratch (and it could actually be cooler 😎).

So then I started to build my structure. I brought a sad diagram of a frame I wanted to build to the Home Depot guy and told him I’d like it to be cheap, light, and portable. We both decided that PVC electrical conduit would probably be our best bet and then I lugged 10 ft poles back home to my mother’s dismay.

Once I got home, my dad taught me how to use a hacksaw and I cut them each down to around 5 ft each. I bought the cool white connector things from Amazon Prime cause Canadian Home Depot sucks and the American store literally has everything I need.

As I started building it and the translucent fabric up, I kinda realized... It looked like a cabana. I also tested sitting in it with me and the other across from each other and realized that the effect was not what I was looking for. Rather than creating an intimate space, it almost felt distant because of the space between us. The space, I found, did not dissipate in this installation, but just became more apparent.

From there, I knew I had to make some changes.

This is from the time when I tried to do something dangerous and really dumb and put a ladder on top of the table to install my installation with hanging fixtures using ceiling hooks. It failed and Jamie told me not to die so I stopped. 😭

Booking an installation space

I found booking a space for my installation to be a difficult process, especially because of the expensive price ranges. I looked on thisopenspace but the number of venues that were suitable for me were limited. I tried to get a bunch of other YSDN students who were hoping to showcase their workshop work as well, but many were unsure.

Here’s some of the venues I was looking at:

thisopenspace

York University Fine Arts galleries + other facilities

Gallery 50

Unfortunately most of the spaces were out of my price range or have already been booked. Jamie suggested from there that maybe I should do my installation outside, so I started to look into renting generators which I could do at stores like Home Depot and Lowes for around $50-60 daily range.

From there I devised a project plan, so that I could complete the event before the final presentation. I decided I would send out invitations which would narrow down the number of experiences I had to design / create the video footage for.

Changing directions 🔜

I soon realized that rather than separating these concepts, I found that all of them could actually be combined as one to form my final thesis. There was something I didn’t like about going purely digital because I felt that the relationship suffered from physical disconnect, and the first and second concept seemed too staged. I liked the idea of the third concept the most as an event is a shared experience, but the one issue I had with it was that designing a big event where I would have to cater to multiple people would be less intimate than I hoped, which I felt would build more meaningful and stronger relationships.

I like in my first concept how I would meet each individual one on one in a place that we remembered and how being in that place would stimulate memories of the past to discuss while still learning about ourselves in the present.

From there I realized that I wanted these 3 key things to occur in the format. I decided that an installation where the other could interact and experience would be the best solution. It was physical and would be an ephemeral moment that could be scheduled like the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrors so that I and the other could share a solitary intimate moment together.

From there I had to figure out how could I make each experience formatted in a similar matter but unique to each individual? I found myself interested in creating a room which would be a fully projected audio-visual experience that surrounds myself and the other, stimulating memories of nostalgia and confronting issues from the past. I proposed 4 different installation setups:

In the end I chose setup 4 because it felt the most immersive. Setup 4 entailed creating a metal frame with translucent fabric walls which would have the projections projected on them. There would be a wall separating the participant and I from each other, representing the barrier between us. Because the fabric is translucent, any dark lit moments would allow us to see each other face to face. Once the projections end, a series of questions pop up on the middle wall, causing myself and the other to confront each other. The series would end with creating a memento of “the you I remember”, alternating the word “remember” for special attributes about the other (i.e. loved, admire, respect), that I and the other exchange and can keep to remember this moment.

To encourage people to come to the event, I would create personalized invitations to send out. The invitations would contain a blind contour risograph like my book in Sprint 3, but also contain a photo or visual of a moment or object that would stimulate memory and nostalgia — a fond longing to reconnect.

Exploring website concepts and memorabilia for Concept 2.

The 3 concept outlines.

After the break

Looking back at all my design sprints and through the research conducted during the research book phase, I realized that the area that I wanted to focus on had to do with reconnection and reigniting relationships of the past. Looking back at the memories that stimulated me to remember physical interaction in Sprint 1, the documentation of “connectors” that brought me and the other together in Sprint 2, and understanding what memories affect me recollection of the other in Sprint 3, I realized that stimulating shared moments of not only the past, but also the present could reestablish the dissipating bond.

I narrowed my direction down to: “Reliving shared experiences as a device to stimulate reconnection in dissipated relationships in physical-digital spaces.”

From there I decided to explore three different directions:

The space we exist in — Explore the feelings I experience between pure physical space interaction versus pure digital space interaction when reconnecting to a fleeting relationship. 📷

Museum of you — Explore feelings of nostalgia and storytelling in a curated space. 🖼

To: me, To: you, To: us — Rather than relying on past nostalgia, memorabilia, and memories to reconnect, the project entails creating new memory documented through the creation of memorabilia to renew the relationships. 🥂

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