#studio-rothstein-sp14

[studio-rothstein-sp14]

midterm review 3.10.14 / Fluctuating Archive of Loss

The archive capitalizes on flexible and communal capacities of memory. Depositors contribute artifacts of displaced homelands or lost loved ones, positioning these in collective grief or reverential isolation. Considered alone or in juxtaposition, each artifact has diverse potential associations. A reading room provides access to the personal histories of artifacts as recorded by depositors. Communal spaces for memorial services and group therapy activate the building as a secular site of reflection and spiritual narrative.

[studio-rothstein-sp14]

Olfactory Consecration

Humans can distinguish 10,000 unique odorants using olfactory receptors, each encoded by a different gene and recognizing different smells. Exponential combinations of these scents speak to the complexity and depth of our relationship with smell. As part of the brains limbic, or emotional, system, the olfactory bulb is closely associated with memory. Associating smells with events, places and people through conditioned response, specific scents can trigger powerful recollection. Drawing from such nuanced composition of smells, this offers a curious way of memorializing the deceased through the creation of unique scents associated with the individual.

Perceived in subtle tones.

Slight, ephemeral, tangibility.

Overpowered and overwhelmed,

Synesthesia blends present and past;

Reaction, visceral.

A thousand moments lived, distilled to immediate –

The gestalt of ten thousand

An emotional time machine

[studio-rothstein-sp14]

RECORD: ETERNAL IDENTITY REPOSITORY

Memory is identity – a Record is an action and an entity. Memories are recorded, archived, and displayed. Sedimentary laminations of community identity made manifest and permanent: an eternal tectonic Record.

  SECURE/ ACCESS: consistent records require limits, while consistent experience requires security of access. Identity affirmed.

  PRESERVE/ DISPLAY: Memories are preserved yet remain accessible. Privacy is relative: temporal and spatial. Identities reinforced and defined.

  EXPERIENCE/ AMPLIFY: Communal ties are grown through collective experience: recorded individually, yet born from the Repository itself. Identities refreshed and created.

Ordered Individual: Collective Chaos