BFA Thesis

This project is about memory, the communication of memory, and creating a visualization of mental processes that pertains to obsession. The project exemplifies a multi-layered approach to storytelling by experimenting with the narrative quality of a book. By using repetition and excess the content makes a comparison between the inevitable manifestation of physical and mental clutter, to portray the hidden aspects of the psychological distress.

The project has two main parts, a book of photographs, and an installation depicting the resemblance of a domestic space built around it.

The book explores mental clutter by using repetition and excess of imagery. The book’s sequence is broken into four main sections, each section multiplying the page count of the last, each time using the same set of images, then adding to them. Within the four main sections, there are ten stories that expand. The last section makes the addition of text folded into the pages, retelling the stories illustrated in the photographs. The text is hidden inside the page folds to represent the contrast between internal and external communication.

The installation expands the ideas presented in the book by creating a spacial enclosure to represent the mind as a physical space. The wallpaper was designed to connect to the topic of memory with the use of honeysuckle, while also creating a repeating pattern that echoes the theme of repetition and excess. The books on the floor relate to knowledge, and the titles of the books refect the theme of obsession. Each element in the installation is chosen specifically to create a feeling of familiarity and comfort, but not quite replicating a specific place. It is a fabrication of a memory.

Book Specs:
7" x  9.5"
360 pages
80# Natrual stock paper
Hand bound
Hardcover, coptic stitch