The University of British Columbia, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
From an analytical comparison of the characteristics of the drawer knobs, I re-designed a handle that incorporated my preferences from the photographed handles. By defining criteria specific to the objects I was able to identify what worked and did not work about each one of them.
In this exercise, I mapped a frequent running route with visual annotations of all of the small changes in movements I make while out during the pandemic. There is more stopping and starting, winding paths, and subtle detours to maintain a safe distance from other pedestrians while traveling at a faster pace than people who are out walking.
For the in-class exercise, I looked at a set of stairs at a nearby park. The stairs are relatively new along a steep hill, but they are very steep and have a short riser, making them very uncomfortable to travel over. As a result, there is a desire path immediately next to the stair case, any many people choose to use this instead.
Visual thinking and analysis summary drawing
Analysis of barnacle clustering on rocky shoreline. Barnacles collect in large groups in locations along the shoreline that are usually submerged by the tide, or within a tidepool. The tidepools are carved away by the waves over many years, creating pockets of seawater that hold sealife during low-tide.
In-Class Exercise: Mapping the sky
For this assignment, I considered how smell is associated with memory. A commercial bakery near my home releases a very potent smell during late night and early morning baking. The smell is initially pleasant from a reasonable distance, but becomes overwhelming and unappealing when sensed at close proximity. The following map indicates my emotional response to the smell based on proximity, as well as personal memory-based collages that each stage of the smell-experience prompts.
In-Class Exercise: Self Defined
If smell was a space – the moldy storage locker
Visualizing the multi-sensorial experience of eating an orange
In-Class Exercise: Lemon
For this assignment I chose to tune-in to one common sound in my apartment and analyze it in the context of working from home. The sound I chose was typing, which I considered through a written reflection and visual interpretations at the scale of the paragraph and the single word.
What does working from home sound like? There are the background sounds out the window, and the appliances whirring in the kitchen. There are the neighbours vacuuming the hallway and the unintentional slamming of doors. The apartment is not quiet, but my focused attention to the screen sends these noises to the background. I block out every distraction and focus on my own presence and the screen in front of me.
I usually forget to listen to music while I work. I like the sound of marker on paper, and the auditory feedback of clicking a mouse. We are trained to rely on touch and sound to navigate the keyboard of a computer – reserving vision for the results at eye-level. For the first time ever, I am considering the sensorial harmony of the keyboard as a comfort, even an extension of the body, rather than simply a pragmatic tool.
At first it is unsettling to realize that I can not hear my body over the tapping of the keyboard, but then I remember that it is my body and mind producing this sound. Brain, fingers and computer come together in a complex dance of thought and muscle memory to conjure and record ideas, whose auditory representation may only ever exist in this sequence of keystrokes. I am subconsciously responding to these sounds as I work – alert to the subtle tonal variations in the slip of a finger or a rogue extra space. An almost-rhythm accompanies my thoughts as they solidify in the form of words. A startlingly long silence settles when the line of thought dissipates, prompting a small but short-lived surge of panic before the tapping continues.
For this assignment I studied the textures on my patio and how they contribute to the experience of the space. The building is from the 1970s and the patio has had minimal updates.
In-Class Brainstorming Exercise
For this assignment I drew three different objects based on touch only, again with a blindfold during the drawing process, and finally with sight and the object in front of me. In all cases the series of drawings are distinctly different based on the information available and my attempt to convey it.
