For our Space and Materiality, we wanted to display how the people inside a space transform the space itself. In order to visualize this, we wanted to chose an etablissement which would reflect this human intervention in spaces strongly. We chose Comptoir Géneral as a contemporary example as well as one that is truly extraordinary with not just its people but also the film-scene like setting. Leading to Comptoir is a way through a public garden, leaving the audience to excitement, confusion and surprise. One would not guess what the halls behind the second door entail.
In order to really visualize our perception of the dream-like state, we decided to let our stories of people be influenced by the out-of-space feeling of the bar/brunch place. Mona, Nile and I went to there several times to choose specific people as well as specific settings to achieve our goal. This means that when we went there we specifically searched for odd people, not hard to find in the space. Through the aspect of the Polaroid camera (which they also sell there) we add to the feeling of transience, which is furthermore established through the change of rooms within Comptoir, at different days of the week and times of the day.
It was fascinating to see how people were opened to have their picture taken, spontaneously glancing into the camera. This gave us means to connect not just to the space but also to the people within it. After we took our photograph they usually asked us about our studies and told us about theirs. This gave us great inspiration for our writing and connected us to unusual acquaintances.
To add to the analog feeling of the physical polaroid pictures, we decided to make a physical book with handwriting rather than scanning the pictures and producing a digital project. This also connects to the tangibility of the project and to The Eyes of the Skin, which was fascinating for me to read and changed my perception of objects and the interaction with our senses.
