for our space final, we were asked to create a collapsible shelter. I decided to take a conceptual approach to this and create a mental shelter, rather than a physical shelter such as a tent. I wanted to explore the idea of a “happy place” – instead of “going to your happy place”, you would just carry it with you.
My “happy place” is my childhood bedroom – I feel like in a way I have been already carrying this “room” around with me for years, due to the fact that I spent most of high school living away from home. Because of this, I really romanticized my childhood room during high school while I was at boarding school. Stepping into my bedroom felt more exciting and vacation-like than familiar and normal. My room was always filled with strange objects/posters/mementos, so it wasn’t hard to feel nostalgic just walking into the room. I’m pretty sure I put these objects on a pedestal and distorted just how important they really were.
I started creating lists of items that reminded me of home, childhood, happiness, etc. – trying to find the intersection of emotion/comfort/nostalgia and material/object
Visually I drew inspiration from Magritte’s ‘Personal Values’ : I wanted my room to start off with the idea of a physical bedroom and then shift into a surreal landscape that depicted my mind to an extent – or a memory. I decided on plaster because I didn’t want the room to look too garish or childlike – even though the subject matter I’m exploring is rooted in childhood, and some of the objects are toys, I’m looking at it through a more grown-up/reflective lens. I didn’t want the room to become a diorama or a dollhouse – I wanted to show the idea of the separation of age and time, the dream-like qualities of the objects because of their ties to memory and nostalgia, and their state of being solid yet somehow in flux. The plaster really allowed for these ideas to translate through the material because of its austere look and the ability for movement to be captured in dry plaster.
I also tried to think of the proper case for this shelter – a shoebox seemed too impersonal, a briefcase seemed too serious. After adding “cassettes” to one of my lists I remembered I had my mom’s cassette tape holder. I really liked this as the exterior because I think the outside is ambiguous yet also can point to nostalgia – it’s vintage-looking, it carried cassettes which hint at the past, and it has intrinsic nostalgia because it has been passed from my mom to me. It conceals the shelter but also hints at the spirit of the shelter.
catalog:
here is an edited version of a catalog I would “order from” (I wanted the design to look kind of y2k/from a magazine I would have seen as a kid)
Plaster items:
As I kept casting I noticed some of the items were leaving traces of the actual physical object I had molded them from – like the lipstick/cassette/cig. I was super excited by this because it was a happy accident and totally not planned but I realized these particular items were bridging the ideas of the “original objects” and the plaster objects that seemed more like conceptual landmarks rather than physical objects too.
Original Objects items:
Set-Up:
The idea here is that you would be able to customize/set up your happy place whenever you wanted. I wanted the box walls and floors to remain the same, but for the objects inside to be removable. I think this points to the idea that while my memories and nostalgia shift over time, it’s all coming from my thoughts – not just floating around in space.
expansion:
going off of this product I’d love to expand and end the catalog even more and create an Adbusters style advertisement for a portable happy place because I think that the idea is humorous even though creating it allowed for personal catharsis and reflection, I also think the idea of this object points to the kind of culture where a shelter like this would be desirable.
