make: your way

A few weeks ago, I put up my BFA show, and took it down last week. Overall, I'm pretty pleased!

Here's a little about it.

Our perception of the structure surrounding us is hugely influenced by how we experience it. Whether it be a city, a building, or a wide open wilderness, the act of finding our way through an unfamiliar space triggers a highly complex process in our subconscious. At first thought, many would not regard the act of trying not to be lost as particularly creative, but the piecing together of random stimuli, thoughts, feelings and observed information brings into existence a very useful tool. Researchers have termed this tool a cognitive map. These maps——inner perceptions of the structure or organization of our surroundings——evolve from linear to spacial as we become more familiar with a space.

The goal of this show is to create a tangible experience to represent these intangible, cognitive creations.





Floor Maze: As you enter the room, the lone line of the maze represents a strictly linear understanding of a space. You know only the path given to you. When you arrive to the body of the maze, your mind opens up to the possibility of many choices, and begins to create its own path through the space.






Table One: These books are called maze books, in that they create a path as you manipulate the pages. This first set represents the random stimuli you may experience while finding a path through a new environment. This is a world of passive glances and quick observations. Your mind uses these imperfect, fragmented, exaggerated snippets of information to make sense of where you are.









Table Two: Once you are familiar with an environment, your mind is able to create a more accurate and useful tool for use in your wayfinding endeavors. This book encourages you to follow the graphic paths in an effort to arrive at the final configuration.

make: your way from Analisa estrada on Vimeo.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped put the show up. My dad made the tables, friends Ayumi and Brandi helped tape down the maze, and my wonderful James was AMAZING and helped fill in all the gaps.




I used images from the following Flickr members, under the Creative Commons license.

_unlikely
Andrew Turner
everydaylifemodern
healthserviceglasses
jamison
lucasmascaro
ManitobaHistoricalMaps
nicolasnova
RuiOrnelas
VeloSteve

Thanks!