A Millimeter of Space

Abstract

This thesis approaches ruins of the post industrial landscape as sites of material agency in which the exterior surfaces of a building, that are exposed to the elements, demonstrate the types of material transformations that take place with a lack of human intervention and upkeep. The weathering of a material reveals the interface between the natural and human-made and suggests the formation of an ongoing process in which the relationship between materials and the environment is displayed. This study attempts to develop a method for capturing the qualities and characteristics of the undiscussed, immeasurably thin space at the surface of a building so that we might observe the impact it has on the experience of a space. The goal is to document this space through hyperphysical photographs using latex to create a film, or a shroud, that captures this immeasurable layer. When removed, these latex shrouds reveal a palimpsest of layers bearing the physical traces of a continuously changing condition. By isolating the evidence of a material's transformation, they provide a forum to discuss the junction between the natural and human made; the aesthetics of the aged surface and the important role it plays as a maker of space.