[THESIS]

 .limelight.

< seeing the unseen >

/SPRING 2020/

My project addresses identity and presentation of self in social interactions. Identity is never presented in its entirety but rather reveal the context that one wants to show. When two individuals interact with each other, they start to build up a sequence of data and information built on a timeline taken from what they see and what they feel in front of the other.The framing of interaction usually “conveys an impression to others which it is in one’s interests to convey”. Therefore, there is a disconnect between presentation and representation, between the experience of “to see and to be seen”. How is one’s identity shaped by others? How can the multiplicity of viewpoints translates into an interior?

These issues are explored in Erving Goffman’s “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”. Identity reveals in the society is similar to the idea of cropped image in photography. <Cropping> frames an image by removing out of sight what is unwanted to be seen. My program will be a walkthrough theater that has to do with circulation through different filters and framing of the representation of actors and viewers, which brings them to interact with one another and to break the boundaries between the two roles. It brings both extremes into the limelight to activate the space. The choreography is performed through a cycle that intersects, strays, and accompanies the viewer from one stage to another, to the point of realization of the larger stage - the viewers see themselves part of the mise-en-scene. The path is the larger stage that connects the small platform stages together into a larger landscape.

THESIS THEME: LANDSCAPE

A landscape is a full image built from a sequence of snapshots in a setting and environment. Like a generic landscape in the nature, it is composed of a grouping of trees, greenery, the horizon, and the infinite sky. J.B. Jackson in “The Word Itself” from Discovering the Vernacular Landscape gives an evolution of the definition of <landscape> overtime, in different fields. Landscape as a general term takes on the meaning of a ‘snapshot’ of a scene, for which the author follows by mentioning various aspects that can change the imagery: an environment, an artist’s point of view, one’s taste, a context, and so on.The snapshot itself is formed by elements composed in a framework that is chosen by the artist.Therefore, the idea of point of view remains key to define a landscape and “make a work of art”. The landscape then differs depending on artists’ perception, depending on their background, context, and knowledge.

site

My site research is based on creating a new identity to a new center stage. Known as a metropolitan city in the world, NewYork City is formed with multiple poles that attracts the crowd, such as Times Square, Rockefeller Center,World Trade Center, and so on. In order to develop a new identity into the urban scape, my site is ideally located away from the existing attractions and build its own standing into a new developing surrounding. I intend to build a passageway into a sequence of space, creating an experience space along a pedestrian passageway. It focuses on the sequence and process to get into the space, creating a stage along the entrance to the ‘destination’.

PROGRAM

The walkthrough theater develops a path that intersects, strays, and shifts, that blurs the boundar y between the two roles. The path acts on the role of the individual, leading to the point of realization where they see that their role shifted -- they see that they are seen by others. The viewers becomes part of the play, as an actor of the space and the generator of the sequence. As a result, they find themselves in the limelight of the choreography.