Free Focus
2024-06
Process website
https://setsforlife.cargo.site
“Set(s) For Life” explores the meaning and functionality of thresholds within the urban landscape. Thresholds divide our physical space, creating distinction between our movement from one space to another, and inconspicuously giving structure to our daily life. While thresholds hold a very distinctive meaning in architecture, they also convey a metaphorical meaning. In life, we are constantly moving through metaphorical thresholds to live as our most authentic selfs. The project aims to reconnect us to the present through set design and foster conscious, deliberate movement through life.
Architects Mariabruna Fabrizi and Fosco Lucarelli define “architecture as the extended mind”, while Juhani Pallasmaa states “we encounter art and life with our own essence”. Through my project, I aspire to ignite the feeling of being in control when moving through thresholds.
Research shows that it is easier to differentiate time if one has lived in multiple locations throughout their life. Changes in location help the brain translate memories along a timeline, creating distinct reference points.
Social media and fast-paced content have the opposite effect. The sheer volume of content we consume daily blends our days together, making them feel repetitive. Routines stay the same, and memories become indistinct. This is why time can feel compressed, moving faster than we perceive. As a society, we are becoming less connected to ourselves and our surroundings due to constant engagement with digital media. Real life becomes passive, and the line between physical and digital existence blurs. In theory, social media is compressing our experience of life.
Personally, my life has started to feel like I am constantly floating in liminal space, moving from one moment to the next without truly absorbing anything. I am not fully aware that this is my life, or that I am an active, living human being. The way to overcome this anxiety and the feeling of drifting is by returning to the phyical world and your body, to ground yourself in the present moment.
Therefore, Set(s) divides into two complementary projects: one physical and one digital.
Through metaphorical installations, the physical project invites participants to experience the present fully and become aware of the shifts and transitions inherent in moving through thresholds. The Set(s) are constructred from cardboard to communicate the effortless and starightforwardness state of change in one’s mindset.
The digital project (together with Leonor Peereboom) is a platform that proposes a new way of approaching internet use, offering positive solutions for staying online rather than rejecting the digital world entirely.
The outcomes offer two different solutions to the same problem. The physical Set(s) aim to return one to the physical world and their own body, while the digital Set(s) offer a more mindful approach to being online.