The Things in Between
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The Things in Between //
The architectural phenomenon of liminal space.
Have you ever wondered about the spaces in between? Spaces that are the way they are because of the side effects of our modern society? In other words, liminal spaces, made to lead the masses from one place to another. Bus stops, airports, trains, planes. They are spaces of transition, the things in between that encourage passiveness.
My work is an ode to the architecture of waiting.
Liminal spaces have always felt strange to me. I realised that the state of passiveness and pensiveness they induce leave space for imagination, changes our perception of time and twists reality around. They’re places where mundane things begin to feel surreal and overwhelming. Places where you find yourself floating in your environment, like a ghost haunting the space.
The Things in Between was my graduation project for my final year at the Royal Academy of Art. It was the result of research on liminal space, an architecture of waiting. The aim was to recreate these types of spaces in a way that underlines the altered sense of time induced by them.
The set was located in the hallways of our school, and consisted of three parts: the bus stop, the billboard and the waiting room.
The bus stop was designed to appear uninviting and eerie: it's drenched in a fluorescent flickering pink lighting. The bench was my own design- I built a four-seater bench out of bus chairs that I found. I reupholstered the bus seats and embroidered my own design on the fabrics. I built the frame out of cut and welded recovered steel. There is a small screen displaying a lagging message from the billboard, and a slight lingering background sound that I recorded at an empty bus stop in the evening.
The billboard displays a message. It's an advertisement for liminality. It reads: "Waiting is the new smoking" and "Be passive" "Leave no trace of yourself apart from the dust you kick up with your dragging feet". The frame is also my design- I took inspiration from the rotating billboards you often find at bus stops. I wanted to highlight the mechanical aspect, and built the frame to show off the gears, motor and battery, and so that you'd hear it turning.
The waiting area was designed to look as normal as it truly is, and to incite a nostalgic feeling: a friendly orange light above a bench made to remind you of your childhood. I built this bench using Ikea chairs that I dismantled, painted and reassembled on a steel frame.
Here are some photos and videos of the set in use, the interactions are interesting: the bus stop deterred people- they would choose not to sit. The billboard attracted attention and got people talking. Meanwhile the waiting area served its exact purpose.
If you’re interested in reading more about this project, I write about the themes of liminality, time and space in my thesis, which you can find here:
PROCESS | GALLERY
