Invisible Spaces: Attempts at Utopia

The word utopia is commonly understood to mean an ideal or perfect place, but in reality, the root of the word means ‘no place’. This thesis explores various manifestations and interpretations of utopia in art, architecture, and literature, focusing on examples that embody the idea of utopia as a nonexistent space.

The book’s contents examine utopia at multiple levels, with each section exploring attempts to create utopias that are imagined, unbuilt, or otherwise impossible creations. The book itself plays with ideas of space, using the content to both create and subtract space on the page to create unconventional layouts that challenge spatial norms. This thesis aims to show that we are continuously inspired to create our own vision of utopia, despite its impossibility.

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Dream Sequence

How do you translate the experience of being in a place without physically being there? In order to communicate the unique environment of the Hi-Pointe Theatre, a historic arts movie theater in St. Louis, I created a booklet inspired by scientific specimen guides that recreates the physical environment of the Hi-Pointe. The book is highly interactive, inviting the viewer to engage with pull-outs, swatches, and removable parts. It is through these nuanced, magnified snapshots that the viewer pieces together the experience of being at the Hi-Pointe.

Storm King Identity

Storm King Art Center, a 500-acre contemporary sculpture park in the Hudson Valley, prides itself on being a place where people can engage with both art and nature. This proposed rebrand focuses on the idea of connectivity to refresh the park’s identity, using shapes found throughout the park as ligaments to tie together the visuals and communicate Storm King’s mission through various collateral. With its interchangeable components, the new identity is adaptable and dynamic, recalling the contemporary structures of the sculptures it showcases as well as the flowing landscape it celebrates.

Project Cybersyn

Based on an episode from the podcast 99% Invisible, this four-part series explores the story of Project Cybersyn, an experimental system used from 1971 to 1973 in Chile under President Salvador Allende. The goal of the project was simple: find a way to make socialism work more successfully than before, with the help of a sophisticated computer system. Each book tells a different story, examining the project’s inception, the technology employed, the mysterious operations room, and the military coup that led to Cybersyn’s destruction.