Warden/Prisoner
2015Video Installation and Architectural Study
This project is a vehicle for me to parse through my obsession in building prisons.
Manuscript
The earliest configuration of my prison design appears in the graphic novel I created throughout my high school years. It was meant to be an underground facility that detained teenagers for indefinite amounts of time. Teenagers in this facility would have to partake of a brainwashing competition and a painful physical remodification process. The winners would eventually be released from the sub-terrain, back to the society. In the graphic novel, a small group of inmates try to escape.
I avidly spent quite a substantial amount of time on the architectural drawing of both the prison and the escape route. I wrote out the profiles of every character, object and buildings, in as detailed a fashion as possible. In this manner the plot would naturally take shapes when the characters encountered one another.
Inspirations
The form of the prison might remind viewers
of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon model. But such a reference was
unknown
to me at the time the drawing was made. The building was in fact
partially inspired by the campus of my high school. The
campus building itself was an architectural attempt at
postmodernism in 1980s China. It was made to
resemble the shape of a ship because the site used to be located by a
shoreline. However, not long after the building was finished, a
larger landfill project managed to turn that part of the
water into land. Hence, nobody had the opportunity
to pretend to sail anywhere.
Panopticon
Also occupying the media sphere of my
high
school days was the phenomenon of the
Internet Addiction Rehabilitation Center. In these
centers were teens, sent by their parents for playing
Internet games compulsively, or simply for being
insubordinate. The “rehabilitation” sessions were paid for by the
families,
who were guaranteed that their children would be
reeducated and remolded. Patients
were forbidden to leave at will. The treatments usually involved
electro-therapy and heavy physical labor. Some patients reportedly died
during their enrollment.
The Second Rendition
In the configuration for the video
installation, I reconstructed part of the prison design in CAD software and 3D-printed
it in plaster. It was exhibited on April
20, 2015 in the BFA Fine Arts building at SVA. The installation was set up in
an isolated room. People were allowed to come in only one at a time to look at
the video loop. Additionally, the
digital models in this configuration also featured combination toilets in each
cell.
There are total of 11 plaster models made. Each model is approximately 8”length x 4” height x 6.5”width.
These printed components were featured in a collaborative exhibition between the School of Visual Arts and Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
There are total of 11 plaster models made. Each model is approximately 8”length x 4” height x 6.5”width.
These printed components were featured in a collaborative exhibition between the School of Visual Arts and Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
In video footage, the plaster models seem to take on a special effect.
I began to play with the way light
moved. The models were cast into different
silhouettes from diverging
angles. It seemed as though the
models did not become architectural
until they were mediated through the lens of the camera.
In a one-on-one setting the viewer could inspect the open-ended prison, while also projecting their personal sense of scale in relation to the model. Hence, they were simultaneously the warden and the prisoner of that space.
In a one-on-one setting the viewer could inspect the open-ended prison, while also projecting their personal sense of scale in relation to the model. Hence, they were simultaneously the warden and the prisoner of that space.
