MIRROR | MIRROR: A DOCUMENTATION BY CAMILA E. SOTOMAYOR AT THE BARTLETT 08.09

During her adventures in Wonderland, Alice exclaimed, “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?” [Alice, 1951] The dichotomy of alternates, what is and what isn’t, is fascinating. Held in a London apartment, virtual smears and residues result from the shared experiences of smell, touch and sound. While visualizing Apt. 35b as a site active with pinched spaces, the lens of analysis was pulled to the hidden lives inside each room as parts of the entire virtual system. Virtual architecture can exist only by means of the physical systems that sustain it; requiring the body and mind of the imaginer. Since concepts of space are imaginary,Mirror Mirror embodies the co-dependency between Virtual Smears and Actual Space as a cognitive tool created in order to unveil and understand the extraordinary within the ordinary that surrounds us. A secret life of surfaces and spaces we occupy daily erupts from a daily routine, revealing clashes within rooms, through walls and floors. Loveseats, tables, handrails, toilets all bloom palimpsests through surface slips, sound and smell. Like a chopping block that develops cuts and stains over time with use, everyday household objects grow fields that swell and congeal with interaction with the inhabitants of Apt. 35b. The secret lives of Apt. 35b’s objects in space are catalogued as Virtual Smears. The afterlife of Smears exists in its Virtual capacity to “patch” over actual decay. The more a loveseat is used, the more it actually decays, however the virtual smears and residues buildup space dependent on use and frequency. -Camila E. Sotomayor for more on this fascinating thesis:http://vasavoircamille-mirrormirror.blogspot.com/