The Brief

The Hermitage project aims to raise social responsibility and awareness about those who perceivably live on the fringe of London’s communities. The students are currently working with the Whitechapel Mission and BDG Architecture.

Hidden Environments

 The students will create devises that should express the narrative of Homelessness.The process of developing meaningful imagery aims to highlight/focus/punctuate the issues through materiality, action, haptic skills and choices.  The fine art approach you will be asked to explore, negates literal and figurative, interpretation, therefore abstracting, expressing and translating through materials and media choices.

“By this device we can explore reality in a unique way, placing it in a context defined by impossible events.  In this way we are able to create resonance of meaning and juxtaposition of ideas which are mind stretching and stimulating.” (Barrow 2005 p13)

Each profile will be expressed and housed within a box.  These boundaries act as a solid environment unlike the experiences being explored through appropriate medium within their confines.  This paradox of containing the untouchable, the ethereal, memory, emotions, but above all the truth, enables the viewer to connect with the contents.  Yet the fascination and inquiry the environment harbours, strives to make sense that truth.  Therefore the “paradox is standing on its head to attract attention” (Falletta 1983 p.xvii)

The boxes will be then assembled into a 1:1 structure, ‘The Hermitage’.  This space will only big enough for 1 person.  The experience within the structure aims to encourage those within its confines to explore and develop a relationship with the contents of the boxes there in.  Meanwhile the exterior of the structure may also encourage engagement of the general public, raising awareness and a discussion about the issues of homelessness within our locale.