Perlinian codification--(inspired by Paolo Freire's 'Freierian codification')

I intend to work with the issue of how people construct

their personal space. I will focus on both the objects

that people place in their homes, and the meaning that

these items connotate; specifically looking at ideas of

the uncanny. My project first addressed the question of

'where do people live?' In order to examine this

concept, I created a database of images containing

every object in my house. A consistent visual style

where objects were placed within ten inches of the

camera was utilized to give an intimate feel. I

examined Lauren Berlant's questions of intimacy and how

the sense of closeness shifts publically. She frames

the discussion of intimacy through a juxtaposition of

public versus private areas. "The taken for grantedness

of spatial taxonomic associations like public and

private makes this cluster of taxonomic associations

into facts within ordinary subjectivity as well." The

private sphere can be thought of as one separate from

larger social institutions, like the government.

However, societally aware activities and actions happen

within the intimate spaces of our lives, like reading

the news. This reflects the intersection of societal

and domestic ideas. We engage on an intimate level with

both our personal relationships and larger social

ideas, like being connected to current events.

Traditionally, domestic space was associated with

notions of personal connection, emotional sharing, and

relationships. In contrast, public space related to

personal identification and development of the self.

Given the gender associations and constraints on

self-development of domestic space, Berlant offers

useful ways to think about repositioning intimacy. She

empowers the domestic, rejecting the notion that ways

of connecting with others must be societally condoned.

"Rethinking intimacy calls out not only
for redescription but for transformative analyses of

the rhetorical and material conditions that enable

hegemonic fantasies to thrive in the minds and on the

bodies of subjects while, at the same time, attachments

are developing that might redirect the different routes

taken by history and biography." Redefining notions of

accepted intimacy implies that people can take on roles

that push boundaries, or ever potentially pose

discomfort to others. I am interested in exactly this

process--inviting people to discover or enter spaces

that would otherwise be closed off. Domestic

space--traditionally inhabited by individuals, couples,

or families, becomes a public forum for people to

examine and reflect on each other. People's spaces will

not exist as untouched manifestations of themselves,

but as places for others to explore. Berlant suggests

the idea of retaining what is seen as an outmoded or

specifically Victorian idea of intimacy in a new way.

She suggests that domestic space can still be a sphere

for examining relationships between people. What has

changed is that more types of relationships are now in

the dialogue, and notions of intimacy are extended to

disenfranchised groups. She challenges the tenents of

American society that make us comfortable with keeping

the status quo. I am interested in a similar process of

investigation. By inviting people to enter a virtual

environment modeled after my own space, I am asking

them to at once be both visitors and voyeurs. The

tension that emerges from this dual role engages a type

of intimacy that suggests a certain disease, or uncanny

feeling.