A Study of Familiarity
Inspired by an interest in orientation and inhabitation, A Study of Familiarity documents my personal experiences over a two-month period at Korpúlfsstaðir (SÍM Residency) in Reykjavík, Iceland. Documentation is a regular practice I engage in which allows me to exercise grounding and self-reflection in my journey of better understanding myself. Working from photos taken during the residency (see visual diary︎︎︎), I illustrated my own acquaintance with my environment and the people with whom I shared space. New environments trigger orientation...questioning how we understand self and relate to others in a new context. Within this process is a revelation and embodiment of self upon space, and this is what I sought to capture. I return to the same subjects repeatedly to record not only the physical changes that occur, but also any subconscious change in my response towards each subject over time (a shift from new to familiar—habituation). I do this with the intention of analyzing how my space is altered as a result of my living in it and what about those alterations reflect who I am as a person.
