01 OBJECTS NOT TO SCALE
![]()
This project stemmed originated from a desire to further question the status of Confederate monuments in Richmond, VA. The research entailed spending time in the city of Richmond, interviewing local academics, activists, museum directors and policy-makers. After writing and assessing the different ways monuments are defined (as art, historical, memorial and phenomenological objects) I produced a series of images and a short film about the monuments as images, 3D printed models (one of which was sold on EBay) and tabletop decorations, ultimately challenging their power and legitimacy as public objects and rejecting their presence in public space.
︎︎︎ESSAY ︎︎︎VIDEO1 ︎︎︎VIDEO2
02 THE MOON IS A GREAT PLACE FOR (WHITE) MEN
![]()
Written originally for a class I took at the MIT Media Lab with Dr. Danielle Wood called "Can Space Enabled Design Advance Justice and Development." I have been doing research on Confederate Monuments in my hometown of Richmond, VA for the last few years, and was excited when Dr. Wood suggested I look into the attitudes towards preservation and heritage in space. I was struck mostly by the disjunction between monuments on Earth and monuments in outer space. There is a general lack of consideration of the possible symbolic harm of preserving certain histories in space, when many of them represent nationalist, capitalist, and even colonialist agendas, with many of the minority histories and connections being drowned out in the lack of material representation in space.
03 THE PAVILION/MAUSOLEUM
(with Nate Stanfield)
![]()
(with Nate Stanfield)
Outer Space is humanity‘s next frontier and is subject to colonization. We should design against this future and create a new context in which to come into contact with extraterrestrial life. This encounter, unlike past encounters with new civilizations, will be an exchange of knowledge, and the relationship between us and them will be informed by our past mistakes.
The project employs an egalitarian, decentralized system of organization. Six “libraries” connect to every residence hub. The private “hubs” are large and fixed, symbolizing the centrality of community. They house the librarians, the caretakers of the Pavilion. The public libraries are small and interchangeable, symbolizing flexibility in a dynamic system of knowledge. They house the “building blocks” for humanity: SEED, CULTURE and TECHNOLOGY.
Humanity is outstripping the Earth of her resources. We should both design against this reality and prepare for an uninhabitable planet. We propose that the Pavilion can exist either on Earth or in orbit, and its future is determined by our level of care. If the Pavilion departs, what is left is the Mausoleum.