Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing

Exposing Dystopian Futures

How can an extension of an institution married with the lineage of colonialism- the Philadelphia Museum of Art, attempt to decolonize the land it resides upon? This question may seem counterintuitive at face value- it is. That said, any extension of a colonial system under the guise of decolonizing intentions acts as a wolf wearing sheep’s clothing. This project takes the advice of “make the invisible, visible,” and employs it to reveal the wolf.

This extension serves its role as a monument of questioning. That isquestioning its own purpose and- in applying the transitive propertythe intentions of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as an agent of decolonization.

Kitbashing and Structural Expressionism

The design nods to the relevance of movements like structural expressionism, which celebrate and expose utilitarian building components often hidden behind walls. This project offers a slight departure from that legacy. While the use of these specific kitbashed objects- the components of a camshaft pulley, engine block, drive belt, and piston- pay homage to Philadelphia’s industrial relationship with the Schuylkill River, they also work to symbolize the legacy of imperialism which accompanied these periods of industrializationpart of that history resulting in works of art found in the PMA.

UPenn Fall ‘22

Suffused Volumes

Critic: Na Wei

Project Length: 4 weeks

Collaborators: Ria Zhang, Kai Chen, Shane Bugni

Deja Vu Layers of Recognition

Deja Vu is best described as a sum of many parts. Found objects such as a trash can, chess piece, pinecone, and observed architectural components are arranged to create a unified whole. The basic contours of the assemblage are extracted from silhouettes of the human body. Using these outlines, the voided space is extruded and then encased with the object poche, enabling and encouraging specific movements through the pavilion. As one approaches Deja Vu from a distance, the individual objects blur together as a singular structure. Closer inspection brings the common objects into focus, revealing a space which is uncannily familiar.

Fabrication

More than just a digital assemblage exercise, the Deja Vu project is a challenge in physical fabrication. The Deja Vu assemblage is composed of 7 distinct foam panels, all of which were made into molds plaster negative molds. The molds are filled with expandable foam, left to dry and expand, and eventually removed from the plaster.

UPenn Spring ‘23

Project Length: 1 week

Collaborator: Yousef Almana

Error 404 AI Misinterpretations as Form Finding

This project plays with machine learning technology and its misinterpretation of prompts, resulting in the creation of novel objects within a preset typology. Viktor Shlovsky’s literary trope of defamiliarization hinges on one essential element, the perception of strangeness. This feeling can be brought about by challenging habitual, over-automotized object perception. Error 404 employs Leo Tolstoy’s literary defamiliarization tactic, which disorients readers by describing objects rather than naming them. This tactic does away with our conceived notions of well-known objects by increasing the difficulty of recognizing the object for what it is- forcing the reader to digest the “essence” of the object more slowly.

Error 404 uses Tolstoyesque descriptive language in programs like Dalle-2 and Midjourney to defamiliarize five structural components which repeated throughout the Callowhill neighborhood. These objects are colorfully described to ai, but never named, leaving the computer with space to slightly misinterpret their form. The result of these errors is our project.

Defamiliarizing Structural Components

By employing Tolstoy’s method in AI prompts, the product of AI’s misinterpretation of the written descriptions is a defamiliarized structural object. This process of slowing down habitual perception through confusion allows viewers to take in each structural object as a whole rather than as its assumed form, advancing the aesthetic experience of the space.

These specific construction objects are indicative of the neighborhood’s history in large-scale fabrication. These “confused objects” are reintroduced into their original context, paying homage to their industrial home. The objects are then reassembled according to their initial placement and utility- resulting in a largely structural facade.

UPenn Spring ‘23

Critic: Ryan Palider

Project Length: 2 weeks