Spring 2021
Issue 01
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By Claire Jung (Communication Design, ‘24) This place is a room at the front of my house on the second floor. When I was in elementary school, I turned it into a school for my dolls. A chalkboard, an old school desk, and a big carpet. Little chairs and makeshift desks, little books, little pencils, and little hall passes. It would grow and change as I got new ideas for them. “You would hang up their papers, and the types of things you would hang up in a classroom, like decorations, awards, and instructions,” my mom says.
In many ways, 2020 has given us unprecedented challenges, and beside the obvious sickness and conflict, this has manifested in more abstract ways as well. We’ve all heard the phrase “I need space” and are familiar with “needing personal space,” but never before have we all been so intimately aware of space. Think back to a year ago about how you might’ve been standing arm to arm in a subway car, jostling between strangers at a concert, or sitting so close to someone in a classroom you could smell their gum. These memories are like some alternate reality, and I’m sure some of us are uncertain if we ever really lived like that at all.
Childhood me, running around playing teacher in a room filled to the brim with toys and knick knacks. Even doll-sized things begin to take up space. It became crammed with stuff on every surface, and as the space got smaller I got bigger. Eventually, I stopped using it, and the room became just another place to store unused things. And it stayed like that for years, like an oversized closet of forgotten things.
Space can be defined as, “the freedom and scope to live, think, and develop in a way that suits one.”1 This year, students are discovering that this is a luxury they’ve been taking for granted. When asked how remote learning has changed their relationship with space and privacy, a student responded, “I didn’t realize how much space and
Stretch your right arm out, completely straight. And now your left. Keep them out at 180 degrees and spin. Do you hit anything? Or do you feel an empty bubble of air around you?
1 McKean, Erin. The New Oxford American Dictionary. New York, N.Y: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print. 2 Jung, Claire. “Distance Learning Survey.” 27 Oct 2020. https://forms.gle/RDL38XHgxeWV8Bid8 3 Vagner, Kris. How is the pandemic affecting art education? Nevada, Double Scoop, 2020. Double Scoop, https:// www.doublescoop.art/how-is-the-pandemic-affecting-art-education/. Accessed October 2020. 4 “Remote learning: An altered college experience.” UWIRE Text, 14 Oct. 2020, p. 1. Gale OneFile: News, https:// link.gale.com/apps/doc/A638297502/STND?u=fitsuny&sid=STND&xid=29a8c1bf. Accessed 10 Nov. 2020. 20
