san luis obispo CALIFORNIA

suckerPUNCH: describe your project.

studio400: This Is Not a Book Cave was a collaborative installation that was designed, fabricated, and installed in a period of less than three weeks with the goal of displaying and reading thesis books. Donated cardboard tubes, previously bound for recycling, were cut into predetermined lengths, ranging from less than an inch to four feet then clustered into a series of modules. The arrangement of different modules allowed for variance in form, while simultaneously creating changes in transparency and visual affect.

It is this variance which, taken to extremes, creates visually solid moments of mass, tailored for sitting and reading, while simultaneously reducing mass and thickness to the point of transparency. Position of the viewer becomes integral to the understanding and experience of the installation, an experience defined by seeing and being seen. Upon disassembly, the modules were repurposed as shelving and screens/room dividers.

sP: what or who influenced this project?

studio400: tara donovan, united visual artists, up-cycled materials, caverns

sP: what were you reading/listening to/watching while developing this project?

studio400: julianna barwick, yesterday’ s new quintet, subnature by david gissen, borges

sP: whose work is currently on your radar?

studio400: iris van herpen, junya ishigami, david leatherbarrow

Additional credits:
undergraduate thesis studio cal poly san luis obispo
students: Cesar Arias, Cheryl Brodzinsky, Ulysses Carmona, Vincent Cimo, Tracey Coffin, Meghan Fuson, Jonathan Giffin, James Hua, Evan Jaeger, Susan Kim, Susan Lam, Dana Lydon, Neda Nekoui, Oscar Nino, Erika Peel, Paul Ruppert, Shani Sparks, Kenny Train, Jared VanDeusen