HERITAGE UNSEEN
2019-2021
Client: Myseum Toronto.
Location: Toronto, Ontario.
Heritage Unseen began as a design charrette in which four of the sixteen installation ideas presented would be chosen to be developed further in the design development stages and finally, would be built for Myseum: Intersections 2020. Intersections 2020 is an annual festival that explores intersectional perspectives of Toronto through collaborative exhibits, events, workshops, and tours. The overarching theme for the installations were ‘Ghosts of Chinatown’.
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My installation, initially titled Culture Shock, was one of the four proposals that won Jury’s Choice. Its purpose was to challenge our generalized understanding of Chineseness by asking questions of heritage and identity. Furthermore, it aimed to confront the user’s preconceptions of culture and identity through sensorial means that juxtaposed perception against reality. After the charette, and once our groups had been assigned, Culture Shock underwent a series of developments that delved deeper into the matter of culture and the effects of our biased perceptions.
As of February 2020, the exhibition has been postponed to April 2021. With COVID-19’s status becoming increasingly dire within Ontario, the exhibition may move to an online, digital platform instead.
Programs & Materials Used: Rhino 3D, Adobe Illustrator, CNC Routing, Laser Cutting, Image Transferring Processes, and Webflow.
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CULTURE SHOCK
The installation is segmented into three phases: exterior, interstice and interior in which the user is guided from an area of generalized perceptions in to a space of understanding and connection.
Exterior
Exterior is the beginning of this journey wherein the user is faced with four walls clad with imagery and motifs that are perpetuated through pop culture and the mainstream media in which the focus is placed on stereotypical objects and colours.
Interstice
Interstice is where the user is first privy to the ambient sounds of the streets of Chinatown West. The dim, low and empty space is representative of the discomfort that can prelude an introduction to a clearer and more personal understanding of identity.
Floorplan
Exterior Elevation
Interior
Finally, the user enters Interior in which this intimate space allows the user to fully immerse themselves within the stories and realities that have shaped the identities of the Chinatown West residents.
Interior Elevation
Render of Interior
Prototype of Exterior Wall
Prototype of Interior Wall
HERITAGE UNSEEN
My proposal Culture Shock was one of the four projects chosen from the design charrette. I was grouped together with three of my peers after which we had to work collectively to develop the concept further.
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Heritage Unseen continues to challenge the users perception of Chinatown through sensorial methods by juxtaposing the material and immaterial sights and sites of Chinatown.
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Team Members:
Katherine Fazari, Victoria Ruccella and Maria Tevyants.
Floorplan
The exterior mimics the boundaries of Chinatown West and is clad with the imagery of elements that are protected by Toronto's 1980 by-law which states that Chinatown is an area of special identity that encourages the emerging Chinese motif, such as illuminated signs, street furniture and architectural detail [2]. The images that have all been collected using the hashtag #torontochinatown display the tangible and material understanding of Chinatown's heritage.
East Exterior Elevation
West Exterior Elevation
In contrast, the interior speaks towards the immaterial heritage of Chinatown- the authentic elements that are not accounted for in the 1980 by-law. The installation is once again divided into three distinct spaces- the main hallway, the sound nook and finally, the visual nook.
East Interior Elevation
West Interior Elevation
The hallway holds inscriptions that have been collected from archival documents and data that relays the experiences of Chinatown's residents over the past 50 years.
Next, the user encounters the sound nook in which they enter an isolated space dedicated to sound in which they can immerse themselves fully into sounds of Chinatown.
Finally, the visual nook allows the user to perceive the microbial heritage of Chinatown, in which microbes that are invisible to the naked eye are rendered visible through their aggregation.
Through this experience of bearing witness to the material and immaterial sites and sights of Chinatown, we ask what should inform the recollection of Chinatown, and what it's future heritage could be.
As of March 2020, our project pivoted from a physical installation to a digital exhibit in light of COVID-19 and the resulting pandemic. Our project was presented during Myseum: Intersections online exhibit during the months of May-June 2021.
Shifting into a digital experience, the petri dishes now explore a collection of events as documented by mainstream news and media that bring to light the rampant xenophobia and racism that the Chinatown communities have had to face as a consequence of SARS in 2003 and the COVID-19 pandemic. In illuminating these realities, we hope to examine the realities of biased and unjust discrimination on Chinatown’s neighborhood, residents and community, as well as its effects on their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, and its strain on their businesses and livelihoods.
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You can explore our digital installation through our website: Heritage Unseen.
[1] Myseum 2020: http://www.myseumoftoronto.com/program/myseum-intersections/
[2] City of Toronto, By-Law No.99-80 to adopt an amendment to Part I of the Official Plan for the City of Toronto Planning Area respecting South-East Spadina (Toronto, Canada, 1980)