MARGARET HILLENGAS
This room is approximately 9’ by 14.5’ with an adjoining bathroom that is approximately 8’ by 5.5’. There is a single entryway to the room from the hall, and another connecting the bathroom. The bed, dresser, and bedside table are free standing, and all other furniture is fixed. Other identical rooms border this one on three sides, and as such there are no windows. The ceiling lights, alarm clock, and desk lamp provide nearly all the room’s light when the door to the hall is closed.
This elevation describes much of the hidden geometry from the plan in addition to a greater number of personal effects, most of these being clothing. Here we can see the 8’ ceilings provide ample headspace, but the restricted length of the room affords a slim area to walk. Nearly all objects are orderly, but this is mostly due to having only moved into this space for two weeks.
My ANT map begins to explore the personal objects which populate the space and the ways in which they were conveyed to me. It is focused around shipping, both international and domestic, and also provides estimates for the carbon cost associated with transport. It also touches on topics which directly network with the actual action of shipping such as fuel and oil sourcing and consumption or the labor conditions and structures of those employed in long and short haul shipping.
The organizational diagram of my room also focuses on routes. Routes between the items and points I interact with most frequently are portrayed by lines, with a circular endpoint at the main entrance. The dashed line down the bed also marks an axis of symmetry. The red rectangular fields highlight areas over which I move mostly without walking, whether that be in a wheeled chair or rolling over the bed from my closet to the desk.
In the five line graphic composition the spiraling line which connects points of interest is wide at the door and tapers toward the bed tracking energy as the day winds down. The line on the bed remains symmetrical in the cardinal directions and tapers at both ends. The line along the path from the door into the room remains thin. The field around my bed comprises regularly spaced dashes which are wide enough to intersect on themselves at the corners forming a grid. The second field around my desk uses a similar visual strategy but the dashes are irregular in both spacing, width and diameter.
The rectangular shape in the top left is the desk field, oriented vertically and extruded at two different lengths creating a step. A semicircular wedge protrudes from it to the right. At the bottom, a triangular shape with an arc partially obscures the bed field, which appears below it as a series of diagonal lines running from the upper left to the lower right. Horizontal lines which terminate in circles create voids which further reveal beneath the triangular shape.
In this view the steps generated by the field around the desk can be seen as the plane clips the upper half of the large rectangle away. Especially prominent here is the triangular wedge created from the field around the bed, which now appears as a circular sector comprising thin, repeating, arching tubes. Above it is an irregular arch formed by the tapering spiral.
This view provides an even greater understanding of the shape generated by the field around the bed. Diagonal lines from the top, arches from one side, and from the other side, a series of small squares and thin lines occupying different quadrants of the prismatic face. Additionally, the ways in which the arc covers and intersects the lower prism and anterior rectangle respectively are more distinct.