A PSYCHOLOGY OF HOME. Book of posters: 22in x 17in colour inkjet double-sided posters on newsprint in a 22in x 17in colour inkjet double-sided slip on Canson 70lb Student Drawing paper. (2011)

French philosopher Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Space investigates the values harboured in intimate spaces. Examining the home in various scales from the universe to the tiny nest and shell, Bachelard emphasizes the imaginative and "oneiric" influences one projects into a space. He believes the home to be a fertile environment for dreams and aspirations. "A house constitutes a body of images that give mankind proofs or illusions of stability. We are constantly re-imagining its reality: to distinguish all these images would be to describe the soul of the house; it would mean developing a veritable psychology of the home" (Bachelard 17). Applying a Jungian approach, Bachelard compares equates the basement to the unconscious with its mysteries and attic to rational thinking and the conscious mind (Bachelard 20-21).

Reacting to this comparison between the mind and the home, I developed a cultural probe to collect visualizations of relationships with the home. Six participants from various demographics and living situations were given a camera and list of words with instructions. Borrowing from Sigmund Freud's practice of word association, the participants were asked to respond to a stimulus word by capturing a photograph with the provided camera. The participants were asked to (a) follow said instructions in their self-defined homes, (b) take a photograph in response to a list of provided stimulus words, (c) work with their initial responses, and that (d) photographing repeated spaces are acceptable. Culminating into A Psychology of the Home, the photographs provide insight into each individual's ideas of home and space.

Bachelard, Gaston. Poetics of Space. New York: Beacon Press, 1994.

A Psychology of Home has been featured in MEMEFEST PUBLICATION: Friendly Competition and will be published in MANYSTUFF's Questions/Questions.