Drifting absence :: drafting memory

The emotive power of a memorial derives from its ability to engage the viewer in active remembrance. The project considers the limitations of a monumentality which embraces a distinct division between viewer and memorial. Collapsing the traditionally bifurcated relationship between the viewer and object, the memorial becomes inhabitable- unifying the experience of the viewer with the substance and physicality of the memorial. Once the notion of the archetypal memorial is dissolved, the spatial memorial is then open to interpretation with respect to architectural conditions. The thesis proposes a migratory World War II memorial which inhabits the Pacific Ocean. Bound between the unfathomable sectional depth of the Pacific and the reaches of the sky, the memorial drifts in international waters across the seemingly infinite plane of the ocean. Tracing a peripatetic path across the expanse, the memorial makes manifest the intangible ephemera of memory and silence through the studied manipulation of spatial experience.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Kuhn, Marlene Eva

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Fernando Domeyko.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37270

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/37270