The Cartographer's Cabinet of Curiosities

An initial move was to explore the concept of creating a Lock. It is constructed to inhabit a gap within an existing building, the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. 

The Cabinet contains three optical tools and a series of pegs. Each tool can be removed from the cabinet and taken to a site within the building to achieve altered views and perspectives. The pegs fit within shadow gaps around the museum allowing a single thread to run from the cabinet across the walls, surfaces and artifacts of the museum. This action maps the building.

Each peg is specific to its place in the building. Using methods such as clamp, wedge and embed the pegs delicately sit within the walls and in gaps. 

The initial move begins to consider inhabiting gaps in existing urban fabric and reducing functions into the smallest possible space. It is these themes that can be taken forward to future moves in Venice. 

Venice. A Visit to a Territory

City of Tourists. A city without a population? 


The territories of Venice are shrouded in fog, blurred between romantic dream and desolate wasteland. Buildings crumble, the tides erode and inhabitants are temporary. The city exists as a fantasy land and behind the extravagant show exists a degrading structure. The curtain lifted reveals a venerable stage. Actors, props and the scripts all in a delicate balance. 

How is it possible to inhabit such territories? To become resident in a unlived place. A museum.