abstract(ly).

This is a study of the strange and the uncanny in visual form. The strange in this instance is defined as any occurrence that disrupts the commonplace of a situation. Though historically the Freudian uncanny has been ascribed to horror and fear, I use it today as a class of the strange which invites a tactile, visceral experience as well as intellectual dissonance.

Drawing from a wide range of precedents, including phenomenology, spiritualism, abject art, fiction and B-horror cinema, a series of narratives, objects and installations arise and offer unusual variations on reality; what Marshall McLuhan referred to as "counter-environments." Each body of work is a testing ground for a perceptual experience of the strange and investigates the translation of this into graphic design form.

Motivated by the sudden estranging of my most intimate environment following my father's death, this study allowed me to investigate my curiosity for the unusual and to find comfort (the familiar) by provoking discomfort (the strange).