Part of my senior year, as a design major, is applying what I have learned to a thesis project. I am required to research something meaningful to me, create a purposeful work, and show it off at the end of the year.
I decided to explore the idea of the miniature. Mini objects, doll houses, tiny homes, mini cupcakes, mini dachshunds and so on. Why are people attracted to miniature things? What is intriguing about something reduced to a smaller scale?
The answer is, there are many reasons. Sometimes making something miniature is cheaper, or has less calories, or just looks adorable. Small things can be more palatable or less intimidating.
Small objects requires a viewer to get closer, to get intimate. The doll house seems like the most obvious example of this. A viewer, has to get down and close up and personal with a little mini set up world. The change in scale requires the viewer enter an new space. They have to see something relatively ordinary, like a bed or chair, but in a new miniature intimate context.
I am fascinated by the effect of the miniature and I want to use it to create empathy. It is hard to empathize with people who hold different views, or live life differently than one does. People can be intimidating or scary.
I want to make mini models of different individual's personal space or significant room based on their description. Each model or room becomes an addition to the whole, "doll house." Displayed alongside a book of descriptions, the viewer can see a representation of someones life in a non-threatening and intimate way.
My goal is that this will bring about some empathy and maybe excitement for the innumerable variances that human beings have. I hope to log my progress here as the project develops.
