Risers Ad Inifinitum Towards Shelter

On the Conditions of Homelessness

Everywhere | Ottawa, Canada

Donna Haraway defines our current condition as; ‘A thick present where we endure the troubles of today by staying exactly there; responding within its troubling mechanisms.’ She defines string figures as a way of interpreting this thick present; as an adventurous pursuit in the interstices of the troubled times, as threading connections to articulate knowledge just to erupt them to create new connections and companions. Through symbolic interpretation, my project aims to investigate the current condition of homelessness in Ottawa. The project reflects on methods of representation when documenting. It critiques modern ways of thinking and raises awareness by sharing research.

I began by reflecting on myself, loneliness and cities during the pandemic. An exploded axonometric represents the feeling of being lost in built space. The model blends elements from buildings on the housing continuum and demonstrates them without a sense of gravity, time or sunlight. Stairs allow ascending and descending through the spaces, but penrose stairs allude to the illusion of a cycle. The image depicts transition but obscures linearity. By breaking apart the volumes, one can understand the complexities and uncertainty of the condition and that the path to a permanent residence is not the same for everyone.

To represent the threatening conditions of the streets, I created string figures as mechanical creatures formed from elements of the city’s urban fabric. Light posts, sirens or ventilation units disturb calmness. The figures instill fear through authoritative presence and lack of human qualities.

Donna Harraway explains in her book ‘Staying with the Trouble’ the importance of sym-poesis. That nothing makes itself. She says; ‘Staying with the trouble requires learning to be truly present, not as a vanishing pivot between awful or edenic pasts and apocalyptic or salvific futures, but as mortal critters entwined in myriad unfinished configurations of places, times, matters and meanings.’