Scales of Shelter

Scales of Shelter was a project developed during my first MA semester at the Iceland Academy of the Arts. The work describes a selection of shelter discovered whilst exploring the islands of Svefneyar (65.3729552° N 23.5149881° W), in northwest Iceland, during a 72h case study in August 2023.

Key motivations behind the exploration were questions regarding what gives a place a purpose. The human search of purpose in everything is grounded in a constructed sense of what is of value. Today, many would suggest value can be measured. If we look beyond these superficial narratives created by human, how can we understand our underlying, perhaps more instinctive, motivations behind estimating the value of a place? How may we, as well, explore and perhaps understand a purpose outside our own sphere? What does a mouse, for instance, find valuable?

When assessing the value of a certain habitat choice of a specific organism, common practice is to focus on the habitat in which the organism can behave normal, along the lines of, «here the organism seems comfortable and undisturbed, this must be the habitat of value». As a critical counterpart to this practice, this study aims at exploring the purpose of habitats chosen when disturbed, the approach being seeking places of shelter for different organisms, uncovering the spaces not meant to be uncovered, with the aim of learning how choice of habitat is more complex both for fauna and humans alike.

The project consists of three writings (Introduction, Scales of Shelter and Similarities: the shed and the shrub), in addition to a handful projections, all presented simultaneously in a performative manner, September 2023.