dis/orientations

stories that speak to the experience of a disorienting encounter. these vignettes involve memories of personal and spatial disorientation when the wondrous, unexpected, or feared emerges from the mundane.

a number of linkages among these vignettes reveal recurring concerns about the failure of language, communication, and memory. this is explored visually by considering how paper has been used as an orientation and memory technology. each vignette opens with an image of the labyrinth that was built in the reims cathedral in france in 1290. the four figures in this image represent the original architects of the cathedral and the labyrinth was commonly used for ceremonies of rebirth. during the enlightenment in 1778, the reims labyrinth was destroyed as it was viewed to be an irrational and superstitious relic.