Caryn Griffin
Bachelor of Fine Arts
The Psychological State of the Room (Film Still)
My final work explores how my room acts as an entity that mimics my body: protecting me from the outside and acting as a stable internal environment. It investigates the way in which my body interacts with the space of my bedroom and how the room itself contains a psychological state by way of me occupying it for lengths of time. The American philosopher Elaine Scarry stated that “the bedroom is an enlargement of the body: it keeps warm and safe the individual it houses in the same way the body encloses and protects the individual within”. Much like the physical body, the bedroom stabilises internal temperature, creating a barrier between the self and the outside world. The walls of my room secure a space that reflects that of my mind. Time is integral to the functioning of the room, as I spend many hours in this space. A room acts as a transient limbo where time relaxes and is not measured alongside the outside world. It is a space in which the body and mind may prepare/repair itself.