Parsons School of Design
BFA Communication Design
Thesis 2017

Placelessness
Lauren Horsman

There are places that have been labeled as landmarks to establish parts of a city or location where an event occurred. With those landmarks, we are able to easily save these memories in our minds to later locate and identify them. These places have become important to our sense of geography and how they define our society. However, within and around these important places are placeless places; locations that have personal meanings that just as significantly contribute to our experience of the world around us. These places are collectively less memorable or overlooked, but that doesn’t make them any less important. There are many places that mean something to one person but not to anyone else. The spot you had your first kiss, or broke your arm, where you heard some unfortunate news or a place that makes your heart stop—these are areas of personal symbolism, they are frequently temporary, but still hold a certain memory. These places shape the landscape of the world for you and that is what makes them important, makes them monumental.

This project collects narratives of these placeless places while documenting them with images that suggest their simultaneous familiarity and universality. What you’re looking at is part of a large archive of areas that surround our daily life.

Andy Agus

Ameer Akbar

Sherifa El Alfi

Orhan S Awatramani

Evan Badr

Mrinal Bhatia

Yaël Bienenstock

Olivia Brodtman

Adomas Bruzga

Holly Burt

Kiana Caesar

Elizabeth Capreol

Christian Caraballo

Alyson Cardenas

Gabriela Carnabuci

Marjorie Chamberlain

Vanna Chan

Sachi Chandiramani

Leslie Chavez

Katherine Cheng

Emily Cho

Soomin Choi

Hyeree Choi

Talia Cotton

Dorothy Cruz

Katie DeAngelis

Nicole Jane Debler

Dominique DeVito

Megan Dias

Theresa Duemler

Juan Francisco Morales Egas

Michelle Eguia

Audrey Farnsworth

Peter Fowler

Myesha Evon Gardner

Alijah Gilbert

John Hammond

Jin Ju Han

Aimee Hedman

Perla Herrera

Lauren Horsman

Zhiyan Huang

Ji Hea Jang

Urvita Jhaveri

Myles Jones

Cheryl Kao

Phoebe Kennedy

Alice Yeji Kim

Jung Yeon Kim

Thomas Sang Gul Kim

Chewon Kim

Sanggyun Kim

Hansung Kim

Likando Kumoyo

Jang Kyungjun

Josh LaCalamito

Yunjoo Lee

Kyung Sun Lee

SooJi Lee

Meijun Li

Alice Lim

Junya Lin

Yuchen Liu

Kimberly Lombardi

Natalia Malik

Roisin McNulty

Simen L. Meyer

Nikoletta Mitsopoulou

Chloë Murray

Cyrus Nathaniel

David Dahao Ni

Mariana Del Nogal

Sofia Olarra

Kamila Ortiz

Ji Hyun Park

Sara Pena

Melissa S. Peralta

Camille Petricola

Sander Phoenix

Urvi Raghbeer

Andrew Ramirez

Brianna Saba

Stephen Salomon

Julianna Amelia Santolucito

Raida Saveree Sarwar

Ritika Shah

Shui Shan

Jisoo Sim

Lauren Stein

Pei Yu Sun

Shivalika Tandon

Nia Thomas

Laura Tien

Karina Tristandy

Paula Volchok

Djiun Wang

Kyra Wang

Taylor Wasikonis

Junlu Xie

Marie Yamamoto

Jasmine Zhang