WALLESSNESS dematerializes the wall by substituting masonry blocks with lightweight structural modules made by hand braiding heat-activated carbon fiber strands together with fluorescent and retro-reflective fibers.

Each fiber supports the project in different ways: the carbon fibers bear the structural loads, the fluorescent fibers increase visual legibility, and the retro-reflective fibers promote an interactive dialogue with the project as flash photography from mobile devices illuminate those threads spectacularly and unexpectedly. Laced together, the diverse threads work in tandem; they are literally cut from the same cloth. WALLESSNESS is an anagram for lawlessness and transfigures a typology of exclusion and division into one of inclusion and connection.

Lavender Tessmer, Nathaniel Elberfeld and Alexandra Waller

Design Seaport Biennial 2020, Boston, MA