Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master in Interior Architecture
Department
Interior Architecture
First Advisor
Markus Berger
RISD Fleet Library Catalog Record
Returning to the Hand
Abstract
Historical preservation is traditionally understood as the act of protecting objects and buildings from change, reinstating and stabilizing the past so they may endure into the future. When preservation seeks to freeze and resolve the past, it separates it from the reality of our multi-layered histories and the traces of labor, repair, and care unfolding across generations. Through a human-centered lens that allows one to touch, uncover, and redefine, we are able to relate to our built environments through an ethical practice of care, inviting new avenues of dialogue and engagement with our past.
Recording traces of the hand within the built environment involves many layers of transformation. Through hand-driven processes using remainder paper pulp and water, I pull sheets of handmade paper and press them directly onto surfaces, from finished ornamentation to the underlying structure. As the water evaporates and the fibers settle, the paper retains an impression, transforming the act of making into a method of recording the presence of the hand within the walls of our domestic spaces. We begin to notice, acknowledge and ask through engaging with materiality, temporality, and human and nonhuman relationships at once. By engaging more honestly with our built environment and the emotions and labor invested in it, this work invites an ongoing dialogue around the many narratives that shape our shared architectural histories and asks what it might mean to truly listen to what our walls have always been trying to say.
Recommended Citation
Dodd, Tatum, "Returning to the Hand" (2026). Masters Theses. 1662.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1662
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.