Nam Pham

Mirrors of Design

Spring 2020

Assignment 1: Ichnography
 The Ichnographia was a document of the place I currently live in. I started out by tracing my

right foot with and without shoes onto paper and added colors to differentiate them. The shoes I chose

was the ones I wear almost every day. There is a small size difference between the two prints, but it was

significant enough for me to differenciate the two spaces. I scaled the space I wear shoes in and the

space I walk barefoot according to my foot tracings. I do not wear shoes inside my house; the plan of my

apartment was scaled based on my foot. One centimeter in the drawing is double the length of my

barefoot. Of the outside drawing, one centimeter is double the length of my shoed foot. Clay and earth

sourced color burnt sienna were used to indicates different conditions of the spaces. As the building of

my apartment complex were a remodeled brick structure, I used the brick-like red color of burnt sienna

to poche in the existing brick walls. As a result, these wall differenciated from the partition walls

betweent the apartments.

For the next step of the drawing, I surveyed and document the areas of the building that I

walked through regularly. The drawing paid homage to my daily routine and it is a documentation of

habit. Where the feet were moving, the disconnected lines documented its path. Similar to Paul Klee’s

Pedagogical Sketchbook documentation of lines, there are lines in my drawing that “creates passive-

blank and active filled planes” (Klee 1953). Spaces between the conventional representation of the

apartment becomes alive with freeforming lines that represent “an active line on a walk, moving freely”

(Klee 1953). Yet, unlike Paul Klee’s representation, the lines in my drawings are disconnected. The

intention was to represent walking specifically, in contrast with other means of mobilization. In walking,

movement are not as smooth, and contact between the feet and the ground are disconnected. These

lines of walking movement traced my movements inside and outside my apartment in my daily routine.

The use of arrows was an indication of the direction of movement. There is no clear direction inside my

apartment, as the movements are reciprocated. Outside the apartment, there is a clear direction

indicates that I do not use the same door to enter and exit the building. Initially, I use the outdoor way
to check the mail room. Then it became an unbreakable habit. Almost always, like a ritual, I use the

outdoor way to exit the building, as it feels wrong to use the other way.

Indicated in my drawing is the scaled footprint signifying the location where the both feet are

rested and in contact with the ground. Wherever the feet are still, a pair of footprints is documented.

As I pay notice to the way I sit, walk and sleep around the house, I became aware that there is never a

moment both of my feet are still on the ground still except two locations where that happens daily. One

was at the entrance of the building, where I stand still to find my keys, and open the door. The other is

in front of my apartment door, where I rest both my feet on the floor to open the door. The image of

footprint in front of entrances is a recurring image. In the WAAC building, in front of every entrance,

there is a patch of wood flooring that is newer and different from the rest of the flooring. It was

suspected to be there to cover up dents made by thousands and thousands of human feet standing

there, wearing out the floor day by day. There is a significance of the footprint at the entrance of a

space. It is a mark of ritual. Every day, before I enter a space of my dwelling, I made a small insignificant

dent in front of the door, just so I can shuffle through my bag, find the keys, and open the door. I

wonder if it was the same for the WAAC building, were people waited in front of the entrance of the

rooms for something, before they enter the room, and that perhaps was why the wood floor beneath

were worn out.

As I made this drawing, it became a discovery of what I do in my everyday life. In the short time

that I lived in this apartment and this apartment complex, I have developed new habits of moving

through spaces. As I made this drawing to study the making of an ichnographia, I unexpectedly and

unconciously made it into a closeup study of my daily life.

Bibliography
Klee, Paul. 1953. Pedagogical Sketchbook. New York: F.A. Praeger.