‘Beyond Genesis’ is a fragmented silent cinematic experience that sits on the roof of the Genesis cinema in Mile End, London.

 

Inspired by the early silent film era and its influence on media culture, these interests led to an exploration on the effects of sound film and cinema on the deaf community. The project aims to critique the modern-day cinema and the ways in which we consume and interact with film and other visual art forms to tell stories. Using the gestures of sign language as a drawing tool and a way to design the interior journey as well as the architectural elements themselves, the visitors take part in a new kind of cinema experience that fully immerses them within the story and allows them to dream and fill in the gaps. Made mainly from steel, the space gives the visitor the feel of an enclosed pod-like structure that disconnects them from the outside world. The design is made to be silent with many different soft materials in the interior and with the smell of popcorn being made within the space, ‘Beyond Genesis’ allows for the use of all senses, apart from sound. In this way, the space experiments with a new type of silent storytelling. The design of the space lets the visitors view the fragments of a film from multiple viewpoints with many opening to the outside world breaking up the views to give the viewer the opportunity to daydream and turn the film experience into whatever they want it to be.

 

The project aims for the Visitor to become the Director, and the story itself, the Architect of the space.

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The Bartlett School of Architecture, Design Unit 03