Between This Space and Me: Tracing the Shadow as an Episteme

Between the Space and Me meditates on how the inextricable entanglement of racialization and the built environment is shaped by the calculated algorithmic pattern of dispossession and destruction of marginalized spaces in Canada. The strength of this algorithm, made possible through the powers of whiteness, capitalism, and antiblack racism, implicitly and structurally produces an uneven landscape reinforced by social policies, histories, and urban regulation. This thesis posits the shadow conceptually as an epistemological approach to understanding how the algorithm envelopes marginalized communities. The processes and terminology used in photography are deployed alongside mapping to think along, with, and through the shadow. Using the photographic framework of 'Dodge and Burn' and personal narratives, the work intends to re-frame the observer's relationship to the built environment, imparting a sense of agency over what is hyper-visible and erased within the shadow.