Using a rigid, standardised system of documentation, the lab captures soft, subjective data, a deliberate paradox. Rather than recording the area in exhaustive detail, it condenses fleeting, intangible moments into a minimal and structured format.
Shaped as a workshop, each participant is free to map as they wish, within the limits set by the material and tools provided. Each acts as a vessel through which subjective information about the area can be documented and analysed, combining physical elements and personal perception into a speculative interpretation of the area’s reality.
The Purple Lab aims to looks at space through a new lens, emphasising the multiple realities that exist at once, and offering tools to visualise the intangible. Blue (perceived negativity) and Red (perceived positivity) subjectively rank the happenings of the area as felt by each participant, while purple marks the overlaps where perceptions ultimately converge.
In this way, personal and often abstract feelings about a space are compiled into a shared, protocol-based language, one that can be reorganised, compared, layered, and ultimately merged into new speculative realities. The Purple Lab treats colour and drawn forms as scientific data: a minimal code capable of holding what a photograph alone cannot.
Collaboration: Orla Kelly & Giorgio Ye
Pictures: Cian Redmond
