LAURA'S WORK
TELEIDOSCOPE
Teleidoscope is a proposal for a public interactive sculpture designed as a playful intervention in familiar spaces. Initially resembling a coin-operated telescope often found at scenic viewpoints, Teleidoscope invites viewers to insert a coin, expecting a magnified view of their surroundings. Instead, they encounter a teleidoscope—a type of kaleidoscope with a lens and an open view.
Rather than offering a clear, magnified scene, Teleidoscope presents a fractured, kaleidoscopic version of reality. This surprising transformation encourages viewers to pause and engage with their environment from a fresh perspective. By subverting the ordinary function of a telescope, Teleidoscope introduces an element of play, inviting viewers to step outside conventional expectations and embrace a more open, exploratory mindset. Teleidoscope suggests that play can unlock new ways of seeing and experiencing the world around us.
LAURA'S WORK
SHADOW PLAY
Shadow Play is a series of two short videos using shadow puppets, accompanied by a custom-built puppet theater that serves as both stage and interactive sculpture. This piece reflects on the often superficial greeting rituals in American culture, where questions like “How are you?” prompt brief, impersonal responses instead of true connection. By placing these interactions within a fictional, paper-cut cityscape, Shadow Play reveals these exchanges as empty niceties—ways we avoid genuine connection under the guise of politeness.
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The puppet theater is essential to the piece. Built as a durable, furniture-like structure, it invites viewers to interact directly with the puppets, bridging the divide between adult and childlike expression. This interactive element encourages adults to step outside their conventional roles, letting go of the pressures of “doing a good job” in a typical, adult-like way. Operating the puppets offers a unique blend of control and improvisation, allowing participants to engage in a “play experience” that frees them to challenge social expectations.
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By giving voice to an inanimate object, adults experience a moment of expressive spontaneity, where they can still “be themselves” while reconnecting with a more childlike state of being. In this space, Shadow Play gently questions what it means to be a “functional adult” in our culture, allowing participants to reflect on communication habits, question norms, and embrace an imaginative freedom that’s often sidelined in everyday adult life.
LAURA'S WORK
The Game of LIFE
The Game of LIFE is a body of work that explores the ways adult values are subtly yet powerfully imposed on children, often through seemingly innocent cultural artifacts. This inquiry began with an examination of the classic board game, The Game of LIFE, which has been a staple in American homes since 1960. The game serves as a cartoon-like blueprint of a "normal" American life, guiding players through culturally celebrated milestones. Through LIFE, these milestones reveal societal values that children subconsciously absorb as they play.
The visual series within The Game of LIFE isolates the miniature architecture from the game board—small plastic houses, churches, and office buildings that symbolize power centers in American society. When removed from the game context and photographed individually, these pieces take on a monumental, almost ominous quality, encouraging viewers to reconsider their own conditioned values. LIFE invites reflection on how children are shaped by adult ideals and the importance of elevating the child’s mind.
LAURA'S WORK
COME TOGETHER / GET AHEAD
Come Together / Get Ahead is a pair of hypothetical tabletop games designed to explore contrasting value systems and how they shape interactions, self-perception, and social dynamics. Though playable in appearance, these games are intended as conceptual tools, using the familiar language of board games to reveal the impact of cooperative and competitive structures on human behavior.
Come Together embodies a value system where mutual success is essential, encouraging interdependence and shared achievement. Get Ahead, in contrast, mirrors competitive dynamics, where success often comes at the expense of others. This pair of games invites viewers to imagine themselves as players in each system, considering how societal structures shape the way we relate to others and ourselves, and exposing how competitive, individualistic attitudes subtly mold future generations’ values through play.
LAURA'S WORK
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
This gallery showcases Laura’s street photography, a constant practice in her work. Capturing spontaneous moments, these images offer an unfiltered look at everyday life and human interaction.