Skeuomorphism, commonly referred to today as a graphical user interface, is a term of archaeological and architectural origin, where details from the past linger as ornamentation. As we become increasingly reliant on digital devices, screens can be examined as architectural elements that singularly translate apertures, portals, and reflections. Functioning as a window, the screen’s familiar flatness produces an opaque void, slipping into our domestic spaces. The screen could render the view of a landscape, transmitting bytes to a glass surface, or be read as the hollow opening of a hearth. It could be suspended above a place to lie down, allowing one to look up into a virtual cloud, beyond the boundaries of enclosure. Folding into the crevice as a vanity mirror, the screen could flicker on, replacing one’s reflection with the digital projection of a camera aperture.

Abigail Chang is a designer and educator from Los Angeles. Her practice is interested in subtle encounters driven by material qualities and details. Her work and collaborations have been published and exhibited internationally, including the Lisbon Architecture Triennale The Poetics of Reason and the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism Crossroads: Building the Resilient City, and supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Previously, Chang worked in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Basel, and Tokyo at architecture and landscape architecture firms including Herzog & de Meuron, SO–IL, and Norman Kelley. She received a master's in architecture from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, where she was awarded the Takenaka Fellowship. She has a bachelor's of arts in architectural studies from the University of California, Los Angeles with distinction. She is currently a visiting assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Architecture.