Dyning Room Process – Kristina Rudolph

Kristina Rudolph | PM/Creator/Designer/Builder
Society | Product Owners/Stakeholders
Software | Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Building Helpers | Joan & Ralph Spitale, Brandon & Mark Rudolph

Eight images in two rows.
Row 1 has four images from left to right. Colorful rectangles are digitized in Illustrator and laid out to form a quilt square representing a dangerous poison flower shape.
2. A finished quilt with a dark blue border and peach inner borders. Each row of 5 quilt squares across has poisonous flower shapes, there are thirty quilt squares making up this quilt.
3. The quilt draped within the final installation exhibit called the dining room. Piles of white tissues are seen in the left lower corner. The quilt is draped over a wood chair with an old teddy bear to the right corner of the chair. There is a pile of bills and papers in the foreground in front of the chair and an oxygen machine canister sits to the right of the chair.
4. Three people's top of their heads show as they raise a ten foot long panel wall attached together with steel risers. In the center of the panel is a place for a window.
Second Row first image shows a digital simplified drawing of a place setting picture a napkin, knife, spoon, plates, bowls, and a placemat. There is text pointing to each of these elements explained later in this project and too small to read here.
The second image shows a bent over looking metal fork with a red and yellow soft handle. This is a surgical retractor used for surgery.
3. Shows a real place setting for the dining room with a silver fork bent to look like a surgical retractor on the left side of a plate covered in pastel colored medical collages showing various parts of the brain. There is a wad of hair in the upper right corner of the image with a butter knife below that has been altered to look like a scalpel.
4. The entire inside space of the dining room shows colorful wallpaper, white chair rail and blue lower panels that meet at the ground against a medium wood slat floor. A dark traditional oblong dining table sits in the center of this room with items that can't be made out. These will be explained in more detail below.

It all began with a quilt. The colors and content of the quilt inspired the entire installation called the “Dyning Room.” Auditory, olfactory, tactile, and interactive elements created a heightened experience.

Below we travel through the transformative space through explanations and sounds.

Explanation through sound

Accessible sound overview

The William Tell Overture (Spring) played in the background by the entrance while birds sang and the occasional dog barked to authenticate a surreal outdoor auditory experience.
The inner Dyning Room area more unsettling sounds such as oxygen machine hums, infrequent coughing, and an occasional phone that rang eerily unanswered.

Sound details

The sound clip below is a 58-minute loop representing the visitors’ initial impressions of what they would hear.

These sounds looped for those entering the gallery space and instantly transforming visitors’ from being inside to feeling like you went outdoors.

William Tell Overture w/ ambient outdoor sounds

Physical and tactile details

This exhibit had a wheelchair-accessible walkway to the central waiting room lobby area.
The smells of flowers slowly dissipated over the course of the exhibit being open as they wilted and died throughout the life of the exhibit.
Any items could be touched; under supervision for blind visitors.
The walkway path was lined with castle-wall blocks to help guide all visitors into the exhibit space.

Upon entering the glass outer wall space visitors’ are instantly transformed to an outdoor scape filled with sounds, smells, and visuals that trick the brain

Explanation of the space

The inner outdoors

The gallery slowly transformed from a blank room with glass windows by the front entrance into a complete outdoor scape with a small backyard of grass, and a path that wound around the side of a ten-foot deep by twelve feet long building covered in white vinyl siding complete with a curtained window and window box.

The approach after walking in shows a long path with the building and backyard to the left and a waiting room to the opening of the path

Inside the backyard

This outdoor space is riddled with hints of the sick abandoned homeowner that may have once lived inside. The backyard shows metal trashcans filled with oxygen tubes, syringes, medical cloth, and other medial items.

Down to the last details: two metal trashcans billow over their lids filled with medical supplies

Overall yard approach

The yard’s grass is filled with pesticide signs which become denser on the lawn as one approaches the waiting room and building entrance. Details are meant to express how our environmental choices lead to cancer’s risk.

A view looking back towards the exit shows a decrease in pesticide lawn signs

The check-in desk

Information tri-fold brochures in clear stands and a nearby wood hanging magazine rack contained pamphlets and information about Cancer prevention and treatment. Visitors, like patients, were asked to sign in as part of the experience (this was also used to count visitor numbers)

The waiting room

The path passes against the side of the building and opens to a waiting room area with a desk where visitors experience what it is like to check in to their appointment. Four waiting room chairs with small end tables on either side sit against a wall across from the outbuilding’s door entrance.

Inside the dining room

Inside the built house room is a dining room filled with colorful objects and furniture which encourage visitors to be intrigued to enter.

Upon deep inspection, everything in the room appears to have cancer cells collaged onto plates, cups, wallpaper, paintings, and other objects.

Installation of the constructed space included graphics created using Illustrator and Photoshop which were mounted to various substrates and materials to create an immersive walk-through environment.

Materials: Construction materials, electrical, wood, silver, steel, cotton, paper, glass, plastic, surgical cloth, and gowns, found objects, and photography.

Movie showing inspiration and process for the start of the Dyning Room exhibit — Long pan view of the entire inside building of the Dyning Room installation

MFA thesis:

Cancer affects us, every day, in different ways. I believe our environment increases Cancer’s risk. To some, Cancer has touched our hearts. To others it has touched our bodies. Cancer affects our lives, our friends and our families.

This life-size installation represents the reliquary for my life. It contains my memories and feelings in dealing with close friends and relatives that have died of Cancer and the few that have survived their plight. It is my aim to allow you to enter this world inside my head. As everyone will be affected differently, it is my hope that you will take a tour and perhaps reflect amongst your own experiences in dealing with this disease.

The waiting room contains facts and documentation that I have collected throughout a two-year-long process. It is my hope that you will share in your experiences and stories with others to raise awareness. I encourage you to read more on how to gain prevention and avoid increasing your own Cancer risks.

— Kristina Rudolph

Below shows four-minute video clip of how the process and inception for how the Dyning Room began.

See how this process began through the partial documentary video below.