Nersessova’s Tapestry of Space

Who is the audience?

  • People interested in homelessness
  • Photographers/tourists
  • Homeowners
  • Policy makers

What is the purpose?

  • As an eye opener
  • To critique capitalism or other facets of our economics system
  • To think differently about our position and relative precariousness
  • To inform

What is the context?

  • Written in 2014
  • Economic recovery from housing market crash and recession
  • Wages are still stagnant, and a lot of people are still renting
  • People are just emerging from their status of homelessness
  • Republican controlled Congress with a Democratic president
    • Government gridlock

What is her argument?

  • Links media to customer desire
    • Media images create desire in customers
  • A lot of people got interested in making a lot of money, and did not think about the consequences it would have on others.
  • Analyses Morton’s photographs to show the real side of everything
    • The real images of homelessness
    • Does not arouse consumer desire, instead it raises feelings of empathy
    • Counter agents of images seen in the media
  • We should be changing the way we think about homelessness, and understand the psychological aspects of it.
  • Nersessova critiques homelessness, but she does not provide a solution for it