Q&A with Korynn Newville

 

 

 

Korynn Newville is the author of the book Indiscernible Elements: Calcium. She is an architectural designer and artist.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Indiscernible Elements: Calcium?

 

A: The architecture field seems to be a mystery to people. Especially with types of materials that are being used for buildings.

 

A book, to me is a way for an individual to start thinking about the built environment in different ways. This is something that you can hold, pass around and openly discuss to learn about architecture in traditional sense.

 

Q: On your website, it says that “architects can no longer draw, design and think from only a human perspective. by creating stories, drawings and designs through alternative perspectives, it can expose new relationships and ideas to a changed world.” Can you say more about that?

A: I believe through imagination and fiction we can create solutions for our nonfiction world. If humans only look at a problem from the same perspective, we may never find a new type of solution or idea.

 

My book is from the perspective of Calcium exploring its life cycle. Calcium shows us the horror that the element goes through – the extraction, the modifications, the toxins that we are then releasing into our world.

 

By building new relationships with different specs of the planet, it’s my hope, to see materials differently so we can fight for the ones that cannot be replaced.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

A: Indiscernible means to not be able to see, and while we can see bones and calcium as an element together it’s nearly impossible to see the cycle the element brings us. We cannot see all of Calcium at once, or its growing phases to the naked eye.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

A: I hope readers take away a new connection to the earth, the built environment and themselves. Hopefully leaving them with a different view of they are surrounded by every day.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I am working on the next book and element, Iron.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb