Imagining Kafka’s Castle

Honours Graduation Studio (MArch)

This project aims to critically respond to and reinterpret Franz Kafka’s literary work, The Castle through furthering the concepts, themes and motifs embedded in the novel as well as by reference to Deleuze and Guattari’s deconstruction of Kafka. A surreal, dream-like atmosphere and logic emanate and reverberate throughout the novel, the Castle is trapped somewhere in time and history. The protagonist, K, is on an obscure, incomprehensible and largely unexplained journey to reach the Castle, the pursuit is tedious, exasperating and ultimately impossible. The Castle in its authoritative grasp and un-reachability is likened to the pursuit of meaning or the journey to transcendence. The pursuit of meaning dominates the novel, this key narrative driver is challenged, primarily by questioning the illusionary and subjective nature of meaning in much of contemporary society.

This project establishes a drawing and modeling practice through which the thematic framework, critical response and tectonic realisation of the project are developed. The critical response aims to critique and further the concepts derived and developed from the narrative. The reinterpreted narrative is distilled into a scenography of six scenes. These scenes are accompanied by excerpts from the novel which initially inspired the development of them.