Over the weekend we were asked to read a chapter that talks about space. It was very interesting to see how much of an influence space has and afterwards I began to look around my room at home. This semester I decided to go remote and got a rabbit as well to help with my anxiety. In order to accommodate the rabbit I had to rearrange my entire room however. I took before and after photos to show my mom the changes and you can really notice a difference. Before the move I had stuff everywhere. There was a piece of furniture in every square inch and decorations no matter where you looked. After the reading I looked at my before picture of my room and realized how uninviting my room looked. It was so cluttered that anybody who came over must have felt so overwhelmed like they were being suffocated by so much stuff. There was not enough space to balance out the room which may explain why I always felt like something was off in my room. Then I looked at my after photo and there was such a noticeable difference. I got rid of some furniture and it provided so much more space. Just looking at the photo it looked like such a more comfortable vibe and so much more inviting. I also rearranged my decorations so that my walls were not as cluttered. Now when looking at my walls the eye is not drawn all over the place, there is a noticeable focus point that really draws the eyes giving each wall character in a way. This reading certainly showed me how much of a difference there is between empty space and active space. As the reading said, empty space is when there is space somewhere that is unoccupied where something can be placed. Active reading on the other hand is when space is chosen consciously like when I rearranged my room I chose where there should be space so that it played a role in the appealing look of my redesigned room. Examples of empty space may include an empty bookshelf or an empty store whereas an example of active space would be spacing in a newspaper or on a website to create a more uncluttered look. There is definitely a battle with balance when it comes to space. There can be too much causing it to look empty and boring whereas not enough space can cause cluttering and become confusing.
