"Where are you from?"

TCKs have learned to plant their roots in multiple places and cultures and, therefore, are struggling with the question, "Where are you from?", as their answers often cannot resonate to just one anthropological place as commonly expected. Though each may have differing backgrounds and cultural experiences, TCKs find commonality in the state of in-betweenness, being that it is in the midst of transition and mobility where the TCK identity is born.

VagaHome aims to establish the TCK identity through a sensory experience depicting the vagabond cycle of packing up and leaving one temporary home for another whilst still searching for a place they feel most at home.

A university final year project for Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design and Media

TCK Identity and Culture

With an intention to tackle an identity that is not yet commonly known in my current immediate circle, I'm genuinely grateful to have discovered resources* that tackle and study the obscure community that is the Third Culture Kids. This project also prompted me to widen my network of TCK's and was able to personally interview and listen to their sentiments and stories as TCK's.
*One of the resources with in-depth studies of the experiences of a TCK
As an avid enthusiast of literature and film, I ventured into these media to further discern how others express their TCK journey. It's truly remarkable; our list of countries and cultures experienced may differ, yet our sentiments remain mostly identical. 
“In this mobile life, airports become the place of mobility representing both in-betweenness and being in transition.”
​Laia Colomer, Feeling Like at Home in Airports: Experiences, memories and affects of placeness among Third Culture Kids, 2018
“[Airports] prepare us to the next chapter of life. And in that motion, I find comfort - in the transition, I find home.” 
Heidi Sandhart, I Am Home (Thoughts of a Nomad), 2012
“I feel like [the airport is] a place where there’s a lot of departures - not just physical ones but mental ones as well."
ATCK Interviewee #3
Project Aim 
​Create a space that enables the TCK to proudly feel a sense of home and belonging in their TCK identity both physically and metaphysically.
Conceptualising the TCK Cultural Items
As cultural items represent the heritage and shared experiences of a community, the TCK's cultural items are conceptualised to solidify the presence and legacy of the TCK community.

Scents of Identity
Scent Creation

As our sense of smell is said to be linked directly to our memories, these scents aim to let the TCK remember their encounters with the TCK cultural items and allow them to attach themselves to their TCK identity metaphysically.

VagaHome
Spatial Design

A space designed with the scents, materials and audio of the cultural items that are reminiscent of the TCK experience of packing up from one temporary home to another - an experience that largely establishes the TCK identity - a space that conceptually answers the question, "Where are you from?".

Augmented Reality
Experience the TCK home through your smartphone

 Due to the pandemic, the space has yet to be physically built and the scents to be smelled by the public.

That, however, won't stop me from allowing TCK's to experience the space I've created for them.

​Scan below or click the links to experience the space through AR filters!
Programs Used
Rhinoceros | Keyshot | Photoshop | Procreate | Premiere Pro | Audacity | Spark AR
FOR THE TCK
Hello (Tschüss)  |  Beyond Intros  |  The Vagabond Cycle  |  A Vagabond's Turmoil  |  Instability of an Itinerant  |  TCK Sketches
VagaHome  |  Aquapade  |  Nami  | Apporter  |  Void / Mass  |  The Mockingbird  |  Joystick  |  Lampe  |  Kaffee  |  Delegate  | 
Sacrifice  |  Asian Squat  |  With Love, From the Philippines  |  Contained Freedom  |  Form Explorations  |  Kindness  |  Emotions of Coffee  |  Rambles  |  Pulau Ubin
"Wherever you go in life, unpack your bags..."
- Ruth van Reken