Self-protective boundaries are created when people feel afraid, yet not everyone erects the same boundaries when faced with the same situation. Is it safe? Or dangerous? This is a quandary experienced every day, and ultimately the cumulative answer will manifest as one’s own safe zone related to specific areas. Self-protective boundaries can be intangible, abstract, audible, and emotionally complex. Boundaries are formed by hearing one’s inner voice as one explores the unknown; by finding familiar, reassuring elements, or even the familiar places where one feels a strong sense of fear because of the response received from the general public. As the boundaries continue to collide with each other, a protective boundary is recognised as being truly one’s own.

I was inspired by Christian Boltanski's project The Heart Archive, which I thought successfully conveyed emotions directly through the sound of a heartbeat. In addition, Gary Lashmar's The Way of the STREET PHOTOGRAPHER also helped me to use photos to present emotional expressions between images. Daido Moriyama's exhibition prompted me to think about street photography and how it can be incorporated into my project as a more direct response to my immediate feelings and emotional tensions.

To complete my project, I used sound and photography. While walking along different paths in London, I recorded my heartbeat while using photography to document the specific moments when I felt threatened and where I felt that my self-protective boundary had been breached. Combining these two methods, the ability to listen to the heartbeat and feel my emotional responses while seeing the images has created an interesting reflection on what generates fear in such situations.