“I had this wood piece discarded from studio and the pins we use for pinups lying around on my desk, and I needed something to help me envision [the maze]…. There are many ways to make a model; this one is pins, paper, and a block of wood—quick and cheap.”

—Amanda Carmen Bower, Student ASLA
@amanda.carmen.bower

Amanda Carmen Bower, Student ASLA, was six years old when she was camping with her family in southwest Ohio and got lost in the woods. That experience, which Bower—the winner of the #WLAM2023 Instagram photo challenge—describes as equal parts terrifying and thrilling, was one she captured and amplified in a virtual reality maze for her Cornell University studio. Mountainous terrain, forest, water, and a cave are layered in her trace-paper model for this project in progress, which helped her visualize the virtual pathways in tactile dimensions.