This project asks how our perception of a place shifts once we uncover something unsettling about its past. A location’s ‘feeling’ is not fixed; it changes depending on what we know—or choose not to know—about its history. When negative stories surface, they linger in the background, subtly shaping the way we move through and experience the space.
My focus is Death Junction, a busy five-way intersection near central Cardiff. While many assume its name comes from the frequency of car accidents, the site carries a darker and lesser-known history. Discovering this altered how I engaged with the junction: moments that once seemed ordinary began to feel like fragments of a wider, hidden narrative. Standing at red lights, I became hyperaware of the people around me—some oblivious, some perhaps knowingly looking away—mirroring our broader relationship to the chaos of the world today.
In this way, Death Junction becomes a microcosm: a space where infinite histories, both known and overlooked, unfold simultaneously. By searching for these micronarratives, the project reflects on denial, awareness, and the uneasy coexistence of past and present within the everyday spaces we inhabit.
Tom Keighley 