For Carl Gustav Jung, the renowned Swiss psychiatrist and founder of Analytical Psychology, the shadow is the diametrical opposite of the conscious self, the ego. The shadow represents everything that the conscious person does not wish to acknowledge within themselves.

For example, if you think of yourself as a kind and generous person, your shadow is unkind and greedy. The shadow is not necessarily good or bad. It simply counterbalances some of the one-sided dimensions of our personality. Jung emphasized the importance of being aware of shadow material and incorporating it into conscious awareness. Otherwise, we project these attributes onto others.

A sad loss permeates the excitement behind the recent news (here + here) of N55’s revolutionary, low cost, high design, sci-fi, geodesic Micro Dwellings—namely that artist Ingvil Aarbakke, a key member of N55, died late last month.