Crime scene motel

Ordinary suburban motels, utterly banal and unremarkable to most. However, what goes on behind their closed doors intrigued Sydney Law School criminologist and artist, Carolyn McKay. Presenting a new art installation of neon signs based on her research into crimes in motel rooms. Floating Between Couches & Motels responds to Dr Carolyn McKay's criminal law research into crimes in motel rooms as featured in her authored piece Who's been sleeping in my bed? Cheap motel rooms and transgression' The art installation, on display at the University's Herbert Smith Freehills Law Library, builds on Dr McKay's 2022  Crime Scene Motel Project that explores the unique, but often overlooked, characteristics of motels that invite and enable transgression. The Crime Scene Motel Project emerged from Dr McKay's teaching of Criminal Law at the University of Sydney Law School. "I have attempted to theorise the motel room as a site chosen for criminal transgression, asking: What is it about these private-but-shared spaces that enables, perhaps beckons, criminal behavior? And what tangible and intangible traces remain?" explains Dr McKay. Each neon sign presents a fractured narrative or snippet of forensic evidence taken from criminal case law regarding motels.