The nature of the world that we currently live in has made it incredibly desirable and easy for us, as humans, to constantly seek distractions and find ways to ESCAPE our reality. Escapism is the tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy. Escapism can be a mental diversion from unpleasant or boring aspects of daily life. It can also express a desire to explore and learn new things. We engage in the act of escapism in innumerable ways in our everyday lives, be it consciously or unconsciously. Scrolling through Instagram, binge watching our favorite TV shows, reading books, playing sports, going for walks, going to concerts, listening to music, drinking alcohol, smoking up, getting high…everyone has their own methods. My thesis revolves around this subject of escapism and how we engage with it in our everyday lives. Through a series of surveys, interviews, conversations and personal and anecdotal research, I gathered a plethora of incredibly insightful information about people’s engagement and relationship with escapism in their day-to-day lives which then culminated in a physical archive of printed artifacts housed by a hand-crafted container that was intended to serve as an “Escapism Book”- a glimpse into strangers’ escapisms. Using a visual language of illusions dominated by bright colors, overlapping shapes and visually stimulating elements, the printed artifacts take the reader on a journey of escapism. The nature of escapism is such that we rarely realize that we’re engaging with it when we are and consequently, many of us are oblivious of the impact that this phenomenon has in our lives. Over the course of these last few months, the more I found myself wanting to avoid the reality of returning to a challenging routine of work and responsibilities, the more curious I became about my methods of avoidance. It is really this self-observance that prompted me to look further into escapism as a phenomenon and hopefully start a conversation around this subject.