Tools for Psychological Space Travel
Approach to Observing Space for BIO50
As a point of departure for this project, for me the audience of the BIO50 plays an important role. I’m interested in shaping peoples experience by providing a framework, a “pair of glasses” through which to look and see things differently. When the role of the designer has shifted from not only producing objects, but also producing ideas, we can even take this further to providing tools for an audience to produce ideas. This means that im aiming for gaps in my work, spaces for the public to come and fill in. Im not looking to design something that is, but rather something that could become many things, and which needs the audience in order to do so.
As our topic of Space is very abstract I see it as an interesting challenge to guide people into our world, make them accompany us in our journey to Europia in various ways. I will approach the topic by borrowing from various disciplines such as neuroscience, immersive theater, experience design, art, performance, technology, psychology to create new understanding of perception, emotion, imagination and empathy.
Starting point as defined during BIO 50 meeting in Ljubljana (at least my interpretation of it) : What does it mean to be human in space?
This project is an exploration of the human being in and travelling through space. Unlike most other efforts in exploring space which are highly scientific and technological, we like to look from a mere philosophical, cultural, psychological, existential and artistic perspective, in order to broaden our understanding of what it means to the human being and to human culture to be in space.
My approach to the Constitution of Europa: From Social reality to fictional possibility - Europia as a tool for thinking alternatives
I am interested in the way the constitution could be build up, as a open model which engages the public to think about certain topics. (perhaps related to the categories of BIO50). Could the constitution play a role in engaging the audience? The European constitution on earth has failed and many lost faith in Europe , maybe our Europian constitution could have the role of capturing peoples wishes, ideas and ideals for an alternative. This way it serves a role as Utopia and offers us a glimpse of another world that doesn’t yet exist, that is different from, and better than, the world as we know it now. But what is better exactly?
Imagining and articulating Utopia is ultimately a way of reflecting on ourselves today, informing us about what is on our mind, and puts us in a context of endless other possible ways of living. Maybe the act of portraying our thoughts on a world far away from ours, where earths rules don’t apply and where conditions are so different from what we know, could help us truly think out of the box, and come up with endless possible ways of living and being.. Could there be a return of fantasy in progressive politics? Could Europia be a testlab, a place for experiment?
There is a great value in thinking possible worlds or futures out loud. As Stuart Candy formulates this:
“Our sense of both ‘probable’ and ‘preferable’ futures is invisibly hemmed in by an underdeveloped sense of the possible, which has twin consequences: failure to perceive risk and hence take steps to avoid or mitigate them, and, more poignantly, neglect of horizons of positive potentials that could make the world better. For that reason addressing ourselves more effectively to the possible is the first step (but not the last) in improving collective foresight. “
The topic of outer space invites us to construct thoughts by looking at what we know and imagining what we don’t know yet.
“Possibities are a whole area of mental activity which lies between truth and total fantasy. It is a very rich area because for any one truth there are many possibilities. “ - Edward de Bono
For BIO50 I imagine a platform, either online or physically represented in the exhibition, where people can read the constitution, add lines to it, rank each other’s ideas. And maybe there could be a connection between the 12 categories of BIO50 and the constitution.
Project focus: A new notion of Public Space
When we talk about Public Space, most of us will think of public spaces on earth. But can we include “Outer Space” in our notion of Public Space? It doesn’t belong to anyone, but at the same time it belongs to everyone.
How can we, even if we are not able as individuals to physically travel into outer space, get the idea of belonging and claiming this space. I would like to explore possibilities of traveling through space and acting in Space, psychologically. How can we go there in our minds? (The constitution would be one way of doing this but I would like to explore multiple ways)
My Voice | Lundahl & Seitl
Providing Tools for Public Imagination
Space travel has been mainly something living inside the public imagination. Mankind has created images, stories and movies about space, always based on a mixture of facts and fiction. How can we explore space further through the public imagination? What kind of tools could I create for others to travel into space and have an experience of it?
Imagination comes with constraints, and just the right amount of it. I would like to see a framework, a scenario or a set of guidelines, in which certain elements of space travel are formulated by me as designer and to leave gaps that can be filled in by the viewer.
In order to do so, I like to explore different media types and formats.
There will always be a gap between what it would be really like travelling to Europia, or be a citizen of Europia and how we imagine it to be. This gap is also defined as the Experiential Gulf:
“‘The experiential gulf’, is the gap which inevitable stands between what a future is like in theory and what it’s like to live through in practice. This problem is considered from the standpoint of recent findings in neuroscience and psychology, concluding that ‘experiential scenarios, by including the lived, bodily, affective registers of the human processing system, may be implemented, to narrow this gap. “ - Stuart Candy 2010
In the past I have been exploring different ways in which we can create experiential scenarios. And I was planning to continue this research in the context of this project.
For example, a scenario could be to guide a visitor on a journey from earth to Europia. Or make them feel how it is to stand on Europia and be a tourist or a citizen.
I am exploring rule based scenarios, the potential of sound and movement, the possibility of language etc.
For example, by removing the element of vision, the work can be experienced in the audience imagination:
“ Sound has an innate ability to transport you out of your body, so if you give an audience various soundscapes you can transport them through their imagination into many different places” - Janet Cardiff
Janet Cardiff-The Forty Part Motet
Capturing and showing the Public Imagination
Another idea is not to only give the audience an experience but to actually collect and show what they imagined. The shown piece can be the collection of the public imagination.
I imagine collecting people’s imagination in for example letting them speak on film or writing and ask them what they experienced. If Europia is a place we can reach with our imagination, it could be build and transformed by the people who travel there in their minds.
As a sum up, this is what I would like to add to our constitution:
Europa is both a real place and a place inside the public imagination
Europia is of no one and of everyone
Until we can travel to Europa in real life we can travel there in our minds
Everyone can become a citizen or visitor of Europia
The constitution is existing of the contributions of all citizens
The constitution is not a fixed state but is ever evolving
Europia is a place for experiment, a testlab
Europia is a place for utopian promise
Europia reveals the values and principles of our times
BIO50 hosts the Europian Embassy
The embassy provides trips to Europia
Europia is a collective effort
The Observing Space team are the first citizens of Europia
Relevant projects and artists I came across during researching these topics
Nowhereisland: art project, what if scenario, claiming an island, citizenship, collective, constitution, imagining alternatives. http://nowhereisland.org
Lundahl Seitl: neruoscience, contemporary art and immersive teater, intangibles, performative, audience as the medium, playing with space, time and perception. http://www.lundahl-seitl.com
Janet Cardiff; sound walks http://www.cardiffmiller.com/index.html
Stuart Candy: experiential gulf, experiential scenarios http://futuryst.blogspot.se
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