ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION
In this project, we created our own interactive installations that engages the audience with their senses. The goal to engage the audience with more than just the visual and auditory senses, including taste and touch.
PROCESS/REFLECTION
For my project, Under, I wanted my audience to experience a glimpse of what it may be like to be in an unfamiliar, enclosed space while conveying feelings of claustrophobia or confinement. My aims were to create the illusion of being trapped and isolated from normal surroundings. I used drowning as an example to create the confined and isolated experience. This idea was inspired by my experience scuba diving last summer when I felt anxious and uncomfortable being underwater for too long. I wanted to convey the same weight and panic I felt during that time in this project.
Sensory Book
Before setting up the final project, we created a sensory booklet of our project as a mood board or catalog of inspiration and ideas we wanted to explore in our project. I used Bruce Nauman and Antony Gormley as examples because they use confined spaces that people can experience in. I felt that both explored the idea of claustrophobia, confinement, and psychological perceptions. I liked how interactive those exhibitions were and how the artist conveyed claustrophobia and our perception to our surrounding in different ways.
In setting up this experiment, I draped black curtains across the corner of the room to create a small secluded space. Then I added another sheet behind it to add another layer. The person in the space would be constantly feeling the weight of the sheet around them and be surrounded by fabric from every side.
I had two participants experience the space two at a time, blind folded. I played audio from speakers as they were in the space, surrounded and confined by a white sheet, and a black curtain that covered them from view. As the participants are confined in the small space, I played a distortion of audio with a mix of underwater breathing, heartbeat, and muffled crowd to create the illusion of being isolated from everyday surroundings.
Most of the participants claimed that the experience was scary and claustrophobic. The blindfolds helped putting them in an unfamiliar space and making them uncomfortable. I found it interesting that one of the participants felt comforted in the space. This shows that our psychological perceptions are different and that we react in different ways.
