I was struggling with trying to come up with a grand idea, and then I realized I do not need to have one as we will be working in an iterative process and the final idea may not be my original plan anyway. With that pressure off, I thought of topics I would like to explore and that I could explore deeper with another person who may be interested in the same thing. To start, I would like to make something physical that is independent of a screen and I want to make something that actually serves a purpose. I don’t really like owning objects so making something I actually want or a piece of art with a statement could be good challenges to tackle. Topics to explore:
- Animal rights
- Empathy
- Inner-happiness
- Sexuality/gender/identity politics
Things I like:
- Music
- Lights
- Crafting experiences
- Humor
I went to a workshop this past weekend where we talked about using lights as a social network, so each person would have a box filled with a light that other people can change. This is an interesting idea and we talked about how maybe it could be used in an apartment to let you know how many roommates are home, or you can set it outside your door to alert your roommates of your mood. The idea of using a set of lights for nonverbal communication is definitely interesting, but I’m not sure where to take that. Shir introduced me to this lamp, but I would want to make something that is more of a call-and-response from the person and the object.
I am also interested in the idea of something like a Buddha Machine that people can use to relax or to create a beautiful atmosphere, especially if there are multiple machines in the same space. The idea of having a lot of small objects in a larger space is intriguing to me.
For socially-charged pieces, perhaps making something confrontational isn’t the worst idea. A couple of people enjoy that aspect of the gun midterm and something very blunt and grim about the state of animal agriculture or even the moral implications of eating animals in a developed society could be interesting. A piece that equates cute animal pictures to the food people consume and the cognitive dissonance that happens there could be worth exploring. Unfortunately I find that animal rights is something that most people immediately get defensive about, but maybe that doesn’t matter. It would probably mean the most to me, but there is a challenge in the other ideas that may be good as well.
Really I am not sure where I will be going, but these are my preliminary thoughts. I’m looking forward to class tomorrow to hear about other people’s ideas and see what I can draw from.