The Inner Constellations of Your Nature
I don’t often share my projects publicly, but with my participant Kayla’s consent, I’m sharing this one! Hopefully this gives an idea of the behind-the-scenes that goes into a design for me.
My intention for this project was to help Kayla access and express some inner constellations of her nature through levels of the literal and physical, the subconscious and student, and the poetic self.
Her experience took the form of a “solo date night” on which she did not know where she was going nor where she would end up.
My narrative arc consisted of three parts: first, I sent her into an immersive art representation of nature (and on the way to this site-specific installation I had her listen to a podcast on the conversational nature of reality featuring David Whyte).
While inside the installation, I told Kayla that she may find discrete user-initiated sensors that trigger reciprocal reactions of light, sound and projection throughout a room.
I suggested to her: “When all of the elements are engaged simultaneously, perhaps you can create a symphony of sparkling lights, otherworldly sounds and dazzling motion graphics.”
Some questions to be considered were:
What does it mean? Does it mean anything? Is it just human-created absurdity, or can something deeper be found here? Most importantly: What creates this frenetic world of lights inside of you? What do your inner constellations look like?
Then I shifted her into a comfort “enhanced Kaylaness” space (a park, as close to nature as I could get her in Denver due to time constraints + quiet writing time), then finally to stretch the bounds of Kaylaness into an opt-in impromptu poetry reading.
Some themes explored were:
Wild vs. tamed nature.
Obscure self vs. open self.
Containment, protection vs. constriction.
Along the way, there were invitations and micro challenges, like: On a walk, try to look everyone you pass in the eye along the way. What does it feel like to see and be seen?
The making of a project is often in essence my own experience that I’m simultaneously designing. It involves, as theater company Odyssey Works would put it, “falling in love” with your subject.