THE SENSORY EXPERIENCE
How different senses trigger your curiosity in search for unusual sensory experiences?
The Undesired Project
Project Duration
10 Weeks
Design Challenge
The Undesired Project was a project all about you. The main idea was to go with our gut feeling and our instinct. To work on something that you were interested in and find out your true identity and passion. It connects us to the nature of Beauty, Ugliness and Desire. What matters to us the most and how do we react to different things and challenges.
Role
Research, Photography, Experimenting with materials, Videography, Curating the Experience, Material Sourcing.
Design Solution
Through this installation, I intend to let people observe and interact with the different textures and memories that they associate with the experience and by leaving them with the questions like what sparks your curiosity? How willing are you to take risks to experience something completely different? How curious are you to be curious?
What according to you is Beauty, Ugliness and Desire?
What is your Positionality? How has your culture, upbringing and education affected your positionality in art history?
Research Prompts
Negative
SPACE
Compositions
119 Drawings
Agents of Social Change
As a group we were given an hour to solve a design problem within the institute. As an exchange student it was difficult to get into the rooms of KABK, hence we decided to create an app that works just like google maps with the help of Indoor Positioning System.
What is your desired object and what effect does it have on you?
Research
I went ahead with the research on my chosen subject and its relation to beauty ugliness and desire. I came across theory papers and creative articles on curiosity. What is curiosity? How does our brain perceive curiosity? How does superstitious belief kill curiosity? I explored different material sources, clicked photographs that depict curiosity for me and wrote a poem on my thoughts about curiosity.
Experiment 1
Brief:
The experiment was based on testing the curiosity level of three individuals by pausing the last 10 minutes of the movie. This experiment was performed to understand that how our brain perceives curiosity within that particular time frame.
Conclusion/Observation:
The level of curiosity was much higher and since the movie was at the climax stage, the watcher was even more anxious or eager to see what the result was. The watcher could do anything to complete the movie. There were certain predictions made in those 10 minutes and the watcher wanted to know if the predictions made were right or wrong. Curiosity can be destructive in a manner that can lead to frustration and irritation in an individual. It is a naturally occurring urge that should be satisfied in the same manner in which we satisfy our thirst by drinking.
Experiment 2
Brief:
The experiment was performed to understand how a sense of touch helps to understand the level of curiosity if the sense of eyesight has been blocked. This experiment required the player to be blindfolded in order to feel the object and its texture and through this curiosity was experimented.
Conclusion/Observation:
The level of curiosity was ranked based on the player’s ability to feel the texture of the objects. She was curious to know what the object was. The level of curiosity shifted from one object to the other depending upon her interest in acquiring knowledge about that object. According to her if one of the senses is blocked the level of curiosity aroused is higher than normal. This experiment can also be performed on disabled people especially blind people, as they use a lot of touch sensors to understand or know more about the place, object and their interests.
First Draft Exhibition
People have been blindly following the traditional norms that have been passed from one generation to the other and this in a way has affected the level of curiosity within oneself. As I grew older I was told that we are not allowed to wear black on auspicious occasions. I was always curious to find out, what the reason could be, but whenever I used to ask, I used to get the same answer that this belief or tradition has been followed for many generations and it’s not what we can change.
The model is made up of two boxes that are painted black from the exterior. A small light is used that acts as a ray of hope for the little girl. The second box is made of three walls with an opening where the viewer can see the black barriers that represent the doors that are locked. The viewer’s attention is then drawn to the hole in the first box and he is curious to see what’s inside the hole. The interior of the box represents a girl's room where she is sitting next to the door, looking outside the door but what she actually sees is this long barrier placed in front of her. She tries to go ahead and open one door being unaware of multiple barriers or restrictions coming along her way. Her level of curiosity then slowly dies because she is unable to step out of these barriers that society has imposed on her.
Inspiration
After analyzing the feedback from the first draft exhibition, I went on to research James Turrell, Anish Kapoor, Ya Yoi Kusama. The work of these artists inspired me a lot in terms of how our senses affect our curiosity? How different textures and smells spark our curiosity? and How we experience the world through our senses?
Final Installation
From the moment we open our eyes, it fuels our existence. Our whole engine of creative innovation and progress runs on the fuels of curiosity. The desire to try new flavors and to touch interesting textures may be easy to relate to, but this is what sparks my curiosity. The first encounter with something new is usually through our senses, it immediately pushes me to think that how different senses trigger your curiosity and motivate you to search for unusual sensory experiences.
The installation was made using a styrofoam ball as an interesting form to play around with the idea of putting textures and smells in these balls. In total five styrofoam balls were used with each representing a texture under it (E.g Orange skin as a texture represented my ex-boyfriend's skin). These balls were left with a small opening so that people could put their hands inside the balls to feel different textures.
Through this installation I intend to spread awareness among people by letting them observe and interact with the different textures and memories that they associate with the experience and by leaving them with the questions like what sparks your curiosity? How willing are you to take risk to experience something completely different? How curious are you to be curious?
The Learning Curve
What have I learned?
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To bring out my creativity through the hands-on experience without set restrictions or guidelines to follow, which indeed will help me strike a balance between art and design.
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Learning to review different projects and give critical and constructive feedback that is essential for one's growth.
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Seeing design through a more artistic approach and also realized that how has my positionality, culture, ethnicity, created an impact on the style of work I do.
What am I questioning?
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I am curious to know how has my work in the past years affected my positionality and what aspects of positionality should I consider in order to shape my own identity?
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To consider the frame and the positionality so that I can come up with solutions that reveal my true identity as a designer.
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Curious to explore the world and solve design problems and understand their culture and style of working which will be completely different from the place I grew up in.
What is my fundament?
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A person's mind is so powerful that it can invent, create, experiennce things with thoughts alone. My fundament my roots are my parents, the place where I come from, the culture I belong to and my position in the society.
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These characteristics shape me and make me who I am. My responsibilities in the society not only extend as a designer but also as an individual who contributes to the society.
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I would like to bring a social change or even make people aware about their positionalities as an individual in the society.