chapter one: a new beginning

hello!

so throughout the summer, my project concept has diffused and divulged into different areas of concentration. it all began with an project aptly titled, "sh*t, that's deep" which discussed things that are meaningful and causing introspection... but not in the usual literature/philosophy/music/fine art avenues that "depth" generally entails. therein, i wanted it to be about the philosophies (sort of) of other worlds that were, literally, deep. ie: deep space, deep ocean, deep underground caves, and maybe deep jungle or something. i sort of became fascinated with these other worlds that we incredibly different from ours, but that were essentially governed by the same physical and biological forces.

so the continuation of this developed on the ideas of awe, wonder, and discovery–being things our modern lives don't generally entitle us to. prior to the first class discussion, i had been thinking of the inaccessibility of scientific information today. i thought i could do something that would involve making nerd knowledge more intriguing, compelling, and essentially more visually interesting to the casual consumer of information. i also made the judgment that, if people knew about these amazing, mind-blowing things, their attitudes towards things such as the environment, other people/animals/beings, and life in general would change drastically. in short, i mean to give people a reverence for life that is often forgotten in the mess of city life and modernization.

So, in class the discussion moved to the fact that this project had to be more than an artier science magazine and a cool picture book. it would be to involve opening up ones mind in a much larger fashion, creating awareness, and employing a medium that would allow for awe & wonderment in our daily lives. then it was suggested that environmental/experience design and architecture would have to be considered... which made me go SH*T! because i hate and cannot compute anything in 3d. i would like the take the concepts into consideration, but i don't want this project to go into an area that i hate working in.

SO! i'm tired of composing sentences so here are some key lines from my VPL adventure and brainstorm:
recreation the experience of: contemplation, feeling small in comparison to huge things
scale: hugeness vs. smallness
densities: empitness vs. super packed'ness
bring together knowledge/fact and emotional experience
knowing facts in a different way (experiencing knowledge on an emotional level)
epic, cathartic, about life itself, expanse!
knowledge pre-experience and post-experience
life changing experiences: often out of your control (car crash, birth, death, fate)
losing control = gaining perspective
contemplation; going to public places, watching people, outdoors/large spaces

GOALS:
contemplation
reconsideration
infinite ways to blow your mind
feel something...

you should be astounded.

i don't really know where this is going still. i want it to tackle the problem in a new ways (like how richard branson is sending people to space to be ambassadors for earth).

but here's mickey moonlight with "interplanetary music". it's great.