“Space travel makes us realise how alone and insignificant we are in comparison to the vastness of the universe, but also makes our own troubles seem more trivial, and shows us that we are not alone in this insignificance.” - Project Statement
A project statement related to space travel was chosen, because we felt like space travel is both a cutting-edge technology and is a topic that can make people feel great amounts of emotion, like overwhelming anxiety and/or awe. We decided upon this statement specifically, because the feelings of alone-ness and insignificance caused by the vastness of the universe can be interpreted both positively or negatively. Space can make you feel insignificant and small, but it can also relativize your own problems. This flexibility in emotion possibilities, while maintaining the same topic of space travel, is precisely why we chose this statement.
As for the three guiding principles, we chose “Alone” between “Alone” and “Cringe”, since it perfectly matches the idea of being space; being surrounded by a large amount of mostly emptiness. Consequently, for the second guiding principle, it was picked for us, being “The Other Side”. This greatly fits our project statement, as the dubious feeling of “Inadequacy” can be interpreted both positively and negatively, as we will elaborate on in our chosen emotions. This allows us to make a sort of “switch” of circumstances in our installation, revealing “the other side” and transforming anxiety into awe. Lastly, for the final principle, space travel was chosen as the technology, as it would not be possible for humans to even experience being in space without the advancedes technologies of rocket ships with all their machines and components in them.
As for the emotions, two emotions were chosen. These were “Anxiety” and “Awe”, with an overarching feeling of “Inadequacy”. This inadequacy can evoke anxiety or awe, depending on the circumstances. In the prescence of the vastness of space, people will feel insignificant, but in what kind of way depends on the circumstances. A black hole with violently flying asteroids will evoke more anxiety than a slow-moving, colorful Milky Way, which is more likely to evoke feelings of awe.
Brainstorming was done with all members through mind mapping and freewriting. The most cohesive brainstorming document we made before presenting can be seen below. It contains our main findings, and includes images and describes the emotions, along with the TA meeting takeaways:
Slides from the Project Statement presentation:
Statement Presentation CCC Tres.pdf
Hand-out, that accompanied the presentation: