My story
Libby Stroik is an African American who was adopted to a white family, and even though her family was so caring and loving, she always had to face many challenges for being a minority. However, Libby’s grandfather always supported her and he was always there for Libby no matter what happened. By the time Libby grew up to become an adult, her grandfather suddenly faced dementia — a condition where your memory gets lost. Libby’s grandfather started to lose the memory of her and a few years later, he passed away. Libby suffered so much pain and she felt lonely once her grandfather passed away. She misses her grandfather so much and she wishes to see her grandfather once again.
Idea
After listening to Libby’s story, I wanted to create an exhibition where people would be able to remember ones they truly miss or have lost. Overall, I wanted to create a very sympathetic and sad area. Every single person has someone they have lost or missed in their life. It could be your grandparents, parents, friends, exes. Just like how Libby felt lonely and sad, I wanted my visitors to also feel sad and remember the ones they truly miss.
Theme
“Create a sad emotional area where visitors could reflect back at their lives, and cherish memories they shared with the people they miss or have lost”
Mood Board
In order to get a better sense of what kind of space I want to install in my exhibition, I created a moodboard to help me with my ideas. I wanted my exhibition to be touched yet very moody.
Brainstorm
I began to write down what kind of experience I wanted my visitors to experience in my space. I did some research on museums that also created a sad mood such as the holocaust museum and the museum of breakups. One common thing I found was that they all recreated the space that had memories. Based on this idea, my plan is to recreate a living room of general grandparents where it feels cozy and warm.
My first idea is to create a secluded space in the entrance where you would feel lonely in the beginning and then I am planning to show a vlog video of a YouTuber who recorded what it feels like to have a family member face dementia. In my third room, I will be recreating a living room that feels cozy and warm.
Physical Model
2nd Iteration
After getting feedback, I realized that the 3 secluded rooms might create disconnection and every area set a totally different tone. Therefore, I changed my idea to unifying the entire area and taking advantage of open space.
I changed my design for the visitor to feel the same way as he enters and leaves the exhibition. 70% of my area will be open space and the last area will be the interaction space. I figured that when people are asked deep questions, it is best to just leave them alone and have their moment. Thus, I think it is best for me to keep my area simple whereas if I have many installations in my exhibition, it will only cause a distraction.
3rd Iteration
Not much has changed from iteration #2 but I switched the location of walls to the other side. After making the physical model, I realized my interaction space was too compacted compared to how much open space I had left near the exit. In addition, it seemed like setting up the walls on the other side made more sense since I wanted my interaction space to be a kind of closed space. I want visitors to go inside the interaction space without expecting anything.
Open Space
When a visitor enters my exhibition, I am planning to use a 360 projector all across the room so that all the sides will have a video motion of (raining on the window). As the visitor enters the room, there will be music playing called “Married Life” from the movie “UP”. I am planning to target the visual and audio of visitors in this space.
Questions inside Open Space
- Have you ever lost or missed someone around you?
- How are your memories with that person? Do you miss it?
- Where are they right now?
- Its OK to miss them. They might be gone for now but one day, you might see them again.
- Anything you want to say? Would you like to write them a letter?
These are the questions I am planning to showcase in my exhibition. My aim is to make the visitors have their moment and think about these questions deeply once they enter the exhibit. Along with the music playing in the background, once the visitors step into the circle installed on the floor, these questions will appear one by one as they move forward. The first 4 questions are simple questions asking about their experience and the last question is aiming to persuade the visitors to write a letter to that person they have in their mind.
Movement
I thought of many different ways I could make the visitor feel lonely and sad during movement throughout the entire exhibition. Then I came up with an idea of shadow footprint. Since I am planning to have questions appear from the floor as the visitor steps on the white circle, I imagined that it would be nice to feel like you are exploring the space with the person you are currently thinking about.
Interaction Space
I plan to have my interaction space as the highlight of my exhibition. After walking down the open space with questions, visitors will have the chance to write a letter to the person they have in their mind. Something cool in this area is that visitors will use a disappearing ink pen instead of a normal pen. This was intended to demonstrate dementia and the loss of someone that is so important in your life. Along with a disappearing pen, while you write a letter on the notebook, the footprint will also start to fade out in order to represent that the person is no longer with you. In addition, not only am I targeting the visuals and audio of a visitor in this space but there will be a Yankee candle in the interaction space to also target the smell. I will place a fall/autumn scent candle to support the feeling of coziness along with a warm light color tower lamp in the corner.
I am also aiming that the next person will be able to read what the previous person has written but they won’t be able to see the entire letter because some parts will be faded out.
Memory Room
All in all, “Memory room” is a space where everyone could come in and mourn about someone they miss in their life. Just like what libby felt like after she lost her grandfather(my guest speaker), I tried my best to implement her experience after the death of her grandfather. The three key senses I touched upon are visuals, audio, and smell by use of technology, control of light brightness, speakers, and candles.
Reflection
The narrative experience project was a very cool project as I have never imagined designing an exhibition based on someone’s experience. I learned that people are very reliant on experience and it is something very challenging to portray it out.
I was also able to learn how important it is that we as environments designers should utilize the human senses in our design. Human interaction and movement are all based off on our senses in our body and in the end, we as designers should always consider how the designs we make have an impact on people.
It would be really nice if I could make my exhibition into a real physical exhibition. I think it will be very cool and I would love to see how it would lay out in real life. I will also have the chance to learn about how prepared I will have to be to actually make this into a real thing. There are so many perspectives that Environments designers have to consider in their design and this is what I truly love about learning Enviornments.
