What if, all of the knowledge you gained living where you are does not do justice to your feelings? What if, your language as you know it might have some constraints because of being ’Structured’ and ‘Conventional’? Most of the languages we know are constrained, to an extent that anything that goes beyond or feels to be going beyond the constraints almost becomes an alienated concept. Did you, in your course of life until now, ever feel that words aren’t enough? Or maybe how you tried to explain it to people around you and they couldn’t make sense out of how you explained? Or maybe trying to decode something that you’re feeling yourself, coming up with various other emotions to describe the feeling, but it’s not quite what you’re looking for? A lingering feeling of being unable to express yourself? Using all of the words you know and still can’t quite exactly express yourself?
What exactly happens when you feel something like that and choose to replace it with certain words that you know? When you try and explain something that goes beyond your socio-cultural-linguistic boundaries? An analogy can be made for the outcome of this event with an event in the Mahabharat, where everyone had to shoot the eye of the rotating fish, while everyone else were each given a chance to aim for they eye they ended up shooting the body of the fish or maybe not even close to it, whereas Arjun shot the eye of this fish in just one go. When you try and explain the feelings and emotions that seem beyond, you are trying to be everyone else but Arjun, which is completely fine, because you are still making efforts to explain, or in scientific terms, you choose the words that exist in your vocabulary and tend to not exploit your Amygdala(a really small part of your brain, which plays a major role here). But what if, you could shoot right in the eye of the fish like Arjun did? What if you had the vocabulary that you could use to explain what you exactly felt and actually utilise the situation to tickle your Amygdala?
The aim is to make you realise that most of things that you can’t exactly put in words, scenarios that make you feel something, something that you perceive but can’t comprehend, you are not the only one feeling it, there are more people out there who feel like you do. Language can be restricting and can easily be geo-tagged, whereas emotions and feelings become universal, specific to scenarios and conditions as time goes by. This project hopes to make you sensitive towards your own emotions and let them flow freely, using literature and visuals curated for you and your senses.
The project is an experiential exhibit wherein 5 artworks will be displayed.
The flow of crowd around the exhibit is going to be as follows:
The red lines are going to be the artworks, in front of which a pair of headphones will be placed. The shape is particularly chosen to give the person experiencing the exhibit an intimate and personal experience with least amount of distractions possible. Each artwork can be experienced by one person at a time only.
The artworks are being created so that they match the emotion they are supposed to depict. So when the person who wants to experience it comes in front of it, they are supposed to put on the headphones, in which on the press of a button, a narrative would start to play. The narrative is going to be a real–life incident/experience of a person (whose name shall remain undisclosed) in context to the word for the particular exhibit. Along with the narrative there would be a background score being played at a low volume to encourage immersion in the exhibit. While all of this is happening on the click of a button, that is where the experience begins. The user is supposed to ponder upon the ideas and experiences being narrated while looking at the artwork in front of them, trying to evoke the sensation of the emotion in them, making them interact with the exhibit in a passive manner.
Towards the end of the exhibit the user would be given an option to write down their experience if they could resonate with any of the words/emotions in the exhibit. Their privacy and names would remain confidential. They could then be added to the playlist of that particular emotion if I feel the content is of good quality.
