To recap, my earliest explorations in Thesis Prep I and II dealt with sustainability, globalization, and China. Upon investigation it appears that my interest in these topics is based upon the concern for how future environmental pressures may affect the way we live moving forward in the 21st century. Focusing even more suggested that I have an interest in humanizing space to promote creativity, comfort, and happiness.
The world I know around where I love (Boston, United States) has a planned, formal way it operates. Not in the way the city is planned (it has evolved over time from function and more organically than planned cities on grids) but how we live in (little boxes) in the fabric of our culture.
So what about fantasy? Why does it capture us, why do we enjoy it? Is it just that it is a fantastical change from the norm, or is there something else there that we neglect in daily life?
The first collage is a series of photos taken at an event I attended. The other day I got to thinking, why did I enjoy it so much? It had music, people I consider friends, so what made it unique?
Those who put together this event took a dormitory and modified each of the spaces inside to be uniquely different from each other. You walked into one room resembling a classic midwest saloon with saloon girls, card dealers, blackjack and roulette. The next had low blue light, soft calming music, and tons of seating. As you walked down a hallway you came across a common area, contained within a white fabric enveloping all surfaces (floor, ceiling, and walls). From the outside all you could see was a bright white glow and silhouettes of the people inside. I wanted to go in that one and still be standing outside so I could see myself in there.
The dorm the event was housed in is unique from any other dorms at its university. It has a culture about it that encourages creative personalization of public interior space (as well as your own room). The building itself may be older, with vertical walls, flat floors and ceilings that you see in hundreds of other dorms around universities but going inside tells you it is anything but. It has an identity. It has a culture. It has a community. It feels like home, even if you are a complete stranger. I don’t get that feeling from generic, sterile spaces.
The following quote felt relevant and seems to pair well with the Malvina Reynolds song “little boxes” I included earlier in this post.
“When art, become independent, depicts its world in dazzling colors, a moment of life has grown old and it cannot be rejuvenated with dazzling colors. It can only be evoked as a memory. The greatness of art begins to appear only at the dusk of life.” The Society of the Spectacle by Guy-Ernest Debord
Art (at least what we have been told and accepted to be art) tends to be treated as a separate entity from our living environment. What I mean by that is, the typical person lives in a house that he or she does their best to make it look a particular way. He or she buys furniture, artworks, accessories, etc. and they are additive to the space and that is one way to modify it.
My follow up curiosity is, if public space on the whole became more personalized towards its users (say, adding phenomena such as ), how would the outcome differ from what we practice today, minimizing phenomena. This is a sweeping generalization, but in specific cases.
[Edit #2]
I went to the library to read Michelle Terpstra’s thesis City Space as Play Space, because the title reminds me of some of my fondest memories from college and related interest in experiencing our built environment in ways different than they were intended for adults to experience them and the idea that we as adults can still play and enjoy life as we did as children. I participated in a “flash mob” 2 or 3 years ago that I’ll blog about next because I have an interest in it.
“…the city as a place for engagement and interactions between adults and allowing play to become a part of everyday life”. Terpstra, Michelle. City Space as Play Space (Wentworth Institute of Technology, 2011) 4.