FALL SEMESTER MAJOR STUDIO 1
SAENT EDEN
An examination of communal catharsis through a public anonymous digital archive
The main focus of this project is to create a public forum where users are able to write messages to people or places who they can’t normally speak to as form of catharsis. The messages will be available for anyone after to read and internalize. The entire process is anonymous to allow for more openness towards the process. It does not have to be extremely emotional and deep, it can be as simple as wishing spending more time with someone or wishing you told your roommate to do the dishes more often or as complex as a confession of love. Their words and their choice.
Queering the Map is a community generated counter-mapping platform for digitally archiving LGBTQ2IA+ experience in relation to physical space.
The platform provides an interface to collaboratively record the cartography of queer life which continue to be invalidated, contested, and erased.
I spent a lot of time on queerying the map with my friends and it rarely ever fails to make me ball my eyes out from the simplicity of some messages to the pain and joy expressed. It showcases an imaginary connected only by location and I love the feeling of being with so many people from so many unmapped times. That is catharsis.
Some blushed, some laughed, some found it hard to maintain eye contact, while some held their chests and cried. Abramović patiently stared at them, she leaned slightly forward, and waited for them to go through their array of emotions - Medium, Oct 14, 2019
Marina Abramović is sitting in a chair, in a beautiful red gown that leaves behind a trail. Across from her is a chair. Her audience could sit in this chair, one a time, for as long as they wished. She sat for hours and expressed no emotion- both, artist and audience just stared into each other’s eyes.
Very similar to the “Queering the map” project an website/app where the user can set a pin and without context write a last message they wish they could have said to someone. A loved one a lost one, its entirely up to the person. Users will also be able to see other people’s messages without any context or names as well and have access to these messages at any point.
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I felt like this method of presentation only works for “Queering the Map’ my project has very little connection to geography and more to points in time so I am brainstorming between two ideas a sort of echoing timeline and a garden of spirals timeline. Then using the data gathered presenting it as a performance piece. A public reciting of all the messages where the audience is able to sit across from me and engage with the words directly. React and confront how the messages make them feel. This piece would have to go over the course of hours with few breaks and possible have a public element to it. I feel like confrontation of mostly emotional charged messages can change the personal feelings of a person with no attachment to the actual message. In a way you become the recipient whether you like it or not.
I initially executed in class for my classmates using large connected sheets of paper and drew a bunch of spirals on the page. Then I went through all the messages I already had and wrote them down on the paper and invited my peers to submit messages anonymously through a google form and as the presentation went on I added more connected spirals and messages to go with them.
The messages I received were very varied. The form received confessions and compliments to scolding. Everyone who did use the form felt very conformable bearing their souls and expressing themselves.
The audience however reacted differently. A lot of people had very extreme reactions to the messages written down most of that being sadness and a feeling of relation. A lot of people related to what was being said but felt as through they had to disengage with the concept because it was public. The timing of the school year and the state of the world were also factors a lot of people sited as well for their feelings of needing to disengage with the concept publicly.
The form
The formatting I decided to go with was a sort of waves of time representation with the messages being hidden among the waves. The user then uses their mouse to search through the waves and when the mouse overlaps a particle with a message the message displays. The page would add a random amount of messages from the from to the webpage whenever the page was reloaded. So it was possible for the user to find nothing and also find a message and never see it again.
I really want users to explore the site and discover what’s going on.
Open Website