The installation experience itself is much more clear to me after conversations with Beth and YG this week. I feel ready to focus on this iteration of my project and prioritize additive changes rather than re-writing the project, again, at this stage, between now and June 23rd. I am writing down other ideas that have had to temporarily die for this window of time and will link to this blog post for *~accountability~**~

What will I create (concept): 

  • Objects that invoke the imagination or production of sound, imagination, repetition in individual ways like the prayer beads I was inspired by housed in….
  • An installation that one person accesses at a time. 
  • I want my project to be a space to engage in repetition work in low-barrier-to-entry ways like  the analog and circular nature of prayer beads
  • I will prompt people to look at the space between what is repeating as a hub for accessing it differently with each iteration
  • I will solidify that language/guidance/specificity with user testing. 

 

My physical installation: 

Open questions:

  • Depending on room structure (window or not, projector or not, orientation, whiteboard placement) some things may need to shift and I may have more or less space than I’m thinking of
  • Diagram is assuming there is no window looking into the room as well
  • Filling the walls? Utilizing a built in ceiling projector as well as my own slide projector? Depends. 
  • Should all of the objects be on a mirror? Etched or not? 
  • Should all objects be on their own pedestals? Just some? Need to figure out what’s available Monday with the room assignment 

Where is it? 

  • A dark room (no windows or covered windows) with a whiteboard on the floor 
  • There is a room to the door, and a space outside the door with a table. 

What is it? 

I haven’t gotten a room assignment yet from Craig & Ruta, but I’m hoping for this type of set up, pending room: 

  1. [INSTRUCTIONS] First, the participant sees an instruction/framing of the experience on the table next to the door. This takes a sonic & written form (QR code to audio and physical print out) 
  2. [DOOR] Second, they walk through the door to the room. 
  3. [TAPE RECORDER] They walk a few feet to the table and click “record” on a cassette tape that will record the room & them throughout the experience. 
  4. [SLIDE PROJECTOR] Here the user will see another sonic + written instruction on how to utilize the slide projector. 
  5. [TRANSPARENCIES AND EXPO MARKER] There are transparencies for them to add to the projector w/ pairs of Arabic letters that connect. There are also expo markets for them to use if they’d like to add to or complete the projections on…
  6. [WHITEBOARD] The whiteboard (where the projection is) 
  7. [DRUM MACHINE] The drum machine with phonetic sounds of letters from the arabic alphabet programmed on the keys and speakers  with another sonic + written instruction 
    1. These instructions will all be on one object or in order (3 QR codes with descriptions underneath) for 7, 8, 9 on the table
  8. [STAR BOOK] A star accordion book made with 99 pieces of 8×8 origami paper 
  9. [KALEIDOSCOPE] A kaleidoscope made of CDs/mirror material (bonus: made of 11 shards – still working on this..) 
  10. [WINDCHIMES] Windchimes (unsure if I will make or buy, leaning make) 
  11. [FAN] A fan that can randomly be turned on and off from the outside of the room to blow air on the windchime. 
    1. Note: NEED TO ADD A STEP FOR THE PERSON TO HIT STOP ON THE TAPE RECORDER WHEN THEY LEAVE … or I could just do that to reset in between people / when I clean off the whiteboard. 
  12. [EXIT BOOK] A spiral book made of clear sheets of paper and a sharpie with a prompt for participants to reflect on upon exit 
    1. Maybe this should be on the other side of the door on its own table/pedestal? Depending on space. 

Further details for each item: 

  1. [INSTRUCTIONS] 
    1. Research & Significance 
      1. Framing the experience and idea of entering a space that fuels repetition
      2. What is the possibility of the space between repeating sounds, gestures, or moments? 
      3. How to engage with the experience (high-level)
    2. Production 
      1. Sound snippet via QR code and printed text as well, outside of the door to the installation, to the right of the door 
  2. [DOOR]
    1. Research & Significance 
      1. None really, allows experience to be isolated 
    2. Production 
      1. Already exists 
  3. [TAPE RECORDER] 
    1. Research & Significance 
      1. I want to have something that encapsulates what was done here, something was happening, there was engagement or prayer, and I also want it to be inaccessible to the person who is experiencing it
      2. Through clicking “record”, they are attending, in the way that someone does when they pick up prayer beads or initially decide to pray. I imagine that the act of recording invokes a specific attention to the space and object, and I want to test this out. 
      3. Some sort of tangible gesture of “beginning” and “ending” that is in one object 
      4. Material to use later based on this experience 
        1. Snippets of what is recorded, taking the cassette tape to weave/create other things, time stamps of prayer ‘happening’ but illegible the impact and participant, maybe even etching the sound snippets into paper or a wax cylinder or vinyl where there is a tactile remnant… Future ideas. 
    2. Production 
      1. I ordered a tape recorder that has a microphone and some tapes off of eBay. Will put it on the table or pedestal a few feet in front of the door, and guide participants to go there first and also when they’re leaving the room to hit stop. 
  4. [SLIDE PROJECTOR]
    1. Research & Significance 
      1. “Light Upon Light” – Qur’anic revelation and significance of what is illuminated between repetition of even that sentence light upon light upon light upon light 
    2. Production 
      1. Bought it on eBay. It makes me happy and I wanted to use it 
      2. Need to figure out how to hide or person proof the wires so that people don’t fall… 
  5. [TRANSPARENCIES AND EXPO MARKER] 
    1. Research & Significance 
      1. Content to be illuminated
      2. More context around this in my last blog post on user testing, linked here 
    2. Production 
      1. Pairs of Arabic letters from the 99 names of Allah written on transparencies 
      2. Instructions for engagement (QR code sound and written)
  6. [WHITEBOARD]
    1. Research & Significance 
      1. Need something for people to be able to complete the drawings and for it to be temporal / reset between each participant 
      2. Whiteboard = easy fix for that 
    2. Production 
      1. None, hopefully. If the room doesn’t have a whiteboard, I can bring one in. 
  7. [DRUM MACHINE] 
    1. Research & Significance
      1. Chanting tradition as a space for meaning making 
      2. Psychology research around what sounds sound like after repetition, trance-like loss, malleable repetition and an ability to add to or change the soundscape
      3. Something already happening in the room/people not having to engage in complete silence with the rest of it
      4. Space for new combinations of letters and patterns formed by them so meaning making isn’t viable or necessary but rather imagining meaning and shifting meaning through repetition 
    2. Production 
      1. Borrowed vintage Electribe 
      2. Bought a bunch of things for it to load samples onto a computer and onto it
      3. Some ableton prep 
      4. Loaded all 28 arabic letter sounds (phonetic) onto the keys for manipulation and addition – disrupting and adding to repetition easily possible
      5. Need to create one specific action that they can do or easy way for them to play by adding or removing a letter
      6. Instructions for engagement (QR code sound and written)
  8. [STAR BOOK]
    1. Research & Significance 
      1. Accordion book – something that folds infinitely and replicates the prayer beads most directly
      2. An ode to the seed of my idea
      3. A place for someone to see more through repeated motion and gesture
      4. Something visual that I value 
    2. Production 
      1. 99 pages, comprised of 99 ASCII art drawings from glitch stuff in 11, 33, and 99 blend modes in Illustrator with the text from each of the 99 names
      2. Need to figure out some printer stuff on the floor… and 99 illustrator sketches are simply hard to make. 11 a day for 9 days.. If I burn out, can also do 33 and print each 3 times (which names should I start with, then?) Question for myself. 
  9. [KALEIDOSCOPE] 
    1. Research & Significance
      1. Initially thought of it when thinking about what can be seen in the middle of a repeated gesture or through the passage of light through it
      2. Like its ability to be constructed out of CDs or other reflective objects
      3. Fun and one of the things I’ve wanted to hold on to from the initial research cycles in the spring  
      4. Instructions for engagement (QR code sound and written)
    2. Production 
      1. Making it out of 11 shards is a challenge – doing this on Monday once again 
      2. What goes inside? Still experimenting. Maybe the same stuff that its  made out of, maybe some little letters/beads.. 
      3. Instructions for engagement (QR code sound and written)
  10. [WINDCHIMES]
    1. Research & Significance 
      1. An object that is often moved by forces of nature to reground someone in the room/space/environment they are in while praying
      2. Reminder of the body and experience that one is zoned into
      3. Specifically used in prayer spaces for some sort of outside of self/unpredictable interruption and grounding 
    2. Production 
      1. Not sure if I’ll buy one or make one, probably make
      2. No instructions, just something that exists 
  11. [FAN] 
    1. Research & Significance 
      1. None – just need something to trigger the windchimes while someone is in there 
    2. Production 
      1. Motion sensor arduino stuff? 
      2. Google Home vibes where I can control when its on and off? 
      3. Talking to YG about this and buying the right fan
      4. Need to hide the wires
      5. No instructions, just something that exists 
  12. [EXIT BOOK]
    1. Research & Significance 
      1. I want to ask people “Why did you stop praying?” as they exit, to more explicitly the experience in post as a ritual/prayer. 
      2. An invitation back in
      3. Transparent to see the individual experience as a part of a collection of people who also decided to “pray” or enter the installation and eventually ‘stopped praying’ 
      4. Prayer as something that is done by an individual even if it is in a congregation, and the idea of a group praying when prayer is for the individual and the soul. Community vs. individual contrast, through not being able to see what each person says when the book is stacked together, but then when someone flips to their individual page, they can see it. 
    2. Production 
      1. Transparent book with many blank transparencies with the prompt, Why did you stop praying? And a sharpie marker. 
      2. Instructions for engagement (QR code sound and written)

Some notes Beth took during our conversation that brought this journey to life: