20041008
what are transient realities
- changes in everyday reality (behaviour of matter, expectations, understanding)
- intrusions from other realities
- complete replacement or mutation of reality
- temporary autonomous zones
- amplification of invisible phenomena (micro and macro)
how can we generate transient realities
- changes inside bodies (drugs, endurance, motoric restriction)
- changes in the environment (modifying sensory input, destabilising the space-time continuum)
- intrusion of the unexpected
- in order to coherently generate tr-s, we should look into different conceptual models of reality
reality tuning (what are we transiting between)
- initially: physical and virtual
- moved into being able to tune most experiential qualities of reality:
- tuning scale: micro ↔ macro
- spatial scale: from handheld worlds to whole cities
- temporal scale: from split second to days
- tuning density: thick ↔ sparse
- tuning risk: comfort ↔ unease
- tuning abstraction: photorealistic ↔ impressionistic
- tuning sensory input: liminal ↔ sensory overload
The tuning needs a model of reality to develop these parameters consistently, maybe Eight Circuit Model
qualities of transient realitites
- generating the world from the balance/inbalance of the forces that shape it
- growth and form of shapes depends on their interaction with the environment (shaping structures from outside in)
- interplay between physical structures and media should create an additional element of strangeness (feeling that you have been transported to a different reality)
- a lot more thought should be paid to this topic as this is the substance, the aesthetics, the experience we want to provide
components with which we can/want to generate transient realities
- modular, scalable physical structures (starting from body scale and inflating/deflating the worlds)
- wearable technologies for on body augmentation
- tangible media (integrating responsive media into physical structures, inflating flat media into volumes)
- media that can incite physical responses
- whatever components we make, we have to spend more time thinking and developing them, rather than working panically at the last moment; also, the integration of the different components should be felt by all makers, this will eventually transfer to the imagination of the public
output
- most attention was paid to temporary responsive environments as public experiments (as opposed to public entertainment) in- and outdoors (controlled lab setups and uncontrolled small TAZs and public interventions), where all participants have to commit to engage in the experience and give feedback
- the output should have the atmosphere of continuous generation and development that encourages involvement, rather than being a public presentation of finished results
audience
- general audience is good in small doses (public testing and experimental situations)
- peer review is necessary and should be encouraged to become an exchenge of ideas and a discussion on processes and outcomes, rather than being unproductive 5 minute viewing and 50 minute nagging behind our backs afterwards
- a good publication afterwards, including our ideals (as fictional environments), working experiments, reflections and results is a must
why trg?
TRG is an attempt to make a transporter between the 4th and the 5th circuit of consciousness (see the EightCircuitModel). One way to be 'transported': becoming aware of the interconnectedness of everything with everything else through amplification/deprivation of sensory input. A possible manner to affect sensory input is to change normalised perception from:
- inside: drugs, extreme physical conditions, induced hallucinations…
- outside: change of environmental sensory input (environment should become more malleable and responsive to human action (in our case by using media and soft architectures), on a human scale (visual and sonic spectrum, haptic stimuli (including awareness of spatial positions), smell and taste)
Bringing the inperceptible phenomena to respond on a human scale - unfold or compact micro and macro frequencies into a scale that human senses can perceive as 'reality' (usually 4d universe).
What kind of reality is the one we want to make?
It is a place where seemingly separate things become entangled (see global scaling and gcom). A place where everything is in constant fluctuation and interaction (a charged space). A place where rigid boundaries become semi-permeable membranes, sensitive to both stimuli from inside and outside. An infinite space, unfolding from interactions in different dimensions.
Qualities:
- Compacted (magnification of perception, instantaneous travel, temperamental change of moods)
- alive (breathing, aware, active, engaging)
- entangled (interconnected, symbiotic)
- charged (in constant tension and fluctuation, shaped by 4 fundamental forces)
- infinite (semi-permeable, continuously unfolding resolutions and dimensions, possibly cyclical)