Nooks
Immersive Space | Interactive Storytelling | Critical Thinking | 2022
This work discusses freedom of speech in China, creates a dark space for people to explore, and presents the real situation of the people during the COVID lockdown in Shanghai in 2022 and the official speech of the government in the form of sound. Everyone who enters the space will receive a box of matches, and by striking the matches, they will illuminate the voices in the dark and find the words and truths that were covered up by the authorities during the Shanghai lockdown.
Prototype Demo
It is recommended to turn up the volume to watch
Inspiration
I always like the sample act of striking a match, because of its tactile feeling and the sudden change brought by the chemical reaction. Therefore, I want to convert this action into an interactive mode.
What can we get by striking a match?
"Ephemeral light" is the most immediate answer that comes to mind, and I would associate this "ephemeral light" with a dark environment.
I was struck by a clip from the movie The English Patient: Hana explores a huge mural in the dark with a flare that lights up briefly, illuminating one section of the mural at a time.
What if instead of using the light of a match to explore visual information in the dark, I use it to explore sound information?
Light up the vision in the dark ————————> Light up the sound in the dark
What kind of dark space and sound?
Ideation
As China has tightened its grip on speech in recent years, the theme of "the voice of the people" comes to my mind. In today's China, the only words that are allowed to exist are those that benefit the government, and the rest of the dissent will be scrubbed, whether on the Internet or in reality.
A completely dark space：
Inherent voice in the space = authoritative speech of government
The voice that can be heard briefly when striking a match in the corner = the dissent of the people
* This Image is from the Internet.During the lockdown of Shanghai from April to June 2022, the intensity of speech control and people's dissatisfaction have both reached their peaks in recent years. A video called "Voice of April" was circulating wildly on the Internet in China. The video presented the real audio of the unfair treatment of the people during the lockdown. Of course, this video was quickly scrubbed from major platforms, but The video was subsequently disguised and reposted by netizens in various forms, and many Chinese netizens’ social media accounts were banned.
Therefore, I decided to make an immersive space based on the events of lockdown in Shanghai. People will enter a dark space where only the voices of official authority can be heard, and use matches to explore the voices of the people that are hidden in nooks.
Click on the image to watch the video.
Sketch
Prototype Building
Process Record
Assemble and test the sensor
These sound materials were all posted on the Internet during Shanghai’s lockdown. They were all censored and deleted quickly, but one of my journalist friends, ale, and I saved some videos and audios, which I then edited and organized.
Collect and edit sound materials
I printed out the information of the deceased who died due to non-virus causes during the lockdown period collected by people on the Internet, and made a paper tube. The paper tube will be continuously dragged into the box and shredded by the shredder below.
A website created by netizens for the deceased: https://airtable.com/shrQw3CYR9N14a4iw/tblTv0f9KVySJACSN
List of the deceased
Make the red box and put the shredder in it
The sounds that need to be triggered in the space are basically randomly distributed, but the number of sensors at the entrance is smaller, so that the experiencers who have just entered the space have time to listen to the official reports played in the space.
The places marked with yellow just after entering the space are those that will trigger group voices, such as protests or physical conflicts, which form an intuitive contrast with the official reports.
After entering the depths of the space, the positions marked in white are more informational content such as phone recordings.
