With my newly revised concept, I finally felt the kind of enthusiasm that I was missing for my other three ideas. I now feel like I created the outlines of a new kind of playground that I can freely shape to my liking. In the following lines I will try to paint a picture of my vision from a visitors perspective of what I now call The Emotional Space.
Your experience starts in front of a door, or maybe just a very thick curtain hiding a door opening. You might hear the tame roaring of a subwoofer from the other side of it. Before you enter, you follow the friendly instructions and put one of the provided wristbands on. Not knowing what will wait for you behind the heavy curtain, you carefully pull it aside and squeeze by it into the room. You are immediately greeted by a dreamy light composition and an immersive and calm soundscape, creating a cozy atmosphere. You realize that there is nobody else in the room yet, which makes you feel at ease – a nice chance to explore the space by yourself. The room is not too big, you could probably fit around ten people in here comfortably. There are some cushioned furniture elements standing around, melting into the light composition, looking like design elements, but inviting to sit or lie on them at the same time. The sounds and lights are coming from all directions – there is no obvious front or back of the room and the curtain has vanished into the wall again.
You start paying more attention to the soundscape that you are surrounded by. There is no clear beat, but it is not arhythmical either. A warm pad is playing chords, but they seem to change randomly, giving them a mystical character. Every now and then some distinct sounds catch your attention, inviting you to close your eyes and just keep listening. Then you remember the wristband on your arm – it looks like one of those fitness trackers without a screen. You inspect it further, tap it and start shaking your arm a little, trying to look for any changes around you. And indeed, the pads you noticed earlier seem to slightly change. It takes you a while, but you figure out that turning your wrist in one direction makes them a little sharper and gives them more highs; and the opposite happens if you turn your wrist the other direction. You are quite impressed how much you can influence the soundscape with this little movement and keep playing around with it. A little later, something else becomes clear to you – the chord changes of the pad are not at all random – they are triggered solely by your steps. You try jumping around a little and with each jump a new chord begins. You realize that even the subtle changes in the lights are synced to your movements, now that you watch them closely.
The black curtain opens and two more people come in. They look around as hesitantly as you did when you first stepped into the room. In the meanwhile, you sat down on one of the cushy elements to enjoy the sound and move your wrist occasionally. You appreciate to be able to observe how they find out about all the things going on around them in this moment that you share. You also listen and watch very closely, trying to figure out what they might have brought to this room. You are pretty sure that the newly arrived drummy bass is triggered by the steps of one of the people. But what about the second? Oh, they are clearly controlling the chimes that sneaked into the soundscape. After exchanging a few smiles with them, you show them what moving your wrist does and you exchange a couple words.
You feel like the atmosphere got a little livelier now – the soundscape became more vibrant, the lights got more energetic and you are in a different vibe than when you first entered the space. What you experience now seems like a strange kind of jam session – everyone started to play around with their part of the soundscape in a musical way. Someone else joins in, the music is getting more of a beat, your movements are becoming a dance.
Then, when you leave the room through the heavy curtain and return your wristband, you are left with the memory of a unique experience and cannot help but wonder what you might encounter if you came back again tomorrow?
