Design Conjecture: Cosmic Collective Experience
This design conjecture is a response to 2 articles in my Arts and Lifestyle section, Where Science, Mathematics, and Art Meet: Star Axis and 74 years old, 136 miles, and 1,221 birds singing.
I designed an interactive experience to capture the humanity of collectively viewing the stars and reflecting on the passage of time, to be installed in an astronomy-centered state park like Caesar Creek State Park.
Both articles that inspired this design conjecture focused on solitary experiences in nature and the reflections that come with them. I wanted to create a place where people could collect and post these thoughts physically in the park.
This cave-like structure houses 3 activity options. First is a station where visitors can take pictures to post on the wall and record an audio message that later visitors can hear. Second is a guest book where visitors can leave a written message about what they saw, what they felt, advice, or leave their names as a record of their experience. Third is a telescope or kaleidoscope that looks at the night sky from a position interesting to the location.
While the experience could be fun, it would require everyone to respect the room and others' vulnerability, which isn't guaranteed. Should that stop the project from happening? Also, practically, exposing technology to the elements isn't ideal. This project may also not reach people new to Dark Sky, since many amateur astronomers already know about light pollution. Is that still valuable?
