Bubble Bubble
toil and trouble
I’ve been living in a bubble, for a while now — one surrounded by several other bubbles.
Eventually, what started out as a VR project in my head took a turn and I began exploring materiality and interactivity outside of the headset. Expanding the bubble so to speak.
But all the while I couldn’t help but think “Oh god this is going to look like a birthday party” or that “Gosh, this is going to literally be leftover Christmas decorations in February”. I wasn’t convinced.
“How is this project relevant to the course?”/ “How is this digital?”/ “How is this storytelling?”/ “How is the future?”Hopefully in time, I will be able to better answer some of these questions for myself.
I started seeing bubbles everywhere. I couldn’t even irresponsibly bingewatch content during ‘workhours’ on weekdays without being reminded of them.
Free Write — in an attempt to salvage this.
It comes and goes- in waves. I find myself going back to it- in circles. I can grasp it but then it slips awa. I believe in it — then I don’t. It’s almost as if it’s teasing me. ‘Aha!’ I say, but I don’t know what it is the next day. I breathe in and out- in hopes of getting closer to it. What is it that I’m trying to say? What about this story connects me to it- so viscerally? How do you communicate a feeling so profound? How do you communicate something that is so fleeting? As I write this, I try to focus on my breathing. I notice I’m no longer writing in a straight line. Someone told me this morning that our body is designed to curve and bend. Am I in a closed loop? Everything makes sense and then it doesn’t. I find it hard to pay attention anymore. But when I focus on my breath it makes everything clearer. The fuzz in my brain floats away. Will writing help me out of this rut? Is a rut a bad thing? It comes and goes. One minute it’s here and then it isn’t. I feel like I can’t control it but I can. Every sentence- in conjunction. This and That. A duality so strong. How do I tell my story? Who is it for? Creators or creations? Real but not real- a reflection- of self- but impermanent. Everywhere and nowhere. Something and nothing. Where does this take me? Will it make sense to anyone? This is a free write. But how free am I? I am restricted by this page. I am framed. A small fragment of the whole makes it onto these pages. Storytelling and Symbolism.
Like Cinderella I was trying to clean this mess.
It suddenly got me thinking about ‘THE CHAIR’. If there is anything I have learnt over the past year at the RCA, it is that the chair can be the most crucial part of your experience. How people feel in their bodies, will drastically affect the way the experience.
How wonderful would these chairs be? Too bad they cost nearly 700 pounds!
How typical. I hit a snag and I try to online shop my way through it.
(edit: Oh my God! I managed to win a bidding war on eBay and got myself an Eero Aarnio style pod chair!
However I must admit that I’ve spent weeks scraping out dog hair and deodorising it. My poor desk buddies 😅. Guess what finally worked though? Tea Bags! Unbelievably well, you can take my word for it!)
And then there are these people, who have been creating interesting magical experiences with bubbles and smoke.
(Should I start smoking just for this project? 😒 So much for “breathing mindfully”)
Well I’d rather not set off fire alarms unecessarily so I’m going to let working with mist and smoke out the window- clear the air.
My mind however is still foggy. It’s been a constant oscillation between loving my ideas to hating them. Everything comes and goes in waves. Staying married to any one thing has been a daily battle. If only the smoke would settle.
However instead of fighting my process like I usually do, I have decided to go along with it and see where that takes me.
Inhale and Exhale.
I’ve never been more conscious of my breath.
