For my heritage site I think it would be interesting to create an environment where the public can contemplate and consider where choices end us up and the effects they can have. I've got a few ideas that won't seem to come together in my mind.
I started thinking about something I watched that shows a parallel universe where the change of a single choice has changed the face of reality (for example- if we didn't decide to fill Zeppelins with highly flammable gas we wouldn't have had the Hindenburg catastrophe and there would still be Zeppelins in London- it's a strange example but it illustrates my point.) The problem then comes in with displaying these two (or more) realities...
My thoughts here were drawn to a house of mirrors where a girl can be shown as super skinny, short and squat, with a head three times too big or just about any other variation of the original. Surely each of those could be said to be showing a different view of reality. I just can't figure out how to put these together or if it would match what I'm imagining or even work...
Help?
Sammy, could your two realities not be the inner and the outer being? I know it sounds super cheesey right now but i am hoping that i can make it less so by explaining myself a little. There are always two realities to a situation, particularly where choice is involved. When somebody makes a choice, it all happens inside them, in their minds and their hearts or whatever but the effects of the choice are felt all around them in the outside world.
ReplyDeleteThis is where your mirror idea (which i think, is pretty damn cool) comes in. Mirrors only show what happens on the outside. Daisy De Melker may have looked like a very scary, slightly crazy woman in the mirror but maybe the reality behind it told another story. She is kind of the perfect example of how difficult it is to look past the mirror and also how important it is that we try to do just that.
Ok, so it was still super cheesey after the explanation. Also maybe a little over complicated also, not sure if it is a heritage monument or a kind of fablewarningpreachything but it is an idea. Hope it helped just a little.
Hmmm... so much to do, so few ideas of how :) Thanks Becks, that's a really cool concept!
ReplyDeleteI particularly like the idea of making people contemplate where choices end up, especially with someone like De Melker. I am less sure of the mirror idea - just because I'm not sure that it would be apparent to the visitor what you are trying to say, at least not without significant explanation.
ReplyDeleteWould it be too obvious if you started thinking along the lines of paths/ mazes/ snakes and ladders?
Now have been thinking more about the idea of parallel realities (perhaps inspired by the Doctor Who pic) and I really like the idea - I think it is a good way to make people contemplate properly (monuments too often have "contemplation spaces" that do nothing and don't direct the viewer in any way).
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I'm not sure how you execute the idea. I immidiately thought about two things in museums I've been to recently:
1. At Con Hill, in one of the Number Four cells, where you look into a glass box through various openings to see handcuffs/ rope/ batons etc.
2. At the Kliptown Museum - a similar wall to the above, and also a filing cabinet that you open to see smaller exhibits.
(perhaps here is a way to use your reflection/ mirrors idea?)
Also, remember that there is no need for the monument to be static - you can make use of as many media as you want.