03 March 2011

Influential experiences from Berlin

During my visit to Berlin I visited an exhibition called Extended Atmosphere, you were invited to enter a white room within the gallery, which had a large window looking down onto the street below.  Inside you were faced with a foggy atmosphere and immersed in loud, haunting sounds, leaving you feeling very bewildered.  But, you were soon encouraged to interact with the space by lying on a large bean bag placed in the centre of the room.  Lying in the room encouraged you to become relaxed in the space and soon my feelings changed towards the piece and I started to enjoy the sounds which started off as haunting.  I enjoyed the control here that the artist has over your feelings and how they can change so rapidly, this has given me great inspiration and ideas for the kind of piece I want to create for my final degree show.

During my time in Berlin I also visited the Jewish Museum, where unexpectedly I found much inspiration for my final degree show project.  I entered the holocaust tower and found I became contained within a large dawning space.  As the walls towered above you with only a slight vent at the top you were literally trapped and had no escape, giving you quite a life like feeling of what is must have been like.  As a chill swept through you, you became aware of the noise from outside echoing around, this agin must of been quite daunting.  It felt quite disconcerting been able to hear what is happening yet not being able move anywhere other than the trapped dark space.  I enjoyed the notion of an outside world happening around you, which you can not interfere with and it has made me think about ideas for my degree project.  As wish to have some correlation between the inside and outside of a space.

Another area that I enjoyed was the Garden of Exile, for me this evoked great feelings yet also made me feel uncomfortable as the titled floor gave you a feeling of being off balance.  As the garden actually towers above you, pouring out of concrete blocks, you are a world away from actually being in a garden.  The garden is growing in all its glory but you are trapped away from this in a distorted world of containment.  

Edited 20th April - Experiencing this immersive piece gave me a better understanding of the experience I wanted my audience to have and how I would coordinate this.  As the space was only quite small and only a certain amount of people could fit lying down on the bean bag it was important to limit the amount of people allowed in the room at once, otherwise the atmosphere would not have been quite the same.  This is an important aspect that I will have to think about for my piece as I want it to be quite a personal space.  Seeing the Extended Atmosphere piece developed how I thought of my own work and what I wanted it to achieve. 



No comments: