INTERFACING SPACE EDUCATION PROGRAM

Different students from high school and elementary school came to visit the installation. In total 13 classes. During their stay in the exhibition we gave insight in our way of working by means of a lecture. For the older students we had questionnaires for them to fill in. It gave an overview about art installations/ performance art and architecture.

The classes from the high school had to fill in questionnaires. The installation and our lecture was part of their study program, so we had the opportunity to ask them some specific questions about their experience of the installation. Their questions gave us more insight in the way the installation had functioned.

Here you can see some examples of the questions and their answers.

Question 1: what was your experience of your walk through the installation?

Answers:

“It changes the daily routine”

“When I stood outside of the installation I got claustrophobic ideas about it. But I was really surprised! Totally white, you had to focus constantly before you saw depth and the corners of the space. It seemed there was some sort of fog in the space. After your explanation I thought about it a little more and I realized your installation could indeed be a perfect film set for a science fiction movie. I thought it was really special.”

“As if I was a little child playing on a climbing frame.”

“The walk through the installation was not so much a walk, this made it work. The fact that you couldn't stand up straight made me experience it even more. Everything became quiet; at least this seemed to be. I think it’s a very good idea.”

“I really liked the walk through the installation. I thought I walked in infinity, through all sorts of tunnels, rooms, corners, etc. Sometimes I did not know if I could find my way out, this made me a little bit frightened, because it seemed as if I was locked up in some spaces.”

Question 2: Describe a few elements of the installation which defined your personal experience?

Answers:

“The sense of unity of the installation was of course created by the whiteness, but especially the idea that in certain parts you couldn’t walk upright, but that you even had to crawl. That really was an element that created the feeling that you were inside, not only physically but especially mentally.“

“The entrance that became gradually smaller made me think of a gateway to heaven or something like that.”

“I really liked the construction of the stairs, because in a way you can see this as a never ending staircase and the chimney and the long wide tunnel showed this effect of infinity as well.”

“The crawlspaces and the big stairs. The crawlspaces made me scared and cramped. The big staircase was weird and it was hard to get a good insight here.”

Question 3: What do you think is the meaning of the installation?

Answers:

“To see how people react on the proportions between the rooms, and to free their minds in relation with the artwork, so everybody will experience it differently. Nobody will experience this artwork the same. Walls and even the silence can be filled in by your own imagination. Meanwhile focusing your senses, you´re busy all the time.”

“You have to think you´re completely somewhere else, like not in reality.”

“To let you realize you´re always directed one way or the other.”

“To give some peace of mind to people. For a short moment, a visitor is not confronted with the stress and colors of daily life, but to be in a dull, white space.”

“Nowadays the society gives laws to the mainstream population that reduces their own thoughts and the sense of spatial and interior design, because you´re immediately pushed in a certain direction. This space leaves almost everything to yourself.”

“To be in a dreamworld for a while, so you can relax. And that you can’t always trust your senses, you think you see smoke, or you tend to fall over.”

‘Interfacing Space’ was an installation with different empty spaces that were linked to each other by corridors and shafts. There was a path through the installation that regulated the movements and the experience of the visitors. The lighting and the ventilators were built inside the construction. You couldn't’t see them directly. Because of the whiteness and the diffuse lighting it was impossible to focus on the contours of the different spaces.

The openness of the spaces stimulated individual associative thinking of the visitors. For the audience the journey through the installation became not only a physical challenge but more a mental investigation of their own memories or ideas about space. The installation functioned as a lab for our research on the influence of architecture on the movements of its user and their individual experiences.