Realisation
Once I had decided what my project output was going to be — in the prototyping section — I had to split my design outcome into two stages. I would conduct the codesign workshop first, asking anger victims to materialise their emotions, and the second part would mean hanging up the products of the workshop in the actual installation.
The workshop proceeded smoothly. I asked the participants to remember a time when they had been on the receiving end of unrestrained anger, and materialise their feelings at the moment. The models were varying in size and some were even performative, something I had not considered beforehand.
While creating the outer “housing” structure for my model, there were some features that needed to be added. A mirror needed to be in there, as a sort of signifier that the installation was a reflective one. Since the installation was basically a hollow box, I needed there to be lighting in there too, since I received feedback that the shadows would be interpretative and somber for aesthetic.
The presence of dry leaves was to indicate how anger victims felt after continual abuse by perpetrators. The solid black exterior of the box was to show how anger victims presented to the world: full of reflected anger and passion, but also jaded and troubled. The inside of the box was painted crimson, because I was trying to personify the box as a human body — after all, the emotion-materialised models were metaphors for emotions living inside the physical body.
The box itself was about the size of a crate, vertical in orientation and when exhibited, it was tilted away from the main exhibition. This is because I felt that the installation was best perceived from close range, and the viewers would not be able to appreciate the model from afar.
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Viewers had a hard time in appreciating the silent reflection that was the core part of the project, but exhibition visitors did arrive to inform themselves and inquire about the project. As such, it got conversations started, and in my opinion that made the project successful.
