So my spatial typology was hospital for today and I started thinking hospital as a strange, depressive place – I would like to subvert the idea of it or bring some happiness in it. What if hospitals had happiness emergency kits. I started thinking about what kind of objects being happiness to us.
I stumbled upon an article talking about the debate of materiality (gaining happiness from objects) vs experientialism (gaining happiness from experience) and I agreedthat the experience makes you happier than the actual object. The article says that it is psychologically proven that being attached to an object is a sign of personality disorder, narcissism, social anxiety, dissatisfaction of life but experience is a lasting thing, could be shared, it can be lived and it’s more natural. Also shared experiences, like trips are sometimes memories of life.
So my aim was, instead of creating a tool kit full of objects of happiness, was to create something that by experiencing it, gives you pleasure or it has a distressful feeling. It could be placed in the waiting area of the hospital, next to each chair of the waiting room so that people who wait for bad news to have something distressful to keep them busy.
So I had these little ball things, which I don’t know how they’re called and I created a box which people can use to put their hands in and get a distressful experience.
And these are some reactions I got from people (at some point I’m saying something I don’t understand, please ignore):
People seemed intrigued by this idea, some people found it disgusting, some knew the material I’ve put inside but overall there was a positive response.
And for tomorrow I’ve got… Communal shower. That gets weirder.
Inside out 