Person reference
Date of Exhibition:
Fri, 12/13/2024
Class:
Innovation Studio
Collection:
Many of us spend time waiting for events that aren’t guaranteed, thinking of what we might do in the future instead of focusing on the present. Is this time wasted or time well-spent?A waiting room is a clinical space with a predetermined outcome. A spatial manifestation of our feelings of liminality. If we remove all connotations in order to fully focus on the experience- can we allow ourselves to only focus on the familiarity of the wait? The mindfulness techniques we focused on were, sensory experiences, noting, interpersonal connection, and becoming more fully aware of the present moment, completely and non-judgmentally.
We aimed to promote and utilize all the EDGE design attributes. Familiar objects became one of the most important while ideating in the planning phase, as well as we wanted the experience to be completely open ended. For familiar objects, we included toys typically found in a waiting room such as a magnet table to be played with and a wire-bead toy. We also staged the whole experience to seem recognizable to many waiting rooms everyone has seen and experienced before. We included a desk, with familiar props and clip boards with a form to fill out as if you were in the doctor’s office.
This leads us into the homey, personal, homemade or delicate attributes of The Waiting Room. We offered comfortable seating for a homey feel, including options to sit in a padded chair, or pillows on the rug below. Entering the exhibit we included playful, whimsical, and humorous objects to make people curious. The waiting room promotes imaginative play. The music stand that holds the label is in place of the receptionist, eliciting a humorous roleplaying experience. The toys inside the magnet table are colorful and whimsical creatures of wide variety. For multiple sides/space for three or more people, we wanted to create an experience that allowed visitors to be able to interact with each other or to quietly contemplate the prompts of our guided meditation audio. To have multiple sides of our exhibit we included four comfortable waiting chairs and pillows on the floor to sit next to our interactive sand table. Overall, our waiting room accommodated about four to six people.
Having visitors able to watch others to preview the experience was also important to us in the design. The waiting room originally had an entire side that was open to allow other people to see in, but we felt it was also important to close off the space to feel more like a room. We however left the reception table and a wide door so visitors can see others begin the exhibit by approaching the desk and entering the room. The open ended nature of The Waiting Room was very important to the bases of mindfulness. It is up to the participants how they want to interact with and choose to manipulate the objects in our waiting room. Through mindfulness research we wanted the guest to sit in the space and experience it through their senses and interpersonal connection. This leaves it very open to the experience of individual guests and how they practiced waiting in our exhibit.
Working as a team was an exciting experience for our group as we tried to bring our exhibit to life. We had many ideas in the beginning of our design phase and ultimately decided on The Waiting Room for its unique concept and how it implements the EDGE attributes. Creating a working and interactive science exhibit was a new concept for all of us. Collaborating together, we worked efficiently and creatively. Emaline focused primarily on the digital aspects of our exhibit, creating the designs for our initial logos, signs and handouts the visitors would fill out during their stay in the waiting room as well as documenting during Open Studios. Danielle worked mostly on the physical creation of the interactive elements of the exhibit, helping to design and create the magnetic sand stable and the bead maze toy. Calvin turned our guided meditation script into an audio recording that we could play continuously while the installation was running, and took charge of editing the video documentation throughout the course. Ella helped lead our group and had a hand in all of the design aspects of our waiting room, making parts of the physical prototypes, reaching out to our voice actor and equipment check out. Overall the experience became fun, and meaningful to us all!
Wait and exit the experience when you feel called to.
We aimed to promote and utilize all the EDGE design attributes. Familiar objects became one of the most important while ideating in the planning phase, as well as we wanted the experience to be completely open ended. For familiar objects, we included toys typically found in a waiting room such as a magnet table to be played with and a wire-bead toy. We also staged the whole experience to seem recognizable to many waiting rooms everyone has seen and experienced before. We included a desk, with familiar props and clip boards with a form to fill out as if you were in the doctor’s office.
This leads us into the homey, personal, homemade or delicate attributes of The Waiting Room. We offered comfortable seating for a homey feel, including options to sit in a padded chair, or pillows on the rug below. Entering the exhibit we included playful, whimsical, and humorous objects to make people curious. The waiting room promotes imaginative play. The music stand that holds the label is in place of the receptionist, eliciting a humorous roleplaying experience. The toys inside the magnet table are colorful and whimsical creatures of wide variety. For multiple sides/space for three or more people, we wanted to create an experience that allowed visitors to be able to interact with each other or to quietly contemplate the prompts of our guided meditation audio. To have multiple sides of our exhibit we included four comfortable waiting chairs and pillows on the floor to sit next to our interactive sand table. Overall, our waiting room accommodated about four to six people.
Having visitors able to watch others to preview the experience was also important to us in the design. The waiting room originally had an entire side that was open to allow other people to see in, but we felt it was also important to close off the space to feel more like a room. We however left the reception table and a wide door so visitors can see others begin the exhibit by approaching the desk and entering the room. The open ended nature of The Waiting Room was very important to the bases of mindfulness. It is up to the participants how they want to interact with and choose to manipulate the objects in our waiting room. Through mindfulness research we wanted the guest to sit in the space and experience it through their senses and interpersonal connection. This leaves it very open to the experience of individual guests and how they practiced waiting in our exhibit.
Working as a team was an exciting experience for our group as we tried to bring our exhibit to life. We had many ideas in the beginning of our design phase and ultimately decided on The Waiting Room for its unique concept and how it implements the EDGE attributes. Creating a working and interactive science exhibit was a new concept for all of us. Collaborating together, we worked efficiently and creatively. Emaline focused primarily on the digital aspects of our exhibit, creating the designs for our initial logos, signs and handouts the visitors would fill out during their stay in the waiting room as well as documenting during Open Studios. Danielle worked mostly on the physical creation of the interactive elements of the exhibit, helping to design and create the magnetic sand stable and the bead maze toy. Calvin turned our guided meditation script into an audio recording that we could play continuously while the installation was running, and took charge of editing the video documentation throughout the course. Ella helped lead our group and had a hand in all of the design aspects of our waiting room, making parts of the physical prototypes, reaching out to our voice actor and equipment check out. Overall the experience became fun, and meaningful to us all!
Wait and exit the experience when you feel called to.
