You are Here.
An Exploration into the Collective Effervescence of Awe through the Design of an Interactive Installation
Masters Graduation Project | Designer, Researcher, Workshop Facilitator
Interaction Design, Workshop Tool Development, Rapid Prototyping
May - August 2024
For my master graduation project, I explored how we can design for the emotion of awe and collective effervescence. It can be argued that we spend more time in our heads than we do in the real world. We may be physically present, but our mind wanders towards work, responsibilities, or most commonly our digital devices which have taken a majority of our time. You are Here is an audio-visual installation aimed to foster the emotion of awe and collective effervescence through a form of embodied open-ended play and social coordination.
It started with a phenomenon
This research began with a personal observation. A social phenomenon I observed as I went about my daily life. We live in a world where we are too busy in our heads and forget about our bodies. Thus I ask the question: How often are we actually present in the world? When was the last time we actually enjoyed a cup of coffee, fully paying our total attention and senses towards the experience?
I argue we spend more time in our heads or distracted (absorbed in our gadgets or lost in our thoughts) than we do in the real world; further making us lose touch with ourselves and the community around us. We could be having dinner with our family, yet our minds wander to that task we needed to do for work. We could be with our friends yet our attention focus shifts to our phones, never engaging in the world.
Collective Effervescence
Awe, when experienced together, creates a moment of collective effervescence. Collective effervescence was first described as an experience which emerges from taking part in sacred moments and activities; Think of a time where you took part or witnessed a religious ritual, such as praying together with others. Or imagine being in a stadium and being moved by the crowd as they cheer for their favorite football team and their sense of selves disappears as they scream at the top of our lungs, feeling unified with others around us. “As Dacher Keltner puts it: “Through moving in unison and convergence in feeling, a transformation in consciousness occurs: we shift from an egocentric view, seeing the world through our eyes only, to a shared attention to what is transpiring” (2023).
A moment of awe.
We all know that feeling. That feeling when we watch a beautiful movie, or the feeling that we get when we see a beautiful sunset. We all know the feeling however it is very difficult to fully describe the emotion of awe. It is the experience when we truly feel immersed and the experience and we are lost for words.
The rise of Interactive Installations
There has been a rise in more artistic expressions and technologies in the form of immersive spaces and interactive experiences, often found in public spaces such as festivals or museums. These installations allow you not only to interact with the space, but also with each other. These spaces provide an opportunity to be immersed in the experience, focusing our attention purely on the experience; these experiences that offer these collective moments of awe. Could it be that these experiences act as a medium for connecting us once again?
Research Question
How can we design for the collective effervescence of awe through interactive installations?
Research Goal
Identify key design considerations of designing for collective effervescence and awe by designing an interactive installation.
Design and Research Methodologies
My design and research process consisted of five different elements. Each contributing to the overall research in a unique and important way:
Prototyping - Prototyping will be the cornerstone of the design research methodology. This entails creating and iterating on design artifacts while considering aesthetics of interaction, functionality, and form.
Cocreation - The role of the cocreation was to (1) explore the current state of the prototype, (2) brainstorm together in order to build upon the prototype, and (3) to conduct a deep dive to explore the phenomenon of awe by extracting design choices for awe in interactive installations.
Experience Mapping - A diary exercise was conducted with the same participants of the co-creation. The goal of this diary exercise is to have the participants document their own experiences of awe which they experience in their day-to-day lives.
User Evaluations - Use evaluation was done at the end of each cocreation session to gain insight into the current state of the prototype. More so, an additional in lab and in-the-wild use evaluation was conducted for the final prototype to explore how social interactions emerge due to the installation.
Personal Lived Experiences - As awe was a human experience, throughout the process, I also documented my own lived experiences in relation to awe. Further documenting how my understanding and experience of awe and social interactions throughout my journey played a role in the development and creation of the prototype.
Design Timeline
Incorporating all the design and research elements, all five aspects were incorporated into an iterative process which consisted of a total of three iterations. Within each iteration, a prototype is developed and tested (either in the cocreation or through a user test). Between iteration 1 and two, the awe experience map diary exercise took place for a period of 8 weeks. Findings of the diary exercise was discussed in the second cocreation. Futhermore, my personal lived experience was documented throughout the entire length of the research.
You are Here.
You are Here is an audio visual interactive experience which represents an example of an interactive installation which explores collective exploration and connection through play and curiosity. It is an installation made to foster social connection and awe through collective effervescence.
Design Considerations
The process of this exploration has allowed me to identify clues on how we as designers can design for facilitating this phenomenon. There are a number of design considerations we can discuss when we are trying to design through awe and collective effervescence.
Bold Feedback.
It is important for us to create distinct feedback for the individuals experiencing the installation with a certain level of ambiguity, allowing the emergence of curiosity and indi
Convergent Focused Attention.
The key to convergent focused attention is to design an experience which fully immerses the individual into the interaction. The goal is to focus all of the individual's attention into the interaction.
Sea of people.
Being surrounded in a sea of people is crucial for people to know that they are part of something larger than themselves.
Collective Play.
We should ensure that our design fosters an aspect of open ended play, allowing people to collectively explore, interact and play with the installation together. The collective exploration creates a feedback loop of collective reflection during the interaction. Here, it is not only the individual who is playing, and reflecting - but also the entire group. It provieds them an opportunity to act and reflect together on their interaction between each other and the installation.
Layers of curiosity and Discovery.
The more a person or a group explores, the more they could understand the installation, learning and discovering new aspects about the interaction as they play.
Facilitating the moment.
The installation should build up to a defining moment. We’re talking about that moment when we realize: This is it! Wow, that just happened! And to add to that, it’s a moment when you realize the other people you are interacting with notices this too.
Acknowledgements.
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Jelle van Dijk
Robby van Delden -
Vincent van der Geest
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Dianneris Diaz Quinde
Pablo san Gregorio de Lucas
Youn Choi
Xian Bodelon Ruibal
Merlijn de Vos -
Arash Hosseini Koupaei