CHOICES
Even if plurality and relativity of values are the primary cause of ambiguity in our days, the so-called contemporary disorder is not an entirely new experience. The only difference from the traditional “battle of rates” is that the new one is defined by extension, complicatedness, profoundness, and continuousness. Even so, it should not necessarily result in confusion; on the contrary, it might possibly lead to original and higher levels of harmony and vitality. Permitting differences to coexist within the pursuit of choices solves the conflict. Considering the whole and the individual, the future and the past, while regarding both sides of a story makes it easier to adopt THE MOST SUITABLE as THE BEST.
Trying to solve the contemporary dilemma, we imagined an experimental project in which OLD and NEW coexist on several layers and forms, with which the viewer is invited to directly interfere. Based on personal preferences one can decide to create an intimate journey out of it, or to reconstruct the entire process in a more spectacular manner, while deciding to approach it along with the others. In any way the final resolution should grow into a compendium of memories and feelings, a cherished idea about things individuals, apart or as a group, want to remember and convert into amazing realities they dream about.
The fundament of the entire vision lies in a book (the most common representation of a traditional/conservatory learning source), interfering with a digital application (the source of imagination as version of the forthcoming guidance).
The book will describe the story of two soul mates living in the same city, but in different times. They met each other, but became suddenly separated, as one was caught in the past, while the other is living in the future. Their tale overlap in different locations in Bucharest and are influenced by the morals of their own days. Some pages of the book will be kept blank as an invitation for the reader to become part of the narration, recreating the history of the two characters while using “visual art” for orientation.
An augmented reality application will be developed starting from the same pattern of the collapsing worlds. It will focus on the recreation of 8 locations in Bucharest using images from the “One square meter of roots” collection, redefined in a digital mapping format and based on the following keywords: “Past Future”, “Emotional Patterns”, “Beyond the Limits”, “Authenticity”, “Affiliation”, “Responability”, “Creation”, and “Equilibrium”. The same application will focus on offering different story versions as hints in written format, for the same sites.
Neither the book nor the digital application should impose specific views, ideas and standards by compulsory means, but can direct and influence people’s imagination in such a way so that the individuals should feel comfortable enough to recreate their own system not necessarily by choosing the best version, but the one that suits them and can be acquired by them.
The relativity of values shows that the unavailable value, though the most amazing one is not truly good for us, as long as it is not a value at all for ourselves. The best value, strictly speaking, should be firstly the most fitting one.