I had trouble trying to figure out what my museum should be because something that is subversive to me may not be subversive to you. So I thought and I thought, what is something that makes most people uncomfortable? Being trapped. Most people do not like the feeling of not being able to escape a situation. When I talked to Owen he brought up “claustrophobia”. So I researched it to help me get a better understanding of the experience that I need to create in this museum.
Claustrophobia is the fear of enclosed spaces or confinement to a single space; classified as anxiety disorder which results in a panic attack. This phobia is thought to have two key symptoms: fear of restriction and fear of suffocation. Claustrophobics are not afraid of these areas themselves; they fear what could happen to them should they become confined to these areas. When confined to an area, claustrophobics begin to fear suffocation. There are three treatments that have been proven to be effective in decreasing the fear: cognitive therapy, in vivo exposure, and interceptive exposure. Cognitive therapy would attempt to convince a claustrophobic patient that elevators are not dangerous but are very useful in getting you where you would like to go faster. In vivo exposure forces patients to face their fears by complete exposure to whatever fear they are experiencing. Interceptive exposure attempts to recreate internal physical sensations within a patient in a controlled environment.
“A group of students attending the University of Texas at Austin were first given an initial diagnostic and then given a score between 1 and 5 based on their potential to have claustrophobia. Those who scored a 3 or higher were used in the study. The students were then asked how well they felt they could cope if forced to stay in a small chamber for an extended period of time. Concerns expressed in the questions asked were separated into suffocation concerns and entrapment concerns in order to distinguish between the two perceived causes of claustrophobia. The results of this study showed that the majority of students feared entrapment far more than suffocation. Because of this difference in type of fear, it can yet again be asserted that there is a clear difference in these two symptoms.”
Valentiner, David P., and Michael J. Telch. "Cognitive Mechanisms in Claustrophobia: An Examination of Reiss and McNally's Expectancy Model and Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory." Cognitive Therapy & Research 20.6 (1996): 593-612
Recess: “The Box”
i really like this concept. Now you just have to make a huge building feel cramped and uncomfortablle. This in a way adds to the subversiveness.
ReplyDeleteWell the video is great and RELEVANT to many architectural discussions we could have.
ReplyDeleteREPRESENTATION - to represent the idea of being boxed in the animation shows the kid in a deep hole - they are not suggesting the ground actually sunk, right? but that imagry was used in an attempt to RELATE the idea of claustraphobia.
ABSTRACTION - a square is used to represent the idea of a cube.
CREATIVITY - and thinking "outside the box" (in know cliche.)
also who caught the "Modernist influences" The melting clock (surrealist painter Dali)
Also, the reference to Freud (Now thats subversive - Freud, that is, or was.)
there are others - what might they be?
my other comment might be, okay, now look into some other aspects of claustrophobia. try to understand it from a medical/scientific PERSPECTIVE.
ReplyDeleteand remember, we are working towards a logic that can guide our PROCESS.