An interactive travel kit that extends the emotional journey of a trip through your different senses.
14 week Trans-disciplinary sponsored project
Until was a 14-week collaborative project sponsored by NYC & Company and Visit Belin. Until was created at the ArtCenter Testlab Studio in Berlin, Germany.
Travelers in New York
[ 01 ]
Every time one steps into New York, it is like experiencing a specific chapter of the continually modernizing metropolis.
[ 02 ]
Despite being in a buzzing city surrounded by so many things, it’s easy to feel alone since everyone is staring at screens.
[ 03 ]
There’s something for everyone and everything in New York. There is still calm among all the chaos and crowd of the city, for those who want it.
Residents in Berlin
[ 01 ]
Berlin doesn’t hide its history and there are so many layers to unravel. On the historical side of the spectrum, one can still see the bullet holes in Mitte.
[ 02 ]
The city is gritty and filled with art and abandoned spaces. Berlin is filled with streams of graffiti that cover the doors and walls of buildings.
[ 03 ]
In this modern age, a lot of cities are filled with multitaskers look at their phones while eating or even while talking to others. Locals in this city live more in the moment.
Defining Architecture
There are three factors that make up one’s sense of place—environment, activity, and meaning. A sense of place is defined when these three factors intersect. A sense of place is not fixed and is redefined each time one of those factors changes.
A Sense of Place
Place attachment reflects a bond between people and places, and place meaning reflects symbolic meanings people ascribe to places. In short, “sense of place is the lens through which people experience and make meaning of their experiences in and with place”. Sense of place varies among people, in history, and over the course of one’s lifetime. People may attribute various meanings to the same place in relation to its ecological, social, economic, cultural, aesthetic, historical, or other aspects. Sense of place evolves through personal experiences, and defines how people view, interpret and interact with their world.
Further Research
State-Dependent Memory
The tendency for information learnt in a particular mental or physical state to be most easily remembered in a similar state. It has since been established that many classes of drugs produce the effect, that the effect is dose-dependent, that it affects recall but not recognition, and that non-pharmacological states can also elicit the effect demonstrated.
Sensory Memory
We make and store memories by forging new neural pathways to the brain from things we take in through our five senses. The stimuli that our nerve cells detect, such as hearing a gunshot or tasting a raspberry, are called sensory memories. That sensory information flows along the nerve cells as an electrical impulse. As that impulse reaches the end of a nerve, it activates neurotransmitters, or chemical messengers.
Our Focus
Now with a clear goal, we have defined our focus on sense, memory, and meaning to redefine the behavior around travel and architecture. Focus on the senses, memories, and the meaning of traveling.
Changing the Meaning
An Infinite Journey
Going back to our definition of a sense of place, Until seeks to change the meaning factor by introducing an infinite journey with three stages: pre-, peri-, and post-. The user interacts with Until in different ways during these stages.
The App | Sight & Sound
The Cards | Sight & Touch
Hand-Craft Collection
The purpose of the cards is for the travelers to retain and look back upon memories and to tell Until what makes this place so meaningful to them. It engages the senses and recollection much more so than something digital. There is also a certain amount of freedom and flexibility that comes with the analog nature of these cards. The prompts on these cards are meant to help them become more aware of their sense of place— which locations make them feel this way and which locations are meaningful to them.
Sustainable Material
The cards are made of different materials to promote different methods of documentation and expression. Some cards are printed with soy-based inks on heavyweight rice paper for drawings and rubbings. Others are made of biodegradable plastics made of seafood shells for engravings or scratch art. The textures of these materials are also meant to activate and inspire the traveler’s senses, specifically touch.
The Product | Sight & Scent
