030424. 1700 - 1800 HRS. SARINA DEPALMA. ANECHOIC CHAMBER

030424. 1800 - 1900 HRS. REFLECTION I

Immediate experiential response.

I close my eyes to escape a field of vision. I enter a space of blankness, knowing I am safe within my own thoughts. I open my eyes and that tranquil, yet empty, daydream has become my reality. When one’s eyes are closed, they cannot see. They are left to visualize their thoughts and interpret their feelings through a void. The chamber highlighted this phenomenon, creating a physical representation of the space one enters when they close their eyes and proceed into their inner thoughts. For me, this was the most impressionable note from this experience.

030524. 1100 - 1200 HRS. REFLECTION II

Day two, anechoic chamber response.

The concept of time is one to consider upon my reflection as well as in my time in the chamber. Time allows us the option to revisit and reevaluate after further consideration. Time is constantly moving past us, we cannot stop it or slow it down. While in the chamber, I confronted this reality head on. For a short period, it felt like time was moving impossibly slow. However, I had no way of knowing how quickly the time was actually passing by. Once I realized this, time seemed to speed up and my time in the chamber neared the end. It was a weird mentality shift that changed the trajectory of my experience.

This led me to begin thinking about time on a much larger scale. This year, for example, my junior year of college has seemed to fly by. But when I take a second to think about the thought of that, I realize that I have done so much in the time that has elapsed. Therefore, I don’t feel any time was wasted.

030524. 1800 - 1900 HRS. REFLECTION III

Day two, evening, final response.

At this time, the main focus of my thoughts revisits those first provoked after my initial take away from this experience. Because my partner are I were on one of the later chamber shifts, the ventilation system was dead when we arrived for our session. With no portable chargers on site, we decided to brave the chamber with no ventilation system. A lofty decision.

The heat emulated from my body did indeed raise the internal temperature of the chamber. I noticed it slightly but what I noticed was not a drastic as the reality of the change. After my hour, the door was opened and the cool air from outside felt foreign. Not realizing how warm the chamber had gotten, I stepped out in the normality of is considered a base “room temp.” Immediately, I was presented with some thermal discomfort as I had liked how my body heat regulated that of the chamber’s internal temperature. I was comfortable with the temperature I had generated while inside... an intriguing proposition.

This reflective mindset gets me thinking about thermal pleasure and comfort and how that can be centered around an individual’s body and preference. My childhood dog, Kramer, loved to sun bathe. He would sit in the same spot, of our childhood home, everyday when the sun hit the carpet perfectly and created a warm patch for him to lie. In the moment the sun first hit, Kramer experienced thermal pleasure, and every moment after he was in thermal comfort as the sun radiating off of his fur and mid-sized body created the perfect spatial and tangible experience for him.

This concept is interesting because on what basis can we as designers create spaces curated towards thermal comfort? Thermal experiences differ from person to person, therefore, how can we delineate what is considered comfortable to all?