I’m Thinking What I’m Thinking is an interactive
immersive installation that combines sound and
generative graphics to create a subconscious
experience. The installation design is meant to allude to the brain processing information: It forms a
trigger, routine, reward system. In the same way that we form habits of action reacting to
our environment, we also form habits of thought as a response to experience. It’s a mental
habit loop that people usually fall into, or get used to, when receiving information from
familiar situations. But are we able to break free from this pattern?
When triggered, the sensor asks the computer to access a dictionary and
search for an adjective that first describes the word, “thinking”. Every time
the computer is triggered, it searches for a synonym for the previous
adjective, and this will potentially shift the meaning as many times as the
rug was stepped on. The change from the synonym’s synonym is subtle,
and may go unnoticed.
As the installation visualizes a brain repeating a thinking pattern, each time a person steps
on the rug, it interrupts the process and allows texts to settle. Once people have stood
long enough on the sensors, the texts will fade into white, leaving only blank screens and
sustained sounds. It then brings people’s concentration to the sustaining chord and the
emptiness of the screens. Through this, it asks the questions, ‘are we completely conscious
of our thinking patterns, when making a decision?’ Or has our thinking pattern already
decided everything for us.’
