Dragon Koot

The first is the tangible world, the world in which our body resides. It is the visible world through which we move, in which we live, and in which we lose ourselves. It is the world of textures and colors, of light and sound. A world constructed by the pulse of everyday life. Every choice carries its own weight and consequences; it shapes who you are and how others perceive you. The sun rises and sets, materials age and decay. Everything lives unnamed rules and routines and never deviates from them. 

And then there is the second world, the imaginary, your inner world of imagination. While reading a book, a world emerges in your mind. You experience it as if you are truly living within it. The experience stimulates all your senses. You can feel the surface as soon as the writer writes about lightly touching an ancient brick house against which the protagonist leans. A world that exists of your associations, memories, thoughts, emotions, and imagination. 

However, this world both begins and ends with your memories. In a sense, you construct your own reality. The places you encounter in the imaginary are real places you have visited before. They are distorted, with time and place, attuned to the words of the writer. The emotions that arise in this inner world can be felt in the body and manifest themselves in reality: the tightening of your chest, your lungs struggling for air, the sting in your eyes, and the pain in your heart when the words truly reach you. You linger on those words. You hold them close; you become one with them. My body is the connection between these two worlds. 

Yet I have noticed that this inner world is under pressure. My imagination, in which I had an abundance since childhood, has felt more fragile in recent years. I see this not only in myself, but in others as well. The constant presence of our mobile phones seems to be taking over our inner space, leaving less room for us to imagine for ourselves. 

Without imagination, we become soulless. We become trapped within the rules and routines of the physical world. We follow without thinking the expectations and demands that society imposes upon us. Slowly, we are turning into machines. 

In my graduation project, I seek to reactivate this second world, the inner world of imagination. I attempt to achieve this by focusing on the connection between these two worlds: the body. Taking the body as my point of departure, my research has led to the creation of addenda, extensions of the body. These physical extensions alter sensory stimuli in order to reactivate the imagination. In doing so, they help us rediscover curiosity and wonder, allowing us to encounter the world with a renewed perspective.