This project was really tough for me. In fact it was a project that really bothered me. I thought alot about what to make for my object of power, resulting in alot of discussions with different people. Especially the research aspect disrupted my thought process. Every culture had these weird objects of power which I couldnt relate to except God, and there was no way I could bring in God as an object of power.
The things people empower themselves with in the 21st century were somehow too broad for me. Anyway, along with my research I started to think about following a general theme between the different objects of power. By looking at various cultures, I found that most of their objects of power were part of spirituality or beliefs like religion. Another thing I noticed was that their objects of power had a strong physical presence, this was also true for most of the things people empower themselves with in the 21st century, like guns. The only other theme I could think of was that most of the objects people empower themselves with in the 21st century were technology related like computers and the internet. So, i started considering these three themes for my object of power. Nothing really came to mind. I thought about making a robot figure, but then I thought it might just be all about technology, it doesnt really encompass the spritual aspect. Maybe in a way that all of us are obsessed with technology, and we may spend a lifetime of research to make a robotic entity that would be perfect. Anyhow, I started thinking of something out of this world, and that led me to think about the galaxy. I tried to tie in the three themes with the solar system. The phsyical presence of the solar system is just beyond imagination, it is vast and there's many things we don't know about it. The spirtual aspect of it comes in from the fact that for most of us it is divine. We form our own thoughts by looking at the stars and the planets, we might even consider it a religion. As far as tying in technology with the solar system, I think without science and technology it wouldnt have been possible to go to the moon, and explore planets. Moreover the solar system itself is a scienitific study.
It was however very tough for meto think of a way to capture the solar system on anything that exists in this world. I tried to form a mobile model, by using a box and attaching clay balls depicting the planets. Unfortunately that fell through because of an accident :/. Therefore, the only other thing i could think of was to use my favorite wall hanging, and make that into space. Turns out it didnt work really well. For future work, in order to capture atleast some of the essence , I'd like to make a computer generated solar system model.
To view my research for this project. Click here (MS word format).