Josh, one of my inbox zine's readers, made this. He wrote, "For a very long time I've wanted to build a giant geodesic dome filled with fake grass in lower Manhattan. This August it happened."
His piece is called dusk-space and it's an immersive synthetic environment meant to "recreate the experience of being in a remote country field at dusk." Here are some words about it from its statement (emphasis mine):
Urban life is completely disconnected from natural experience. There is no night in New York City, only an artificial dusk that lasts until dawn…
Everything about the experience is designed to evoke the sensations and feelings of the real thing, while always being obviously and unequivocally manufactured.
Visitors arriving at the dome will notice the sweet and clean smell of Premium Grade Fresh Cut Grass Fragrance Oil as they walk past the stands of 36-40" Tall Natural Meadow Grass in Green. The diffuse sounds of Ambient Cricket Loop will fill the air. Entering the dome, they will feel the unmatched softness of the SYNAugustineX47 dense thatch below their feet. Looking up, they will see the sharp twinkling of the Ultrabright White 5mm Untinted Non-Diffused LED stars above.
I hope that everyone who comes will enjoy the simple pleasure of lying in a field on a warm summer night looking up at the stars, even if it is only a simulation…
Finally, I hope a few will stop to think about the meaning of authenticity of experience in our technologically advancing artificial world. If you enjoy an experience, does it matter that it is created rather than spontaneous? If we take each aspect of a real experience and individually amplify it, can the resulting hyper-real experience be better than the original? What makes an experience authentic? Virtual Reality does not necessarily involve wearing a headset – for many of us it is our daily existence.
Oooo, sounds like my kind of thing!
