There's a lot going on in our volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, we're either perpetually busy or perpetually procrastinating. There’s a lot of baggage we’re carrying with us, both, physical and emotional. From old expired medicines in one random drawer of the cupboard to a box full of crumpled letters from the ex-lovers, to the clothes that no more fit and the empty shampoo bottles- the list could go on, but we understand that there’s a lot we all need to release to let our spaces breathe and be their fullest in the memories that we need, motivational cues and visual stimulus that inspire. 

We at Project Otenga have always valued the importance of spatial moods, our space is one that has motivated, inspired and relaxed our patrons for a long time. Keeping that in perspective, we designed a collective 18 – day social experience to facilitate our patrons in detoxing their own living, working and mental spaces.

 

From getting rid of unusable things, revisiting good old memories to recreating spaces that express a sense of identity, contentment, and motivation, the experience is one way to build a productive social group! Spatial Detox created a peer group that instills habits of detoxifying individual minds and spaces collectively.

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We facilitated the building of a constructive social group that would inspire each other to help cleanse their physical or emotional spaces.

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MEET UP 1 (10TH FEBRUARY) | REVISITING THE SELF

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The first week was about detoxifying physical and mental spaces by releasing the negativities. This was to identify various cluttering habits – procrastinating or an obsessive hoarding disorder/syndrome. Participants were given incentives in form of a kit, designed to motivate them towards discarding unnecessary objects from their lives. The kit consisted of a booklet that guided spaces and how physical spaces impact our emotional spaces as well. A checklist and reading material were also a part of the booklet. Apart from that, a sticker was given that signified progress and another to inspire someone else for releasing their spaces of negativities further.

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Along with these incentives, we also screened a short documentary on Minimalist living to initiate a discussion on what people thought of living only with what they really needed, or more to investigate on what they thought of their spaces. Further, we had a small presentation on the subjectivity of clutter, spaces and how releasing unusable things can help them let their spaces breathe. We also encouraged participants to segregate things as ‘sentimental memorabilia’, ‘discardables’ and ‘reusables’.

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MEET UP 2 (17TH FEBRUARY) | REKINDLING WITH INTERESTS

 

The second meet – up was to do with how memorabilia or sentimental things that create value for people and help them get inspired to be more productive in their lives or to just have positive vibes around them. A space that reminds them of their interests, memories and the good things in life. First, we began with a music-oriented, visual meditation using the act of painting by asking the participants to think of their past, present and futures stimulated with the instrumental music played to help them abstract out their thoughts in form of paintings.

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After this, we asked the participants to make a keywords list of themselves, about their past, present and future, and what they think of themselves, what their self-image is. We further facilitated them in creating vision boards that can be put up in their spaces, the law of attraction as they say. The vision boards are also motivators to help people work towards their goals on a daily basis, whether it is to learn how to cook or rekindle with their old interests in the arts.

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Our participants were quite intrigued by the vision board activity. One of them even remarked in the next meet up that her week was positive because she had the vision board near her that kept her positive and motivated towards her goals, although things went wrong in the week. Whenever she came back to her room or her space, she would feel revitalized to move forward.

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MEET UP 3 (25TH FEBRUARY) | REPURPOSING NEW MEANINGS

 

The third meet-up was a workshop on repurposing things that can be purposed in a different way to be used further. Another facilitation, this evolved as a discussion when people started giving each other suggestions and we went on to discuss what associations people draw from objects and how objects are given emotional attributes. There were discussions on what is the reason why someone can’t get rid of their belongings, what is the core of the attachment, is it simply the need to keep something as it had a monetary value, or is it a deeper ‘sentimental’ value or even if it is just out of procrastination or priority shift.

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With this experience, we not only facilitated participants to derive some meanings out of their physical and emotional spaces but also grabbed quite a few insights on how people think of objects and how they relate to the objects around them and what makes an object important to them.

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