The main scenario of this project is about the appearance of a new form of intelligence, and how a religion is generated as an outcome. This new form of intelligence, unclarified whether is artificial or extraterrestrial, makes its presence through an object, evoking an unpreceded effect to our world.
Its energy field distorts its surroundings, while giving us the ability to broaden our spectrum, and perceive more information than our sensory capabilities and technological amplifiers currently allow. The scientific community is in upheaval, as major laws of physics are being questioned, and at the same time religions around the world cannot explain how a different form of intelligence can exist, beyond their well-established universes.
People, in their effort to understand and explain this presence, follow an inherent feature of worshiping the unknown. Through this act, they try to establish a safe relationship with this intelligence, a protective shield, but, driven by an unquenchable ontological thirst and a constant fear of chaos, they hope to understand and give a meaning to their own existence. This object becomes a central point of cosmogonic value, a navel of a new reality, directly affecting the orientation and characteristics of the sacred edifices that are about to be formed.
The world is trying to be depicted as it is being perceived through the spectrum of this device. A new reality has been observed and people try to convert it to our dimensional perceptiveness, with fluid and reflective surfaces, and primitive geometries with dematerialized qualities. We could argue that this cave like interior, resembles the prehistoric era, where everything is unknown, and humanity palpably tries to interpret their reality.
Throughout the ages, the unknown always exhorted human to explore, study and evolve, a fact that contradicts with the nature of a simple religious believer. Through this project, space is trying to depict a need for familiarization with an unknown power and act as a medium to transcend to a different condition, utilizing scenarios of juxtapositions between science and religion, natural and artificial, human and extraterrestrial, light and darkness, sacred and profane.
As this religion is starting to be more popular among people, existing temples are being altered in order to serve this new realm. The device becomes an object of multiple scales, as it is being converted to a symbol, acting as an actual MacGuffin for a new religion.
“December 19, 2054.
It is a surprisingly calm morning for Ben, enjoying his warm coffee, with only a faint breeze stirring the leaves of the trees in his backyard. Suddenly, his phone rang by a friend, reminding him that he will pick him up in 20 minutes, and drive together to the meeting point, and start with the rest of the group their walk towards the Object.
It has been almost 30 years from the moment of Decent, and it is interesting how it still affects our everyday lives. It took almost five years, for the governments, the stock market, and religions to settle and regain a balance after the “ripples” such a phenomenon has created.
The origin of the Object is yet unknown. It seems to have its own intelligence, and theories support the opinion that it might not be extraterrestrial, as we firstly assumed. Its passive standing appeased the initial hostile sense against it, however the government and the military pay close attention to any subtle move and energy distortion in its vicinity. The facilities set around the crater, host also multiple scientists from universities and institutes around the world. Major breakthroughs have been done in understanding the energy field that is created by the Object. However, the multidimensional glimpses that have been observed and captured by the sensor arrays around it, still question the laws of physics of our known reality.
After a four-hour drive, as they entered the Death Valley desert, they started to see the first groups of people and individuals walking towards the Object’s location. The dry ground along the route, has been altered through the last decades by the chemicals used to process the minerals found in the soil near the Crater. The mining companies did not lose a minute to establish their facilities, after lobbyists came into agreement with the government, as soon as they found out that the energy field created by the Object, reacts with the soil of the desert, and valuable minerals are being generated, that could be used in the propulsion systems for the spaceships of the new interplanetary missions.
Soon, they have arrived at the meeting point, a parking lot at the end of the road, from where only pedestrians were allowed to continue their path towards the Temple. It is a popular time of the year, as the winter solstice is near. During the shortest day of the year, the Object has been observed to act differently, as if the energy field is less affected by the daylight.
“Professor Atkins! Professor Atkins, wait!” a female voice was heard among the crowd. It was Olivia, one of Ben’s students in UCLA. “I can’t believe my eyes seeing you here professor. How did you decide to join the Pilgrimage?”. “Well, for scientific reasons of course” Ben replied surprised, “I had to experience at least once in my life this event and see the Object by a different point of view”. “Let’s move on then!” said Olivia, “Soon it will be too crowded inside the Cave”.
As they started ascending towards the Temple, the Object made its appearance over the edges of the Crater. Ben was surprised by the participation of the people. Every year, even more people convert to the Religion towards this intelligence, and participate in events happening during the solstices and equinoxes.
There have been some tremendous years, especially in the beginning, for the religious leaders to control the havoc, not to mention the extremist acts, the appearance of the Object created. People started to question the authorities, but most importantly, they started questioning their beliefs. In their effort to understand and explain this presence, they followed an inherent feature of worshiping the unknown. Through this act, they try to establish a safe relationship with this intelligence, a protective shield, but, driven by an unquenchable ontological thirst and a constant fear of chaos, they hope to understand and give a meaning to their own existence.
After a two-hour walk, they have finally reached the Cave. This space, meticulously oriented, and isolated by the restricted government facilities across the Crater, allowed specific points of view of the Object. Indeed, these framed views gave a different perspective to the Object, Ben realized. A perspective that depicts the Crater as a naval of a new reality, where the Object could not only broaden the spectrum of our known laws of physics, but our spectrum of our life on this planet concurrently.”
It is a surprisingly calm morning for Ben, enjoying his warm coffee, with only a faint breeze stirring the leaves of the trees in his backyard. Suddenly, his phone rang by a friend, reminding him that he will pick him up in 20 minutes, and drive together to the meeting point, and start with the rest of the group their walk towards the Object.
It has been almost 30 years from the moment of Decent, and it is interesting how it still affects our everyday lives. It took almost five years, for the governments, the stock market, and religions to settle and regain a balance after the “ripples” such a phenomenon has created.
The origin of the Object is yet unknown. It seems to have its own intelligence, and theories support the opinion that it might not be extraterrestrial, as we firstly assumed. Its passive standing appeased the initial hostile sense against it, however the government and the military pay close attention to any subtle move and energy distortion in its vicinity. The facilities set around the crater, host also multiple scientists from universities and institutes around the world. Major breakthroughs have been done in understanding the energy field that is created by the Object. However, the multidimensional glimpses that have been observed and captured by the sensor arrays around it, still question the laws of physics of our known reality.
After a four-hour drive, as they entered the Death Valley desert, they started to see the first groups of people and individuals walking towards the Object’s location. The dry ground along the route, has been altered through the last decades by the chemicals used to process the minerals found in the soil near the Crater. The mining companies did not lose a minute to establish their facilities, after lobbyists came into agreement with the government, as soon as they found out that the energy field created by the Object, reacts with the soil of the desert, and valuable minerals are being generated, that could be used in the propulsion systems for the spaceships of the new interplanetary missions.
Soon, they have arrived at the meeting point, a parking lot at the end of the road, from where only pedestrians were allowed to continue their path towards the Temple. It is a popular time of the year, as the winter solstice is near. During the shortest day of the year, the Object has been observed to act differently, as if the energy field is less affected by the daylight.
“Professor Atkins! Professor Atkins, wait!” a female voice was heard among the crowd. It was Olivia, one of Ben’s students in UCLA. “I can’t believe my eyes seeing you here professor. How did you decide to join the Pilgrimage?”. “Well, for scientific reasons of course” Ben replied surprised, “I had to experience at least once in my life this event and see the Object by a different point of view”. “Let’s move on then!” said Olivia, “Soon it will be too crowded inside the Cave”.
As they started ascending towards the Temple, the Object made its appearance over the edges of the Crater. Ben was surprised by the participation of the people. Every year, even more people convert to the Religion towards this intelligence, and participate in events happening during the solstices and equinoxes.
There have been some tremendous years, especially in the beginning, for the religious leaders to control the havoc, not to mention the extremist acts, the appearance of the Object created. People started to question the authorities, but most importantly, they started questioning their beliefs. In their effort to understand and explain this presence, they followed an inherent feature of worshiping the unknown. Through this act, they try to establish a safe relationship with this intelligence, a protective shield, but, driven by an unquenchable ontological thirst and a constant fear of chaos, they hope to understand and give a meaning to their own existence.
After a two-hour walk, they have finally reached the Cave. This space, meticulously oriented, and isolated by the restricted government facilities across the Crater, allowed specific points of view of the Object. Indeed, these framed views gave a different perspective to the Object, Ben realized. A perspective that depicts the Crater as a naval of a new reality, where the Object could not only broaden the spectrum of our known laws of physics, but our spectrum of our life on this planet concurrently.”