Ruifei Kang

Float a while

In the busy city of Auckland, many people face the tiring pressures of work and life. We live in a fast-paced city where everything seems to be spinning like cogs. Everyone works hard to achieve their goals. However, if a string is stretched too tight, it will eventually break under pressure. There are many real-life examples of people giving up their lives when losing their jobs and falling into depression due to the overwhelming feeling of failure. Therefore, when we are busy, we need to give our body and mind a vacation and go further, combining work and rest. Trouble happens day after day, but the tired mind needs to relax, and the body needs to relax. Dreams are just a short escape. "Float a while" may also be a good choice in a lucid dream.

On the first floor, people will feel like they are floating on the sea. During the day, the ocean always has warm sunshine and vibrant white waves, while the sea at sunset is much more restrained, calm and comfortable. Occasionally, the sea will vent out its emotions with dark clouds and rough waves. When the wind and rain subsided, it was already late at night. After the violent storm, people finally got a moment of tranquillity. After everything calms down, there may be unexpected beauty. The waves in the water are like glowing fish, blurry and floating with the waves, like a dream. People walking up to the second floor is like coming to an island, from the floating sea to the "island" surrounded by soft lawns, to experience a more peaceful relaxation. In the final chapter of the dream, there is a ship leading to reality. After purchasing a "ship ticket", order a drink that returns to reality, giving this lucid dream a final nostalgia.

The reason why I chose sea dreams is that I once watched a movie called Life of Pi. Pi encountered some incredible things when he was in distress at sea, just like all kinds of difficulties in real life, and the brain automatically beautified his challenges and made the whole world like a dream. Although it seemed like escaping from reality, if there were no such "escape", perhaps Pi would have left this world because of a mental breakdown. Sometimes, taking the initiative to enter the "dream" is also a kind of salvation for oneself.

"Float a while" is an immersive design that floats on the sea through vision and lighting, giving people a sense of comfort in emptying the body and mind through "floating". So I designed the hammock at an angle so that people can see the whole screen while lying down. The ultra-long screen also brings the audience a naked-eye three-dimensional viewing experience. No matter which direction the audience looks at, they can enjoy the sea in the dream.

The colours I mainly use are black and white because the initial dream is black and white. When we are not born, everything is only light and dark. After experiencing various things and watching colour, we understand the "colour", so we think that the colour in the dream is because the brain supplements certain scenes or things, thus giving them colour. When the light hits the black and white hammock, the colourful hammock may be in colour, or it may be black and white.