DESIGN A CRITICAL VEHICLE

“Answers to Life’s Questions”

My critical vehicle presents itself initially as something that could simplify one’s existing--posing as a means to obtain the “answers to life’s questions.” But when one turns the crank, one finds that each statement(“answer”) given, conflicts or differs greatly from each consecutive statement. These “answers” would be derived from Zen(Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, etc.), varying Religions(Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, etc.), as well as various Scientific viewpoints (quantum theory, string theory, holographic theory, big bang theory, etc.) and including most any source discovered that prophesizes to contain the answers to life’s mysteries.

The major and most important question being “answered” will be “What is the meaning of life?” A question, it seems, that has harassed human beings since the beginning of their time.

While not all “answers” conflict in varying theories, the most conflicting areas will be posed one after another to give the reader a sense of the vastness and complexity that exits when trying to look through all arenas for understanding. And in itself represents, or concretely displays, just how complex life itself is.

The ream of paper contained within the box(that which holds the “answers”) will feed out of the back through a hole cut in the cardboard, instead of being structured in such a way that it remains in a continuous loop. In this way, if a reader chooses to cycle through the myriad of “answers” they will eventually run out and all previous will lay in a heaping stream behind the box. This will allow for a physical representation of the sheer number of “answers” as well as a suggestion that even with all we have undertaken in attempting to understand life or the universe, we are still left with a big question mark. While the paper ream literally runs out, this is not a suggestion that our ideas of reality will “run out.”

In relation to the “stranger in the city”: this device relates to all as strangers in the world. As a stranger in the city, one can take comfort in knowing that their confusion is a natural reaction to the unknown, and that while some people may know where the closest corner store is located, or may feel more comfortable in the present environment as a “native”: we’re all natives in this universe and we’re all equally strangers to it’s deepest inner-workings.