Consciousness Monument
Introduction
In a world where we are constantly bombarded with mind-numbing thoughts and ideas, we sometimes forget that we have our very own individual thoughts and ideas. We need to step back for all of it and take some time to ponder things for ourselves. The Consciousness Monument commemorates and celebrates our individual self and gives us a moment to become more aware of our self and presence in the world.
Background Information
“Consciousness” is can be defined as: a sense of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or group; subjective experience; awareness or wakefulness; the ability to experience “feeling”; the understanding of the concept “self”; and the executive control system of the mind. The consciousness, is something considered to separate "intelligent life" over "non-intelligent life" and is something of a mystery to humans themselves.
Monuments everywhere commemorate something specific: a person, an event, etc. It is erected to represent an important event in a culture's past, and sometimes, the comes to symbolize a culture itself. Monuments are often "larger than life" and is meant to transcend time. However the Consciousness Monument will commemorate nothing in particular, except for what your consciousness wills it to.
Description
The Consciousness Monument is an interactive monument, allowing visitors to walk inside to escape into their thoughts. Though many people would wander inside not knowing what to expect, they'll only find themselves alone with their consciousness. This is meant so that people can take a moment and become conscious of their own consciousness.
The Consciousness Monument itself is a pure white, permeable, gelatin-like hollow dome. What is meant by permeable is that people are able to walk through the dome walls, and enter inside. Inside, will also be pure white, with a soft light. Inside, nothing can be seen except for the white glow of the dome walls, no defined ceiling, floor, walls, or corners, no shadows are cast, and no sound travels. This is to represent our minds, and the nothingness is to clear our bodies of any outside forces, and the person inside is only left alone with his or her thoughts. Even when people enter into the monument, inside is only the individual, no one can see another person.
The size of the dome will be as big as space will allow in the particular area that it will be in. The monument is also not site-specific, but it's preferred to be in a large metropolitan area, where it is largely populated and busy. It will give the monument more meaning and significance, as the purpose of the monument is to provide an escape from all that. Because of the gelatinous nature of the dome, it will easily fit in any shape and space allowed for the monument. The monument can also be located indoors or outdoors, the material needed to be able to withstand cold and heat, wet and dry, and direct sunlight.
The Consciousness Monument is meant to represent, signify, and commemorate the consciousness, and anything related to it. To give a different aspect to the monument, a little section may be added, where outside the monument is a descriptive plaque, that changes to a different event or person, important, relavant, or not, that constantly changes. Each person that enters the monument, would have something on their minds to ponder as they are inside the monument.
The importance of this monument is arguable, but perhaps it is the most important monument to be erected because it celebrates the one thing that makes any other monument relevant and important to individuals. Without the conscious, monuments would just be buildings, it is what gives us the ability to tie a sentimental meaning to physical, non-living objects.
Benefits
The Consciousness Monument is for anyone and everyone who has consciousness. Those who will benefit most from it are the people who are able to find a purpose in the monument, as an escape from outside forces and able to focus their energies inside. Even those who do not see a purpose in it now, it will definitely become a part of their lives someday.
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possible skeletal structure of the dome, it would be covered with the gelatin substance
"Dome over Manhattan" by Buckminster Fuller
