Recipe for fast Nostalgia
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I met Asli on January 2, 2023 at 2 p.m. and saw her for the last time on January 4 at 11:09 a.m.
She had responded to an open call for an article in Softei's magazine in which I invited people to tell me about their fears. My idea was to use these fears to develop scripts for small encounters that could provide a new perspective on fear.Asli wrote to me that she is afraid of endings of any kind. Together we decided to stage a conscious ending. We both went toBerlin and spent two days together.
Our interaction was guided by a jointly written script that included specific rules and actions designed to create a sense of nostalgia and finality.We collected as many memories as possible, smelled specific scents, tasted specific flavors and listened to the same three songs incessantly to reinforce the feeling of nostalgia. On the last day, my alarm clock rang and we tidied up the room, took off our “costumes” and left each other.Even though we cannot share the experience due to our rules, I believe that both Asli and I were touched by our encounter and its conscious conclusion and were able to take something away from it. In the weeks after our encounter, I felt a strong pressure in my chest and at the same time a bittersweet euphoria because we had managed to artificially create a real ending - and without the ending, there would have been no encounter.
She had responded to an open call for an article in Softei's magazine in which I invited people to tell me about their fears. My idea was to use these fears to develop scripts for small encounters that could provide a new perspective on fear.Asli wrote to me that she is afraid of endings of any kind. Together we decided to stage a conscious ending. We both went toBerlin and spent two days together.
Our interaction was guided by a jointly written script that included specific rules and actions designed to create a sense of nostalgia and finality.We collected as many memories as possible, smelled specific scents, tasted specific flavors and listened to the same three songs incessantly to reinforce the feeling of nostalgia. On the last day, my alarm clock rang and we tidied up the room, took off our “costumes” and left each other.Even though we cannot share the experience due to our rules, I believe that both Asli and I were touched by our encounter and its conscious conclusion and were able to take something away from it. In the weeks after our encounter, I felt a strong pressure in my chest and at the same time a bittersweet euphoria because we had managed to artificially create a real ending - and without the ending, there would have been no encounter.