August 24 – September 28, 2026
We worked on the Composition Box today. That is a brainstorming poster all ETC teams do on Week 1, and by the end of Week 1, we all tape the poster to the wall, and walk around the room with sticky notes, and basically give feedback to people’s brainstorms.
Two things happened today. One, I’m rethinking what teamwork could look like. Two, we went down lots of exciting rabbit holes.
The Shape of Teamwork:
We couldn’t find a time when everyone is available, so we gave up on that. I told everyone that they could show up when they’re free and work on the Composition Box. It actually worked out surprisingly well. There were three of us here in the morning and three of us here in the afternoon, and then a few people individually here and there, all contributing to the big poster of ideas. The resulting Composition Box looks really good, with lots of wildly different ideas.
The exciting rabbit holes:
The rabbit holes started to appear after we met with Professor Vivian Shen. She raised a question that perhaps none of us even thought about: How do you define wellness? What if someone wants to do Zumba or break things in a rage room instead of meditating? If calming down is a standard part of a wellness practice, is an adrenaline rush?
There was a memorable moment when two people and I said “watching ants” simultaneously. We were on the path down memory lane, trying to remember what life experiences we enjoyed. Something as seemingly mundane as watching ants on the ground just might be a universal pastime for all humans.
Play God was an exhilarating idea. One person mentioned that throwing people into the ocean in games is weirdly satisfying. We almost started a philosophical debate about what distinguishes wellness from satisfaction, but we decided that we don’t care about the answer. We actually seriously thought about the scope of a Playing God experience. Like, what if you’re just the God of water, and you’re carving out the oceans of a new planet? We might need to connect this idea to the wellness concept just a bit more, though.
We liked the idea of some sort of collaboration experience. I played flute in a concert band. Making harmony with other people is always a pleasant experience. Feeling connected to others is a type of wellness that not even money can buy.
Our team just had our first meeting with Heather and Ricardo. It was a really lovely way to kick off the semester.
Ricardo practices jujitsu. Heather is organizing a themed yoga outing for us. And I’m planning to take everyone to Group X’s Sound Bath.
Since our project is called “Immersive Wellness,” we figured the best place to start is by immersing ourselves in wellness practices ourselves — basically, seeing what’s out there and figuring out what wellness means to each of us.
Everyone shared what attracted them to this project. Gamma said this was her absolute top choice. Nightray said she loves sports and is hoping we can bring some kind of fitness element in. ETC introduced Ethan to Sound Design, and he’s really excited to experiment with the Cavern’s surround sound system. Aiden is thinking about adding an element of smell to our installation, and lucky for us, Heather is an expert in incorporating smells into physical environments. She said that the tangerines I brought made the whole room smell citrusy, and that smells are tied to our survival, so humans tend to react strongly to them. We had a heated conversation about how a previous project used the smell of fresh dirt, like the one you’d smell on a grassy lawn after rain. Apparently some people hated it. That’s just unbelievable to us; we unanimously agreed that it smells amazing.
Our project is going into the Cavern, which is a pretty unique setup at the ETC: a huge, circular screen with surround sound. But our team only has one programmer and one artist, which means there’s a lot riding on those two people. Aya, our solo programmer, has already started reaching out to classmates who worked in the Cavern last semester. Hopefully, we’ll also get to talk to Josh, an ETC alum who has worked extensively with the Cavern and helped make the technology more accessible for future teams.
The possibilities are endless, and we really need to enjoy this feeling of hope while it lasts. Soon, deadlines will arrive, and we will inevitably have to give up on some out-of-scope dreams, but for now, I’m imagining a small waterfall trickling through a forest, birds are singing, dirt smells fresh after the rain, and my wellness level is through the roof.