Week 1: Fantasy Device

For our first mini-assignment, the class was broken up into small groups, each with a theme for a potential fantasy device to create. My team’s theme was Provocative; immediately we began to think about devices that would provoke, irritate, or encourage users to rethink their senses of self.

My initial reaction to the prompt was to think of all of the provocative things that are happening in the world right now. There is so much fear, pain, and anger constantly brewing, and sometimes it seems almost impossible to ignore. This omnipresence of pain was the driving inspiration behind my fantasy device: Little Box of Horrors. The device would be a cube, with each face representing a problem plaguing today’s society (hate crimes, police brutality, pandemics, etc). Every time a death occurred as a result of one of the problems pictured, the box would emit the sound of a scream. This essentially would cause an endless emission of screaming from the device, illustrating the feeling that these horrors are inescapable.

This device will undoubtedly provoke, at least initially, feelings of annoyance and irritation in its user. Hopefully, however, it will also encourage the user to question their own feelings. Hopefully, users will realize that instead of feeling annoyed with this meaningless screaming box, they should instead be angry about the rate at which people, neglected by their government, are left to suffer and die. Ultimately, the device is meant to provoke anger that manifests itself in political awareness, if not action.