Tranquil power?

'Power of Influence' Soo K Chang

'Tranquility' Soo K Chang

Welcome back to Otherworlds and congratualtions to everyone for managing to survive past the dissertation deadline!

We had another two excellent activities this morning, and I hope they've made you reflect on the spaces around us. The two issues covered - power and tranquility - also fit together quite nicely. If you think about the images people drew, they might implicitly have suggested people wouldn't want to be 'controlled' in any way in their tranquil space. But equally they didn't explicitly say this. Think about an urban park - we may find tranquility in a busy lunch hour, but our movements and use of that space are constantly under surveillance and are subject to the controlling powers of others. Does it make it any less tranquil? Or perhaps even more tranquil in some ways?

Even nature has the power to control us - we missed out on the experience of lying on the grass looking up at the sky becuase it was deemed too cold and wet.

Is there a necessary relation between power and tranquility..?