A group of young Lithuanian architects are asking us to think about the role of decision in our everyday lives. In our digital consumer driven society, we are offered endless possibilities, both small and life changing. Excessive possibility complicates simple things and burdens us with stress and negative emotion.
Through their social experiment, the group of architects challenges society to disengage from choice and to simply not decide, allowing all options to play out simultaneously and so delving into a state of superposition.
Enter Schrödinger's cat, the thought experiment, and the idea behind the project. Erwin Schrödinger, an Austrian physicist, used the term “superposition” in his principles of quantum physics.
His thought experiment follows that if you place a cat and a bomb inside a box and the bomb has a 50 per cent chance of exploding in the next hour, the cat is either dead or alive depending on whether the bomb exploded or not.
Schrödinger suggests that until the box is opened and either option is proven, the cat is both dead and alive and in a state of superposition. Similarly, we find ourselves in the same condition if we refuse to decide between our options.
The group’s Kickstarter campaign draws from the thought experiment by offering people t-shirts. Only when the box is opened will the recipients see the design they’ve been given. In remaining undecided and giving into superposition during the purchase, the project finds meaning. The only thing participants will know is that their t-shirts are handmade, each with a unique design made from high-quality ringspun cotton.
The non-profit project was formed in relation to the European Architecture Students Assembly (EASA). The 2016 EASA will be held in Nida, Lithuania, and expects 500 talented young European architects for the two week long series of workshops.
The Not Yet Decided campaign will run until 12 June, but is proud to have already reached their goal after only one week.
