Hi everyone! I'm Helia.
I recently made an online project called Turns Out. Its Chinese name is 原来还可以这样—
turnsout.lumihelia.com.
Why I wanted to make it: I've always known that I'm someone who has been influenced and shaped by many special moments—not just moments that caught my attention, but ones that could even update (renew, iterate on, upgrade, change...) my world model.
Simply put, moments that make me think, "I didn't know you could do that."
Like finding out that there are organizations in the world called NGOs.
Like learning that some people skip class in college.
Like when the idea of romantic orientation suddenly entered my view.
Like learning that edamame are actually soybeans once they grow up.
Like when someone told me that death can be celebrated.
Like...
Many moments like these may not get much more attention after they pass. But I know that, in that moment, I was a little shocked, or my world gained one more piece of knowledge. Whatever kind of knowledge it was, it all counts!
Turns Out is meant to collect more moments like these, then let them wander through the space I designed and see what other possibilities they might have in the future.
I recently learned about a very, very interesting example. I won't say what it is yet, because I'm planning to include it in issue five of "城市好玩" / "City at Play." A group spent years doing something "useless" to humans—because it was for... I'll keep that secret for now.
Turns Out also seems like a pretty "useless" project. I don't even know what else it is for, beyond perhaps helping us look back a little on how each of us became the person we are today. Letting other people see these moments and think, "Wow, you can do that?" I don't know.
Sometimes, something that seems completely ordinary to someone else might update my world model. In the same way, something that feels unremarkable to me might update someone else's world model.
I don't really believe that anyone can empathize with another person 100 percent, but I do believe that there are always people trying to move closer to one another. Perhaps that is also what this project is trying to do: offer a window into some "moments" from other people's lives, to see which moments affect them and what roles those moments play in their own worlds.
I did put a few small design details into the project. They can only be noticed when multiple people are participating at the same time, which also means the effect might be missed because it happens so quickly... But in any case, I hope that if you've read this far, you'll leave at least one moment that made you think, "I didn't know you could do that."
So even if it is "useless," I still want more people to see it. I want people to take part, and it needs more moments of "I didn't know you could do that" to exist.
So, if you can, I hope you'll share it with people you know and invite them to write down one "moment," become a ✨, and wander around with the other ✨✨. That would make me very happy! 🫶
P.S. You can only see which moments made other people think "I didn't know you could do that" after you write down one such moment of your own!
