The experience of travelling, above all else, hangs on an element of change. To travel is to be in a constant state of leaving and arrival. This flow of new stimuli is what creates an intensified awareness of senses. Motion can also deteriorate into a pattern, becoming an activity rather than a journey. At the basis of travelling there must be some discovery, a persistent challenge, a surge of new ideas and connections. Once we are no longer stimulated, the travelling stops.

The incentive to explore and discover is vital to any artist that seeks to create a meaningful experience — a journey. We would hardly consider taking up a novel or going to see a movie if we did not expect to experience something new. Once an idea has been repeated too many times, it loses its appeal and becomes tiring to perceive because it repeats the information that is already acquired. The art theorist Susan Sontag⁵ suggests that real art can evoke a sense of unease, as we are confronted by something we cannot completely understand and explain. This sense of alarm is similar to the experience of leaving one’s home environment: the unknown may scare us but it also holds a promise to grow beyond what we know. It is the closest one can get to stepping outside of oneself.