2001: A Space Odyssey Scene Analyisis

I've chosen the scene in 2001 where Victor Kaminsky (I think that's his name) is exercising in the circular room 53.54 - 55.00. This scene is very much focused on the set and the set is what atrracted me to analyse this scene. I still can't qute understand how it's done.

Character
There's only one character in this entire scene and that's Kaminsky. He doesn't even speak bar some grunts. So we find out very little about him other than he takes his job as a space traveler seriously by keeping in shape in Zero G.
However something I noticed is that there is a very distinct lack of extras. In the scene previoulsy we see the space ship is massive and there's plenty of chairs and control panels in the circular room but no one to man them. The me this emptiness is reflecting the emptiness of space outside of the ship.

Setting
I think this circular room is used to show how fast technology is progressing. In just 18 months they have developed Artifical Gravity technology.  In an earlier scene we see a pen floating around in a space shuttle and the "Space Hostess" has to walk down the isle using velcro on the bottom of her shoes and it was actually quite difficult for her. Now they are able to freely move and even exercise without any help or restrictions. The cirular room allows them to show, in a very dynamic way, that they now have the ability to walk on any surface using the Artifical Gravity.

Mise-en-Scene
The multiple empty chairs suggest that they're low on peronelle for this mission. This is reinforced by the dead silence of the ship bar the lonely grunts of Victor. Or perhaps it is foreshadowing to HAL who can control everything on the ship. However that doesn't explain why they built the chairs into the ship in the first place if they weren't needed.
I thought the chambers where the rest of the crew were in hibernation were coffins at first. But becaue I couldn't see anyone through the small windows I thought they were empty coffins as if this mission was so dangerous they had the coffins just in case.
The gravity is so strange, it's not pulling things DOWN but kind of AROUND. Gravity affects the circle in all directions.
Camera

1. Wide and panning
2. Full body tracking
3. Close up
4. Extreme Close up tracking

These shots seem to be used to show off the complexity of the location, that Victor can run around and around without falling down due to gravity. 

Sound
To be honest when I listen to the scene but dont watch it, it sounds like what it is, someone exercising. However the lack of anything else really suggests loneliness to me. This is backed up by the melancholy music.