Playful Self
Key words:
Biometric
Data driven interactions
Unique experience design
Environmental awareness
The interactive exhibition ‘Playful Self’ by Alex Rothera and Jimmy Krahe showcases how biometric body data can be used in everyday life. Featured at the Dutch Design Week as an installation for the Dublin Science Gallery, the exhibition explores research on the future of biometric transnatural art and design. The exhibition pieces invite viewers to interact with a unique tea set which, when touched, takes individual body data and transforms it into visual representations through digitally manipulating the tea set. The speculative design works on the assumption that in the future the biometrics of our body will be available instantly or continuously. Therefore, Rothera and Krahe position that most objects around us will listen to our “body data” and react accordingly.
This design leverages human data inputs to create unique experiences to enhance our every-day interactions with inanimate objects. Overall, the exhibition encourages visitors to experience an interactive future, so that they might become more aware of the objects around them and consider if those objects could or should be listening.This case study is a successful example of speculative design as it prompts viewers to think about how their existence can influence things around them and encourages us to reflect upon the ways in which we can have positive or negative impacts on our environment.
The use of biometrics to leverage personal data and create individual connections is what drew my attention. I enjoy how this installation creates greater awareness in users and fosters a deeper connection with both ourselves and the environment around us. In my future practice I aim to include these aspects of enabling connection to design memorable experiences for those that interact with my work.
Taste in Culture: The flow of tea and a sip of the artistic tea time in solitude
This is a project by Lydia Fan Mo, a student at the University of Auckland architecture and urban planning school. Lydia's work researches how tea culture is continuously evolving, travelling and adapting itself to different cultures around the world, and how it influences derived art and architecture. This case study will allow me to analyse the future of tea from a pluriversal point of view as well as understand the insights other scholars have gained about the role of tea in our society.
(Image by Lydia Mo Fan)
The project specifically looks into ‘tea architecture’ that responds to the traditional and ever-evolving tea culture, as well as exploring how the ideologies and philosophies of tea drinking can be represented and reflected through architecture. Throughout her project, Lydia describes how contemporary tea architecture can be used to revive the tea tradition by proposing an urban tea space in Auckland CBD. She creates architectural models and plans of a sanctuary in the city for people living in the urban environment.
(Image by Lydia Mo Fan)
What I enjoy about Lydia's work is her ability to portray the physical space of the tea sanctuary whilst conveying key moments and feelings that people will experience during their visit. Her master plan outlines the overall layout whilst the following images bring to life her imagination of how people can interact with the space and what functions objects will bring to it. I would love to use this case study to inform my future work for my project 'The future of tea and wellbeing'. I have reached out to Lydia and we are corresponding about collaborating and what her personal long-term vision of the future of tea is. View Lydia's full project here.
(Images by Lydia Mo Fan)
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