Project 1
Experiment with ways that we can change a person’s relationship to their (natural) physical environment. These wearable, physical artifacts will be designed to impact our senses through amplification, dampening, distortion, isolation, etc. to have an impact on the wearer’s perception. What you design should impact two or more of the wearer’s senses.
Idea / Brainstorm
The first thing that came to my mind after reading the description of our project was that I wanted to create an environment that secludes a person from the outside world. This first came to thought because I enjoy the feeling of spacing out during the day which allows me to release stress during the day and find tranquility.
Choosing the Senses
The design required us to impact two or more of the wearer’s senses. My initial idea was to target vision and touch however, I soon realized audio was a much better option than touch. I found out that people tend to find tranquility in complete quietness and even in underwater. This gave me an idea of blocking outside sound and creating a illusion like feeling for vision.
Choosing the Material/Design
Box: I thought of using the box as the base of my wearable design. A box has all four sides covered which blocks any exterior environment. It is also sturdy and easy to handle
Sponge: After a thorough research of how I would be able to block or lessen sound, I found out that sponges absorb sound and is a great material to lessen the volume of any sound. Sponges are also very soft which will also provide comfort fit.
Magnifying glass: I was originally thinking of installing a blurry film like paper for my visuals. However, a magnifying glass came to my thought as a another alternative. After testing the magnifying glass, it perfectly produced a vision I was intending to show.
Idea Sketch
FINAL Design
The final design of my wearable came out pretty clean and I was satisfied that it completed all its task of blocking exterior sound and creating a illusion like vision. The crafting was made sturdy and it also provided comfort fit. The cloth I added in the last minute also did a good job in blocking sunlight and just creating a very cozy tight space.
Final Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP2HuqZGNj4
You can realize in the video that once you put on my deepbox, it blocks the exterior sound and you also have an illusion like vision. The material I used really helped creating this environment and it came out as I exactly planned to do.
Reflection
Project 1: Augmented body was a great exercise for me to think outside the box and think very deeply into how I could use the material that exist around me as a advantage to my design. It taught me a great lesson which is critical for Environments designers since one of our task is to utilize technology and material to make people’s lives better.
At first, it was challenging to come up with an idea of how I could possibly affect the senses in our body and change the perception of it. However, after several hours of looking through materials and testing, I was able to find a solution for it. I also learned that as designers, we always design a product or service depending on the human sense and comfortability. This was a great chance for me to realize that as a designer, I should always look into human centered design and design thinking.
