Possibilistic Design 48-734 | Fall 2021
Through the research of multimedia sensing, these projects conceptualize alternative ways of observing, measuring, and quantifying the spaces around us. They question why certain experiences make us feel a certain way, what role our senses play in perception, and how we can implement speculative design and conceptualism to powerfully reframe an experience. By pushing the capacities of sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste, and other interstitial senses, we aim to find probable solutions to our design problems. As for the final term project, we were to design, render, and prototype a large-scale multi-sensory tool, wearable, or site-specific installation that augments the ambiance of a space or experience.
Jessica Lai, Amelia Chan, Lydia Randall, Karina Shethia, Shori Sims
This project is about encouraging connection between users through collaborative, puzzle-based interaction. The project is about perspective: with the goal of the device being to see your partner. In this game, no one sees the full picture at first: sight is the only variable we can control, and even then, we are limited. In this piece, we are thinking about perspective, connection, understanding, and collaboration. You are encouraged to work with your partner in order to find clarity, embodying a narrative of discovery.
Portal_01 Instruction Manual.pdf
This product was fabricated out of eighth-inch laser-cut plywood and acrylic. With the use of Rhino, we created a frame that is only large enough for the partners to see each other's eyes. There's nowhere else for their eyes to look except directly at the other person. By blacking out the top and bottom, they have to focus even harder on the other wearer.
To design the sight obstructions, we used reflective film and watercolors along with torn strips of matte foil. These different textures and opacities reminded us of the different lenses we view others with, and how your perspective changes as you see different aspects of them. The watercolors don't fully block your vision, but you see your partner in a different light. The film is also slightly transparent, so you start to see parts of yourself in the reflection when you look at your partner. The foil is opaque, fully blocking parts of your partner's face.
Acrylic sheets are the only things that the user is able to control in the process of solving the puzzle. Each sheet has a unique pattern that is created so that there is only one solution to the puzzle.
This is what the participant would see when looking through the opening at first. Different materials and ways of manipulating the acrylic sheets make it look like you are in a maze of colors and shapes with weird reflections.