Augmented Body
Environments Studio III
--
For this project, we were given two senses out of five and create something wearable that alters the two senses. From the five senses, we had to accomplish impacting sound and sight. We started brainstorming different ways we can change or give impact to these two senses.
Sight:
- lighting
- color
- patterns
- shapes
- magnify
- limited to peripheral vision
- kaleidoscope
Sound:
- white noise
- music
- sound effects
- amplify
- mute
- muffling/covering
- echo
Wearable Things:
- glasses
- visor
- headphones
- helmet
- head band
After brainstorming different ways that we can augment these senses, we started to combine two ways and create ideas.
- eaves dropper with binoculars that zoom in your view but also amplifies the sound
- zooming in view creates echo noises
- disco view with songs
- kaleidoscope with white noise
We realized that a lot of these things would require technology, so we decided to think about ways that don’t require technology but where we can still augment. We decided on limiting vision as well as creating sound effects. For sight, we were inspired by beaded curtains that they usually hang in the doorway. We wanted to create that effect when you see. For sound effects, we also wanted to use beads, so that when you walk, run, look up, look down, or any movement, you would head the beads moving against each other. We began to sketch out some drafts. The most effective and comfortable way to wear something that augments sound and sight were headphones that connected to the front sight area.
When we went to the art store, we found these containers for push pins that had a similar shape to the ear part of a headphone. We began to score the headband part to make it flexible.
We then had to somehow add the beads that cover sight, however, we also didn’t want the beads to hit the face of a person, so we bought a clear panel to use as an eye guard. We realized that the beads clashing on the clear panel makes a noise as well, so we were able to do sight and hear in one design. We needed to incorporate an overall head piece to attach the headphones and eye guard together. We also decided to take some more pushpins out because we realized that sound is more created when there are less pushpins.
We thought that we needed to cover the appearance of the pushpins, so that the sound is a surprise.
Overall, this was a fun and interesting project where I had to think about different ways that could augment our senses. It made me think about how there are so many possible ways that designers can augment senses. Although we were able to think of several ways that could augment the senses, it was definitely a bit difficult to actually design something that is wearable and low-fidelity.
Final Pictures and Videos
