Context Setting
It's the year 2086. Sorya, a 34 year old marine biologist, has recently moved to Puducherry to study nudibranch ecosystems.Sorya has been sitting by the sail of the boat waiting to reach one such nudibranch ecosystem a few miles away from the shore, when Arnab, a co-scientist on the project notices Sorya’s wilting Pneuma expressing signs of loneliness, wonder, unfamiliarity and excitement. Arnab approaches Sorya to talk more about the way she has been feeling and Sorya shares her story, they start talking and soon after Arnab invites Sorya over to meet with his group of friends. Sorya’s Pneuma starts blooming back, Arnab takes this as a confirmation to his invite.
Project Details
Solo Project
Duration - 2 weeks
Completed September 2021 at National Institute of Design
My role
Design research, Concept development, Ideating, Prototyping
Keywords
Fragile machines, wearable computing, visualizing emotions, neuralink, reflecting emotions
Project Flow
PHASE ONE
OBSERVING ROBOTS OF INTEREST
Light Weeds by Simone Heijdens
Light weeds are living digital organisms. They grow indoors but depend on sunshine, rainfall, and wind measured in the outside world through sensors placed on the outer walls of the building. Designed by Simone Heijdens.
Thoughts
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Why do robots need to look like humans?
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Do robots need to have a form at all?
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Can they be invisible or incorporated intrinsically in our environment?
UNDERSTANDING HOW HUMANS EXPERIENCE EMOTIONS
We need a map of our emotions, that's simple but not easy. Awareness of our emotions means understanding how they are triggered, what they feel like and how we respond. Awareness itself is a strategy, it helps us understand our emotional experiences. We do not want to get rid of our emotions, we need responses that help us in helpful and constructive ways. The Elkman's atlas of emotions was referred to while understanding the dynamics of human emotions.
Synthesis
Insights
1. We need to be more aware
Emotions are comples, and everybody feels them differently. Visually looking at them would help us understand ourselves and others better.
2. Emotions are never felt in isolation
Feelings are never felt alone, you can be happy and anxious at the same time. To understand the complixity of how they are felt.
3. Understanding emotions helps us better understand others
compicated, and awkward human interactions creates a wall between two people trying to understand each other. There needs to me a more transparent way of understanding them.
PHASE TWO
FINDING WAYS TO DESCRIBE NEW METAPHORS
How could things attaching to themselves be a metaphor for kindness?
Emotions are contagious, and can be reflected upon other people and oneself. Experiencing somebody else's kindness, empathy, generosity could teach others to practice the same.
Emotions are contagious, and can be reflected upon other people and oneself. Experiencing somebody else's kindness, empathy, generosity could teach others to practice the same.
How could rains and puddles be a metaphor for self-care
Emotional self-care can never be addressed holistically unless it is seen and understood. Can we see the change an experience makes in our emotions in the same way the color of the sea changes after a storm?
Emotions are contagious, and can be reflected upon other people and oneself. Experiencing somebody else's kindness, empathy, generosity could teach others to practice the same.
How could an overgrown greenhouse be a metaphor for interdependence
Humans are social animals, so how can we live without being empathetic to our peers? Do people think about how they are affecting someone when they mindlessly snap at them because of their own emotional journeys and ignorances?
Emotions are contagious, and can be reflected upon other people and oneself. Experiencing somebody else's kindness, empathy, generosity could teach others to practice the same.
Hover over each new metaphor to read the connotations I made
PHASE THREE
RETHINKING AND REIMAGINEING
Pneuma -part of the “breath,” or “wind”
/ˈnjuːmə/
A living digital organism that tracks and displays all the emotions humans experience throughout the day.
A wearable technology that displays a holographic projection of characteristic plants over the wearer's body that reflects the emotions they are feeling in real time.
Pneuma would grow, bloom and wilt and flourish with the wearers emotional map.
Pneuma would be an attachment with the Neuralink (direct link between the brain and everyday technology).
With Pneuma your emotions will be expressed in a whole new way. going throught cherished memories form your childhood album would look like this
Learning to cook a new recipy will look like this
RESETTING THE NORMS OF HUMAN TECHNOLOGY INTERACTION
Pneuma would be an instrument for the live measurement of human emotions in a world where humans are getting more and more detached with themselves and other humans. In a future where human interactions would get unapproachable, human interactions would regain a natural flux. It would exist as holographic projections on top of a human influenced by human behavior, interactions and feelings. Pneuma would stand for:
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Growth (Self-nurturing is seen in a whole new dimension)
Watch your Pneuma, bloom, wilt, scorch and etiolate as you experience a range of emotions throughout the day.
2. Reliability ( wearing your heart on your sleeve )
A more humane relationship among your friends, family and co-workers as you project your emotions for the world to see.
3. Reflection ( conversations about mental health would have a whole new dimension )
Understand individuality better, know when to nurture oneself. Take cake of your psyche to a greater degree.
4. Layers ( An emotion is never felt alone; as if isolated in vacuum)
Observe the true nature of raw emotions, of how they flow, their duration and how they are never felt in singularity.
5. Interdependence ( Help agencies document and use human emotions better )
Intensify trust, build a healthier more transparent emotional ecosystem where you see and reflect upon ones and others emotions.
APPLICATIONS
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An efficient System of gathering genuine feedback
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A more holistic way of talking and understanding
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A way to better understand the personal psyche and care for it
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People who find it hard to express, understand the needs of an infant, a person who is no longer capable of talking/expressing.
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It would be a more transparent way of conveying your feeling to you therapist, loved ones, co-workers and friends.
These are a few applications of the pneuma among the endless possibilities it holds.
REFLECTION
Expressing live raw emotions right now feels uncomfortable, emotions are supposed to be personal and intimate, but in a world filled with screens and hardly any quality human interactions, my vision of a utopic future filled with the possibility where humans would be free to express their needs in a much more transparent way. Going back to how once our prehistoric ancestors lived in social settings with empathetic and more understanding bonds. Robots are fragile machines, and at best we can describe their relationship with humans as robotic. More emotional relationships between robots and humans would help us.