VR and Memory: A BBC-Sponsored Project (2019)
“VR and Memory” was a Royal College of Art IED joint project with the BBC. I was assigned alongside Nirit Binyamini Ben-Meir, Bolim Jeon, and Johann Friedrich Spindler to design a provokotype around the subject of virtual reality. Together we explored the relationship between VR, memory, and the senses. Our guiding questions were: how is information processed differently on VR compared to other forms of media? Are there any changes around how we process and retain information through VR when we combine it with one of the underemployed senses (i.e. taste, touch, and smell)? Our provokotype was a VR and traditional joint memory test and a 27-page research booklet listing our findings. I was responsible for generating the Unity VR portion of our provokotype. Johann photographed and generated the 3D model of a tree through photogrammetry, which then Nirit and Bolim used to produce the physical multimodal tree. This informed practice was led by Tammy Gur, head of design of the BBC New Experiences team.
Bibliobot (2019)
The bibliobot gives the viewer a glimpse into the near future of techno-capitalism – a future where the commodification of spiritual practices has become mainstream. Historically, rituals were employed to reduce anxiety in times of uncertainty by aiding its practitioners to transition from the status quo to an ideal state of being. In this particular speculative design, rituals resurface as robots or smart systems under the greater Internet of Things (IoT) phenomenon. Technology and data collection are employed in the service of spiritual well-being. In my iteration of futured rituals, a living organism is incorporated into the design to increase user accountability. Integrating a living organism into a ritual compels the user to take responsibility for her decisions. After identifying and fleshing out a life-enhancing ritual (i.e. reading a 100 pages per day) with the Stanford D. School ritual design guide as my primary reference, I created an Arduino-based smart watering system that tracks my daily reading habits. The tree that is connected to the system will be watered depending on the number of pages I have read on a given day. The life of a tree depends on my daily progress.