Nov. 18 - Nov. 25, 2021
Partners: Desire, Effy, Greta, Malavika
Brief: Design a way to express the skin/world interface.
Research Methods: AEIOU and Speed Dating
Refocusing
After our feedback from last week, it was time to regroup and recenter our project. We went back to looking at the properties of skin and concluded that the skin’s natural ability to adapt to environmental conditions was the most fascinating aspect for us.
We started off thinking of a skin patch that would absorb water and provide hydration in hot climates, but John noted that our prototype was going down more of a product route. With this feedback, we looked more into the sensation of skin. After thinking about the link between stimuli and the skin's response, we landed on the idea of tactile hallucinations triggered by psychological conditions.
Tactile Hallucination
Tactile hallucination involves an abnormal or false sensation of touch or perception of movement on the skin or inside the body. After looking at conditions such as fibromyalgia and trypophobia, we decided to focus on trypophobia for our prototype.
Trypophobia is an aversion or fear of clusters of small holes, bumps or patterns. The symptoms of a trypophobic person who has been exposed to their triggers may include: feeling of something crawling on the skin, itchiness, pins and needles, disgust, anxiety etc.
Evolutionary Basis of Trypophobia
One popular theory is that trypophobia is an evolutionary response to things that are associated with disease or danger (Kupfer, 2017). This includes diseased skin and other infectious conditions.
Prototyping
Once we had our concept, all that was left to do was create the prototype. Focusing on one specific condition led to an easier, more streamlined prototyping experience, in contrast to trying to incorporate a more general subject such as skin as technology.
Materials to Express Trypophobia
Through our research into trypophobia, we learned that people with this phobia may experience symptoms ranging from a mild discomfort to actively picking or severely itching their skin to make the feeling go away.
For our prototype, we focused on three symptoms:
1) the feeling of something crawling on the skin
2) itchiness
3) pins and needles
We decided to use mainly synthetic materials because of their scratchy, itchy textures. We bought a synthetic wig, sponges, brush bristles, mistletoe and other Christmas knick knacks.
Wearables
We wanted to make sure that the volunteer could have a full body experience of trypophobia, as the condition is not isolated to one part of the body. So, we designed two outfits, including masks, sleeves, gloves, socks, leggings, hats and scarves. We invited two volunteers to put on the wearables and gave them five minutes each to experience the various sensations that arose from the itchy clothes. They were asked to interact with other members of the class to see how that changed the sensation from the wearables.
Feedback
During our feedback, Lara pointed out that this project shares parallels with women's fashion and the discomfort that women go through with constricting clothes.
Other classmates loved that we incorporated the whole body and that we had the volunteers interact with others in the class. They could see the visible discomfort in the volunteers' faces.
Farah, one of the volunteers, noted how important the texture is. By the end, she wanted to shake off the itchy, uncomfortable feeling.
Tonicha has trypophobia and noted how closely our prototype emulated her experience of trypophobia. She stated that the sensation begins in the feet and builds up. Her neck and head is especially sensitive. She also experiences a shivering sensation. For a future design project, it would be fun to try to replicate this gradual buildup and trace the pathway of the sensations. Rather than one monolithic experience, we could play around with the concentration and modulation of sensations.
John said that we staged the presentation well and that it was carefully curated. He liked that we took a lot of the "excess fat" out and had a clear vision.
Takeaway
We started the brief with high ambitions and hefty background research. However, we found ourselves running up against a wall in trying to come up with a prototype during the first week. This was the first time in the term that I had experienced a mental block in trying to come up with an idea for a prototype. We had all this amazing research, and yet, we were coming up empty. Once we saw that something didn't work, we quickly started iterating again. So, in design, it's important to be agile and flexible so that we can gradually reach a clearer vision together.
Bibliography
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