Working to achieve equilibrium
After my tutorial, I began to think about what my concept may be lacking, particularly looking at the mutual aspect of this sense of proprioception.
At this stage in my project I am focusing on stimulating and isolating proprioception to heighten awareness of it and therefore become more connected with your, and also in this case a loved one’s, body and self. When thinking about this, I realised that I have not been focusing enough on the communicative, empathetic aspects of my concept which I find so interesting, and which make it different from other sensory spaces and communication devices.
I have begun to think of ways of bringing these key areas to the forefront of my design, working out how users can engage more in the process of this interaction to focus more on their sense of proprioception. I think working together more to create a stronger connection and therefore force users to engage far more in their (and therefore their partner’s) sense of proprioception would make this communication so much more meaningful.
I think the way of doing this, as shown in my sketches, would be to create two spaces which have opposite movements.
When one person puts more weight on their space, their rods move down but their partner’s move up. This opposite action requires far more awareness of the minute movements of their partner, as they have to work to stay balanced without unbalancing their partner, all without speech or seeing them.
Modifying my concept in this way would significantly enhance engagement and therefore awareness of mutual proprioception, as well as heightening the physical and emotional connection, and sense of communication between users.