In the Post-Covid era of uncertainty, what do we really possess? A fish tank, a potted plant, or a personal laptop? In an intelligent environment that is highly controlled and supervised by algorithms and intelligent technology, where do we flee to?
The body, at this moment, is the only thing we really own by ourselves, it carries our biogenetic information, it carries our energy, mind and spirit, it carries our interaction with the outside world. The body is a temple that houses our seven senses, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, touching, thinking, and time. The body is a sacred place.
In future, with the help of technology, can our bodies have new organs and new senses? Can we shift from feeling the outside world to feeling the inside through new senses? Can technology transform the body from body enhancement to spiritual enhancement?
Thus, we imagine a future body-portable meditation device that allows us to listen to ourselves, explore ourselves, and seek peace and warmth in our body and mind in a constantly changing and chaotic environment.
Future Meditation is Digital 5A Group2’s AcrossRCA project, in the context of the post-covid epidemic era, we combined cultural elements from Taoism to design a future body-portable meditation device, including 3D printing wearable device design, interactive light design, and soft body robotic material experiment. Our future meditation body device is made of 3D-printed resin material, including a spiral-shaped earbud, a shell-shaped choker that glows and flashes in real time according to the user's heart rate, and a soft inflatable external organ made of inverted silicone that is connected to an air pump and inflates in real time according to the user's heart rate.
Our group consisted of four students with different backgrounds, from Design Product, Innovative Design Engineering, Digital Direction, and Fashion majors. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and discussion, we finally chose to use wearable devices as a medium to convey our thoughts and imaginations about the future of the human lifestyle.
