Challenges

DESIGN TO DE-STRESS

In the lead-up to each issue, Frame challenges emerging designers to answer a topical question with a future-forward concept. The pressures of today’s fast-paced, performance-orientated world have made burnouts and insomnia rising concerns among (mainly) working professionals of an increasingly younger age. Alarmed by the growth of these and other stress-related conditions, we commissioned five makers to conceptualize a product, space or service intended to reduce stress and improve mental wellbeing.

Jaw Dropper

The stress-relieving qualities of CHEWING GUM inspired Carolien Niebling’s plant-based, mood-enhancing alternative.

CAROLIEN NIEBLING’s future-forward approach to food design earned her a place in ‘The Challenge’.

You’ve given us something to chew on . . . CAROLIEN NIEBLING: According to research from the National Center for Biotechnology Information in America: ‘Fourteen days’ gum chewing may improve the levels of anxiety, mood and fatigue.’ However, as well as relieving stress, it’s also a habit that generates a lot of waste.

Your solution is slightly unexpected. Seaweed. Yes. I originally looked into articles about seaweeds and jellification while working on a project [The Future Sausage] with Gabriel Serero, a molecular chef who specializes in textures. We are only now discovering the amazing jellifying qualities and textures of seaweeds. Noma chef René Redzepi [Frame 118, p.164] has called seaweed ‘one of the few untapped natural resources we’ve yet to really start eating’.

What makes seaweed so great? About 650 varieties of seaweed grow on British coastlines. It’s been said that all of them are safe to eat, but more research is needed to confirm this claim. Nutritionally, I can tell you that dried seaweed is rich in protein and that most varieties provide high levels of iodine, along with vitamins A, B, C and E. From a sustainability standpoint, seaweed is abundant, stocks are replenished within a year or two, and it keeps for a long time when dried.

So what do you propose? A series of chewables made from different types of seaweeds and plant-based substances. The idea is that these chewables resist becoming gummy in the mouth and, subsequently, digestible. The property of resistance gives you the jaw workout you need to relax, while the unexpected texture – brittle seaweed crumbles, and seaweed with more elasticity tears apart – triggers the mind. Thanks to nutrients from the seaweed, such as calcium, iron and folate, combined with stress-relieving herbs, the product should have a positive long-term effect.

Each of the natural substances used in Carolien Niebling’s chewables was chosen for its specific effect, from anxiety relief to sleep regulation.

What sort of stress-relieving herbs would you use? Having considered locally available ingredients, I settled on lavender, Ginkgo biloba and passionflower. Although passionflower comes from overseas, it’s such a nice addition. All three have stress-relieving qualities. Lavender reduces irritability and anxiety and promotes relaxation. The benefits of Ginkgo biloba include improved cognitive function, increased energy and improved memory. Traditionally, passionflower has been used to treat a variety of conditions, like wounds, earaches and liver problems. But more recently researchers have found that passionflower may help adults manage anxiety, mild sleep irregularities and stomach problems.

How will the chewables taste? Flavours should stay close to the herbs used to soothe stress. Lavender can be paired with lemongrass or Brazilian ant, which tastes like lemon. The gel will be flavoured with extracts and essential oils from these herbs and left as sugarless as possible. Ginkgo biloba has woody notes and a greenish aftertaste, which goes well with orange and tangerine. It might be nice to include a savoury option: Ginkgo biloba and bacon, for example. Passionflower has a grassy flavour and only light traces of its delicious fruit, so it’s a good match for calendula, aka marigold, which has a spicy, peppery tang and gives foods a light golden colour. Calendula and grapefruit are a great flavour combination, and the addition of roasted hazelnut makes it a real taste-bud tickler.

– WG carolienniebling.com

Amelie Goldfuss’s cyborg phone gets tired and miserable when overused. Her cphone creates an emotional connection between the user and the digital device.

DESIGN TO DE-STRESS Nº 3

Judgment Call

Aiming to eliminate unhealthy smartphone habits, Amelie Goldfuss proposes a CYBORG MODEL that acts up when it’s fed up.

Intrigued by her talk on design fiction, held during Beirut Design Week’s Criteria Conference, Frame selected critical thinker AMELIE GOLDFUSS for ‘The Challenge’.

You want to eliminate smartphone stress? AMELIE GOLDFUSS: We have almost become one with our smartphones and other devices that keep us online, informed and busy. Today’s devices and apps are engineered to gain and keep our attention. It’s really hard to stop scrolling through semi-interesting, often irrelevant content, and the result is more time devoted to our handhelds than we intend.

What is your solution? The cphone – a cyborg that can be compared to a combination of your iPhone and your hamster.

How would we use the device? Just like you use a smartphone, but there’s a difference. Normal phones are designed to serve you. But the more you use the cphone, the more fed up it becomes. As you constantly scroll through Twitter or share every meal on Instagram, the cphone’s annoyance level increases. If you don’t give it enough free time, it gets sick and shrivels.

The same phone moves through three states: happy and healthy, bored and slightly fed up and, finally, exhausted and miserable.

The cphone indicates when it wants some time alone, which is great for you, because you were caught in your newsfeed and wanted to stop anyway.

What happens if you want to check your mail and it says no? It can’t say no. Cphones don’t have the authority to do that. But when you notice that it’s as miserable as hell, you feel guilty and will most likely think twice before checking your mail again.

So it forces us to behave better? Sort of. It’s like the way many people get dogs, because they need something to force them to get up early and to leave the house three times a day. By taking care of something or someone else, they automatically take better care of themselves.

Will we love cphones? Writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley once noted the similarities between cars and pets. People love them, but it’s also a matter of power, obedience and momentary interest. I think most of us are in love with our phones, our cars and, even more, our pets. But that doesn’t stop us from trading them in for new and more exciting models, even when the old ones are alive and healthy or still working well. You can upgrade you cphone, however, until the organism dies.

– WG ameliegoldfuss.com