things in my mind I eventually designed by designer Laura Boffi
email: boffilaura@gmail.com telephone: +44 (0) 7727930715 skype contact: laura.boffi
Tsunami WaveBag An automatic inflatable safety vest for the mother and the baby. It is meant to protect against crashes and drowning in case of tsunami .
Tsunami wavebag
It has six air chambers: 2 on the front, 2 on the back and 1 each side.
work period_2006_BA thesis
This Evolution of the Needs Status is a tool I designed to research psychological and physical needs in case of emergency. It shows time and needs status in a carthesian diagram to understand how design needs to address different targets of people in particular time of the emergency. It helped me to develop new concepts during my project on the tsunami emergency.
The Evolution of the Needs Status applied to the tsunami emergency
The Emergency System is a tool I designed to research the different layers of causes and meanings around an emergency. It shows how natural, cultural, political context influence the way people could be exposed to emergencies. It helped me to understand where we were lacking design interventions to psychologically and physically protect people.
The Emergency System applied to the tsunami emergency
Tubbolo Tubbolo A foldable lamp with acoustic switch for children. The sound produced by unfolding/folding the tube makes the LED lights turn on and off.
work period_2003/2004
Modular tile One modular tile that combines in different patterns.
work period_2004
A project that looks forward at a possible use of nanotechnology in the future that would help to bring the presence of our dead beloved ones back. It is based on the use of the smart dust, a nano network of sensors, that would be implanted in the body since we are born in order to record our physical and emotional data. After dying, the smart dust would stand as virtual ashes that would help us to bring the presence of the dead person back. We would collect the smart dust from the body of the dead person and put it into smart objects that would interact with the collected data stored in the smart dust sensors. Smart objects would consist of a different range of objects we are familiar with in our daily life: from mobile phones, to work period_2007
pockets in our clothes. Some of the smart dust would remain in the decomposing body of our dead beloved
of the body and it would do this by the smart dust communicating to the processor in
r co
www.havingyouinthehereafter.wordpress.com
por
Storing our data that tell about our presence ( creating a kind of electronic ashes)
a li t y
nc ei
a r n a ti o n
After dying our electronic ashes could be strewed in an Intelligent Ambient to give us back a virtual presence of the dead person
a noth
er
the band-aid. We would pray near the grave or from the apposite online cementery
vi rtu a
tool. The band-aid would realease serotonin according to the level of decomposition
and the healing communication between the dead and the living would start.
soul
aug
mourning period. It would be both a medical device to help recovering and a praying
e
d nte
lr
m
and it would communicate with a particular band-aid that we would wear during the
We could be provided with smart dust sensors during our live on the earth Sensors capabilities: - temperature; - sounds; - movements - ...
Invisible and ubiquitous network
Sensors comunicate with the sorroundings via wirelss
Micro/nano computers forming a network of embedded sensors dust grain size< 1mm3
Actual uses:
Virtual reincarnation in interfaces
- spread into the environment; - glued on people; - included to textile; - mixed in intelligent wall coating to monitorate, spy, fight.
re q u e st i on i
ng
Smart dust
u al v al u r act es ou
Setting up of a virtual interacting Hereafter world
memory ashes after dying Self energy supplying: temp/movements; - light; - electro magnetic field
c ultu
Creation of a new religion, god, icons Sensors reconfigurate the network themselves either if a grain is added or subtracted
te
l ria
Another way of praying (tools for praying)
Sensors informations are sent to the Ambient Intelligence to make it perform its funcionality
nanoscale electronic ecosystem
a lt e r n a ti v
e
new
m
a
ce
n ta r y
as an answer to the psychological need of dead people presence
me
Interacting Hereafter
Subtracting people to the earth life could mean adding virtual souls to the after death dimension and souls could interact among themselves
N
an
o t ec h n ol o g
y
When the smart dust would be into a NBIC environment (N nanotech, B biotech, I intormation
computation
tech, C cognitive science), the sensors embedded in our body could live in symbiosis with
ot
e
communication
propulsion
wireless subsystem based on radio or infrared frequency
nano-scale mechanical system
ogy
Smart dust
T
inf
Nan
ol o g y
nol
o r m ati o n
e
n ch
it, upgradind as the brain would evolve and sensing/processing/ storings data like neurons.
ch
t
TinyOS CPU microcomputers
Nan
ot
e
ogy
thinking and brain process
g Co
n it i v e S c i e
connectionism
C and S m I B N Intelligent Adaptive Dust?
ar
ti o
Living in symbiosis with the body and storing informations from the brain?
s t Du t
N a n ote
ch
n
te c
hnolo gy
Smart Dust and the Technologies Convergence for a nanoscale hereafter network
I nf o r m a
processors like neurons, able to receive feedback and learn from the outside
e+
plasticity of brain that evolves with thinking: hardware and software upgrade together
nc
nano-scale solar device or electronical device to transform vibrations or magnetism into energy
S ce
for detection in the environment (often inspired by biomimecry)
C o g nitiv e
en
power supply
ci
sensors
n
lac kin g nol
g o lo
gy
ch
y + Bi ot ec
I h
lo no
During life, sensor network capts data about yourself and the context and transmits it to the central processor in the Ambient Intellingent
data transmitter for incoming data (via RF or Laser)
data transmitter for outgoing data to the central processor in the AI (via RF or Laser)
sensors capting temperature, movementes, sounds, images, etc.
After dying, our smart dust are strewed in kind of interfaces comunicating with the AI.
* which kinds of interactions could give you the presence of a dead person back?
micro computer processing and sending data collected by the sensors
solar panel for energy sufficiency
smart dust node NBIC components
Smart dust ashes
how translating data stored in the past into interactions for now?
battery self charging by vibrations, light, magnetic field, etc.
ambient intelligence * where could we carry our smart dust during the life? body implanted smart dust?
processes and store people data when they are in life; translate these data later, after their death, into interactions/phenomena in your daily life when similar context is around you.
* which kind of data should we store in order to develop a virtual hereafter when people die? *ask people which kind of sensations are connected with the person they love?
Lifetime
If smart dust capts similar context to those ones stored when the person was alive , it should generate an interaction which gives you the presence of that person back.
* ask this question to people throughout a blog to get concepts of possible interfaces for the Hereafter.
vi rt
ua
ls
pi
rit
qu es t
Having you in the hereafter
io
ni ng
ou ra
ct
ua l
va
lu es
Having you in the hereafter concepts
After being born
v ir
tu al i nte
r
ac
n at
io n
he re aft er b
an d-a id
fte r he he re a Ha vin gy ou in t is
Iw
r
h o ld yo u to
nc
em
e
I wi
sh
how to keep your presence?
s ti ll i n f l u e
Passing away
Dying
you would collect memories as data by the smart dust sensors
y
e
I w is h
nd
ou
ha
enc
u
integrated with smart dust
ys i c a l i n f
to lis t e n to
yo
Religious hereafter rituals
h
ph
with smart dust cookies
lu
Being weaned
During your life
rea
he re aft er po ck et
he
rtu
ft e
rc
a ll
s
a l re i n
ar
vi
Hereafter pocket Hereafter message Hereafter band-aid
c
t i v it y
you would get the smart dust through your powerd milk
Hereafter pocket
Hereafter message
Smart pocket in your pyjamas containing
From the internet, you can post memories to your
the smart dust from your dead beloved.
beloved ones during your life in the personal Memory Will webpage.
The pocket takes the shape of the dead person as
After dying, the ones who collected your smart
if he was holding your hand
dust into their hereafter mobile phone will be reminded to check the website by a SMS text and read the related post from you when experiencing a situation similar to a particular one shared with you (like drinking a coffee in the cafè you used to go together).
Hereafter band-aid The smart rosary band-aid communicates with the smart dust in the dead body. it is both a medical device and a praying tool. It releases serotonin according to the level of decomposition of the body each time we pray at the cementary (analogical pray) or from the internet (digital pray). According to Edgar Morin, anthropologyst, the mourning period depends on the decomposition of the body.
Cultural probes To test the reactions of people on the band-aid, I made cultural probes as chocolate cookies in the shape of the band-aid itself, releasing serotonin as well because of the chocolate! Only after eating, the people were told about the band-aid project and I asked them to write back their thoughts on the it. Icould continue the project, adapting it to the reactions I received.
I gave the cultural probes to my colleagues, from different cultures and nationalities during a school trip on the bus. Everybody enjoyed the cookie and reacted back during the time of the bus journey!
Tested
Eindhoven Zoo
work period_2006
Eindhoven Zoo A project about bringing to my own country, Italy, an aspect that interested me in the city of Eindhoven. I did it as soon as I moved to Eindhoven, The Netherlands, for my master. After going around and taking pictures, I realized that the strangest thing was the change of scale, from architecture to food. I decided to reproduce in Italy this experience of feeling like a dwarf or a giant thanks to a spheric mirroring architecture and a flying big balloon with the pictures of Eindhoven overturned.
Personal reportage of Eindhoven as I experienced it
Dutch urban camouflage A project about how to how to deal with the Dutch xenophobia and survive to the naturalization process. From the analysis of my personal suitcase towards the development of an urban camouflage to be recognized as a Dutch while preserving your own identity as foreigner. The urban camouflage is a two sided jacket. One side is the illegal, with the Dutch flag camouflage as hiding metaphor and one side is the legal, with the reflecting textile as
Dutch Urban Camouflage
passive mimicry in the non-native country.
work period_2006
Kulfirator pot A pot to make ice cream and preserve it cold. It is a project about the use of appropriate technologies and it is inspired by the way Indian street vendors use to make Kulfi, their local ice cream, by salt mixed with ice
Kulfirator pot
which causes a drop in temperature. To improve the cooling capacity, Kulfirator pot is made from terracotta.
work period_2007
Body rice protections A family of objects to protect our body from eventual sport crashes. Each protection has an impact absorbing honeycomb made from popped rice. The honeycomb can fill any volume as it can be folded into any tri-dimensional shape from a flat sheet. After a crash, you just have to replace the damaged honeycomb by cutting the flat sheet as you need.
Body Rice Protections work period_2006
Particular of the honeycomb flat sheet and how it is put into the protections cover
Plume spoon gives you the chance to taste your yogurt or ice cream up to the last mouthfuls. It is made from porcelain and its colour is white as a plume. Its asymmetric shape is meant to make you enjoy your food up to the end. Its lightness is thought to make you concentrate only on the taste you carry in your mouth. Plume spoon is the tool that can make you experience dulcis in fundo each day in your life.
Plume spoon workshop with Ole Palsby_work period_2007
It is a collaborative project me and my collegues of Man and Humanity master developed during an intensive workshop, hosted in the Izmir Ekonomi Universitesi, Turkey. The project is about the vaccination compaigns and the preservation of the cold chain
Cold Chain project
for the vaccines in remote areas. We tried to develop new concepts around the way the vaccination is comunicated to people and a new cold box that could be carried more easily and store the cold for a longer period. Over a week of model makings and testing, we came out with a graphic identity that could be flexible and used with different mediums, from printing on textiles to skin removable tatoos that could help doctors in identifying who still need to be vaccined or not.
collaborative project during Man and Humanity master, DAE, may 2008
On the other side, we worked on different levels of innovation in the box, such as the ice pack stored inside the external insulating shell ( â&#x20AC;&#x153;the boxâ&#x20AC;?), the opening of the box providing working space for the administration of the vaccine, the shape of the box itself in order to be stockable and easy to carry with strings.
Scheme of the network involved in the Cold Chain project that helped us in understanding the different stakeholders we wanted to communicate to and the mediums to approach them.
Me and my team took care about the development of an inflatable cold box and a foldable ice pack to put inside of it. Our concern was to keep the cold box distant from the body when carried by a person and to provide an extra insulation through the air in the inflatable cushions. The blue pipes in the models simulate the inflatable ones, which would both help the insulation and give structure to the box.
Final logo and its possible applications on textiles, on the streets and as a tatoo during the vaccination compaign.
Final prototype with details of the opening, the foldable ice pack, the working space on the opening and the ways of carrying it.
Knitting your passage A project that looks at the unsuccessful aspects of the medicine on terminal patients. When medicine cannot fix their bodies, they experience death as an expiration date.The amount of life that they still have to live is codified into vital parameters, numbers and graphics. The devices they are connected to seem to deny them any chance to build a new life through the illness. The project addresses the medical machines that record
Knitting your passage
the vital data. They knit a canvas according to this data and the feelings of the patients and their familiars by selecting different yarns.
work period_2007 up to now
Schematic model of the hospital machine working Canvas details: stitches and yarn
Knitted stitches with electrocardiogram Regular heart working_ regular stitch
Tachycardy_ high yarn tension
Arrhythmias_ variable yarn tension
Brachicardy_ low yarn tension
Extra systolis_ lazy stitch
Sinus atrial block_ lazy stitch, low yarn tension
Ischemia_ hole
Atrioventricular block_ tuck stitch
Infarction_ dropped stitch
Skipping a bit_ pointelle
Fibrillation_ reverse stitch
Patient feeling_ shape memory yarn, elastic yarn, water soluble yarn
Asystole_ reverse stitch, floating, variable tension
Familiars feeling_ various colour yearn
Canvas from electrocardiogram and illustration with knitted heart and IV fluid cables transporting the yarns
Bio_instincts A project that looks at the biotechnology and regenerative medicine and how they are changing the way we may perceive life and death. Thanks to them, man is experiencing the possibility to live longer and longer, reaching almost an a-mortality. But anyway man is still susceptible of accidental death, from a gas leak to a terroristic attack. If on the one hand, he is losing the consciousness of his mortality, on the other hand he is
Bio_instincts
completely unprotected from accidents. What if man could get the instincts of accidental death, of danger, like animals, thanks to biotech? Would parents allow the bioengineering of their baby genoma? And how would these genes be expressed in the body?
work period_2007/2008_MA thesis
The project focuses on the case of domestic gas leak presenting the design of eyes with chemo recepting eyelashes and glowing eyelids in case of gas leak during each stage of evolution. An incubator is required at home to let the new genes express in the body of the baby. The mother provides the baby with the right toxic environment breathing out her CO2 into the incubator from time to time in order to let his/her gas leak instinct develop.
Amy got her embryo bioengineered with the instinct of gas leak. Her genoma was implanted with extra genes that make her eyelashes as chemoreceptors for gas and give her extra eyelids that glow in case of gas detected by the eyelashes. When she would be completely developed, in case of gas leak she would have the possibility to be woken up at night by the light from her eyes and survive the danger.
To favour the expression of the bioingeneered genes and to protect her from the danger of gas leak in the house, Amy is put into her incubator when she is brought home from the hospital.
The mother provides the baby with the right toxic environment breathing out her CO2 into the incubator from time to time in order to let her gas leak instinct develop.
The development of the bioengineered eyes through the life ages
It is a collaborative project I developed together with the author Carolina Caluori and other volunteer professionals at MediaLab Prado, Spain, during the intensive workshop Visualizar â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;8: Database City. The aim of the project was to create an interactive map
Lazarillo GPS
of a turistic route in Madrid using a GPS device. Due to the group lack of computing skills, we developed an analogic printable map for wheelchair users. I developed the system to collect the information to be shown in the map that could be interesting for a wheelchair user: from the musems to the zebra crossing lines taking notes every 10 metres, the distance that qualitatively we took as equivalent to 100 metres for a not disable walking user. I also developed the graphics of the maps
collaborative project in MediaLab Prado, november 2008
showing both the pictograms and the variation of the altitude of the route (previously taken by a GPS device) and a concept of physical installation of the map in the touristic office. We invited to work with us Carlos, a wheelchair user, who made the route with us before and after designing the map, giving very important insights and feedbacks.
The map is downloadable from the website of the project: http://lazarillo.medialab-prado.es
Carolina with a 10metre rope along the touristic route from Plaza Mayor to Cibeles, Madrid, taking notes of the interesting information/places for a wheelchair user.
A printable page of the prototype of the map as it can be downloaded from the Lazarillo GPS website. For every 10metres in the real scale, a row of pictograms is reported in the map, showing what you can get in that distance. In grey, you can qualitatively understand the variation of the altitude. The maps is detailled for both sides of the streets.
Learning from Carlosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; eye tracking way of communicating, I thought of the possibility of having a big map printed on acrilic in touristic offices or along the touristic streets. The acrilic surface would be round shaped and will embrace the whole view angle of the wheelchair user in order to make it easier to track his/her eyes on the big map. Me and Carolina developed the concept in some basic simulations.
Carlos is showing us his way of communicating through a transparent panel with pictograms. Amanda, understanding the direction of Carlosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; eyes watching at the panel, like an analogical-human eye tracking, can retrace the pictogram and know what he wants to say.
(breath)3 An inflatable dress interacting with the breath of people: if you blow strongly in the mask, the dress starts to inflate. I designed and made the dress in order to perform with it at the scenography festival Crash! Boom! Bau! in Jena, Germany, 5th-6th May 2009. The concept is about me representing the inflatable temporary theater of the Theaterhaus Jena having an empathic relationship with the theater audience. Both the
3
(breath)
theater and the audience breath...and from the relationship of mutual air exchange, little inflatable cushions give life to plants inside. It is a project I developed at the Interprofessional Studio AAIS at the Architectural Association, London. To see the video of the performance: www.vimeo.com/4766069
work period_2009
This is the card I prepared to give to people in the street of jena. There is a little explanation of the performance and a hole, so that they could blow in my mask putting the card between their faces and the mask, avoiding any physical contact.
Salon curtains A project of three curtains for the Front Membersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Rooms at the Architectural Association, London, in occasion of the AAIS Salon exhibition. The curtains were shaped in order to be also used as screen for projections during the exhibitions. The textile, quite unsual for making curtains, was selected and tested for its particular properties to diffuse light and to stretch under the weight of the metal
AAIS Salon curtains
tubes. The curtains is made only by two sewn lines and a cut through.
work period_2009
Collective memories book A project of a book binding for a photo collection of memories among the different partecipants who took part to the Interprofessional Studio at the Architectural Association, London. The binding of the book begins connecting the paper pages with textiles and then the different layers are sewn together. The pages join and overlap each other like the story
Collective Memories Book
of the people shown in it. They are people creating a collective project, but still individual professionals. This is the reason why the binding is of course joining all the sheets together, but it is also openable by velcro. By the desing of the book binding, I would like to remind the reader that a collective memory is always made by individual stories and by the personal ways people remember those stories themselves.
work period_2009