٤ ... The use of technology

— Intro We are challenged to rethink what is the future of caring spatial environments and what it means to be human in a highly technologized environment. Technology is something to acknowledge while designing architectural contexts for the future. Technologies emerging throughout time, do formulate the way we live, act, stress and proceed. “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us” as the Canadian philosopher; Marshall McLuhan, once said. When looking along examples of technology tools that played a role in forming our relations to spatial surroundings and realities, a long list goes: • The stone artifact was the first primitive extension of our body; a survival tool. • Then the fire came as one of the oldest milestones of development; a radical technology for nutritions1 . • After that writing became a way to capture thoughts; power through information technology. • Later, money evolved as a technology to express regulated exchange; technology of value. • In modern times, the internet is a mass communication technology for hive mindset.

“We persist a long time, and make big changes between generations. We use cognition to come up with new intelligence while we presist” Joanna Bryson, Is AI Changing us?, TEDxCERN, November 2018.

Human, perception, cognition and technology are always in constant weave. So as designers that construct architectural contexts, the use of technology should not be missed in architectural fabrications of the future. Charles Fort, an American writer and paranormal researcher, stated that not each time we have

1 When Fire Met Food, The Brains Of Early Humans Grew Bigger : The Salt Because we had better food, our brains grew bigger than those of our primate cousins, scientists say. Early humans cooked, which makes meat and veggies more digestible and nutrients more available to the body. source: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/10/24/163536159/when-fire-met-meat-the-brains-of-early-humans-grew-bigger?t=1630785178110

a new discovery in science we have to rebuild the old science. He actually said that science itself is just a period of thinking, and what happened before is what he called the dominance of religion and what is forthcoming is what he called the dominance of wider inclusions. This wider inclusion of technologies and biological undestandings of the ‘architecture body’ in creating spatial environments allows the creation of new aliences if spaces that cares for the psych and health of individuals. As part of this research project some spatial examples that weaved the use of technology, are listed. The following spatial examples, did focus on using modern technologies in fabricating a spatial context that deals with human emotions, sensations and perception.

1• Happiness spa, by Xin Liu

The artist and engineer Liu worked on a happiness spa experience in one of her projects, to regulate stress levels in the body. In this spatial context, she used technologies to stimulate the ‘body’ for an experience of ‘joy’ in a format of a spa. That is by integrating in the space technologies of: bone conduction sound massage, use of placebo pills, tickle fan, light strobes with vibrated hands and touches and others. The knowledge from science and technology were used in the fabrication of props, sounds and emotional experiences as design parameters.

4.1 © Xin Liu in collaboration with hotmilksfoundation, Happiness spa https://www.xxxxxxxxxinliu.com/happiness-spa

2• Heavy Duty Love for Future Sensitive Humans, By Lucy Mcrae.

Heavy Duty Love is a mental health prop existent as a tactile domestic mechanical structure compensating for a lack of human touch. This machine develops new types of sensitivities and neurobiological quirks. The machinewearables are mini architectures that nurture and connect the body to the device. Large furniture-like cushions made from tarpaulin, carpet underlay and industrial velcro, surround the body’s perimetre. Lean against the machine, and you’re ready to be squeezed. The machine is fabricated with mental health in mind, designed to transmit strength through sensitivity, allowing womb-like connectivity sensations. This speculative domestic machine is an example that intersects architecture, science and biotech to create architectures of joy. Aside from that, the main goal of this design is to facilitate a touch sensation for In vitro2 babies that are made in labs and they miss the touch of a mother’s womb. In the heavy duty love project, gene edited babies grew in alienation to a mother womb, and the innovative context of this project is based on providing a sense of touch for the alienated figures (babies) grown in labs.

4.2 © Lucy Mcrae, Heavy Duty Love for Future Sensitive Humans https://www.lucymcrae.net/cares

2 In vitro studies are performed with microorganisms, cells, or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ In_vitro

3• Sensory reality pods, By Sensiks.

Sensiks is a platform for sensory reality. They design their sensory experiences for improving quality of life, PTSD and other causes. The core of the sensory realities is based on : Neurobiological studies that showed that signals delivered via different sensory modalities interact at multiple processing levels in the brain and can alter perception and thus the bodily and mental state of a person. The whole reality is based on merging between scientific and technologised knowledges in creating caring sensory contexts. This is done by hacking the brain through artificial senses (AS), and triggering a multisensory holistic percept of an environment.