Animate: Bringing Charm and Magic to Everyday Life

A M T

N Qi Ziyun

I A E

animate bringing charm and magic to everyday life

Qi Ziyun

TABLE OF CONTENTS 01 INTRODUCTION pg.7

02 OBJECTIVE pg.11

03 RESEARCH pg.17 interview afterlife co-creation workshop early exploration

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04 USER pg.69

05 LENSES pg.73 baku tree hole dream pipe petting zoo of animated chairs yawnie reanimate

06 LOOKING FORWARD pg.163 looking forward

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I N T R O D U C T I ON chapter i

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My thesis is a celebration.

So many elements of contemporary culture have been stripped of their vitality, of their life force. Modern life has conditioned people to crave only “the new�; people have become addicted to novelty and change and are pressured to feel discontented if they are not constantly provided with the latest and greatest. Everything that lacks the shock value of superlative status, i.e. the newest, the most expensive, the most popular, etc., lacks both appeal and specialness.

My thesis seeks to re-vitalize, to re-energize, and above all to re-animate objects around us that give us life, hope, and spirit. My thesis aims to bring charm and magic to everyday life through design.

I conducted thesis research over the course of a year, during which I interviewed experts in areas that include storytelling, experience design, social media, art and smart technology. My secondary research was conducted in the fields of cultural studies, social psychology, and the study of speculative objects and culture.

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O B J E C T chapter ii

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My thesis started with the exploration of the magic and power of stories, in particular, how stories influence us and shape our behavior.

Design can change behavior. By looking at various stories, I wish to uncover what makes them so effectual so that I may apply a similar formula to design.

After having collected non-fiction and fiction stories, I opted to focus my attentions on the latter: stories of the imagination. Still, my invaluable preliminary research, which explored non-fictional stories, their storytellers, and the creative work they inspire, taught me a lot about storytelling techniques and how stories work. I served as an intern with Local Projects, a design company that professionally serves museums and public space. As such, I had the opportunity to get close to the design process of the 911 memorial museum and the national oral history collecting project, Story Corps. Being part of this team also gave me the chance to engage in conversations with people who had actually experienced events immortalized by the stories and showed me how storytelling masters empower design through stories.

Talking to users revealed that many people are great fans of and in some cases, addicted to stories about the supernatural. Through my co-creation workshop and secondary research, I discovered the term, “ monster culture”, which describes the new trends of stories and the social environment that makes them popular. My exploration of the concept of “monster culture” focused on the meaning of monster: what do monsters represent now and how has the meaning and role of monsters changed over time, why have people changed their attitudes towards monsters and has this shift affected a change in monsters’ cultural effectiveness?

Monster represents changes. We are living in the age of technology.

Every day, we wake up to new technologies and products that have been developed to revamp our lives and create a new history. We

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both enjoy and are bothered by changes. That we look for changes to refresh our lives, and yet, also suffer because of them, as routine tends to breed comfort, is the primary focus of my thesis: the negative and positive animation of our lives through change.

Animate explores these two perspectives:

fighting Monday blues and reanimating daily life.

I began with designs related to stress relief. First, I tackled the social phenomenon known as Monday Blues, a kind of depression stemming from having to go back to work or school after a relaxing weekend. Meant to quickly and effectively cheer people up while also raising their awareness of the bad influence of so-called blue moods, I created an App, BAKU, and a product, Tree Hole, to help people release negative emotions and (re)capture the joyful and light mood of weekends and vacations.

BAKU is named after a Japanese monster that eats people’s nightmares and is a regular character in many old stories. In trying to find a connection to modern life—a real-world nightmare, I finally realized that for many people, Mondays are the monster. Monday Blues have become a big social issue for professionals and students alike. Based on my research, people seemed most in need of a way to express and release negative emotions, hence my BAKU, a complaint app. When people complain to BAKU, BAKU inflates its body to visually represent the complaint and the user is given tools to deal with and ideally, dispose of the emotional waste.

Along the same lines as BAKU, is Tree Hole, a physical complaint transformation program that distorts the voice (and its spoken complaints) so that they end up sounding like a piece of beautiful music that is then played back to the speaker, slowing and calming him/her down.

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Under the topic of reanimate, I focused on the the little details of daily life. They are quotidian and therefore, utterly predictable. But instead of encouraging people to seek the new and toss out the old, I sought to reanimate old objects and mundane acts. By redesigning and refreshing the experience of interacting with and doing familiar things, I hope to introduce a way of re-infusing daily life with greater appreciation and spontaneous happiness.

To this end, I developed two experiences: Petting Zoo of Animated Chairs and Reanimate.

Petting Zoo of Animated Chairs shows a chair coming to life. I create an imaginary space for my audience to re-image and wonder about their chairs and other objects around their living circle. As an artist, I wish to build a new relationship with objects that encourages us to memorize and celebrate what we have experienced and to respect and be grateful for objects that serve us well.

Reanimate is a food experience service that explores new ways of interacting with food. I combine eating with movement in order to limit outside distractions that tend to get in the way of focusing on the act of eating and enjoying one’s food. My logic is based on the fact that physical activity both relaxes people and improves focus.

Although eating is part of our daily routine, it is not just about getting our required nutrients; it all sorts of significance that goes well beyond the merely dietary. I imagined pairing the act of eating with three types of movement: hanging food up and eating it like a giraffe; eating our food as if we were ballet dancing—deliberately, elegantly. Some of the questions I explored were how would the food inform our ‘giraffe’ eating? If we were to eat like dancers, would the act of eating create sparks in a couple eating together?

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On the side, I designed a speculative object and created dystopian and utopian scenarios to explore my thesis from the perspective of the future. I imagine that in 2075, human will be able to design and manufacture produce dreams. I predict that such dream machines would be highly sought after but also, quite expensive and therefore, confined to being a luxury experience. That said, I would also imagine that certain companies would invest in dream machines and offer employees 15-min dream experiences during their lunch break.

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INTERVIEWS My thesis research started from the exploration of the magic power of stories.

I interviewed many amazing storytellers, collects stories with long histories and visited museums that tell stories. I did some experimental design based on what I gained from the research. The second part of my research focused on stories in different cultures.

Overall the cultures, we have similar stories around the same objects and behaviors. By putting them together, I got a glimpse how we value things by adding our perspective and assumptions.

In the end, I dive into the topic of monster cultures.

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At the beginning of my thesis, I was interning in Local projects, a design firm full of storytelling experts. I got a chance to interview Jake Barton, principal and founder at Local Projects, about several of their most renowned works.

"Storytelling is becoming more real, and more concrete, all the way into virtual reality, which gives you a sense of present inside the story itself. "

Jake Barton Principal and Founder at Local Projects

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What excites you most about storytelling?

There are many ways in which storytelling has been the same for all the civilization: it's a way for people to share their experience. There are a lot of theories about what storytelling provides for humanity.

The theories revolve around how they allow listeners to experience something without having to go through it – low effort, for a big impact.

Storytelling is becoming more real, and more concrete, all the way into virtual reality, which gives you a sense of present inside the story itself. Things are changing and evolving. I am excited to just see how to make the core human meaning inside of storytelling appreciable and impactful, with new and emerging technology.

What is your filter for stories?

It is something I came to thinking, what would make me most engaged; make something feel as authentic and as powerful as possible.

What we do in 911 Memorial Museum is we drop people into this jungle of global memories around the event. This experience immerses you in the horror of that day. Then we use a variety of different medias and technologies to share parts of the experience with people that make them feel both inside the experience, what was it like inside the towers, listen to voicemails on the plane. Those things are all real and authentic, so they are carrying extra power with them. You get a sense of being present at that moment in history. So all the techniques together, concrete the level of impact.

How do you see technology and storytelling?

Every generation has a new form of technology that is just trying to make particularly old stories relevant to today’s content engagement.

But the core emotional aspect of human history remains.

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"This notion of hearing it from the person who actually lived the story‌ there is nothing that can replace that.

This notion brings a level of authenticity, if you have someone else read from the text, it doesn't feel the same."

Nicolas Guillin Lead of 3D Design Department at Local Projects.

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The Power in Voice Nicolas Guillin is the lead of 3D design department in Local Projects. We had several conversations about oral history. He mentioned another famous project called Story Corp, a national oral history collecting project. He also shared his own experience of interviewing his grandmother and voice recording her stories.

"The notion of engaging storytelling in family history is the most powerful things to do. It brings my mother and me closer because we have this common exercise. The voice is really important, this notion of hearing it from the person who actually lived the story‌ there is nothing that can replace that. This notion brings a level of authenticity, if you have someone else read from the text, it doesn't feel the same. When we do exhibit, we always look for first person account. There's power in it because people bring emotion to it."

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Adam Kosberg is the director of media production and content in Local Projects. He is also the associate producer of The Fog of War. He shared some tricks about how to choose stories and put them into a narrative that touches people's heart: If it’s good leave it. If it is bad take it out. There’s nothing so obvious is obvious. Break the order of storyline.

“Be the first audience of your work. Generally speaking, if the story is not engaging you, there is little chance it will engage other people.”

Adam Kosberg Director of Media Production and Content in Local Projects

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Teenagers are more interested in sharing their own story than in reading other people’s stories. Not everyone wants to know about their family stories. Even if someone would talk, could his or her story be trusted? Where did they get the story — from another ancestor who may have been leaving things out?

“(For my family) The focus was never about stories of the past, it was about reinventing themselves for the future.”

Rob Walker Director of Media Production and Content in Local Projects

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“We remember our own stories and our personal moments through specific clothing that we wore. Our memory could be attached to tangible objects.�

Katie Ahern strategist in Local Projects

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Story and objects Katie Ahern is the strategist in Local Projects. I interviewed her about how to pick strong stories for the exhibition. Here are the three principles she uses:

“There’s something we want people to learn, that’s my first filter. The second filteWr is looking for elements that the story going to pull somebody in.”

She also shared a project she did before about how objects and human memories get connected. The way people display family photographs is also a strong thing that connects with memories.

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"Some Native Americans are seeking a balance. Many Native Americans are just as normal as other American people. You can’t tell differences from their life."

Carlos Molina Museum ambassador National Museum of the American Indian

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Traditional culture v.s Modern life I interviewed Carlos Molina Museum ambassador of National Museum of the American Indian when I went to see the Glittering World Exhibition. I asked some questions about the Navajo culture.

Imagination and creativity are the strength of Navajo culture. They have their ways of showing respect to the object, which is unique in the Southwest cultures. They seek a balance between human society, the spiritual and natural world.

“Every living thing has its spirit. If I connect that spirit that’s how I create.” _Glittering World Exhibition

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COCREATION WORKSHOP The objective of the workshop is to research how people see their self-image through reality and imaginary world.

Afterlife is a co-creation workshop that aims to test design assumptions and collect users’ opinions by creating physical objects. Afterlife means the new life after death. The concept is from Buddhism that when we die our souls return to circulation in life and death, then we forget everything and born to a new life.


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Overview Afterlife is a co-creation workshop that aims to test design assumptions and collect users’ opinions by creating physical objects.

Afterlife means the new life after death. The concept is from Buddhism that when we die our souls return to circulation in life and death, then we forget everything and born to a new life.

Objective and background The objective of the workshop is to research how people see their self-image through reality and imaginary world. Attendees were asked to design their afterlife, how do you want to be remembered in the future after you die. The workshop was divided into two sections, taking the participant through reality, imaginary space and in the end, constructed to a balanced future. ¬¬In each section, attendees are asked to make their self-portraits based on their characters and personalities. The portrait is not only a reflection of appearance but more self-expression, identifying yourselves and visualizing your stories.

The workshop is inspired by the philosophical novel <Picture of Dorian Gray> by the writer Oscar Wilde. Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist who is impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty. Dorian soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life.

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But his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied and amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while his portrait ages and records every soul-corrupting sin.

By following the designed steps, the workshop takes attendees through a tour of self-cognition, to realize their true nature and real expectation for life. We are living in a "Split world". The routine reality and the imaginary world built by novels, movies and other social medias created a huge contrast and led to the unbalance.

Imaginary world is far more excited and attractive, you expect to be special and meant to achieve something great, anything other than ordinary. We all have an imagined self hidden deep in mind, with supernature power, an extraordinary fate or a world to save. This is a special gift from superhero culture and monster culture. The modern culture does not just create the fairy tales for children but also adults.

They are well designed to meet the need and regret of the little boy/ girl inside us.

Afterlife workshop tries to reach out the you in the imaginary world.

What kind of hero are you? What is your destiny? What is the role you play in your world? How do you design your story? And over all the questions, how does it connect with your real life? What does it mean to your real life and how you see this as part of yourself ? By observing the answers from the workshop, I am seeking for a better understanding of how people balance reality and imagination.

Back to the portrait, just like Picture of Dorian Gray, there is always a you, a real passionate you, with all you illusions and expectations of the meaning of your life living inside your soul, wanting to be discovered and approved. I believe this is the real super power for ourselves and waiting to be valued.

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Afterlife Introductionâ&#x20AC;¨ Everything that you have experienced that is real and tangible to you in your life will become stories in the future. As time goes by, truth blurs and becomes ambiguous, your life stories are filled with imagined and assumed details. You become a character in your own life stories, like a legend, fairy tale, or myth.

Imagine we have the opportunity to design our own story, we get the chance to decide how we want to be remembered in the future, what would you be like in the story?

Structure and flows The objective of the workshop is to research how people see their self-image through reality and imaginary world. Attendees were asked to design their afterlife, how do you want to be remembered in the future after you die. The workshop was divided into two sections, taking the participant through reality, imaginary space and in the end, constructed to a balanced future. ÂŹÂŹIn each section, attendees are asked to make their self-portraits based on their characters and personalities. The portrait is not only a reflection of appearance but more self-expression, identifying yourselves and visualizing your stories.

The workshop is inspired by the philosophical novel <Picture of Dorian Gray> by the writer Oscar Wilde. Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist who is impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty. Dorian soon is enthralled by the aristocrat's hedonistic worldview: that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life.

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Metaphor: Mirror.

The mirror represents the balance of reality and imaginary space.

Through the whole process, each of the attendees gets a mirror beside them for them to looking through the reflection of themselves. As the scenarios move from actual to imaginative, the meaning of reflections shifts from body appearance to the inner image. As the goal of the cocreation workshop, participants are expected to design and create their reflection on the mirror.

White Paper.

The white paper is solid and represents the truth. Everything written on it supposes to be real and based on facts.

Translucent Paper. The translucent paper is half clear, which represents the embellished characters of you. Everything written on it would not suppose to be true, it carries your imaginations and expectations for yourselves.

Clear Plastic Sheet.

The clear plastic sheet represents the visualization of imagination. It contents the you designed by yourself.

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Section I. Self Deconstruction Props: mirror, white paper, translucent paper, clear plastic sheet, pens

Scenario I _ The Real You

What are the features or personalities you want people to remember about you?

This question aims to encourage the participants to think about the good and real characters or features about themselves as a part of preparations for section II.

Scenario II. The Embellished You Now you have the chance to reimagine yourself. What are the features and attributes you would like to be remembered for?

After thinking about the perfect part of you, this section focuses on the unperfected part that you want to improve or change thoroughly.

Scenario II aims to help the participants re-imagine them regardless of any reality.

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Scenario III _ Visualize the Ideal You What would be the ideal you looks like? Make a portrait of the perfect you.

As a summary of Section I, participants would visualize the ideal self-image.

In the first section, I offered three kinds of paper, solid white ones, translucent ones and transparent plastic sheet. On the solid white ones, attendees were asked to write down the good features that they want to be remembered for. They need to be real. After th¬¬at, the translucent paper is for the features you make up for yourself. You might not be able to redesign your life but if you have the authority to redesign your story after you, how would it be? And then, they were asked to illustrate themselves with these fake features on the clear plastic sheets.

This section aims to encourage people to think about ¬¬two versions of themselves, the one lives in the real world or the one be recorded by history book, the other one lives in the imaginary world or the one be written in tales. Section I is a preparation for section two that observing how participants connect reality and imagination. By guiding them have a full consideration of both images of themselves, section I succeeds to get them ready for creation.

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Section II Afterlife Portrait Props: mirror, translucent stickers A Balance of Real and Ideal You In this section, attendees are asked make their own portrait based on section I, how they designed the character of themselves in their afterlife stories. Attendees would see their reflections in the mirror, peel off the stickers and paste on the mirror to imagine their portraits.

Based on the preparation in section I, the goal was to observe participants how they balance truth and imagination, how they imagine and narrative their afterlife story, and what's the conflicts of their real life and designed afterlife.

Insight: People desire for supernatural power. " I want to be eternal, never age and never die." _ May. " I want to the third eye so that I can read people's mind." _ Ezgi. " I want to be a character in Dim Burtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s movies, with magic power." _ Xumeng.

When imagining the afterlife, my participants showed great interest in supernatural power. The type of their afterlife stories is basically fictions and legends. Only one of the participants told a realistic story without any fiction element in it.

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EXPLORATIONS Family Stories are to share and support.

Stories taken from real life and peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actual emotional responses are powerful. In this section, I consider the family (the user group), with a particular focus on how family stories can empower individual family members.

Problem More and more, there is a disconnect between individuals from different generations. And yet, whether currently, recently or years ago, everyone was once young, made questionable choices and exercised the judgment of youth. Age should therefore not be a barrier to communication between family members. For instance, my own father would seem to be a boring old man, content with caring for his plants, and yet as a young man, he was a skydiving instructor with the Russians, a previously little known fact that completely changed how the young people in our family thought about and related to him. Why keep this bridge to communication a secret?

In most families, there are no official means of recording family stories. That's why even grandparents' stories are mixed with rumor and often erroneous assumption, to say nothing of family members who are no longer present. As the one group of people that most care about an individual memberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life experience, families should embrace collect their own stories.

Family stories have an immense power that transcends time and age. They are spiritual heirlooms.

The purpose of Family Story

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Family Book Family Story is an app that helps family collect and share their histories. Family Story creates a database of ‘stories’ by collecting personal data from social medias. Family members could also choose to update their online life to the Family Story database. The goal of this information culling is to strengthen families through the sharing of individual members’ stories and to thereby help them build a family culture.

How it works 01 Register to your family database. You can choose what you want to upload to your family history book from social platforms.

02 The relationship displayed in the family tree is based on your posts. The family tree will connect people who have a similar experience with a line.

03 You can view other family members' stories.

04 You may choose to keep some of your experiences hidden from the view of all family members. Similarly, you may find that others have done the same. These ‘family secrets’ appear as “blocked” stories.

05 They choose to keep some of your experiences hidden from the view of all family members. Similarly, you may find commonality of experience, or even, a code.

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Genetic Heirloom: heritable disease Speculative Objects

In what moments do we most need the support of family? During times of sickness, particularly when the sickness is inherited, incurable and debilitating. Hereditary disease is like a curseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; a present from the devil that one cannot refuse. It is also something that must be faced with bravery and an unwavering commitment to fight against. As such, a hereditary disease could also be the family heirloom that brings one closer to the very people who should understand a person most, her family.

Genetic Heirloom Genetic Heirloom is a kit that comprises a series of products that help the family with a hereditary disease history of cyrtosis.

Cyrtosis is a disease that causes an abnormal curvature of the spine and begins in oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s youth. Existing treatments are both mentally and physically painful. With the help of Genetic Heirloom, young patients would be able to share their stories and learn the stories of family members who also suffer from the illness.

Share & Support The family member who has cyrtosis will receive a kit from Family Story, which has recorded (or will record) the stories of all cyrtosis patients in the family. The kit consists of various accessories designed to trigger sensory-induced empathy.

An accessory for other family members who want to know about the experience of and support the patient. Because patients are generally teenagers, their dairy will not be shared directly. Instead of listening

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to them talk about their feelings, when the accessory is plugged in, the bottle will decrease its oxygen supply and invite family members to take one breath of the air in the bottle. Other family members will feel their depleted oxygen, thereby sharing through common experience something akin to the pressure borne by patients for whom breathing has become labored. The more pain the patient feels, the less oxygen the family member accessory bottle will contain, making their experience of taking a breath from the bottle similarly difficult and uncomfortable.

A bone that functions as a sound transmission media by enabling patient to feel the vibration of the voice with their body. As such, patients can hear stories told by other patients in the family and with the help of the vibrations, physically experience the hope of interconnectedness, shared bravery and communal strength.

A wearable suit that uses heat to make family members without cyrtosis feel as if they also had a distortion spine.

A collection of the medical (treatment) records of current (more advanced) and older disease sufferers. Looking through the experiences of other family membersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; fight against the disease would help new patients get the right treatment immediately.

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EXPLORATIONS Moving forward from stories based on truth, this section aims to explore stories mixed with imagination.

Storytelling is a human instinct. Our brains not only love good storytelling, they are also magnificent story-creating machines. We tend to make up stories to explain things we cannot understand and through a combination of imagination, assumption, insight and emotion, use them to put together an incomplete puzzle. Stories also imbibe objects with powerful meaning and cultural significance. To explore the similarity between and diversity of how people tie stories and things together, I looked into cultural stories.

In this section, I grapple, by way of cultural design, with two questions: How do different cultures design a story around the same behavior?

How do different cultures behave when given the same purpose?

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Storyline

Service Design The truth is, people do want to experience different cultures; the problem is, they want to do so by watching movies, reading books and tourist traveling, none of which allows for deep enough contact with another culture to truly understand it.

Storyline is a service that introduces different cultural lifestyles and delightful moments to geographically and/or culturally distinct people. Storyline explores design as a new media for storytelling.

Instead of watching, hearing and reading stories, it offers a more interactive way to experience these stories.

Because many traditions and cultures are at risk of disappearing, Storyline seeks to show people the beauty of cultural diversity and encourage them to learn more about other cultures through interactive storytelling.

Archoo App The Archoo app is one of a series in Storyline. Specifically, Archoo focuses on the stories behind different cultural responses to sneezing.

By interacting with detailed stories taken from different parts of the world, users have a chance to actively familiarize themselves with a piece of the daily life of another culture without physically being immersed in that other culture.

Archoo tells three stories via its database of sneezing behaviors. In the Chinese version, sneezing means someone is missing you and tends to lead to communication and relationship renewal. In the American version, people say "bless you" when you sneeze, which

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is related to a Judeo-Christian story in which God blew the soul into the human body when He make us, making a sneeze like blowing the soul out of the body and therefore, akin to death. In the continental European version, people say â&#x20AC;&#x153;good healthâ&#x20AC;? because sneezing is a sign of illness.

Archoo aims to translate these stories into cross-cultural interaction.

How it works User can choose a culture to experience.

In Chinese culture, when a user sneezes, an interface displaying the photo of a person who has recently been in touch with the user will pop up. It could be the one who contacts you or visits your Facebook page. Options are offered, make a call, send heartbeat or ignore.

After the interaction, Archoo will show users the original story.

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Whisper _ Product Design How do different cultures communicate about making wishes? In this section, I focused on the hand gestures associated with making wishes.

Whisper uses the prayer hand gesture because, in many cultures, especially those of Asia, prayers and wishes are linked to this gesture.

The gesture, in turn, conjures feelings of piety and authenticity.

Whisper is a device that transmits audible versions of secrets and confessions. In order to record a message, the user must hold his/ her hands in a prayer position in order to activate the recording. In this way, the interaction maintains its association with honesty, depth and sincerity. To play the message, the Whisper receiver must be to separate into its two parts and held up to recipientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ears. The message is thereby audibly experienced in a very intimate and private way.

How it works Recording: Close the two pieces in your hand. The magnet switch holds the pieces together and activates the recording. Talk into the gap between the hands.

Playing: Separate the two pieces and put them on your ears. The sound will be played back as whisper.

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Persona 1 M, 28, Married, IxD Designer. Just completed graduate school M is full of passion and always curious about new experiences.

She is brave enough to take challenges and risks; she is tough and optimistic. She laughs a lot. M wants to start her own company once she has enough experience. She was ambitious and confident about her goal. But after six months of monotonous work, she felt tired after work and much less passionate about working. She now finds that she must sleep for more than half the day on Saturdays to feel rested and recharged. She has begun to hate Mondays. The more she learns about what running a start-up will require, the more she questions her goal.

M is medium engaged to Monster Culture (or imaginary world). She is a good user for researching Monday Blues.

Persona 2 X, 24, Single, Student X is a big fan of imaginary worlds. He has a good sense of imagination. He loves fiction novels/shows/animations. During the co-creation workshop, she imaged his perfect self with supernatural power.

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Persona 3 E 26 is Engaged  E is very independent. She has been shifting to work in different countries. She is from Turkey, had her grad school in Sweden. She has worked in China, America and will work in Germany soon.

She can adapt to new culture very soon, and begin to enjoy it. She is very optimistic. She always finds happiness and friends in new environment. She likes yoga. Â She is less engaged in Monster Culture, but she is very used to changes and seems to enjoy it a lot.

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FIGHT BLUE MOODS 01 BAKU pg.81

02 TREE HOLE pg.103

03 DREAM PIPE pg.113

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ANIMATE EVERYDAY LIFE 04 PETTING ZOO OF ANIMATED CHAIRS pg.125

05 YAWNIE pg.149

06 REANIMATE pg.155

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FIGHT BLUE MOODS Start with Monday Blues If you wake up on at the beginning of the week with a groan and struggle to start the workday, you may have a case of the Monday blues. There’s no question about why we hate Monday -- it always seems to sneak up on us just as we have started to relax and enjoy our weekend.

For most of us, Monday is the least productive day of the week. Wood says, the reason Mondays are so hard is because of the shift in attitude and lifestyle that happens over the weekend. “We move into personal mode on the weekend. Having to ramp up again can feel overwhelming as you anticipate the mountain and having to climb it again at the start of the week,”(CITATION) he writes Wood.

What are the so-called Monday Blues? defines them in the following way: “The low-spirited, cool, annoyed, sad, unlucky mood of those workers, students, or employees who feel that a mundane, difficult, unexpected Weekday is arriving to force them into going back to work, killing their joys and annoying them.”

‘Having the blues’ means feeling sad or mildly depressed . Morning blues or the Monday blues is the feeling of discontent and dread about having an entire work day or work week ahead of you.

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Objective and Issue Statement Because Mondays so often bear the stain of mediocre performance and low productivity, helping people to conquer their Monday blues would not only create a more positive and productive working environment, it would also save U.S. businesses a great deal of money. Negative emotions are among the leading causes of negative performance and low productivity.

“We know from countless studies in psychology and neurology that your current emotional state has a huge effect on the quality of your work and when you’re feeling blue[,] you are less productive, less motivated, more pessimistic, less creative, less engaged and learn more slowly–just to mention a few effects” As Jim Clifton, Gallup’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement, poor management is one of the leading causes of employee disengagement. By visualizing negative emotions and giving them a physical shape, BAKU aims to raise public awareness about the incredible effects of Monday Blues, especially in the management sector. Accordingly, the app, BAKU and the product, Tree Hole, are both designed to help people release their negative associations about Mondays and complain in a more constructive way. That said, it should be noted that Monday Blues is a social problem. And although I hope to minimize the negative effects of this problem, rather than seeking to destroy this social phenomenon, the focus of my two products is to raise the awareness, especially that of company managers. By putting Monday Blues in the spotlight, I hope BAKU and Tree Hole might improve the work environment.

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01 BAKU

BAKU is an APP that would enable individuals to transform negative emotions into something fun and uplifting. Using the story of the dream eater, BAKU aims to increase peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interest in and engagement with the intervention.

FIGHT BLUE MOODS APP DESIGN

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Overview BAKU is an APP that would enable individuals to transform negative emotions into something fun and uplifting. Using the story of the dream eater, BAKU aims to increase people's interest in and engagement with the intervention.

The intervention starts with Japanese monster story. The BAKU, a monster, is a dream eater that eats people's nightmares. When people wake from a nightmare, they can summon BAKU to suck the nightmare away so that the nightmare will no longer bother them.

Though monsters are not real, they are created from very real thoughts and emotions. They can be products of fear, desire, or even social phenomena and cultural values. It follows that the concept of monsters has also evolved over time. BAKU, the dream eater is still popular in fiction and animation, but the modern version has other modern features. In order to determine how best to redesign a modern BAKU, I explore questions like how do we define “nightmare”? How does the dream eater interact with people? Why does it eat dreams? Defining modern people’s needs will define what the modern BAKU must be and why.

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Deconstruction of BAKU The evolution of monsters enables us to explore interesting design opportunities. Here, I try to address a social problem by way of monster theory.

First, find out the soul of BAKU by deconstructing its story. BAKU is a monster that helps people get rid of nightmares because they are annoying, sometimes painful, upsetting; they are something negative that we wish to escape from and forget.

Understanding the purpose of BAKU and the way it interacts with people helps us make metaphors for the story by connecting key elements and interventions with social phenomenon.

What from real life does the nightmare represent? One very popular nightmare inspiration is Monday (or Sunday), the start of the work or school week. Research has shown that all around the world, countless people feel low-spirited, annoyed, anxious, and even fearful about the facing the start of another week (and the end of their leisure time).

The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Monday bluesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is one term that describes this phenomenon. A search for "#mondayblue" in twitter pulled up thousands? hundreds? tens of thousands? of results on the topic of how people feel about Monday. A study from Gallup's State of the American Workplace Report, makes a more serious claim about emotional issues by saying that Monday Blues effect 70% of American workers and cost the U.S. an estimated $450 billion to $550 billion per annum in lost productivity, stolen goods, and missed days of work. Monday blues have become a veritable social problem.

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How it works The appâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basic interface comprises seven buttons. The user would see a flat monster tied to a big button.

Users hold the big round icon in the middle to record their complaints. As long as the user talks, the monster BAKU continues to grow. When the user releases the figure from the icon, the app stops recording and BAKU stops inflating.

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After the user has created his/her own monster, s/he can choose how to deal with the nightmare (BAKU).

The inflated BAKU balloon options are: 1. Needle: burst the balloon body with a needle 2. Scissors: cut the string by which BAKU is attached to the button and set the monster free.

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3. Camera: users have the option of choosing where to set their BAKU free. In this mode, the app will launch the camera, which enables BAKU to escape into the real world. A short animation shows it floating into the environment via your camera and disappears from the screen.

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Observe mode On BAKU's home page, the other option besides "complain" is "observe". When you turned on this option, you would be able to check the BAKU monsters created by other people around your environment.

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USER TEST 95

Campaign The campaign for BAKU is a public intervention characterized by offering Monday Blues complain booths for people to articulate their feelings about Mondays out loud. Every word uttered would help to inflating a huge BAKU balloon. At the end of the day, the huge balloon would be set free into to the sky, indicating that the dream eater monster had taken oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nightmare away.

Summary BAKU offers a new way to balance modern life and traditional customs and how design can be a new media for storytelling and pushing the development of stories by combining disruptive technology and old tales. BAKU is also an exploration of how monsters evolve and can be repurposed to solve real problems.

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02 TREE HOLE

Tree Hole is an interactive intervention that repurposes oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s negative emotions by collecting a complaint and translating it into music to be played back to you. As the user talks into it, Tree Hole picks up mood cues, filters them, and based on how emotional the user is, slows down or otherwise distorts the voice to make it sound like a delicate and beautiful song. The songs collected by Tree Hole are then made available for playback.

FIGHT BLUE MOODS PRODUCT DESIGN

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Overview Tree Hole is an interactive intervention that repurposes oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s negative emotions by collecting a complaint and translating it into music to be played back to you. As the user talks into it, Tree Hole picks up mood cues, filters them, and based on how emotional the user is, slows down or otherwise distorts the voice to make it sound like a delicate and beautiful song. The songs collected by Tree Hole are then made available for playback.

Story In ancient times, people went into the mountains and the forests to find a hole in a tree. They would then tell the tree hole their secrets and seal the hole with mud so that the secrets would stay there forever.

Nowadays, because our lives are flooded with so many things, and we are put under more pressure than we can healthily bear, we have an increased need to express our thoughts and emotions and release our tension and excess noise. Originally, tree holes were more for the purpose of expression and confession than for keeping secrets. But as with everything, the needs of the times call for adjustments to cultural practices. Moreover, todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tree hole encourages people to vent, to be self-aware and to be private.

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Objective A team of researchers at Clemson University found that as long as we complain strategically, it can have a positive effect on your mental health. Working with 410 participants, the study investigated the link between mindfulness, happiness, and complaining. Participants who practiced mindfulness (a.k.a. focusing on the here and now) and complained about something with the hope of actually seeing it changed were happier than those who just complained for the sake of complaining. So think of it this way: Don't just gripe to gripe â&#x20AC;&#x201D; gripe to get results!

That said, if you can't fix the problem that's currently nagging you and just want to vent, complaining can be a good way of releasing unwanted emotions. "Occasionally it can be good for people who tend to bottle up their true emotional reactions," says psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, Ph.D.,.

Many people prefer complaining to friends and family, and although the complainer might come out of the sharing session feeling better, she/he has also spread negative energy to the very people s/he loves and cares about. Emotions are contagious, especially when it comes to the people in oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inner circle and/or those who are facing similar difficulties and are bothered by the same worries and concerns. Too much of this sort of complaining, in other words, could make the complainer the one who throws rocks to the silent surface of the lake and breaks the balance. Enter Tree Hole, which I designed to intervene at the very moment when one has a complaint and needs to release the unwanted negative emotions but does not wish to disturb the others or would rather keep the complaint private.

By transforming complaints into music, Tree Hole turns negative into positive and seeks to infuse the user with a positive attitude.

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Exploration I conducted some preliminary echo design tests to what would be most effective.

Phase I: First, complaints are recorded. Upon a second visit, Tree Hole plays back the first complaint to create a responsive conversation with you. After considering the privacy problem and the type of interactivity, it seemed that Tree Hole would more likely make people feel aggressive, I gave up this model before testing it.

Phase II: I played with apps that would enable a user to change his/ her voice to someone else's. I tried to set up different characters for the echo that plays back from Tree Hole. The voice characters were supposed to be very different from the user's own voice. I wanted to mark the voices with different types of emotions such that when Tree Hole played back the complaints, the playback voice would be the most opposite voice from the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own.

Phase III: Complaints are distorted into sounding like a piece of music, rendering the content of the complaint unrecognizable.

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DREAM PIPE Dream Pipe is an accessory of the dream machine that could produce dreams and enable people to relax in the dream of their choice. Dream Pipe is a speculative object based on my vision of 2075. It is a future version of imagining how technology and design might help to create a more comfortable working environment for office workers.

FIGHT BLUE MOODS SPECULATIVE OBJECTS

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Overview Dream Pipe is an accessory of the dream machine that could produce dreams and enable people to relax in the dream of their choice. Dream Pipe is a speculative object based on my vision of 2075. It is a future version of imagining how technology and design might help to create a more comfortable working environment for office workers.

This section contains two stories about the world in 2075: one is a utopia; the other, a dystopia. The stories allowed me to consider the Dream Machine and its place in the future from two opposite perspectives.

The concept of Dream Pipe is based on a fictional scenario in which human beings are losing their ability to dream. In 2030, after technology has made it possible to take pills instead of eating oldfashioned meals, another milestone invention further changes human life. Known as sleepless pills, with this newest invention, people can avoid the time wasted sleeping, pop a pill instead and feel just as fresh and energetic as they would after a good nightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sleep. Now, people truly have 24-hour days! The only downside, which most people find they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss, is that dreamtime is lost. After twenty years of sleepless pill-addicted life, humans discover that even the occasional real sleeping session does not hold the promise of dreams.

People begin to miss the time lying around in bed and the experience of having unpredictable dreams. Older people start talking about how inspiring their dreams had been.

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In 2075, scientists figure out how to make humans dream again.

Because humans no longer sleep, the inventor calls this dreaming technology Day Dream. What is more, the Day Dream could be designed according to individualsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; specifications. People could type in the elements they want to experience in their dreams and then the dream machine will seal his/ her dream in a ball shape container with an air sealed tube on it. Alternatively, one could order a random dream. In much the same way that human brains once made dreams, the Dream Machine scans oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brain, collects memory fragments and makes them into dreams. Once a Daydream has been delivered, one can put it on his/her own pipe and smoke it. In my Utopia scenario, Daydream is used for building a better working environment.

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Background 114

In 2075, scientists made great progress with studying the human brain.

Since then, it has become possible for humans to play â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, to have the power to make life and build a new world based on our centuries of acquired knowledge. In an attempt to explore how technology X could improve life, X National Research Center decided to cooperate with Daydream company on Project No.0. Their mission is to use five volunteers to build a model of a parallel world using spiritual power.

Each attendee will be asked to use the prototype device to design and visualize an imaginary space that coexists with the real world. For instance, for the same plate, different people might visualize different shapes, patterns, and colors in their head. The amazing part of the experiment is that technology X would enable individuals to replace the real plate with the imagined one he created himself. The first step of the experiment, which only included one sense, has been successful.

Scientists predict that creation with all five sense should therefore present no difficulties. The next step would focus on embodying creatures and sharing the versions of reality created and as of yet, only experienced by the individual/creator with other people.

It is a milestone for how we may live our lives more meaningfully, ever controlled but happily, come one hundred years from now.

The wonderful life we have right now due to the emergence of X technology, which empowers the brain to build a bridge between imagination and reality. Fifty years ago, people believed that the ability to visualize imagined objects and thereby, make them real was the stuff of magic and religious faith.

On the other hand, though the technology has already passed the test, there is still a lot of discussion from the perspective of policy and law regarding the safety of launching a totally new lifestyle. Most feedback is positive, and most view TechX in a positive light with. This is not surprising as so much has changed over the past fifty years, making such interventions far less shocking than they used to be.

10 minutes had passed! My excitement and joy stayed with me the rest of the day, however.

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The whole office is talking about the new employee benefits, which cost our company $1 million, and which are supposed to make office life more pleasurable. Can't believe it! Just give me Mondays off, and I would be tickled pink and have saved my boss the $1 million. Still, I admit that like everyone else, I was really excited and looking forward to it. Our company just got us the newest intervention experience: Daydream. And tonight, our company will hold a launching ceremony for Project Daydream.

I’m dying of curiosity, so I’ve decided to experience it during the midday break: I walk into the dreaming room; the space is a warm white, just like when the sun shines on soft clouds. I enter a small room. There is a deck chair in the center of the room. As I close the door, the UI on the wall appears and invites me to get comfortable on the chair.

Then AI shows me a series of pictures. I've seen similar stories in movies. They’re based on a psychology theory that defends collecting a comprehensive survey of your character. Maybe it is trying to figure out my taste. Hmm, interesting. After 3 minutes, it pushes out a small, clear drawer on which reads: "Daydream Kit". I found a wire-shaped pipe on the left that resembles the original tobacco pipe of some one hundred years ago. On the right is a clear can with light blue gas in it.

A clear label showed the ingredients of the gas, it said: " Hippo, udon, cotton candy, Hogwarts...." What???? In another context, I’d think it’s, but since entering this room, I felt like I had already fallen into a dream because in dreams, nothing quite makes sense.

The AI directed my preparations for the Daydream. I saw a connector at the bottom of the clear gas can that looked as if it should be plugged into the pipe. I did so, and then I stared at the weird pipe in my hand.

I had the feeling it was inviting me on an adventure. Without further hesitation, I smoke the pipe and pin it on my ear. I fall into a dream state. At the moment I received a Hogwarts letter of admission and began laughing until tears rolled down my cheeks, I woke up. The dream had not been so much a story as a series of experiences that left me with a lot of delightful memories, but amazingly, when looked at the time, only 10 minutes had passed! My excitement and joy stayed with me the rest of the day, however.

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Dystopia 118

If you are reading this letter, it means I am now dead. I died of a heart attack, just like the other 12 people who, like me, also had no history of the disease. You must leave; you must go far from this city and this country. Nightmares were dropped here. And now, your fears will find you and kill you.

How did we die? How are our fears killing us? This was not a disease; it was not a virus; it was a high-tech terrorist attack. They hacked the X system, a program I designed to reify creatures we encounter in a parallel world; they typed the word fear. If you are infected, the virus will make your brain visualize the thing you most fear, and your fear will kill you. Just since last week, 12 people have fallen victim. They are testing the hack. When they really decide to start the attack, the number of victims will grow fast and furious.

I used to work in the Daydream company as a technology X developer. Every day we created life: monsters, spirits, supernatural charactersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;whatever people love. Though they only existed in the parallel world, I felt like they were coming to life. They were my children, and , I was their father. I wanted to live a life with them just as we, the designers, had envisioned we wouldâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;interacting with them every day. And I knew they wanted to be real too.

Just like the AI revolution 20 years ago, our monsters were standing at the same point as AI. But the difference was, monsters have their own purpose in life. They could not replace humans but could live together with humans. I made the decision to set them free into the real world so they could live with us as they had thousands of years ago, humans and Youkai (monster).

My mistake was that I had ignored the fact that in the very beginning, monsters represented fear. I was infected too. I was no longer needed by them. And I knew my fear was waiting for me.

I could feel its breath the moment I was pushed to work for the terrorists. Now, it has come for me.

I set the monster free.

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ANIMATE EVERYDAY LIFE 120

Objective and Issue Statement Animate is an attitude towards life. Living in an age of such rapid change, we are always driven to the new, which. creates a conflict between the new and the old, in terms of both objects and behavior. That said, I have created Animate to help establish a balance between traditional lifestyles and modern ones so that people will pay attention to life—truly live, enjoy and be grateful for it.

For a while, I was confused about so-called smart products because they really just stop us from thinking and learning. In fact, they are designed to make everything easier and reduce exploration as much as possible. As a result, we are losing abilities. What’s more, there are some new diseases, like nature deficit disorder, that have appeared in connection with our new lifestyle. They’re believed to linked to our growing disconnection with nature. So I began to think about the differences between living in the natural world and in the city.

My perspective In our natural environment, we are no longer at the center because our “products” are like living creatures: they don’t serve us; they coexist with us.

What if we were to redefine the product to have features of living creatures? We could them characters, emotions and create them so that they react in a way similar to how animals might. They could be afraid; they could be happy; they could be sad. What happens if you put a glass on the edge of the table? Nothing. But an animal might be afraid to be so close to the edge. Moreover, my glass would start shaking or turn green or just try to move back to a safer spot.

Another inspiration is from imaginary land of Azkaban from the Harry Potter book series. There, there is a textbook all about magic animals, but the book has sharp teeth and bites people. In order to be able to read the book, one must handle it gently as one might one’s beloved dog.

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04 PETTING ZOO OF ANIMATED CHAIRS

Petting Zoo of Animated Chairs is an experience design that shows a chair coming to life. t creates an imaginary space for the audience to re-image and wonder about their chairs and other objects around their living circle.

ANIMATE EVERYDAY LIFE EXPERIENCE DESIGN

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Overview and Objective Have you ever imagined your chair could be alive? When you put it together, it sees the world with curiosity; when you sit on it, it hugs you with all its love; even when you gain weight, it complains.

Petting Zoo of Animated Chairs is an experience that gives you a chance to see the "real face" of these ordinary objects around you; it enables you to interact with these "strangers" you are familiar with.

We have ceased being grateful for and respectful towards the things bring us happiness. We waste and squander; we ignore what we have.

Many generations ago, we coexisted with the natural world. We took what we needed and showed respect to the world for providing us with food and shelter. Today, we are not just physically disconnected from Nature, we are also more spiritually separate than ever before.

Petting Zoo of Animated Chairs creates a space between reality and imagination. Everything showed in the zoo is "caught" from everyday scenarios. It shows how the objects are affected by us and are animated by living with us, communicating with us and learning from us. All the objects have their own character and faith.

In the exhibition, every object comes with a story what explains how it was brought to life. Inspired by 100 Objects by Rob Walker, these stories and different views of objects should make the audience wonder about the (life of the) objects in their lives. Our possessions are not just things that make our lives easy. They also make us happy and wish to be cherished forever.

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Storyboard Cindy has just moved to New York. One day, she receives an invitation to a mystery zoo. Instead of animals, the zoo is filled with animated objects.

Cindy is very curious.

The invitation reads: An invitation to the Zoo of Animated Objects: If you believe the world is more than what you see, join me, and break the boundary between reality and imaginary space.

Enjoy an experience with the creatures we so love from childhood stories.

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Cindy went to the Zoo. The space was dreamy and a little creepy. A zookeeper said that the space had a magic power that allowed people to sense its objects. Every object in the zoo had been brought to life by living with people and being well-used by its owner.

Then, the Zoo assistant showed her a chair with hugging arms.

The chair was born to a poor, single-parent family. Its owner was a little girl who was always alone and sat on the chair, waiting for her mother. After many years, the chair grew a pair of arms so that it could hug the little girl.

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She walked around the zoo and tried to feel the objects that come to life. She saw a cup in a bird cage. And then she saw a pair of headphone next to the cage and immediately put them on. She heard voices from the cup, singing happily and calling the son for breakfast.

She read the cup’s origin story. It had been owned by a mom who always sang as she prepared breakfast for her family. The cup was used for milk. It listened to the song every day and always sang with its owner.

Finally, Cindy saw a big bin. There were many voices coming out of the bin. The zookeeper walked over and poured a box of old objects into the talking bin. “Wait, are you throwing them away? They are still alive!“ asked Cindy. The zookeeper smiled and told her, when objects are no longer useful, they would prefer to be recycled and become something else. This is the goal and meaning of their life.

Cindy was so impressed by the zoo that when she returned home, she looked at all of her objects with new eyes.

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I presented this storyboard to classmates and friends. The end of the show was the most controversial part of their experience. Once the audience had walked through the magic place and began to wonder if the objects out of the zoo were alive too, I ended the show by "killing the objects" and treated them as lifeless things again. It seemed to the audience to be counter to the objective of the show.

The takeaway of the experience was therefore not successful and must be improved upon.

I came up with another idea that would give my audience something (like book or toolkit) to facilitate their animating or observing the animated objects in their lives. The takeaway object should be related to the zoo experience and always remind them of it. So I kept on working through the content of the show, what objects do I want to give life to in the Zoo?

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Huggy Chair Huggy Chair is the most welcomed concept in the storyboard.

The chair is one of the most common pieces of furniture in the home. Because we all a special chair in our private space, the chair witnesses us at our most authentic and relaxed. The way you treat it and interact with it leaves its mark. I argue that this private chair somehow represents our character and habits.

Huggy Chair has a pair of invisible arms and hugs you when you need comfort. The story of the chair is meant to transport the audience into the scenario.

In keeping with the theme of the Zoo, Huggy Chair might be considered a "wild animal".

Singing Cup Inspired by parrot-talk, the cups learn from and imitate human beings. It records pieces of your life. When you are watching videos, it remembers your favorite scripts; when you are reading books, it listens to your favorite kinds of music; when you are preparing food, it learns the songs you hum.

Like the Huggy Chair, cups are utterly ordinary. What makes them different from chairs is their mobility, which means that they have more chances to get to know you.

The cupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s singing represent a habit and personal character trait of it owner. I prepared three scenarios based on three types of people: a film enthusiast, a housewife, and a writer. By playing back sounds from their life, audiences are invited to imagine objectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; owners, after which, I want visitors to starting wonder about their own cups and other personal objects. I want visitors to come away with the idea

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that their possessions are imitating them and recording them in their own way.

In keeping with the theme of the Zoo, the Singing Chair might be considered a "caged animal".

Vacuum with Delusions Vacuum with Delusions was inspired by a news report in which a robot designed for housework killed itself on the cooking range.

After a day of having worked alone at home, the robot sat on the cooking range, turned on the fire and burned itself. People discussed whether this apparent suicide resulted from demands made on the robot or just an unfortunate set of circumstances. Intrigued, I decided to create a story about a lonely robot.

As artificial intelligence becomes one of the biggest new technological trends, there is an increasing number of smart home applications appearing on the market. Perhaps, the most popular are the housecleaner bots, which are like servants, clean while the owners are at work. There is no doubt that such robots make our lives easier and more convenient, but are robotic slaves the best or even, morally correct application for this sophisticated technology?

Another news report reminded me of the Chinese parents who spoiled their child to such a degreeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;they even tried on shoes for him so he could save his time and energy for studying. This approach to education turned out to be a total failure. Their son knew nothing about living and had absolutely no empathy. I mention this story not to imply that robots will make children of us all, but there is something to the question of gratefulness and the appreciation for doing not only that which is most important to us, but also that which is necessary but utterly mundane.

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My Vacuum with Delusions is an iRobot vacuum that works at home all the time. It is so convenient and smart that it can work by itself – it knows when to clean, how to get to the unreachable corners and where to charge itself. It doesn't actually need its owner to complete its job. But one day, the vacuum becomes so lonely that it has a delusion. It heard the story of whale island on the TV and imagined itself as a huge whale—a whale as big as an island—and carried plants around the room. The floor became its ocean, and it finally found the meaning of its life.

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Engagement Given set-up time restraints and available gallery space, I have chosen to work on only one intervention, Huggy Chair.

The invitations are sent via email. Guests will receive a short video clip that tells the story of the animated chair and its owner. The purpose of the video is twofold: to give guests a visual about how a chair could be animated and made to interact with people and to peak their interest.

The idea of the video is that the animated chair is always taking care of its owner. At the same time, the chair is also imitating its owner and always curious about what she is doing. Unfortunately, the animated chair is invisible to the girl; she can only see an ordinary chair.

There are six parts of interaction in the story: 01 The animated monster chair pats the girl's shoulder. She turns around but sees nothing on her shoulder but can feel something unusual. The chair comes to life and like a child, tries to get her attention.

02 She is tired after a long day. She sits on the chair and straighten and rub at her shoulder with one hand. Her movement slows down and the chair uses its arms to massage her. She can feel it but she cannot see it.

03 She lays her arms on the invisible armrests. She forgot her chair doesn't have any. The chair uses its arms to hold her arms. She grows too used to it to ignore its existence.

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04 Animated chair finger walks on her arm. In response, her finger walks back on her arm. She knows she has an invisible friend.

05 She holds her knees sitting on the chair, the chair hugs her from the back. The chair gives her comfort and warm support.

06 She eats grapes. She drops some on the floor and the chair picks them up. Recall back the moments the chair first attains consciousness and is curious about everything she does.

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Transformation When the audience enters the room, it will see several chair photos on the right hand side of the wall. The photos are not perfect; some are even blurry. But when one walks closer, s/he would see that the chairs in the photos have arms and legs. They are alive!

Once guests have followed the photos to the end of the room, they would see a ghost chair with clear arms sitting in front of the background, inviting them to sit. When one sits on the chair, the chair will come to life and pat oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shoulder or give a hug. [N.B. In reality, an actor hidden behind the background, wearing gloves that make him blend in, will be assisting with the performance of this piece.] The audience should take photos and interact with the monster chair.

Next to the interaction section, people are invited to animate the chairs in the photos with the stickers I offer. After seeing and touching the animated chairs, I want people to imagine their animated chairs and how they would like their own chairs to be.

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Conclusion At the end of the experience, each guest will receive a toolkit to help him/her see the real face of his/her animated chair. The toolkit includes a clear sheet of plastic and some body part stickers; it allows the user to design his/her own monster chair. After putting the sticker onto the clear plastic, users could take pictures of their chairs so that the chair could show off its arms in the picture.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this project, the giveaway is designed to remind people of their adventures in my Zoo. For the purpose of my thesis, I hope this experience might inspire them to wonder about and reimagine things that seems utterly ordinary.

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05 YAWNIE

Yawnie is a smart product that helps people to develop good sleeping habits. It tracks usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sleeping conditions and remind them to go to bed on time by infecting them with yawns.

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Overview Yawnie is a smart product that helps people to develop good sleeping habits. It tracks users' sleeping conditions and remind them to go to bed on time by infecting them with yawns. In modern culture, getting enough sleep is almost looked down upon. Too many people falter under pressure and suffer from lack of sleep. The lack of sleep leads to poor health, low productivity, and blue moods.

Yawnie makes use of the theory that yawning is contagious send out its alarm for sleep. The infection of yawning could be caused by playing the sound of the yawn, seeing or hearing the word yawn, looking at a picture of a yawn, and even by the yawns of other animals, like cats.

Objective Yawnie is a team project I did with classmates Roya Ramezani and Nicolas Barajas. I mention this project as an example of using Animate as a method of and perspective for designing commercial products.

Animate is a way of interacting and communicating with users; it is a concept of nonuser-centered design that minimizes the sense of user superiority and instead emphasizes an equal relationship with users.

This is not to say that these products are not based on the needs of users. Rather, they focus on the character of usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; interaction with their object and therefore begs the question of civility and humanity underlying this interaction (or not).

In the previous chapter, I wrote about the lonely robot vacuum. As

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the products around us become â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;smarterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and more capable, they also become more independent and consequently, receive less attention from users. The vacuum is just a robot, a cold machine that goes unappreciated for its service. You would easily dislike them when you find there is something they are not capable of yet. OK, it can't clean up the oil on the floor, it is not smart as I thought. Stupid machine.

Our present society is not as friendly or communicative as it once was, largely because the individual is more capable than ever of being self-sufficient. Because we are more capable of finishing something by ourselves. As we become increasingly independent, we encounter fewer situations in which we need to cooperate with others to achieve a goal. This means that our need to communicate constructively with others is also less and less. Given that an ever-growing amount of our communications are conducted with machines, what would happen if one day, even the machine were to stop talking to us?

Moreover, I want my products to be conversational; I want them to want to talk to you. They communicate like characters rather than machines, though they do not imitate humans. I took inspirations from the natural world. The product has the instinct to function well; the product has the stress response to react to usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; interaction requests. It learns from human communication to communicate with its users.

Yawnie is a reminder or alarm that attempts to persuade the user to behave counter to its bad habits. Based on what I feel about my own morning alarm, I already hate this sort of product. Yawnie must therefore be somehow different and more endearing. That said, coming up with a way for Yawnie to talk to its users is the biggest design challenge. As a result, our team decided to give Yawnie independent character traits rather than independent high-tech functions so that it could engage in a more friendly conversation with users.

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How Yawnie works Yawnie has both digital and physical components. Yawnie uses App or a wearable device to track sleep conditions and plan out a healthy sleeping schedule to help users develop good sleeping habits.

When it is time to sleep, Yawnie will reminds its user to go to bed by yawning and playing a yawn sound. It continues to yawn until the user has been persuaded to go to bed. Yawnie aims to infect the user with yawning.

When s/he begin to yawn unconsciously, one knows that the body is tired and wants to take a break. In effect, it is not actually Yawnie that sends the alarm; it is the user’s own body thanks to Yawnie’s having made the user aware of his/her own tiredness. Yawnie uses a system of ‘friendly reminders’ to get the job done. Of course, if the user ignores Yawnie, it will go to bed by itself and send the user a goodnight message. In the early prototype Yawnie had flexible legs that allowed it to fall down on the table and sleep when the user did not respond by going to bed. And just for fun, we designed the prototype to snore bubbles out of its nose. If Yawnie’s records show that the user has not changed his/her bad sleep habit after several days, Yawnie will register the fatigue. In the prototype, Yawnie looked tired and had big, black circles under its eyes, but in the final version of Yawnie, we visualized the extreme fatigue with the App instead of physically.

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We love the idea of contagious yawning as a friendly and quirky way of communicating to users their need to rest. The way it functions makes the user treat it like a persona instead of a mere object or emotionless, high-tech machine because one has the feeling that Yawnie needs attention and is like a caring friend or roommate who waits for you to turn off the lights and go to bed. The idea is that Yawnie shapes usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; behavior by virtue of the fact that out of courtesy, users would almost feel bad about saying no to it.

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06 REANIMATE Reanimate is a service that reanimates the repetitious behavior of eating in order to make it new, delightful and even, surprising.

ANIMATE EVERYDAY LIFE SERVICE DESIGN

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Early Exploration After testing out my Zoo of Animated Objects with real people, I began thinking about how I could turn it into a service. There are so many old objects in our lives, but too often, we forget their value. As time goes by, the interaction between an individual and his/her belongings becomes intimately personal, marking the objects with the identity of the individual.

They are containers for your memories. That is what brings them to life and makes them valuable and for the owner, unique.

Version I of my service Re-Animate: Objective: cure the disease of wanting So many elements in contemporary culture have been stripped of their vitality. Modern life has conditioned people to only crave â&#x20AC;&#x153;the newâ&#x20AC;? and made them addicted to novelty and updates.

Re-Animate is a service that upgrades the objects people have rendered obsolete to something that bring joy and reminds us of memories. Re-Animate is to revitalize, reenergize, and above all, re-animate objects so that we too are revitalized with hope and spirit.

How it works: Locate the objects that have been made obsolete but that carry memories and are still functional. Re-Animate will redesign the object, strengthen the emotional connection

the object, strengthen the emotional connection between object and owner and uncover the stories shared by the owner and the object.

In this way, we re-purpose then the object to make it valuable and unique and then return the animated object to the owner.

We will have exhibitions about animated objects to attract our first customers. The exhibition will guide people to a social platform for sharing their stories with old objects. Our design team will pick the best stories and use them to re-animate the objects.

We will then mass-produce the accessories needed for DIY re-animation and make them available to order online.

We make money in X ways: 01 Selling ideas about how to re-animate objects, a DIY service 02 Upgrade old objects 03 Hold an exhibition and sell re-animated objects collected from second-hand shop.

Our expertise in product design, experience design, storytelling and exhibitions helps us launch RE-Animate First customers/users will come from our exhibitions Re-Animate is meant to remake the existing second-hand market Re-Animate Give life to objects.

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When I wrote it down, it didn’t sound as interesting as my experience with the Petting Zoo of Animated Chairs. The translation from exhibition to practical service was not successful; there was a disconnection. After talking to my instructor Steven Dean, I realized the core of the business should be to find the unique value of the old object by uncovering the story behind it that will inspire emotion and enhance its meaning. Art and design play an unreproducible role, which makes it hard to control and duplicate. I am working to build a strong connection between the customer and the old objects.

Everyone has a special old object with special memories, which makes it hard to generalize this experience of intimacy for a group of people. Finding this balance is difficult .

“Why don't you animate behaviors?"

Steven asked me at the end of our conversation. The market shows people want change, but whereas there are many new products, there is rarely something that encourages changing the way we structure our lives. For instance, with regards to eating, we try new recipes, new tableware, new decor and hanging out with different people, but we still sit at the table as we have for hundreds of years. Food design is an area of exploration that is just emerging and urging people to make changes in how they approach the act of eating. This is only one of our many routine behaviors, however. Taking Steven’s suggestion to heart, I decided to target animating these sorts of quotidian behaviors.

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Problem So many elements in contemporary culture have been stripped of their vitality, of their life force. Modern life has conditioned people to crave only “the new”. We have become addicted to novelty and change and are always made to feel discontented if we don’t have what’s fresh and new.

Even though we are surrounded by new products, our lives often still feel monotonous because we do the same thing day in and day out. This is especially true of eating, which is not longer a treasured, interpersonal experience.

Introduction Reanimate is a service that reanimates the repetitious behavior of eating in order to make it new, delightful and even, surprising.

User Journey Mia is an office worker. She eats lunch in front of her laptop every day because she is uninterested in the nearby restaurants and prefers working while eating. One day, she sees an ad on the elevator doors about introducing different gestures to eating. On the ad, there was a woman trying to reach up her food, which was hanging from the ceiling.

This inspires Mia to go out for lunch at the restaurant in the ad. Sure enough, all the food in the restaurant is hanging from the ceiling over suspended bowls. That afternoon, Mia eats her lunch like a giraffe. All the food is served in one bite. She is surprised that she feels more satisfied with the taste of the food. Additionally, eating in this way forced her to stretch, which left her feeling relaxed and happier.

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After lunch, she saw another poster about the restaurant. It advertised their upcoming theme, ”Dancer”, which combines the dinner experience with dancing. Pictured on the poster is a famous ballerina with whom REANIMATE is in cooperation. It says that the tableware on the poster was inspired by her dance and designed to freeze the most beautiful moment of her dance. “Dancer” enables everyone to be as elegant as she while eating.

Mia recommends the restaurant to some friends. They are a couple and experience the dating dinner “dancing while eating”. They started with getting each other’s folk. They follow the music and the dancing route planned by food. After a while, they begin to enjoy the experience because although they didn’t talk as much as usual, they make more eye contact and enjoy a more intimate experience than they’d have ever expected. They had an impressive date in REANIMATE. Mia wants to have fun eating at every meal, so she visits REANIMATE’s online shop and orders some tableware sets for her dining room. In using them, her entire experience of eating changes—it again becomes anticipated and enjoyable.

REANIMATE works like this: REANIMATE offers service to restaurants and individuals. We cooperate with restaurants and design new eating experiences for them.

Customers have the chance to taste the same foods in different, novel ways. We also offer tableware for customers to use at home or bring with them to work. We expect to collaborate with companies in the hope of improving their working environment by introducing fun to the lunch experience.

REANIMATE to have fun eating.

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Objective Beyond animating objects via service design, I explored how to animate our behavior.

As part of the generation born in the 1990s, my childhood was full of magical stories and supernatural heroes. What made it different from my parents' generation is that the tales grew with me as I have become an adult. Social media has left a deep mark on me that has made me a restless novelty enthusiast and keeps me on the prowl for new experiences. Compared to my parents, I value the the present more than building my life around delayed gratification. Life consists of many pieces of experience and memories not just milestones. I am less capable of keeping a long term plan but care more about the quality of life, and I know Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not alone.

As a designer, I can see that what we need is not just new products or fresh experiences, but a point of view that represents how we see the meaning and value of life â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a methodology that will help people to live the life they want.

Reanimate offers people the chance to fight against the quotidian. I focus on routine acts such as brushing teeth, waiting, riding the subway or bus, eating, drinking, etc. My service aims to bring charm and magic to these daily activities so that we can (re)discover joy in the ordinary details of life. I wish to inspire my customers to always have hope, be optimistic and have faith in enjoying all the moments of our existence.

Reanimate focuses on eating behavior. I target eating because this is something that we do every day, multiple times a day. Eating is necessary, and food is part of our life. Food shapes our behavior, our temperament, and even our relationships. Furthermore, eating is something that is extremely unvaried and leaves a lot of space for reimagining and redesigning.

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Reanimate has three series. Exploration focused on how to combine food with gestures and actions toward and interactions between people. From still postures to movement, from individual experience to social interaction, from paying attention to health problems to human relationships. I tried to reanimate eating by adding value to it according to different scenarios.

Series I Giraffe is inspired by how giraffes eat leaves. People tend to eat with a lowered head that stays bowed, particularly when they pass the time staring at their phone during their lunch break. The position is not good for our posture and does not allow people to really enjoy their food, the more because they are treating the experience of eating merely as a means of satisfying their nutritional needs. Giraffe is designed to help people relax the body, especially the neck, during lunch breaks and enhance their sensory experience of their food. By hanging up the food and making it physically challenging to reach, people need to try hard, just like a giraffe to reach the food. The food is divided into small pieces, just one bite gives people enough time to relish the taste, smell and texture of the food before the next bite.

Series II Ballerina was inspired by ballet, which is so elegant. Is it possible to freeze the moment of the dance and copy it by design? In order to imitate the elegant movements of a ballerina, I designed tableware with a track for a spoon or fork so that whenever one reaches for a spoon or fork, s/he must slowly slide it along the curvy track in a quasi ballet move. People can incorporate ballet-like elegance into their eating experience.

Series III In focusing on the dating experience, which is usually related to going to dinner there is always an awkward silence that needs an icebreaker, I combine dinner and couple dance, based on the dance part of previous generations, to create a new experience of sharing food between couples.

I designed a series of tableware that have taken inspiration from different dance movements and gestures. I used them as a modular element to choreograph a sort of dance routine. The following examples illustrate the relationship between my designed items and dance movements.

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