We are living in a meritocracy – which means that our value as human beings in matters of reputation, income and impact directly depends on our economical and social performance. In our society we tend to hide weaknesses and push ourselves to limits, even though stress and its psychological or physical symptoms can cause serious harm. This thesis is dedicated to this topic and how we fail to communicate it in an open dialogue with ourselves and others. Based on a theoretical research it is a series of thoughts and experiments without the pressure of presenting a functional and marketable product. Therefore one of the key moments was the development of a speculative concept which questions our behavior when confronted with symptoms like stress, nervousness and fear. What if we would extend our body language to open up about negative connoted feelings? The goal is to raise attention, provoke and initiate discussions.
The experiments include a research about the possibilities of measuring the body stress levels and how the results are related to the emotional sensation of stress. In the following attempts the stress level was determined with a heart beat sensor which shows the state of relaxation or excitation. In the testing the resulting values were mapped onto led lights and servomotores to transform them into signals and visualise the stress of an individual. For the realisation an elegoo computing platform and professional coding were necessary.
The first end result is a handmade futuristic vest model that visualizes the heart rate by a slight movement within the layered breastplates. The design is inspired by the interior view of a body showing the chest and lungs. The light signal moves from left to right – the movement has a calming effect during the resting pulse and becomes more nervous and faster as the heart rate increases. Thus, our clothing becomes a direct extension of our body language and gets nervous as our pumping heart begins to race or our breathing becomes shallower while experiencing physical stress.
The second attempt was to use servo motors to raise and lower scaled modules in a certain rhythm that accelerates with the heart rate. Inspiration here was the visible process of breathing and the animal world.
The second attempt was to use servo motors to raise and lower scaled modules in a certain rhythm that accelerates with the heart rate. Inspiration here was the visible process of breathing and the animal world.
