Jane, Charles, + Wes – Final Project Concept

Our project  is a wearable piece or collection of pieces that explore the relationship between sensory-based perception and memory, experimenting with the idea of how experiences are encoded into memory through the senses and what might happen if these senses are altered, augmented, or limited by the worn artifact. Our project’s initial iteration will use water to interfere with perception (visual and aural) in order to convey this sensation of the altered experience of the present that is also representative of the fading memories of the past.

To begin, users are presented with a helmet/head covering. The front of the helmet contains a clear plate or viewport, allowing the user to view their surroundings. Though their ears are covered, users are still able to hear. Once the helmet is on, water begins to trickle down the viewport. As time progresses, more and more water runs down through the clear plate, obscuring the users’ vision. Simultaneously, water droplets fall into small metal disks next to the users’ ears. With two senses affected by the passing of time, the helmet begins to simulate the blurring of experience and fading of memory.

So far, we have been experimenting with different materials – including plaster of paris and copper sheeting – and different ways of initiating this sequence of events. We would like this prototype to possibly be one of a few variations, all of which would occupy the same sort of “universe” and would address different ways of altering experience and memory through the senses.

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