WEEK 9
Life Support by Revital Cohen
Cohen provocatively explores the idea of using animals as medical devices. In the example on the left, Cohen adopts a pedigreed greyhound that’s retired from the racetrack and is adopted by a patient who requires mechanical ventilation.
On the right, a dialysis sheep is created using recombinant DNA to remove waste products from the blood of a patient suffering from kidney failure.
WEEK 8
E. Chromi
Designers Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and James King worked with a team of scientists in the field of synthetic biology to explore the use of color in genetically engineered bacteria as a feedback mechanism to provide useful information ranging from indicating whether drinking water is safe to the presence of various types of gut bacteria.
WEEK 7
Vital Signs by Tobie Kerridge
Kerridge explores how we might express the interior workings of our body and our exterior behaviors into physical objects. Cybernetics offers us a powerful framework to abstract complex systems into diagrammatic structures. How might we extend this by using objects and experiences to express our self-care system through the framework of cybernetics?
WEEK 6
Euthanasia Coaster by Julijonas Urbonas
Urbonas conceives a roller coaster as a hypothetical euthanasia machine that takes the rider through “a series of intensive motion elements that induce various unique experiences: from euphoria to thrill, and from tunnel vision to loss of consciousness, and, eventually, death.” Urbonas talks about the project.
WEEK 5
Today by Jonathan Harris
A project where Jonathan took a picture every day and posted it at night as an archive of his memory. Jonathan uses storytelling as a technique to understand the past to help make sense of his experience. How might we celebrate the act of ritualized documentation as a way to know ourselves better? How can our daily documentation of facts, behaviors, and experiences be used to help make meaning of our past and to potentially generate new personal futures? The project is here and the film is here.
WEEK 4
Prosthesis by Sascha Nordmeyer
Communication prosthesis to help you with problems of self-expression. Work by Sascha Nordmeyer conceived for people with insecurities about their appearance and social skills by forcing a facial expression that might make communication easier and more explicit. Included in Talk to Me at MoMA. What might a self-care prosthesis platform look like?
WEEK 3
What if we think of our bodies as instruments that we could hear and play? Steffen Fiedler and Ludwig Zeller devised a kit of things to help people transform physical, mental and emotional states into instruments that can be played by another. The user guide and a short film.
WEEK 2
Designer Susana Soares asks the question, “What if we could use insects’ extraordinary sense of smell to prevent and diagnose illnesses?”
WEEK 1
Andrew Friend explores ways to experience something really fantastic. In this project called Disappearing (at sea), he designed a device that could give you the feeling of temporary disappearance realizing that there’s a strong sense of isolation one feels at sea that you can’t feel on land.