Re: Imagine your Safe Space
Proud Aiemruksa
Advisor: Yuliya Parshina-Kottas
A one-on-one immersive AI installation that invites visitors to reimagine their safe space through physical interaction with the objects. By detecting the objects, the system generates responsive scenes projected onto surrounding walls, crafting a therapeutic, dynamic environment for emotional reflection and comfort.

Project Description
The Reimagine of Safe Space You Didn’t Know You Needed is an immersive AI-driven installation that explores the concept of safe spaces by reacting to real-life objects detected within the environment. Utilizing a custom-trained AI model, the system identifies objects and generates related visual scenes, which are then projected onto the surrounding walls. The resulting experience transforms the exhibition space into a dynamic, reactive environment that invites participants to reflect on their emotional states and find comfort through their interactions.

Technical Details
Detection System: RFID readers
Generation System: AI-generated visuals responding to detected objects.
Projection: Visuals projected on the surrounding walls.
Hardware: projector(s) for visual display, computer to process AI generation.

Research/Context
This thesis begins with the premise that home is not inherently a safe space, for many, it is a site of discomfort, displacement, or disconnection. Safe space, then, is not fixed to a singular geography or permanent structure; it is fluid, emotional, and personal. Drawing from scholarship in human-centered design, affective computing, and trauma-informed design, this work explores how safe space can be recreated and redefined through interaction, rather than inherited through architecture or tradition.
In parallel, the thesis critically examines how AI has predominantly been developed in service of capitalist efficiency, productivity, and surveillance, often prioritizing optimization over emotional nuance. This project reclaims AI as a medium for slowness, softness, and care, asking: What does it mean to collaborate with a machine not to work faster, but to feel deeper?
Through the use of RFID-tagged physical objects and responsive scene generation, the installation invites visitors into a therapeutic dialogue—between self, space, and system. By externalizing emotion through physical interaction and immersive visuals, the work contributes to the emerging field of emotionally intelligent design, positioning AI not as a tool of control, but as a generative co-creator of introspective environments.