Ruth kikin-Gil:// ruth@ruthkikin.com
Back to Home Page
| Thesis | Room Mates | Circles of Care | FLOW | Building Memories | Fuzzy Logic | The Oracle | Lucky Stars | Tic Tac Toe |  
The Secret Life of Common Objects: A two part course, exploring qualities of interaction design
The process started with investigation of abstract quality (pain), continued in concept development and ended as a product.

STEP 1: PERSISTENCE OF PAIN
An abstract exploration




STEP2: FURNITURE / FRIENDS

Taking the object's point of view



STEP 3:   FUZZY LOGIC
Exploration of sound and touch relationship in a playful environment for kids.

 

FACULTY:
Walter Aprile, Massimo Banzi, Britta Boland, Crispin Jones, Stefano Mirti, Jan-Christoph zoels

Team:
Ruth kikin-Gil, Erez kikin-Gil, Ethan Lowry

Pain: Bernd Hitzelroth, Matty sallin
Touchy couch: Matty sallin


furniture / friends

Objects are more than just tools; We love them, We hate them, We ascribe motives to them.
We explored the relationships between objects and humans and between objects themselves.
We asked ourselves questions like:
  : :   How does an object experience its tactile and emotional environment?
  : :   How do objects relate to one another?
  : :   How can an object influence the state of a shared environment?
  : :   How can objects influence humans?
We tried to answer these questions while taking the object's point of view.

Keywords: Tactile interactions, Shared experience, Story telling, Circular feedback, Object's perspective

1. Touchy Couch | 2. Chameleon couch | 3. Jealous Chairs | 4. Poetic chair

touchy couch: we imagined a couch that loves to be sat on, that craves attention, and responds
anthropomorphically to tactile stimulus.
We made a prototype of a shaggy, fluffy couch that uses emotional sounds to induce her users to
interact with her: to stroke her, to touch her or to leave her alone...
Our users cooperated happily.

To see the Touchy Couch movie click here. you will need headphones or speakers

 

 

Other ideas we examined were:

The chameleon couch:
How can an object can make its user love him better?
Get more attached to it?
Become a real member of the household?
The chameleon couch tries to look like its owners by taking on the patterns of the cloths they're wearing

 

 

The Jealous Chairs:
What if objects actively compete on their owner's attention?
How would they do it?
How could they attract people to sit on them?
and what will happen if one becomes the favorite?

 


 

 

The poetic chair:
Imagine a poetry writing chair, Inspired by humans and their actions, manipulating them to fulfil its
wishes, hoping to receive a poem. But sometimes inspiration just won't come...
To see the Poetic Chair movie click here.  you will need headphones or speakers

 



 
  After exploring all these possibilities, we finally focused on Fuzzy Logic
My past projects
Read my CV