RME 2023 - Animistic Alternatives

Struggling to focus? Try this beautiful focus lamp! It uses the Pomodoro method by turning on for 25 minutes, encouraging you to work, and then turning off for 5 to give you a break! Try leaving during work time and you’ll face its wrath - obnoxious flickering and ticking. Sure that might creep you out a little...but who cares? We must do whatever it takes to be productive and successful, right?

A socket that responds only to color, leading the wave of ANTI-switch. As one of the 1st generation Anti-switch products, this socket follows the traffic light rules, to pop up and hide away.

We all need space sometimes, whether physically or mentally. Our technology shouldn’t be an exception. This tabletop fan is designed to turn off if you get too close to it, so make sure you respect its personal space.

The Hungry Socket is a spooky device that provides power only if the user takes care of it. This gives an experience of keeping a pet, a limited time of charging electronic devices, playful interaction with home devices. It always gets hungry, and wants food. Users have to feed it with paper balls to get electricity supply for charging the devices for a short while.

The doorbell foretells the entry of a guest, but what if the guest is not a human, but changes in the atmosphere and weather? You can ring the Clairvoyant Doorbell to ask whether tomorrow will be a warmer day. It will always be excited to share with you that tomorrow will be a warmer day. I intend the doorbell to be spooky in that it knows the natural environment better than humans do, and I’m interested in how that can give the natural environment some form of animistic agency too.

What if the fan is whispering the color it wants to see? Wind Whistler sends the morse code to communicate with you. Feel the breeze carefully, and you will understand what it says: the long wind indicates a dash(-), and the short wind indicates a dot(.). It will keep sending the signal till you show the color it wants.

Everyone needs a retirement, who doesn't? Even when one used to be an everyday worker, he/she would be reluctant to return to work after retirement. Our old friend, Bob - a notorious frost-fright lamp, refused to return for service when summoned. To give him some persuasion, we had to work really hard to keep him nice and warm... Bob starts panicking immediately after being woken up, then he starts to feel more comfortable as he is getting a hug. (a huge one)

This project intends to inject a feeling of animism or even anthropomorphism into an ordinary appliance. If technology has its own sense of autonomy, in appliances like Siri or Alexa, it stands to question what exactly distinguishes humans from robots? In a way that isn’t glamorized, this project aims to emulate human characteristics - not their intelligence, or expansive knowledge, or capability to communicate, but the more incalculable and unquantifiable actions that make people relatable.

"Save energy and prevent fire accidents!" But what if the "smart socket" you brought home is a revenger? After being inserted and drained of power, the socket decides to "protest" instead of silence. When the socket feels "abused", if the "abuser" is nearby, it makes noise and makes your energy use a nightmare.

There are many things we take for granted and sometimes we forget about them, like doorbells. Unlike a traditional doorbell, this one visualizes the weather with the color of a lamp. But this is a two-way relationship! And you never know what it’ll do when you take them for granted.

What would it feel like to use tech that cares more about what it needs more that it cares about what you need? Well, the Lonely Lamp needs your companionship to work. Spend more time with it and it shines brighter, but leave it alone for too long and it might start misbehaving!

Need a companion to keep you company at your desk? Instead of keeping a plant at your desk, keep the Socket Pet! As you reach over to plug various devices of different colors in, it will respond accordingly: red plug - excited nodding, blue - uncomfortable wiggling, green - ambiguous singular gesture (Is it agreement? Is it contemplation? We will never know). Also charges phones and other appliances like a good boy.

Picky doorbell is a doorbell that has her own preference for color. She only rings the bell when she senses people wearing clothes in the color she likes. The ‘ring’ will sound like entering the code when the dress ‘code’ is correct. She will still tell you your clothes’ color even if she doesn’t like the color.

Looking to make some toast in the morning? It’s a bit cold out and your new toaster is gonna need to get warmed up before you get your toast. Once it feels warmed up, only then will it make your toast. It’ll shiver until it gets heated up. Its colors will show which state it’s in. Hopefully it’s not too cold that morning.

Timmy Toaster is a moody toaster who only works when you give him something good to watch. Just like his human friends, Timmy insists on some entertainment while he cooks breakfast. If he gets bored, his warm interior starts to cool down. If he is glowing blue, you can’t make toast! Give him something to watch on your phone, and if he likes it, he’ll let you know by warming up again.

Quality work can’t be rushed- Flow State is an invitation to slow down, trust the process, and reconsider what you ask of others.

What if objects had lives of their own? Filip is unlike a fan you've owned before, he clearly tells you when he's tired and needs a break. If you've been using him for too long, he'll change to red and this is a sign for you to switch him off to give him some time to cool down, just like you and me need to do sometimes.

Phantom Bell is a doorbell that only works when nobody is in front of it. I took a great deal if inspiration from James Pierce’s Obscura 1C for this project. The idea of putting a great deal of thought and intention into something that functions in an unconventional and counterproductive way was a contrast that I wanted to explore more deeply. In this project, I explore the narrative of over-designing a practical product to intentionally set limitations on how it can be used.

Imagine a fan automatically changing behavior based on how warm you are feeling. Temperature Control detects whether a color is more bluish or reddish then sets the fan to speed accordingly. Red indicates heat so the fan turns on and blue indicates cool so the fan turns off.

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