Genvita

Proposal

When you experience the death of a loved one, you have no control over the emotions you feel and the significant memories that stay with you after the event. You want to remember your loved one but the pain can be all too consuming. We want to explore designing a digital hybrid object that would allow someone to let go of this pain and accept what has happened through some act of positive transformation.

Prototype

Genvita is a self-sustaining ecosystem that helps an individual let go of the pain associated with losing a loved one.

The name is a combination of the Latin words "gentem" meaning revival and "vita" meaning life. 

Final Video

There are two components to the product: the plant ecosystem and a controller. After the seed is planted in the ecosystem, the individual removes the controller from the top of the ecosystem and carries it with him to externalize some of the anxiety or sadness associated with the loss. Thus, the controller acts as an interacting medium between what the person is feeling and the environment inside the ecosystem. The more a user ‘fidgets’ with the controller the more fog is disseminated in the environment and eventually when you’ve processed your emotions of the event and fidget less with the controller there is less fog surrounding the plant. Ultimately when you no longer need to fidget with the controller you can place it back on top of the box and see the plant that has grown inside.

 

Product Image

Video of concept functionality

Product Creation:

• Humidifier
• Illustrator/Laser-cut Acrylic
• Solidwords/3D Printer
• Ball Caster
• Large Button
• Paint
• Dirt/Plant

We made our prototype using a mini USB humidifier, which we used to give the effect of the mist. We laser cut an acrylic container that housed the humidifier to (1) hide the humidifier, (2) create a space that would capture all the mist from the humidifier to achieve the look we wanted, and (3) create an all-in-one container to hold the plant, dirt, and controller. Because we were building a wizard of oz prototype, we focused on building a prototype that would look clean and "real" to enhance the believability of the product for our concept video. But by keeping the form simple, it allows the viewer to focus on the interactions occurring between the controller and container when watching our concept video.

We decided to use a button and metal ball that we found in the Ideate lab as our fidgetting interactions and designed and modeled the controller in SolidWorks, which we then 3D printed and painted. We also incorporated subtle details, such as engraving RME 1950-2018, to help the viewer understand the object relates to death and memorial.

Layout of Product Parts

Humidifier and Box

Solid Works for 3D Printing Process

Film/Photo Creation:

• iMovie
• Adobe After Effects
• Adobe Lightroom
• DSLR

We made our concept video using Affect Effects. We shot a test video before shooting the real footage to see how our storyboard worked. We wanted to make a video that focused on the feeling of our concept verse a product explanation video. So we decided to not use an explanation text within our video. We also looked to convey the subject matter/scenario we were looking at through environmental details by incorporating sympathy cards and a photo of a person. We used the clicking sound as a way to emphasize the anxiety the person is feeling, as well as overlayed a "counting indicator" to allow the viewer to easily see the differences between the clicking in the different scenes. Because we were looking at showing the passage of time, we incorporated a calendar in the background (seen in the first and last scenes) with transition scenes.

After Effects Process

Rough Cut of Video Narrative

Precedents

Two projects that helped influence much of our work in this area were "Capsula Mundi" and the “Malus Ecclesia” because they show how the process of forgetting and letting go can also be done through “memorialization” and transformation. The Capsula Mundi is a the biodegradable burial pod that allows for greener burials [1] and turns the remains of a loved one into a tree, whereas the “Malus Ecclesia” is a literal apple tree grown from seeds that had DNA of Wikipedia information inserted in them [2][3]. Both of these projects prompted us to think of ways to transform the pain of losing a loved one into something beautiful.

Capsula Mundi 

In terms of implementation, two works that we looked at were Fenestra and Project Oasis. Fenestra is a connected system (mirror, picture frame, and candle) that is activated when a user lights the candle [4]. After looking at the study we found that there was something meaningful in having something physical that connects you to a loved which is why we decided to have a two-part product.

Fenestra

On the other hand, Project Oasis is a self-sustaining plant ecosystem that reflects the outside weather conditions [5]. This provided a solid foundation for what we wanted our product to feel like and from there we identified new interactions and functionality. 

Project Oasis

Project Oasis Functionality

Process

We began the process by deciding what aspect of life we wanted to explore that requires people to forget something. We found various projects that helped people let go of a significant other after a breakup but there were fewer products that helped people through the process of losing a loved one. It was then we decided to create a digital product that would allow someone to forget and accept the pain of losing a loved one through the act of transformation.

To do this we studied much of Corina Sas' work in which she found that a covert approach to letting go such as sowing, generated feelings of hope [6]. 

Findings from Sas, Whittaker & Zimmerman 

It is this feeling of hope and revival that we want people to feel after the loss of a loved one and so we wanted to find a way to create a device that could incorporate this aspect. 

We searched for various projects that focused on our target area and came up with our initial proposal of making a product that encodes part of the deceased into a seed that is planted into a pod-shaped ecosystem that is completely opaque on the outside. A person then receives said ecosystem along with a controller, and with each interaction, the owner has with the controller, the inner environment grows and is not revealed until a decreased usage of the controller reveals the transformation of the seed into a beautiful plant.

Initial Workflow

After talking through what we wanted the interactions to be for the product we decided to begin exploring how the object would be placed in an environment, what would trigger it, and what components it would consist of. To help us explain these further we drew up a storyboard in which a user would receive a package and assemble the product. 

Initial Storyboard

After receiving input from other stakeholders we realized that including the package in the video would make it harder for people to imagine it in their homes and understand the genuine purpose of it. For that reason, we decided to only show the user planting the seed and showing the connection between the controller and ecosystem. 

Final  Storyboard

Another major change we made at this point was reducing the scope of the project by eliminating some of the functionality, for instance, the seed would no longer have the DNA of the deceased. Additionally, rather than an opaque pod, we realized that opacity could be simulated using fog and having the shape be a box would allow it to be more pleasant to have in the home. 

In terms of the controller, we initially had it in the shape of a cube with many add-ons (i.e. a slider, a push-pin, a zipper) but realized that it would not be as pleasant to hold. For that reason, we came up with the current shape since it allows for a more comfortable experience and lets you fidget with it seamlessly and effortlessly. We also decided to have the user store the controller at the top of the ecosystem itself since it could serve as a ritual of sorts where you have to acknowledge what happened but realize that through time you'll heal and something in your ecosystem will grow and be visible for you once you've come to terms with what occurred. 

Open Questions and Challenges

Some of the questions we have are what the negative use cases could be for this product and how could we prevent them from happening. We spent a lot of time thinking of the ideal use case but as we've learned from reviewing many case studies, there is usually always a negative aspect of things. It could be helpful to have a list of questions or a process we could go through to determine what those negative use cases could be. 

One of the challenges we had was finding a way to strengthen our narrative, which is something we want to keep in mind for future explorations. We were hoping to be subtle in our approach, but in doing so we might have made it hard to understand what the connection between the controller and box were. 

The overarching challenging we faced has to do with ubiquitous computing and how we can build products that could be found anywhere and also be unobtrusive and glanceable, thus making it an ambient device. Moving forward we should keep in mind what makes ambient devices successful and find ways to implement them into our projects. Not only would it enhance the experience of the product but it could also make the overall narrative better by showing how the device fits into the environment unobtrusively, while still adding value to the user. 

Reflection

Through this process, we learned that some times simpler is better. We had initially wanted to include various features and functionality but after some initial user research, we realized that it was all too distracting and was no longer in line with our goal. After reiterating our objectives to ourselves we were able to limit our scope and focus in on the key features. 

We are content with our final product because we feel we were able to create a pleasant product to look at with a controller that was comfortable to hold. A big takeaway from this is that you always need to keep your user in mind and remember what their goals are... in this case, it is to let go of the pain they're feeling. 

A future iteration of the project would be to actually program the controller to include a particle photon that can keep track of its usage and have that information publish as an event that would trigger the fog in the ecosystem to release. 

Some other features we could explore is creating some sort of data visualization of the curve of the amount of smoke rising and dissipating based on the number of interactions the user has with the controller. Another potential idea could be to install a small camera near the roots of the plant so that the user can have an experience of smoke around it in real time. 

Fundamentally, one thing that we want to work on is closing the gaps in our narrative by introducing some technical interactions (such as the camera), which we believe could enhance and strengthen the overall experience. 

Attribution and References

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/03/world/eco-solutions-capsula-mundi/index.html

[2] https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/object-of-interest-the-twice-forbidden-fruit

[3] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/aend5j/an-artist-will-inject-a-dna-encoded-version-of-wikipedia-into-an-apple-grove

[4] http://willodom.com/portfolio/portfolio/fenestradesign-field-study/

[5] https://experiments.withgoogle.com/oasis

[6] https://people.ucsc.edu/~swhittak/papers/design_for_forgetting_chi_2013.pdf