WAME
will a multi-sensory experience make people feel connected again_?
DESIGN & ENGINEER MASTER THESIS PROJECT
POLITECNICO DI MILANO
// 2021 // © GABRIELE ROSSI
inspiration
scenario
Background
At the beginning of 2020, we experienced an unpredictable event that led us to review our habits and daily lives. In particular, Italy has been one of the countries most affected by the pandemic, leading society to introduce substantial restrictions and blocks to some activities (for example, social and cultural events), forcing us to review our habits and daily lives.
CHALLENGE
The foresight scenario is contemporary but different from the current one. In the new one, humanity led to significant changes in their daily habits thanks to a more dull emotionality. This aspect means that there is a sort of digitalization of socialization concept, leading to more complex and digital routines, making remote methodologies have become daily.
FRaMING THE IDEA
The question “Will a multi-sensory experience make people feel connected again?” leaves room for countless interpretations and ideas. Assuming a mixed and multi-sensory experience is naturally usable, you can make socio-cultural events more inclusive and interactive. For example, the solution is a VR helmet of considerable size, accommodating multiple people, thus avoiding individual isolation and creating greater involvement. Shared experiences establish indissoluble links, offering immersive and engaging opportunities for those who enjoy them thanks to a controllable environment, naturally usable, free of complex UI, offering collective, more interactive and immersive multi-sensory experiences.
ARTWORKS
ABSTRACT
Humanity has always been looking for an ideal and utopian model of life, giving vent to his imagination, mixing technique with creativity, following dreams and hopes, creating the opportunity for future generations to follow and share the same or new. Examples of this are the latest research and investment in the space industry, the successes of SpaceX and their latest models of boosters and rockets able to re-enter the atmosphere following
the fulfilment of their function, landing safely and allowing reuse in subsequent launches, thus reducing costs.
It was natural at the same time inspired by those great minds and by the Blockbusters of science fiction in re-thinking the figure of the designer to create a more human-friendly future. And it is thanks to those Blockbusters with huge titles in space that inspired me for a controllable environment, in which it is possible to change the perception of humans and play with the senses.
It is spontaneous to imagine to transform any environment into a different one thanks to the “Holographic Environmental Simulator”, also known as “Holodeck”, by Star Trek (Star Trek: The Next Generation, 1987 – 1994), a science fiction technology able to recreate immersive environments combining force fields, material alterations and holographic projections. Moreover, as analyzed in the thesis report, the alteration of human perception is possible. Following this affirmation, it is possible to alter in the perception the volume of an object. It is interesting to consider the etymology of the word ‘screen’, which comes from “fences” – from the Germanic ‘skirmjan’, which means to protect – and, in modern language, is used to name an object interposed between two things, of various shape and size, which performs the function defences or protection. So, the screen can be considered as something that performs the function of dividing. But, then, could an augmented or virtual reality screen divide us from each other and from reality itself?
Therefore, summarizing the elements expressed in the previous paragraphs, the abstract of this master thesis project is: “Creation of a controllable physical environment, able to offer the user a shared multi-sensory experience of socio-cultural events, through greater interactivity and immersive without the use of viewers or screens”.
ROMEL DESIGN by GABRIELE ROSSI 2021//2022
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// © Romel Design by Gabriele rossi // 2021